I ching

I Ching Hexagram 25
Wu Wang (Innocence)

Action: Open

Hu Gua (hidden influence) 53: Development: Flower

Zong Gua (underlying cause) 46: Pushing Upward: Ascend

If you don't know what cannot be done,
you will accomplish great things.

Like a kite cut from the string,
lightly the soul of my youth has taken flight. – Ishikawa Takuboku

Reading at a Glance: A Taoist perspective honors Three Treasures: Ci is the ability to know compassion when relating to others, where you treat all experience as if it is a part of you. This is called owning your condition. Jian is your appreciation for the 'uncarved block,' or the ever changing aspect of life, by remaining malleable in your observations and simple in your desires. Bugan wei tianxia xian is how you do not play the host but remain the guest of a greater unfolding. You rise from sleep where your mind was open and then climb back into a type of sensory awareness that classifies everything. Just as you do in dreams, it is important to hover at the doorway of perception, without judgment or attachment to an outcome. Innocence asks you to keep an open mind so that the Creative can lead you toward an environment that is beneficial to you, suggested by the hidden influence of Development. Where Pushing Upward required action, Innocence is best developed through non action. Step back and allow events to show you what and why a situation is unfolding. Without this purity of perception calamity can ensue. Yet even in calamity you can discover the Sage’s greatest lesson: tranquility in disturbance. Synchronize your inner thoughts to events. Know that you are free of blame if you follow the course of events rather than attempt to coerce a solution for the sake of speed or gratification. Be like the child who has not yet learned to smile but simply remains observant to unfolding events.

Hover

at

the doorway

of

perception.

“When you turn back, you are returned to a state of innocence.” Approaching the gateway of perception, you can cherish the opportunity not to know to move beyond all sense of boundaries. Baby birds do not develop their colorful beaks and feathers until adolescence, when the territorial urge begins. Until then, their coloring allows them to remain hidden and protected. This is the protection offered to a state of innocence.

Like a hatchling protected from early danger, you can approach the threshold of perception with a sense of discovery. The master said: “Those who do not know what cannot be done can accomplish great things.”

Wu Wang means ‘not attached,’ or not caught up in defending yourself against unfolding events. Exerting the will can sometimes create disharmony in the flow of life. Unattached, you can observe your fundamental harmony with what unfolds. The master said: “those who know no limits meet with no obstruction.” This state of innocence ensures your success.

Innocence allows you to see how events cultivate your power of your Te. It requires three things: compassion when relating to others, an appreciation for the ‘uncarved block,’ or the ever changing aspect of life by remaining simple in your desires not playing the host but remaining the guest of a greater unfolding.

Even while you are the ruler of your empire, you do not dare take the lead, but follow. You can discover a new way of perceiving the world where a return to a state of Innocence will allow you to cultivate what is to come.

“One who possesses virtue in abundance is comparable to a new born babe. The baby goes without knowing where it is going, and merges with the surroundings, moving along with it.” Wu Wang is the image of not wasting time lost on the by-paths where you wander away from where you need to be. Unattached to that place that would generate a response, you do not contend and therefore, nothing blocks your way.

Transcending unnatural distinctions, it is now, you have arrived, and you are just so. You make the choice of whether you use mind to establish boundaries or tear them down. Observing the emotions that trap you in your ability to discover, trace their illusions and let them go. At this threshold, observe how anxiety and fear attach you to expectations about the future, while guilt and anger tie you to actions of the past. Recognizing and discarding these responses, all that is left is innocence.

“Like a baby that has not learned to smile,” move to that place before the response to participate with how life is shaping you. Although “desire brings you to observe life’s manifestations,” having no attachment to the passing scenery, is the key to your success.

Evolution brings about variations, but these random changes rarely improve what already works well. Creatures adapt in ways that are not always beneficial, and natural selection comes to purge mutations and reveals why the Way is described as turning back. As one of nature’s self-organizing systems, you seek stasis, while life leads you to transform. Every plant and animal on the earth has outlasted a struggle for existence that is three and a half billion years old. This means that moving forward without worry will not be second nature.

Wu wang, ‘not attached,’ and wu wei, ‘taking no unnatural action’ allow you to move forward unattached to the past and not creating an unnecessary response. “I alone, am inactive and reveal no signs; listless as though I have no home to go back to.” The home you would have gone back to houses your paradigm. Let go of what you believe cannot be done and you will accomplish great things.