#5 Calculated Waiting

 

Moving to	Date
	11/7/96 10/20/04	Unchanging - The area of your inquiry may be out of your grasp.  What is involved in the attainment of your aim required a more intricate understanding of the elements at work than you are capable of employing.  Nothing can be done at this time and the entire affair should be seen in the positive light of an important learning process
1	1/2/07	Top Line It seems as if you are falling into an abyss. This is a time of great difficulty. When all your plans are overturned, it's best to yield gracefully. Just remain cautious and alert; help may be arriving from some unknown corner. Keep an open mind and you will find your way out of current difficulties. You can learn the lessons in this situation. If a remedy does not soon present itself, remember, every trial you survive makes you stronger. (9)
11 - Peace	12/15/97	Fifth Line The situation is comfortable now. You have received a break from your difficulties. Do what is right, but allow yourself cheerful, worry-free recreation and you will have good fortune.
1 43	1/2/07 2/2/07	Fourth Line "One has stuck around too long and has lost control of the situation - Waited too long."  (43)
60	9/28/00	Third Line - You feel stuck, as in mud, and your enemies feel encouraged. You are in an exposed position. Be cautious and considerate in relationships and be on guard. Be alert to shifting alliances.
39	12/5/98	Second Line Strife can easily develop. You may have to tolerate gossip, but in the end you will come out very well, if you remain calm and magnanimous now. Things will resolve themselves.   Like sand you must be strong and accommodating even though others may abuse or blame you. Avoid being sucked into conflict; remain neutral.
39	12/5/98	Bottom line Do not become agitated by your sense of an impending problem.  Live your life as normally as possible and do nothing out of the ordinary.  If there is a problem, it exists in the future.  Acknowledging it now could diminish your strength.

A fisherman can cast the line, but can only wait for the fish to bite. Your catch will come in its own time; you cannot make it come - neither by working nor by planning nor by wishing. You may need to provide nourishment for you and your loved ones; but only through patience can you become the bridge between the fickle fish and the eventual feast. Strength in a time of trial waits quietly, resolutely. Weakness grows agitated, and abandons the effort before the fish bite. Periods of waiting are most fruitful when used for quiet contemplation.

Proceed cautiously, but resolutely, with whatever you are doing. The situation calls for consistency and patience. Waiting is an essential skill; patience is a powerful force. Time is an ally of those with inner strength - the kind of strength which allows you to be uncompromisingly honest with yourself, while sticking to the path you have charted. If you persevere with a positive attitude, time weakens even the hardest obstacles. To rush anything, or impatiently force results, stimulates resistance and causes setbacks. At best, you achieve surface changes that may just as quickly be reversed. Steadfast waiting - holding to your integrity - leads to slow but permanent improvements. In the end, you accomplish something great. Practice patience.

November 7, 1996

Why am I writing now? Got a call from an executive search firm yesterday and it struck me as a "sign". The I-ching came back with #5 Waiting with no changing lines. Something is in the works but its not clear what yet. Of course I’ve been wrong about everything else so maybe nothing is happening after all.

"You must wait patiently for what you need. It is not the right time for the manifestation of your desires. There is nothing you can do outwardly. Inwardly, you should confidently and happily hold to your goal. Do not become agitated and impatient or the situation could become dangerous. Strengthen your body and spirit and maintain your integrity while you wait."

Note:  I never commented that I was correct in my supposition and that the I-Ching was right in it's statement about waiting.  This first call ultimately did end up with me taking a job which I started almost 8 months after the first phone call. The more significant factor was it was a job that I ultimate knew I would get even though I made no overt effort to obtain it initially.  The circumstances were very much like the time I used to tell people that I'd stay with I (my then current firm) until R called me (a firm I very much wanted to work for).  They'd stare at me and ask if I'd applied and I would always respond with a no -- when the time was right it would happen effortlessly.

Friday December 4, 1998

Question:  Status of my opportunity at D.

