Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Keeping Still
Hexagram 52 of the Yi Jing · 艮 Gèn
The figure
The Mountain doubled: the immovable upon the immovable, absolute rest. The image of the halt, of the calm that lets you see.
What this figure illuminates
Keeping Still lights up the value of the halt: knowing how to stop when needed, to calm agitation so the mind can settle. Perpetual movement blinds; the pause restores sight.
For a decision, the figure invites the pause: “do I need to act here, or to stop long enough for the situation and myself to find calm again?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
Keeping still: rest so complete that the self falls quiet, like the stillness of the back. Move through your own courtyard and see no one there — free of craving, and no error.
The Image
Mountain resting upon mountain: stillness upon stillness. Seeing this, the noble person lets their thoughts go no further than their place.
The Six Lines
- First line
Stilling the toes, halting before the first step is even taken. No error — hold this quiet steadily.
- Second line
Stilling the calves — but you are carried along by another and cannot save them. Your heart is uneasy at being unable to act.
- Third line
Forcing the hips to stillness, splitting yourself in two. Such rigid holding is dangerous — the smothered feeling only burns.
- Fourth line
Stilling the whole trunk, the self brought to rest in its own being. No error.
- Fifth line
Stilling the jaws — speaking only in measure and order. Cause for regret disappears.
- Sixth line
Stillness held whole-heartedly, ripened into peace. Good fortune.
Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).
A question to keep
Should you act, or stop long enough for things to settle?
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