The I Ching
The hidden dragon does not act
Newly in place, do not move yet
Book of Changes, Qian hexagram, bottom line; Commentary on the Words
Just arrived, just promoted, just moved. This one asks why the first line of the first hexagram says do not act.
What actually happened?
The six lines of Qian read from the bottom up as one dragon moving from hidden to flying to overreaching. The bottom line has four words: the hidden dragon does not act. The dragon is under water. Not for lack of power, since a dragon is a dragon. The position is still lowest, and force used from there is all your own, with all of the risk on you. One step up is the dragon appearing in the field. A step above that, the noble man is busy all day and wary at night. Capacity and the right moment are two different times.
Being able and being due are two different times
The first line and the fifth are both the dragon. What differs is not power but position. Rushing to prove yourself in a new place spends your own force and carries all the risk; from the second or third line the same act is far easier.
New to a team, change nothing in the first month. Not because it should not be changed, but because that is when changing it costs the most.
Not acting is accumulating, not waiting
The hidden dragon is not lying down. The third line is explicit: busy all day, wary into the evening. The time under water goes on reading the ground and gathering what you will need. What is waited for is a change of position, not a change of mood.
Before you are in a position to decide anything, find out everything worth finding out. That is the work of the hidden stretch.
Every line has its own move, and skipping costs
The six lines give six different pieces of advice because the positions differ. Acting from the first line as though you stood at the fifth is using force that is not yours to use. Knowing which line you are on matters more than knowing all six.
Ask which line am I on before deciding whose advice to follow, including your own from the last job.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: newly in a position or a new place, wanting to produce something fast to prove yourself.
Ask first: which line am I on here, and if it is the bottom one, have I gathered what that line is for?
Where it goes wrong: reading it as hide and do nothing. The bottom line withholds action, not effort, and the third line is busy all day; it is also not a reason to stay under water forever, because the dragon is meant to rise.
Lines to keep
The hidden dragon does not act.
Ask which line you are on before choosing how to act.
Same situation, other people are asking
Three weeks in and I want to change something. Too soon?I'm new and want to prove myself · all 1 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.