漸

53. Gradual development

jiàn · Lake ☱ over Thunder ☳

Natural growth step by step, without rushing.

The Noble One's Path

A tree atop a mountain, growing slowly, but in a visible direction. Moral influence works the same way — slowly, but lastingly.

The Lesson

Don't rush the process. The durability of your achievements depends on how patiently you build the foundations.

A question to sit with

Am I trying to speed up something that should mature at its own pace?

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.

Opposite

54. Uncertain position

歸妹

Inverted

54. Uncertain position

歸妹

Nuclear

64. Not yet completed

未濟

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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