20 story

The image of hexagram 20
Guān, observe

Hexagram 20 has trigram Earth below or inside, Wind above or outside. Earth is care and home, Wind is penetrating or (rumor-) spreading: the Earth speaking and listening through the Wind.

What does it mean, 'inner' and 'outer trigram' (popup)

When trigram Earth is below (popup)

When trigram Wind is above (popup)

Earth below Wind. Earth is the space where all creatures live. Wind is 'the core of things', the way they act or how they influence their surroundings. We all live in this huge space that is alive in its own way, as part of the entire universe. We are connected to all that exists. If we acknowledge this connection, it brings all things to fulfillment and grants us a life in accordance with our true nature.

The old diviners gave this combination of trigrams a name: Guān. People have observed the flight of birds since forever. They were children of the Wind, the voice of the earth, the voice of fate and fortune.

Ideogram of the hexagram name: the left part is a bird with two extra eyes (or mouths) and a crest or tufts above its head: a bird that watches or speaks and has a crest. The right part (added later) is a kneeling person with a huge eye, which means 'seeing'.
Meanings: (over)see, regard, display, cause to see, observe, behold, inspect, point of view, divination (!), aspect, embellish oneself, scene, sight, to travel for pleasure, look-out tower, Daoist monastery or temple or shrine.

The 'Great Image' says: The wind blows over the earth: observing. The ancient kings inspected the whole country. They contemplated the people and set up education.

  Hex.20 is the contrast of 34, which is about your own convictions.
  Hex.20 is about others. Compassion, empathy, consolation. Guān Yin ("Hear Sounds") is the Chinese Madonna, She who hears the prayers and moans of the people. But it is also the overseer who controls the workfloor, or the one who sees the whole of a situation.
  The goddess Guān Yin 觀音 is the Buddhist Avalokiteśvara, but in China, a popular female deity. Birds are the messengers of the gods. In Europe the two ravens of Odin or Wodan: Huginn and Muninn, 'memory' and 'thought'. The southern native American people had a thunderbird at the top of their totempoles: messengers of spring.

  Story: (I wrote this long ago. I know now that birds are rather 'seeing' because they can fly. They can see everything, and they can fly up to the place where the gods reside.)
   The heron sits immovable for hours – and in a split second he grasps a fish.
   In order to see, one’s own inner world has to be still. Every inner sound overrules the signals, or colors them and distorts them. One can only see under water when the surface is quiet. And to be as vigilant after hours like in the first minutes, that too is only possible with inner stillness. Time does not exist, every minute is a new minute.
   Who does not exist himself can see the world, because he does not look, he sees.

The image of hexagram 20Guān, observe

The image of hexagram 20
Guān, observe