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29) Kan: The Abyss/Mastering Pitfalls

Hexagram:

• C: Water travels, double water; superior people consistently practice virtue and learn how to teach.

• L: In mastering pitfalls there is truthfulness; thus the mind develops. There is excellence in practice.

• E: One of the four timeless hexagrams; restoring the celestial within the mundane.

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Lines:

1 Yin:

• L: Repeating pitfalls, one goes into a hole in a pit: bad results.

• E: This is being foolish and habitually repeating folly.

2 Yang:

• L: There is danger in a pitfall. One finds a small gain.

• E: It is unfortunate that one believes in danger yet does not know how to evade it. This is being strong but not knowing how to cultivate good.

3 Yin:

• L: Coming and going, pitfall upon pitfall, dangerous and obstructed, going into a hole: don’t act this way.

• E: Danger that obstructs arises from long habituation of insecurity, which results in profound decadence. This is being weak and only knowing how to repeat what is bad.

4 Yin:

• L: One jug of wine, two vessels. Use simplicity, sincerity, and openness, and in the end there will be no fault.

• E: This is being flexible and able to practice goodness.

5 Yang:

• L: The pit is not full, it has only reached level; there is no blame.

• E: Natural attainment is being inwardly unsatisfied, yet not pursuing externals. This is the stability of superior wisdom, being spontaneously good without training.

6 Yin:

• L: Bound with rope, put in a briar patch, for three years one cannot find the way out; misfortune.

• E: This is foolish obstinacy, never cultivating oneself and ending up bad.