ZT
Hexagram 62: Crossing over in small ways
Hexagrams 28 and 62 are both about guo: 'passing, going by, exceeding'. The central idea is crossing a line - whether that's a standard of morality or of customs, or a border in time (such as the change of the year). LiSe has broken the character down into component parts: footsteps, and a mountain pass. And so in readings, these hexagrams tend to describe transitions: complete this crossing, go beyond what's familiar or expected, and you'll find yourself in a whole new landscape.
Oddly enough, I've never found the contrast between 'Small Overstepping' and 'Great Overstepping' to be about the size of the transition itself. It has more to do with the stature and strategy of the person making it. You can't make the transition called for in Hexagram 62 on the basis of your personal strength and power to bring about change; you have to do it as a small person, one who responds and adapts to a bigger reality even as she travels.
This is a significant challenge. Small people, in the Yijing, tend to stay put and make only the changes necessary for survival (23.6, 49.6). But here, you're emerging from the extraordinary experience of Hexagram 61, where you knew the Inner Truth of things in the core of your being. True, there are many ways this can happen (not all of them fun), but the sequence from Inner Truth to Small Overstepping always reminds me of the 'crossing of the return threshold' in the Hero's Journey.
The hero has won a boon, gained a truth; now he is impelled (from within or without) to bring it home to the ordinary world. 'To have trust naturally means acting [on it]': you can't know a truth inwardly and not do something with it.
But experience back in the ordinary world is very different. (61 and 62 are a complementary hexagram pair.)
Inwardly you're filled; outwardly, you're dwarfed. Instead of floating like a hollow log (as the commentary on 61 describes it) you can only put one foot in front of the other. Things don't 'just happen' now without your attention and effort every step of the way.
So you're challenged to act on your inner awareness, go beyond the limits (expectations, standards, norms...) of the world, but do so in a way that keeps you constantly connected with the world, always adapting and responding to it, because it's so much bigger than you are. Cross over and stay small:
'Small overstepping, creating success.
Harvest in constancy.
Allows small works, does not allow great works.
Flying bird calls as it leaves:
The above is not right, below is right.
Great good fortune.’
You can do small things here, not great ones. You're offered the wisdom of a small bird: don't try to soar like the eagle, you'll only get blown away (or shot by the nearest hunter); stay low. In English we'd talk about 'coming down to earth' and 'keeping your feet on the ground'. Mother Theresa summed it up best:
‘We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love.’
Most of us, most of the time, are unlikely to welcome the small bird's message. But after insisting on our small crossing, small works and groundedness, the oracle suddenly offers 'great good fortune.' I think it's making a deliberate contrast. Great good fortune doesn't depend on you doing great things; it can happen when you simply fill your own place, doing exactly what's yours to do.
The moving lines of Small Overstepping represent its double challenge as a balance between 'crossing over' and 'meeting'. How else will you make the connections through which the message can be expressed in reality?
‘Flying bird means pitfall.’
This is about taking off prematurely - maybe impelled by a great sense of personal mission (given that this line connects with Hexagram 55), but without taking the time (55.1) to understand the realities within which it has to happen. It's an attempt to carry the message without getting the message.
This line mirrors the sixth, which sounds similar:
‘Not meeting at all, passing it by.
Flying bird leaves.
Pitfall,
Known as calamity and blunder.’
Now the message has passed by altogether; the opportunity to connect, understand and make changes has been missed; this is the disaster of not seeing, not getting it. (You can get more of a sense for this by looking across to 56.6.)
The next pair of mutually-reflecting lines are 2 and 5, the inner and outer centres. How to make connections - and how to ensure they'll work, sustainably, in the long run?
‘Passing your grandfather, meeting your grandmother.
Not reaching your chief, meeting your servant.
No mistake.’
‘Dark clouds, no rain
from our western suburbs.
Prince with a string arrow gets one dwelling in a cave.’
These two lines connect with Hexagrams 32 and 31 respectively: the enduring patterns of relationship, and the initial connection that galvanises things into movement.
Line 5's prince takes a direct approach to 'connecting': embedding an arrow in whatever (or whoever) he needs and hauling them out of the cave. He'll do what it takes to 'precipitate' potential into reality.
Line 2 - the realm of connections rather than command - looks to make connections that can bring lasting change. It shifts attention away from originators and causes, and towards whoever or whatever brings the original conception into being; it plugs directly into the process of realisation.
