Gate 11 — Peace — The Gate of Ideas

Full breakdown

A harmonious state of the individual or of society that allows for reflection before action resumes.

Ideas open up the possibility of study and exploration — it doesn't necessarily follow that you have to act on them. Look at gate 11 and the first thing you notice is that it sits in the channel of the seeker, the explorer, rising toward the pressure of gate 47 — Oppression — whose whole point is trying to find meaning in our existence in this world. This is the Gate of Ideas, where the possibility exists — or doesn't — to consciously or unconsciously visualize understanding. It's the visual memory of the left eye.

Think about how the left eye works: it never sees the whole picture. It sees only what appears to it at a given point on the wave. Imagine you're someone who sees the world through the left eye, and you go on holiday and stop somewhere with a beautiful view that you fall in love with. You come home, and someone asks, "So, what was it like there?" As you describe it, it turns out you've left out a great deal. What you saw was some particular point on your wave, and what you hold on to is the part that really struck you. Then someone who knows the place says, "Wait — wasn't there a river, didn't you cross it?" And you say, "Oh, right, there was a river, now I remember." That's how it works on the wave. This is the conscious or unconscious visualization of understanding, and the possibility of that awareness lies precisely in visual memory — that's the left eye.

The single most important thing for people with this gate to learn and absorb is that these ideas — whatever their configuration — are always meant for someone else. Their greatest success comes when they understand that; when they try to implement their own ideas themselves, they tend to end up in crisis and deep frustration.