Transformation · line 3
What Lasts becomes Clearing Obstacles
What this change means
Not keeping one's virtue steady, with shame perhaps following: the third line of What Lasts is the heart here, and it's a warning about losing your center. As it moves, the Wind below becomes Water. The line says that when what happens around you grows larger than your own dreams and plans, it ends up ruling you. Yet the resulting hexagram, 40 Clearing Obstacles, says the obstacles have been overcome one by one, and asks for balance: act quickly and decisively where you can, without overrating your abilities, and rest if you need to. So the danger isn't the situation itself, which is easing. It's letting the pressures of the moment push your purpose aside. Hold on to what you set out to do. Forgive the slips along the way, yours and others', and move forward from your aims rather than from your circumstances.
What to read, in order
Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.
- Line 3 of 32 What Lasts
If you let outside circumstances grow bigger than your dreams and projects, they'll end up gaining power over you.
Not making one's virtue last; perhaps shame will follow. Constancy brings distress.
- The judgment of 32 What Lasts
This moment asks you for action, not stillness. It asks you to have clear goals to head toward and to act in line with them. That way you'll achieve things, and your achievements will keep growing and will last.
Success. No fault. Constancy is favorable. It is favorable to have somewhere to go.
- The judgment of 40 Clearing Obstacles
The obstacles have been overcome one by one. You're in a time when balance matters: act quickly and decisively as far as you can, without overrating your abilities. If you feel you need a rest, or even to step back before going on, do it.
The southwest is favorable. With nowhere to go, coming back brings good fortune. With somewhere to go, going early brings good fortune.
The trigrams
The way back
40 Clearing Obstacles → 32 What Lastsline 3
Other transformations of What Lasts
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.