شش خطی 42
گسترش، افزایش، سود (Yi)

Increase is adding what is lacking. As for the qualities of the hexagram, above is wind , entering, and below is thunder , active. Acting so as to enter gradually, entering without either rushing or lagging, it is therefore called increase.

This hexagram represents using reduction in the midst of increase; it follows on the previous hexagram liberation. In liberation, the yang energy is active and gets out of danger, gradually growing and maturing, adding good that is lacking. However, to increase good is not possible without reducing what is not good. Increasing good and decreasing what is not good, increasing and increasing again, reducing and reducing again, until there is no more increase or decrease possible, finally reaching the state of utter good without evil, one is then done. Therefore “it is beneficial to go somewhere.”

Since beginningless time people have accumulated faults and defects, the seeds of habitual compulsion growing deeper as time goes on; now if they want to do something of benefit to essence and life, they cannot accomplish this unless they first extract the seeds of these compulsive habits. But the seeds of habitual compulsions cannot be removed all at once; there are processes, procedures. This does not admit falsehood—it requires orderly progress, putting forth effort at every step, increasing the mind of Tao, decreasing the human mentality, increasing sane energy, decreasing aberrated energy. Only when there is such reduction within increase is it possible to succeed, to make it “beneficial to go somewhere.” The benefit is simply in one’s practice producing beneficial phenomena.

But to practice what is beneficial, it is important to have a beginning and a conclusion. If there is a beginning but no conclusion, one’s acts are still of no benefit—there is no gain, but loss. Therefore the way of gain and beneficial action lies in concentrated will, making thoroughly dedicated effort, made from within difficulty and hardship. Only when one has dissolved the seeds of compulsive habit of time immemorial will one be able to restore one’s original being. Therefore it is also “beneficial to cross great rivers.”

“Great rivers” are extremely dangerous; there one’s life hangs in the balance. If one can go through extremely dangerous places, then wherever there is no danger one is at an advantage. According to the qualities of the hexagram, acting so as to progress harmoniously, gradually applying effort, without rushing or lagging, this is the path of increasing and decreasing according to the time.

Increase is augmentation and enhancement. Above is wind , and below is thunder ; this is wind and thunder meeting: When thunder rolls, wind rises, the sound of wind enhances the thunder. This is the image of increase.

What superior people see in this is that to increase goodness it is necessary to reduce faults, and to reduce faults it is necessary to increase goodness. Increase requires reduction, reduction complements increase, so the increase has no end. Therefore when they see good they take to it, and when they have faults they correct them.

When people are first born they are totally good, without evil; that is, goodness is inherent in people, while faults are originally nonexistent in people. It is because they are unaware of good that they have faults. If they take to good when they see it, and continue to move toward goodness until there is nothing they do that is not good, they will end up at ultimate good. If they correct faults they have, and keep correcting them until there is nothing faulty in them, they will finally become impeccable.

Taking to good means being able to be firm; correcting faults means being able to be flexible. Firmness must be like the powerful, direct action of thunder; flexibility must be like the gentle, gradual advance of wind. Being vigorous, one can enter into goodness; being easygoing, one can be without fault: Firmness and flexibility complement each other. What was there before returns, and what occurred later disappears; the primal is restored, and the acquired dissolves. By this enhancement one reaches ultimate good with no evil, the stage of complete integration with the celestial design. So the work of taking to good and correcting faults is no small matter.