EIGHTEEN

蠱

RECTIFYING PAST MISTAKES

CONCERNS: Deliberate correction without violence but without compromise; tactful and firm confrontation of past mistakes leading to a new beginning; transcending our mental and emotional conditioning.

1. What has been a major source of errors in the past —our unexamined conditioning —can be corrected by taking responsibility for the consequences of our actions, speech and thoughts.
2. If the purification of our emotional life is not handled with great sensitivity we will create a defensive backlash, which would compound the problem we seek to correct.
3. Mistakes caused by our conditioning —by what we learned —are best handled with patience and compassion; intolerance for what we have become or what we have done will stimulate resistance and impede the project of reeducation and redemption.
4. Once we have identified areas of darkness in ourselves or our environment, we must be aware of justification, excuses and vacillation which would side­track reformation.
5. The determined elimination of negativity, darkness, unexamined habits, reactivities and prejudices is a high and enlightening undertaking that brings about a radical reformation of ourselves and our environment.
6. When we redeem ourselves we benefit our brothers and sisters and all of humanity because there is no difference between our highest aspirations and the goals of the human family.

COMMENT: This hexagram can be taken to apply to the overall refinement of the personality and the benefit to others in so doing. We work on redeeming our inner, divine nature from the effects of past conditioning as we engage in the continual process of self-development. For many of us, this may be our most important spiritual contribution.