Waiting moving to 39 Obstacles

I didn't get the job after having it promised to me.  A friend later ended up on the account and all I can say is thank heavens I didn't get it.  The PM got fired and the project got killed.

Note:  I'm surprised I don't have anything else down here it seems to me there are two hexagrams I get all the time in answer to every question.   The first is 15 and the second in my mind is waiting.  I asked a question about pursuing an opportunity at another company and got this for an answer.  What it says to me is that I need to know that I have to move forward with my life with exactly what's on my plate.  The long term outcome might not be coming anywhere near as soon as I had hoped.  When I think back on it I negotiated with Sun for months before I joined the company and for a least 6 months before I joined Big software company.  Are Jobs like relationships?  If they are then maybe anything you have to work that hard to put together isn't right.  All my good relationships flowed very naturally.

Note:  I will never know the truth of this situation but I believe that while this opportunity fell through, the interviews I did at this time played a small part in my getting the assignment I loved a little over two months later. 

 

Thursday, September 28, 2000

Question: Current energy surrounding my discussions with EP

5 Patience with line 3 moving to 60 limitation

Do not go to extremes or try to take on too much.  In this situation, you must decide for yourself what your limitations are.  Keep the balance between wanting too much and being willing to settle for too little.  If your are too fearful to make a move, nothing can be achieved.  But if you are over-ambitious, you could fall flat on your face.  Decide where your responsibilities lie.  Make a commitment to them.  Do not expect more of yourself than you know is realistic.   And don't demand more of others than they are capable of giving.  Be discriminating in your approach to people.  Do not be over-friendly on the one hand to too reserved on the other.

 

Thursday September 30, 2004

Asked about the outcome of continuing to pursue SOX and got 5 going to 61.  That got me even more depressed so I picked a tarot card and got the fool and felt much better.

Note: I asked this question in relationship to a specific opportunity which ended up failing to materialize. I've often wondered if this was a situation that Louise and I called positive delusions.  There are times when human beings simply can't accept the truth and need to believe something else while they go about building their future.  This was a period of time when working on Sox made me feel useful.  I also did a little bit of work with it for two clients (two speaking engagements and 2 articles for CC).  Additionally it laid the foundation for KJ to write her first solo published article. 

Weds October 20, 2004 

Asked about pursuing a specific business development opportunity and got 5 unchanging.

Note: Not at all sure what was going on when I wrote this.  I think it was the brain storming that a bunch of us were doing at my dining room table about work we could do.  Nothing ever came of it but I think the explanation is covered in the note above -- positive delusions. 

Weds January 2, 2007 

"At the top waiting is over. A time of danger. But people come. Their purpose ill defined but if accepted in good spirit all will be well - No more time to wait."

 

Thursday February 02, 2007

Asked whether of not 2007 was going to be a prep year for the next cycle.  While the actual hexagram turns into 43 I find myself more hopeful about the implications of 46.  I found this discussion of the evil in 43 to be quite beyond my ken.

Serving and cultivating (05) combined with ascending (46) leads to cultivation and influence (57).   Hexagram 57 is a soft form of transition. A subtle controlling influence, through persuasion, forces one to adapt to the change conditions and therefore themselves change.

In hexagram 46, through the conversion of small potentials (09) into actuals, one has risen to a point of recognition. All of this achieved by willpower and innocence; acts of deep-seated involvement to the exclusion of everything else. This is the process of refinement; the act of distillation rather than the product itself. Contextually, we have held firm (26) and cultivated (57) leading to ascending and entanglement.

 (09) we recognize that to become influential requires work. The process of gentle change through emphasizing one's accomplishments acts as a way of refining one's power, so we make small gains that accumulate and eventually one's time will come.

By introducing (46) as context, you can change a state described by any other hexagram into a state described by hexagram 18. To make a state associated with another hexagram transform into this state, introduce hexagram 18 as context.