32 Continuing - The I Ching
Judgment
Continuing is prosperity. Go the distance.
Lines
1
Continuing down.
2
Regrets won’t continue.
3
His virtues don’t continue, maybe he bears his shame.
4
A field without animals.
5
Their virtue is continual and is pure. Good in women, bad in men.
6
Continually trembling.
Qabalah
Gevurah to Hod: The Path of Mem. The Hanged Man.
In this hexagram, we find the continuation of the Tao of Man. Where 31 showed us mutual attraction and partnership, here we see how and when to maintain a relationship to give it longevity. The lines of the hexagram give us Thunder and Wind. The two go together, they are a naturally paired phenomena, a self contained engine. The ideogram shows us a heart and a phasing moon. The heart of every living thing beats from the moment it is born until the moment it dies, it is longevity itself. The moon is always phasing, always changing. Both are “perpetual motion” machines in essence, they endure until the end.
Judgment: When you have a working engine, be it of a car, a relationship, or a way of working, it is good to continue on the path and reach the end.
1 If we set our long lasting desires toward the wrong goal or wrong person, it’s like getting lost and continuing to go deeper into the unknown. This is “digging yourself into a hole”.
2 So long as you continue moving, the regret will not last. Blake puts it well: The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
3 When our virtues are not long lasting, we may be shamed for it. Consider infidelity in relationships, or corruption in government. If one is good in appearance, with apparent virtue, a public slip up will cost you dearly.
4 Trying to hunt in a place without animals. While continuing is good, continuing in the wrong place is not. One can be virtuous and continually productive, but if you are in a barren place, it is to no avail.
5 Consider a leader and a soldier, rather than a husband and a wife. If a general is rigid in his virtue, he may not be able to adapt to the changing battlefield, but it is good for the soldier to be firm in following the general. In a partnership, the leader must adapt to survive.
6 This line shows us someone restless, always trembling and shaking. When we are in a bad state, it is terrible to continue, a negative engine is like a positive one, it will run improperly until it stops.
Newton says an object in motion stays in motion. This is true of all things. The key is knowing when to stop something that will continue indefinitely. Many people allow their problems to last their entire lives, they have the virtue of constancy, but it is directed improperly. Some people do everything they can to maintain relationships that are actively harmful but this too is misdirecting constancy.
When constancy is proper, it is a brilliant ideal: a love that lasts forever, “till death do us part”, a love that never fails. A constant love lasts as long as the heart beats and as long as the moon phases. Iggy Pop puts it well in Tonight:
I am going to love her to the end
I will love her until I die
I will see her in the sky tonight
We can see the extremes of this dynamic, of unending love and unending suffering, so let us be careful in choosing the proper things we continue to do.