Xū, hexagram 05

Waiting for a break in the weather

Creativity is not obedient. One cannot call for it and expect it to be there. But waiting in an open and quiet way makes the clouds clear up, and the sun of growth appear again.
Many things come by waiting, rather than by acting. As if one opens a cosmic door for them to enter. One’s own attitude is the door, if one waits in the right feeling, one acts at the right time. But there is also something inexplicable, which makes things happen without any conscious action taking place.
(It seems hex.5 is not about waiting for rain, but waiting for the rain to stop (see Marshall, The Mandate of Heaven).

Hex.5 is the opposite of hex.35, where you grasp chances to turn them into much more. Two sides of one medal. But an opposite works like the shadow in a mind: don't neglect that side, or it will haunt you. Your eagerness to follow your wishes and plans might spoil or even destroy your ability to wait for the right moment.

Hex.5 and 6 are the pair of needed changes. More about hex.5 and 6

Hex.05

Xu¹. The above part, YU³, is 'rain', the lower part, ER², a beard. But in Wang-HongYuan I found two apparently older characters. One seems a man and drops or something like that, the other one a man standing below rain. I think they both are a picture of the rain falling. Maybe the man with drops is a person getting wet.
XU¹: Need, require, demand; expenses, provisions, necessaries; hesitation, delay, tarry, wait, waiting with confidence, waiting for rain to begin, waiting for something one needs; essential, necessary; early glutinous rice with small grains.
Pronounced NO⁴: weak, hesitating, supple (leather).
YUAN³: supple, flexible, incomplete.
NUAN⁴: weak, timid.
Interchangeable with another character [Mathew’s 2847] with the same meanings, but also 'a beard', Ritsema +Karcher: hairgrowing.

The trigrams: Water above Heaven.
   Clouds rise up to heaven: Waiting for the rain to stop. The noble one drinks and eats and reposes relaxed.
   Heaven below or inside Water. The soul (Water) is formless, but the light of Heaven is inside. The possibility for organizing is present, so waiting makes sense. It might be something you need from outside, or from your inner wisdom - it will come. "Everything comes to the one who waits" is a Chinese proverb and it does not mean to stay sitting and expect. Make your mind open for it to happen and go on living. When the moment comes that it might happen, it finds in you a fertile field to receive it - and it will happen.
   It is a frame of mind which makes everything happen, not just one specific thing. It means living every moment as it is, without a program but open for life.
   In the MaWangDui I Ching the name of this hexagram means a silk garment for the winter sacrifice. Like celebrating Christmas: opening your mind for the good things of winter, for a time of darkness and cold, but also of reflection and togetherness if you are open for it.

More about hex.5 and 6
About the lines of hex.5
Back to hex.5