A special gift reading for a friend:

Hexagram #18, changes to #28

#18 – Work on What Has Been Spoiled

There are times when we need to strive for greater balance, or acceptance, and other times when we feel able to steadily go with the flow. In this case both streams of energy are working together, both the push/hustle towards a goal, while balance in steady focus is required to “work on what has been spoiled.”
I think of it as similar to the work required to repair and prepare a garden for Spring, after a long tough winter. If you love to feel your hands in the soil, it’s a joy. If you feel it is a chore, it is still something you need to accomplish. Either way, you know what to do, you are handling it. It is also dramatically evident in things like roads, bridges, buildings, being repaired.
Six in the fifth place: An individual is confronted with corruption originating from neglect in former times. He lacks the power to ward it off alone, but with able helpers he can at least bring about a thorough reform, if he cannot create a new beginning, and this also is praiseworthy.
Six in the fourth place: This shows the situation of someone too weak to take measures against decay that has its roots in the past and is just beginning to manifest itself. It is allowed to run its course. If this continues, humiliation will result.
Nine at the top: “Not every man has an obligation to mingle in the affairs of the world. There are some who are developed to such a degree that they are justified in letting the world go its own way and in refusing to enter public life with a view to reforming it.”1 But this does not imply a right to remain idle or to sit back and merely criticise. Such withdrawal is justified only when we strive to realise in ourselves the higher aims of mankind. For although the sage remains distant from the turmoil of daily life, he creates incomparable human values for the future.

1. Goethe’s quote after the Napoleonic wars is an example of this in European history.

#28 – Preponderance of the Great
There is something heavy in the middle, such as a freight truck over-filled with a great and valuable load. The balance is at a tipping point. Timely action to relieve the weight taxing the supports, is needed.
There is a natural expectation/sense when something is in need of direct and adept attention. Something has to be done, it may involve hard and hearty work, yet gentle attitude:
“It is necessary to find a way of transition as quickly as possible, and to take action. This promises success. For although the strong element is in excess, it is in the middle, that is, at the centre of gravity, so that a revolution is not to be feared. Nothing is to be achieved by forcible measures. The problem must be solved by gentle penetration to the meaning of the situation (as is suggested by the attribute of the inner trigram, Sun); then the change-over to other conditions will be successful. It demands real superiority; therefore the time when the great preponderates is a momentous time.”