The central lines of the hexagram, on either side of the 'threshold' between inner and outer trigrams, deal with the fraught moment of transition.
‘Not passing by, he defends himself.
Someone is following behind and may kill him.
Pitfall.’
‘No mistake.
Not passing by, meeting it.
Going on is dangerous, must be on guard.
Don’t use ever-flowing constancy.’
Line 3 stops short of making the transition, digs in and fortifies his position. 'This is where I stand and I'm sticking to it!' But do his resources match his enthusiasm (16)? It's certainly not safe to move onward - meeting the new world calls for an alert responsiveness born of realism (15) - but it might be safer. And if you can't change, what are the chances that anything else will?
小过
六五，密云不雨，自我西郊；公弋取彼在穴
九四，无咎，弗过遇之；往厉必戒，勿用，永贞
九三，弗过防之，从或戕之，凶
六二，过其祖，遇其妣；不及其君，遇其臣，无咎
初六，飞鸟以凶
第六十二卦：《小过卦》
小过：亨，利贞；可小事，不可大事，飞鸟遗之音，不宜上，宜下，大吉。
【白话】《小过卦》象征略为过分：小过之时，可致亨通，但应以正为本，故而利于坚守中正之道；可以去干一些小事，但不可去涉足一些大事；飞鸟留下悲鸣之时，不应该向上强飞，而应该向下栖息，如此，大为吉祥。
《象》曰：山上有雷，小过；君子以行过乎恭，丧过乎哀，用过乎俭。
【白话】《象辞》说：《小过卦》的卦象是艮（山）下震（雷）上，为山上响雷之表象，雷声超过了寻常的雷鸣，以此比喻“小有过越”，君子应效法“小过”之象，在一些寻常小事上能略有过分，如行止时过分恭敬，遇到丧事时过分悲哀，日常用度过分节俭，为的是矫枉过正。
初六，飞鸟以凶。
【白话】初六，飞鸟向上强飞将会出现凶险。
《象》曰：“飞鸟以凶”，不可如何也。
【白话】《象辞》说：“飞鸟向上强飞将会出现凶险”，是咎由自取，无可奈何。
六二，过其祖，遇其妣；不及其君，遇其臣，无咎。
【白话】六二，超过祖父，遇到祖母；但不能擅自越过君位，君臣遇合，一定没有祸患。
《象》曰：“不及其君”，臣不可过也。
【白话】《象辞》说：“不能擅自越过君位”，因为作为臣子是不能超越至尊的。
九三，弗过防之，从或戕之，凶。
【白话】九三，自恃强盛而不愿过分防备，从而将要为人所害，故有凶险。
《象》曰：“从或戕之”，凶如何也！
【白话】《象辞》说：“将要为人所害”，说明面临的危险是多么的严重啊！
九四，无咎，弗过遇之；往厉必戒，勿用，永贞。
【白话】九四，没有祸患，不过分恃强恃刚就能遇到阴柔；但是主动迎合阴柔会有凶险，因此，务必心存戒惕，不能去施展才用，要永远守中正之道。
《象》曰：“弗过遇之”，位不当也；“往厉必戒”，终不可长也。
【白话】《象辞》说：“不过分恃强恃刚就能遇到阴柔”，因为九四爻以刚居柔位，位置不正；“主动迎合阴柔会有凶险，务必要心存戒惕”，是说若主动迎合阴柔，最终将不可能长久无害。
六五，密云不雨，自我西郊；公弋取彼在穴。
【白话】六五，乌云密布在天空而不下雨，这些乌云是从城的西边飘过来的；王公们用细绳系在箭上射取那些藏在穴中的野兽。
《象》曰：密云不雨，已上也。
【白话】《象辞》说：“乌云密布在天空而不下雨”，是因为阴气超过了阳气，阴阳不合，故而不能化雨。
上六，弗遇过之；飞鸟离之，凶，是谓灾眚。
【白话】上六，不能遇合阳刚却超越了阳刚，无安栖之所的飞鸟遭受射杀之祸，故而凶险，这就叫做灾殃祸患。
《象》曰：“弗遇过之”，已亢也。
【白话】《象辞》说：“不能遇合阳刚而超越了阳刚”，是指其过分已达到极点，再危险不过了。
