I Ching, Yijing or Zhou Yi
"Oracle of the moon": © 2000 LiSe
Yi Jing, Oracle of the Moon
Lí, hexagram 30
To catch the bird of brightness
Moments fly past like birds. You will have to catch them right now, to enjoy something when it happens, to seize an opportunity, to realize a flash of insight. Life is full of those bright little birds.
If you can seize them and care for them, they may turn into big things, feeding your life and soul. The sum of all those small things will make your life to a bright and shining one.
The mind can discern and catch those moments. It filters out what is not relevant by letting it slip through the net. The Bright Birds are what is relevant and visible.
LÍ: At right a bird, and at left a bird-net: to catch or having caught a bird. Nowadays the net-part means: a bogey, bright, elegant, to oppose. Meanings: name of a bird, Oriole. Loan for leave, depart from, to be dispersed, distribute, arrange, vis à vis, meet with, fall into, fasten, attach, pass through, droop, hang down, light, brilliance, to be separated from, differ from, to defy, to go against, paired, hedge. In the MaWangDui YiJing the name of this hexagram is Luo, a snare, net, to catch: the picture at right.
The trigrams: Fire repeated.
Brightness doubled brings the Bright Bird.
The great man illumines the four regions by his continuous brightness.
Fire brings clarity and order and a solid footing. Raise female cattle, make a herd, a living. Male cattle is for sacrifices, for showing off.