Reading
Judgment
Keeping still of his back,
so that he no longer feels his body.
He goes into his court and does not see his people.
No blame.
True rest is that one keeps still when the time has come to keep still, and that one goes forward when the time has come to go forward. In this way rest and motion are in agreement with the demands of the time, and thereby there is light of life.
The hexagram is end and beginning of all motion. The back is named, because in the back all the nerve tracts are located that mediate motion. If one brings the motion of these spinal nerves to a standstill, then the ego in its restlessness disappears, so to speak. When now the human being has become so inwardly calm, then they may turn toward the outer world. They see in it no longer the struggle and the tumult of individual beings, and therefore have the true rest, such as is needed in order to understand the great laws of world events and to act accordingly. Whoever acts out of this depth makes no mistake.
Image
Mountains standing together: the image of Keeping Still.
Thus the noble one does not go with their thoughts beyond their situation.
The heart thinks continually. That cannot be changed. But the movements of the heart, that is, the thoughts, should limit themselves to the present life-situation. All thinking beyond that only makes the heart sore.
Commentary
The image of the hexagram is the mountain, the youngest son of heaven and earth. The masculine is above, where by its nature it strives; the feminine below, where its direction of motion leads. So rest is present, since movement has reached its normal end.
Applied to the human being, the problem is shown of attaining rest of the heart. The heart is very hard to bring to rest. While Buddhism strives for rest through the dying away of all motion in Nirvana, the standpoint of the Book of Changes is that rest is only a polar state which has as its complement lastingly the motion.
Perhaps in the words of the text there are instructions for yoga exercise.
Changing Lines
Line 1
A six at the beginning means:
Keeping still of his toes.
No blame. Favorable is lasting perseverance.
Commentary
Keeping still of the toes means a standing-still before one has begun to move. The beginning is the time when one makes few mistakes. One is still in agreement with the original innocence. One sees things intuitively as they are, still uninfluenced by the clouding through interests and desire. Whoever at the beginning stands still, as long as they have not yet left truth, finds the right. Only lasting firmness is needed, so that one does not slip into a will-less letting-oneself-drift.
Line 2
A six in the second place means:
Keeping still of his calves.
He cannot rescue the one he follows.
His heart is not glad.
Commentary
The leg cannot move independently, but is in its motion dependent on the motion of the body. If the body is in strong motion and the leg is suddenly held back, the continuing motion of the body leads to the person falling.
So it is with a human being who is in the following of a stronger personality. They are carried along. Even if they check themself on the path of wrong, they can no longer stop the other in their strong motion. Where the master presses forward, the servant, however well they may mean it, can no longer rescue them.
Line 3
A nine in the third place means:
Keeping still of his hips.
Stiffening of his sacrum.
Dangerous. The heart suffocates.
Commentary
Here it is a matter of forced rest. The heart, which is in unrest, is to be forcibly subdued. But the fire that is forcibly pushed back turns into biting smoke, which spreads suffocatingly.
In meditation and concentration exercises one must therefore not proceed forcibly. Rather, rest must develop quite naturally out of a state of inner collectedness. If calm is to be forced through artificial stiffening, meditation will lead to great inconveniences.
Line 4
A six in the fourth place means:
Keeping still of his trunk.
No blame.
Commentary
Keeping still of the back, as mentioned in the words of the whole hexagram, means that one forgets the ego. That is the highest stage of rest. Here this stage of rest is not yet reached. One can already, to be sure, keep the ego with its thoughts and stirrings still. But one is not yet wholly free of it. Still, the keeping still of the heart is an important function, which with time leads to the complete elimination of egoistic drives. Even though one does not yet remain free of all dangers of doubt and unrest, this attitude of mind, since it lies on the way to that other, higher one, is no mistake.
Line 5
A six in the fifth place means:
Keeping still of his jaws.
The words have order.
Remorse vanishes.
Commentary
In a dangerous situation, especially as long as one is not equal to the situation, one is very easily ready with talk and pert jests. But through incautious talking one easily gets into situations in which one afterward has much to regret. But if one restrains oneself in talking, the words acquire an ever firmer form, and then every occasion for remorse vanishes.
Line 6
A nine at the top means:
Magnanimous keeping still. Good fortune!
Commentary
Here the completion of the effort toward rest is given. One is at rest not in a petty, measured way in detail, but a general resignation in the whole gives rest and good fortune for all the details.