21. Diligence
Amitabha’s Alertness
The hexagram represents a clenching-tightly, as if biting-through with the teeth. The matter at hand must be pursued to the end in diligent equipoise: Amitabha’s perpetual burning flame of alertness. This is extending action within the framework of hard-won attentiveness and a thorough digestion of all the elements involved.
The mystical profundity of this hexagram illustrates deployment of the Great Law of the Unborn wherein Divine Justice is the instrument to be administered in the present context, yea this is the exclusive province of the Unborn. All is now being properly weighed and balanced with the all-illuminative and omniscient Dharmatic-Eye.
Interpretation of the Lines (in ascending order)
First yang: Wandering feet are shackled—no error!
Time to exercise Right Restraint—stop dead in your tracks until further revelations are forthcoming.
Second yin: Tearing the flesh asunder—no blame!
Biting through the surface and investigating the very marrow of the thing, such is Right Action from a position of strength.
Third yin: Chewing on dried-meat—a futile affair!
Ditch the rotten-curd and move-on to something more malleable and nurturing.
Fourth yang: Mindfulness to the very end.
Leave no stone unturned—weigh and aim each move like shooting a golden arrow into the very heart of darkness.
Fifth yin: The old carcass is to be discarded, time for fresh discovery.
You have carefully examined all angles of the thing—why do you hesitate in rendering a just decision?
Sixth yang: The old prisoner resurfaces in his cell of ignorance—misfortune!
Rotten thoughts and circumstances are resurfacing and devouring your hard-won efforts—put on the spiritual man and forsake this old crow through Right Diligence.