Keeping Still
Judgment
— I Ching · classical
艮其背，不获其身，行其庭，不见其人，无咎。
Stilling oneself at the back, where there is no longer awareness of the body; walking through one's own courtyard without registering the people in it — there is nothing to fault in this.
Image
— Great Image
兼山，艮，君子以思不出其位。
Mountain rests upon mountain: this is the image of Keeping Still. Watching this, a person of real discipline keeps their thinking from wandering past their own proper place.
Six Lines
— Bottom to top
Modern Readings
— Interdisciplinary
Career & Management
Strategic patience, active brake, refusing the FOMO of industry hype. When everyone is chasing fake demand, restraint and consolidation is leadership.
Psychology & Cognition
Mindfulness (gen qi bei). 'Knowing when to stop yields stability.' Manage craving and anxiety; do not be dragged by externals.
Decision Guidance
Stop at toe (line 1), at mouth (line 5) — the right places. Do NOT force-stop at the waist (line 3) — that suffocates. Keep thoughts within your post.
Integrated Reading
— Structure · timing · relations
Keeping Still places Keeping Still / Mountain above Keeping Still / Mountain. Read the lower trigram as the emerging ground and the upper trigram as the field, pressure, or constraint it must answer. The core theme is Stillness · Right stopping · Thoughts within position. Relations: the opposite hexagram shows the shadow/complement (The Joyous); the inverse shows the other-side view (The Arousing); the nuclear hexagram shows the hidden internal mechanism (Deliverance).
Line Path
Line path: Initial Six → Six in the second → Nine in the third → Six in the fourth → Six in the fifth → Nine at the top. Read from bottom to top to see how the situation emerges, develops, crosses thresholds, and resolves.
Reflection Prompt
Am I acting from the proper position of Keeping Still, or am I being pulled by turning stillness into stagnation? What is the smallest reversible next move that respects the timing?
Western Parallels
— Cross-cultural
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (Jon Kabat-Zinn); the Stoic discipline of 'staying in your own lane'; Cal Newport on deep work via attentional restraint; Lao Tzu's 'knowing when to stop one is not in danger'; Viktor Frankl's space between stimulus and response.
· English renderings and modern readings are original editorial writing, cross-checked against public-domain and classical commentary lineages.
· Hexagram Cast does not predict, score, schedule, ward, or recommend rituals.
· Modern inputs are reproducible; traditional casts can be audited line by line from the stored coin/yarrow trace.