Okta OKTA under CEO (Co – Founder) Todd McKinnon

HEXAGRAM 27 – I – The Corners of the Mouth (Providing Nourishment)

Above    KEN    KEEPING STILL, MOUNTAIN

Below    CHEN    THE AROUSING, THUNDER

This hexagram is a picture of an open mouth;

• above and below are the firm lines of the lips, and
  
• between them the opening.
  

Starting with the mouth,

through which we take food for nourishment,

the thought leads to nourishment itself.

Nourishment

• of oneself, specifically of the body, is represented in the three lower lines,
  
• while the three upper lines represent nourishment and care of others, in a higher, spiritual sense.
  

THE JUDGMENT

THE CORNERS OF THE MOUTH.

Perseverance brings good fortune.

Pay heed

• to the providing of nourishment And
  
• to what a man seeks To fill his own mouth with.
  

In bestowing care and nourishment, it is important

• that the right people should be taken care of and
  
• that we should attend to our own nourishment in the right way.
  

If

• we wish to know what anyone is like,
  
• we have only to observe
  
  • on whom he bestows his care and
    
  • what sides of his own nature he cultivates and nourishes.
    

Nature nourishes all creatures.

The great man fosters and takes care of superior men,

in order to take care of all men through them.

Mencius says about this:

If

• we wish to know whether anyone is superior or not,
  
• we need only observe what part of his being he regards as especially important.
  

The body has

• superior and inferior,
  
• important and unimportant parts.
  

We

• must not injure important parts for the sake of the unimportant,
  
• nor must we injure the superior parts for the sake of the inferior.
  

• He who cultivates the inferior parts of his nature is an inferior man.
  
• He who cultivates the superior parts of his nature is a superior man. 1
  

THE IMAGE

At the foot of the mountain, thunder:

The image of PROVIDING NOURISHMENT.

Thus the superior man is

• careful of his words And
  
• temperate in eating and drinking.
  

“God comes forth in the sign of the Arousing” 2:

when in the spring the life forces stir again,

all things come into being anew.

“He brings to perfection in the sign of Keeping Still”:

thus

in the early spring, when the seeds fall to earth,

all things are made ready.

This is an image of providing nourishment through

• movement and
  
• tranquility.
  

The superior man takes it as a pattern for the

• nourishment and
  
• cultivation of
  

his character.

• Words are a movement going from within outward.
  
• Eating and drinking are movements from without inward.
  

Both kinds of movement can be modified by tranquility.

For

tranquility

• keeps the words that come out of the mouth from exceeding proper measure, and
  
• keeps the food that goes into the mouth from exceeding its proper measure.
  

Thus character is cultivated.

NUCLEAR HEXAGRAM

HEXAGRAM 02 – K’un – The Receptive

Above    K’UN    THE RECEPTIVE, EARTH

Below    K’UN    THE RECEPTIVE, EARTH

This hexagram is made up of broken lines only.

The broken line represents the dark, yielding, receptive primal power of yin.

The attribute of the hexagram is devotion;

its image is the earth.

It is the perfect complement of THE CREATIVE – the complement, not the opposite, 1

for the Receptive does not combat the Creative but complements it.

It represents

• nature in contrast to spirit,
  
• earth in contrast to heaven,
  
• space as against time,
  
• the female-maternal as against the male-paternal.
  

However, as applied to human affairs,

the principle of this complementary relationship is found

• not only in the relation between man and woman,
  
• but also in that between prince and minister and
  
• between father and son.
  

Indeed, even in the individual this duality appears in the coexistence of

• the spiritual world and
  
• the world of the senses.
  

But strictly speaking there is no real dualism here,

because there is a clearly defined hierarchic relationship between the two principles.

In itself of course the Receptive is just as important as the Creative,

but the attribute of devotion defines the place occupied by this primal power in relation to the Creative.

For the Receptive must be activated and led by the Creative;

then it is productive of good.

Only when it abandons this position and tries to stand as an equal side by side with the Creative,

does it become evil.

The result then is opposition to and struggle against the Creative,

which is productive of evil to both.

THE JUDGMENT

THE RECEPTIVE brings about sublime success,

Furthering through the perseverance of a mare.

If the superior man undertakes something and tries to lead,

He goes astray;

But if he follows, he finds guidance

It is favorable to find friends in the west and south,

To forego friends in the east and north.

Quiet perseverance brings good fortune.

The four fundamental aspects of the Creative –

“sublime success, furthering through perseverance”- are also attributed to the Receptive.

Here, however, the perseverance is more closely defined: it is that of a mare.

The Receptive connotes spatial reality in contrast to the spiritual potentiality of the Creative.

The potential becomes real and the spiritual becomes spatial through a specifically qualifying definition.

Thus the qualification, “of a mare,” is here added to the idea of perseverance.

The horse belongs to earth just as the dragon belongs to heaven.

Its tireless roaming over the plains is taken as a symbol of the vast expanse of the earth.

This is the symbol chosen because the mare combines

• the strength and swiftness of the horse with
  
• the gentleness and devotion of the cow.
  

Only because nature in its myriad forms corresponds with the myriad impulses of the Creative

can it make these impulses real.

Nature’s richness lies in its power to nourish all living things;

its greatness lies in its power to give them beauty and splendor.

Thus it prospers all that lives.

It is the Creative that begets things, but they are brought to birth by the Receptive.

Applied to human affairs, therefore,

what the hexagram indicates is action in conformity with the situation.

The person in question is not in an independent position, but is acting as an assistant.

This means that he must achieve something.

It is not his task to try to lead – that would only make him lose the way –

but to let him be led.

If he knows how to meet fate with an attitude of acceptance, he is sure to find the right guidance.

The superior man

• lets himself be guided;
  
• he does not go ahead blindly,
  
• but learns from the situation what is demanded of him and
  
• then follows this intimation from fate.
  

Since there is something to be accomplished,

we need friends and helpers in the hour of toil and effort,

once the ideas to be realized are firmly set.

The time of toil and effort is indicated by the west and the south,

for west and south symbolize the place where the Receptive works for the Creative,

as nature does in summer and autumn.

If in that situation one does not mobilize all one’s powers,

the work to be accomplished will not be done.

Hence to find friends there means to find guidance.

But in addition to the time of toil and effort, there is also a time of planning, and for this we need solitude.

The east symbolizes the place where a man receives orders from his master and

the north the place where he reports on what he has done.

At that time he must be alone and objective.

In this sacred hour

• he must do without companions so that
  
• the purity of the moment may not be spoiled by factional hates and favoritism.
  

THE IMAGE

The earth’s condition is receptive devotion.

Thus the superior man who has breadth of character

Carries the outer world.

Just as there is only one heaven, so too there is only one earth.

In the hexagram of the heaven the (doubling, of the trigram implies duration in time,

but in the hexagram of earth the doubling connotes the solidity and extension in space by virtue of which

the earth is able to carry and preserve all things that live and move upon it.

The earth in its devotion carries all things, good and evil, without exception.

In the same way the superior man gives to his character breadth, purity, and sustaining power,

so that he is able both

• to support and
  
• to bear with people and things.
  

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