Still Feet

Bind and open its feet. This is not a mistake. An ever-flowing and advantageous Trial. When an impulse to action comes, hold back before it leads you into compulsive entanglements. This can change your whole life for the better. Be brave and independent. These goings and comings will release the energy now bound up in the past. Co-operate with the on-going process of change.

初六, 艮其趾, 无咎, 利永貞.

Keeping his toes still. ##### Comments No blame. Continued perseverance furthers. Keeping the toes still means halting before one has even begun to move. The beginning is the time of few mistakes. At that time one is still in harmony with primal innocence. Not yet influenced by obscuring interests and desires, one sees things intuitively as they really are. A man who halts at the beginning, so long as he has not yet abandoned the truth, finds the right way. But persisting firmness is needed to keep one from drifting irresolutely.