شش خطی 40
جدا شدن از عامل سختی، رهایی (Jie)

Liberation means freeing. As for the qualities of the hexagram, above is thunder , active, and below is water , dangerous. When positive energy moves out of danger, action beyond danger moves according to the will; so it is called liberation.

This hexagram represents taking advantage of the right time to gather the medicine. It follows on the previous hexagram disharmony. Disharmony means yin and yang are not in harmony, delight and attention are not appropriate, negative energy is in charge of affairs, while positive energy is trapped. So this work of liberating the positive energy is essential.

Liberating the positive energy is “gathering the medicine.” In gathering the medicine it is important to know the right time; otherwise you will fumble, and negative energy will remain while positive energy will again slip away—then even though the medicine be nearby, you cannot avail yourself of it.

Understanding Reality says, “When lead meets winter, hasten to gather it; after the full moon, metal is worthless.” When the first yang is born on the ground of earth (thereby producing thunder ), the primordial energy comes from within nothingness, and the heart of heaven and earth turns. This is what is called “finding companionship in the southwest.” Just when “lead meets winter” and the great medicine appears, when the mind of Tao becomes active and the human mind is still, this spontaneous liberation is the portent of good fortune. Therefore, “for liberation, the southwest is beneficial; when going nowhere, the return brings good fortune.” Returning without going anywhere does not come about by human effort; it appears spontaneously at a given time, and comes from nature.

But once nature’s time has arrived, human exertion is necessary; one should hasten to set about fostering positive energy and suppressing negative energy. When the celestial and the human act together, one uses the return of this one bit of positive energy to go back, back to where there is pure positivity without negativity, so the mind of Tao is always present and the human mentality is forever extinguished. Only then is one liberated from danger and difficulty, and able to act freely in any way, just as one wills.

This is why “when going somewhere, promptness brings good fortune.” If one is prompt, when the medicinal energy has just arisen it belongs to the primordial; if one is tardy, once the medicinal energy has passed it belongs to the temporal. If you promptly gather the medicinal energy when it has just arisen, then the primordial is stable and you gain good fortune. If you gather it only when the medicinal energy has passed, then temporal conditioning will reassert itself and you will be unfortunate. There is profound meaning in the words “promptness brings good fortune.” There is that which requires promptness; that is to say, when you reach the point where the first yang has just become active, you should advance the fire without delay.

Dissolution means shedding, dispersing. Above is thunder , below is water ; thunder rolls, rain falls, thunder and rain both act and the celestial and earthly energies commune. This is the image of dissolution.

What superior people see in this is that when the force of mundanity is congealed and stagnant, practitioners of the Tao should use intense effort to burn it away; then when the celestial energy has returned, they should use gentle effort to nurture it. Each phase has its proper time, which does not allow deviation or delay. Therefore, after the force of mundanity has been dissolved, they "forgive faults and pardon crimes," going along naturally to cause it to evaporate and disappear of itself, not allowing any force.

People have faults and commit crimes because of obeying acquired conditioning, which obscures the primal; indulging emotions and giving free rein to cravings, they will go to any lengths. This is why there needs to be effort to attain self-mastery and self-control. Mastery and control means correcting faults and eliminating misdeeds, using energy to transform the temperament. When the temperament has been sublimated, the primordial comes back; with the mind of Tao always present, the human mentality does not arise. Once faults and wrongdoings are eliminated, there is no more need to work on mastery and control.

To forgive means to forgive past faults, to pardon means to pardon past misdeeds. Forgiving and pardoning, sane energy grows strong and aberrant energy spontaneously disappears, the real remains and the false does not come. Otherwise, if one does not know when to stop at sufficiency, and still keeps thinking about misdeeds and faults, after all this is doing things with the human mentality, which again calls on faults and errors after they had been eliminated. What had been dissolved now does not dissolve; the danger of mundanity still remains, and celestial energy is not pure. This is what is meant by the saying "To try to eliminate errant thoughts doubles the affliction; to aim for reality as it is also is a mistake."