20. Guān 觀
OBSERVATION, CONTEMPLATION
OBSERVATION, CONTEMPLATION
Step back from what's happening. Observe to realize what's happening - yourself and the people around you. Meditate.
Step back from what's happening. Observe to realize what's happening - yourself and the people around you. Meditate.
Hexagram Structure
Guan has a double bottom: it is at once the gaze and the thing being looked at. Contemplation is described here from both sides — as the concentration of the one who knows, having stepped away from affairs for the sake of pure looking, and as the manifestness of the object itself, which has finally become available for examination. The sign inherits the previous situation of drawing near: having come right up to the object, knowing has to stop and look hard.
Below stands Fulfillment, above is Penetration — the ground goes still while a fine movement passes over it, breaking nothing. The aphorism paints the moment in a rite between the washing of hands and the offering: the hands are already clean, the act has not yet begun. That is the formula of the sign — complete readiness with no hurry to move into action.
Such a pause calls for three qualities: truthfulness within, impartiality in one's assessments, and severity, because inner truth, coming out into the open, shows itself precisely as severity.
How It Works in Practice
Prepare for an unpleasant surprise — something will turn out not to be what it looked like. The best defense right now is not activity but sober analysis: examine the state of affairs in detail and without embellishment, the way an auditor examines someone else's firm. The less wishful thinking there is in your picture, the smaller the losses will be.
In practical matters, shifts in the foundations are possible — a change of work or a move. Such a turn is no misfortune in itself, but it is easy to lose baggage at a crossing: do not let important things slip out of your control, keep a list of what must not be missed. Support meanwhile will come from an unexpected quarter — from where you were not looking.
With your wishes everything is fine except the pace: they will come true, but more slowly than you would like. Hurrying events along is useless — this period works on endurance, and attempts to speed it up have the same effect as pulling a seedling by its leaves. Calm waiting here is not lost time but part of the process.
Plans right now are worth running through a fault-finding analysis — every item, every assumption, every figure the calculation rests on. Weak spots found at the desk cost less than those found on the road. And if the analysis brings you to success, do not close the door behind you: help those coming after. For this sign, supporting others is not a gesture of generosity but part of the prescription itself.
Traditional Description
Above is the trigram Xun (Wind), below is the trigram Kun (Earth). The metaphorical image of this hexagram is a person standing on a high tower (on an elevation) and surveying the surroundings. Just as the wind can freely and widely travel across the land, Guan advises us to think broadly and seek new ideas for further movement.
The shape of this hexagram resembles a traditional Chinese tower – an image that indicates from a height we can see much further, not only objects close to us but also distant surroundings, perceive the situation as a whole, in its entirety. Guan recommends us to temporarily distance ourselves from what’s happening around, to study our environment and reflect on the future.
Now, the main thing for you is to realize what’s happening, yourself, the people surrounding you, their motives and behavior. Give way to maturity and wisdom, let your inner child speak at another time and under different circumstances. For young people, this hexagram signifies the first independent steps, transition to a new, serious life.
To understand the state of affairs, we may need either a journey or gathering information through observation or contemplation. Meditation is an excellent way to achieve this result.
It’s important to remember that every situation (like every person) has its nature and characteristics unique only to it. Therefore, we should not adhere to only one pattern (law, method) of action and thought. “Wash your hands, but do not proceed to the sacrifice” – thus allegorically, the hexagram Guan indicates the need to find an approach to this particular situation (person), not relying on past experience, not forgetting that although all people and situations are fundamentally similar, each has its unique features at this moment. Acting routinely and habitually will not lead to success.nnnnn
I Ching Talking
Contemplate your own life. The noble person will not be blamed.
Hexagram Line Descriptions
Read more
The top line completes the road: the gaze has been cleared of egoism for good, and judgments are no longer bent by personal interest. But this freedom has a condition — the one set free must bind themselves to people again, or their detachment is hollowed out into emptiness. The last turn of the story takes place: the one who contemplated becomes the object of contemplation, and others now look at their life. The doubleness of the sign closes on itself: the subject and the object of the gaze change places.
Read more
The fifth step returns the gaze to one's own life, but now from the height of the sign's main position. The personal and the public merge here: the noble person, examining themselves, sees in their own life the life of the society — and takes on responsibility for its flaws instead of fencing themselves off behind someone else's guilt. This is the maturity of contemplation: to look at oneself strictly, with no allowances, and through oneself at everyone. Knowing at this step reaches full accord between the one looking and what lies open to the gaze.
Read more
The fourth position takes the gaze beyond the personal: what is examined now is the splendor of the country — the best that the time and the society have made. The one contemplating here is no tourist but an invited guest: the standing of a guest at the sovereign's court means that their merits have been noticed and that the access itself, to the heart of what is happening, is a form of recognition. The personal optics, tuned on the earlier steps, are aimed at a large whole for the first time. Looking at the highest values of an age from close by is a privilege that had to be earned.
Read more
The third line is the turn from the inner to the outer, and for the first time the object of contemplation is one's own road. A person steps back and examines their life as if it were someone else's: where it advanced, where it backed away, what drove each turn. Such detached analysis is not brooding but work with a wide canvas: the tides of one's own fate are visible at once, inside a single frame. At this crisis step it is the only right occupation — before looking at the world, it is worth examining the one who is looking.
Read more
The second position is a gaze from cover, narrowed to the gap in a door. A person is shut inside the circle of their own interests and sees exactly as much as the crack of their egoism lets through. For a subordinate, passive standing such a view is permissible — a wide picture is not obligatory for whoever does not decide. But it is too little for the growth of a personality: a slight chance to peek out is no substitute for going out. The step marks the border past which seclusion stops being concentration and becomes confinement.
Read more
The bottom step is contemplation that is immature, childlike in its range: only what is nearest can be seen, the distant connections between things are not made out. The text separates two assessments of one and the same state. For a petty person such shortsightedness is natural and is not counted as a fault — farsightedness is not required of them. But for anyone laying claim to maturity, getting stuck in a short gaze is grounds for regret. Here too the sign states its hard thought: pettiness in one's acts grows out of an undeveloped gaze, and morality rests on optics.
Together the lines build a ladder of seeing. At the bottom, a shortsightedness nobody is judged for but which one has to grow out of; a little higher, the crack of egoism, too narrow for any development. The middle teaches detached analysis of one's own road, the fourth step opens access to the values of a whole age, the fifth adds responsibility to clarity. At the top the gaze becomes free and turns into a model itself. The common vector is one: the field of vision widens from the tip of one's nose to other people's lives, and every step upward is paid for by giving up some part of oneself.