The Book of Changes · Lu

Hexagram 10: Treading

Heaven (the sky) over Lake (still water held in a hollow)

Conduct in a dangerous position: treading on the tiger's tail. The tradition says the tiger does not bite, and the reason is manner, not luck.

The image

Heaven above the lake, a difference in height that cannot be argued with. The reading is that a person acts by knowing where they actually stand.

Heaven, above

Force, and the initiative that does not wait to be asked.

Lake, below

Openness, pleasure, and what is said out loud.

The six lines

Read from the bottom up.

1. Line 1Simple conduct, going on alone. Plainness is protection here.
2. Line 2Treading a level road. Quiet people do well on it.
3. Line 3Half sighted and certain of the view; half lame and certain of the pace. Ambition running past capacity.
4. Line 4On the tail, and careful, careful. Care carries it through.
5. Line 5Resolute conduct. Correct, and aware it is dangerous.
6. Line 6Look at where you have walked. The whole road is the evidence.

The same figure in Human Design

Human Design took its sixty four gates from this book, in this numbering, so hexagram 10 is Gate 10, Behaviour of the Self.