Chapter 63 – Difficulty
Act without action.
Do without ado.
Taste without tasting.
Whether it is big or small, many or few, repay hatred with virtue.
Prepare for the difficult while it is still easy.
Deal with the big while it is still small.
Difficult undertakings have always started with what is easy.
And great undertakings have always started with what is small.
Therefore the sage never strives for the great,
And thereby the great is achieved.
He who makes rash promises surely lacks faith.
He who takes things too easily will surely encounter much difficulty.
For this reason even the sage regards things as difficult.
And therefore he encounters no difficulty.
Translation by Wing-Tsit Chan (1963)
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Water over Thunder suggests
tempests above and earthquakes below –
cruel conditions for seeds and saplings.
From Richard Gill’s version of the the I Ching (1993),
Hexagram 3, entitled “A Difficult Beginning”*
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I was not there when this happened, so I am re-telling an experience that was told to me. A couple of weeks ago my son Michael, my daughter Suzanne and her husband Jeff hiked up LaPlata Peak, which at 14,360 feet above sea level is the fifth highest mountain in the State of Colorado. Michael and Suzanne are fairly experienced, having summited many Colorado mountains – and Suzanne has been to 19,341 feet (nearly a mile higher) on Mt. Kilimanjaro – but it was Jeff’s first try at a 14er.
Photo from www.unc.edu (public domain)
To reach the top of LaPlata Peak requires a strenuous hike of several hours, but it can be done without technical gear. The three of them reached the top at about 1:30 in the afternoon. They were tired and sat down on rocks to eat a quick lunch. Within minutes, though, the wind had picked up and a large cloud had formed. Suddenly Suzanne felt a tingling and the hair on her arm began to stand on end.
Technically, the electricity in the approaching storm had caused her body to send a “positive streamer.” That is a bad thing. It meant that the three of them could be struck by lightning at any second. Suzanne screamed, told everyone to crouch down and get off the top of the mountain. They all did that, and were not struck. They were moving as fast as they could over a boulder field, cutting and bruising their legs while being pelted by wind, rain and hail.