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43. Breakthrough

guài · Wind ☴ over Heaven ☰

A decisive cutting-off from what is false or destructive.

The Noble One's Path

A lake rising above heaven. The Noble One shares good with others, but takes care not to grow proud because of it — even generosity can be a fault, if it seeks applause.

The Lesson

If you know the truth, don't stay silent — but act from strength, not from anger, and don't expect recognition.

A question to sit with

What difficult truth am I running from, instead of facing it?

Related hexagrams

In the I Ching no hexagram stands alone. Each one enters into relationships with others, and those relationships show the situation seen from the other side, in its opposite, and in its hidden tendency.

44. Unexpected encounter

易

The classical deep dive for this hexagram — the Judgment and the Image after Richard Wilhelm — along with the texts of all six changing lines, is in the book. Get the book

卦

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