Gate 20 — Contemplation — Recognition and awareness in the moment transform understanding into right action

Full breakdown

This hexagram completes the Throat process. We've reached the gate that's the most complex in many ways, because gate 20 isn't just aiming at the potential of the harmonic gates. It's part of the integration system. It points toward three separate gates. It's the expression of an individual's capacity to survive. It's the voice that says, "I know that I am," or "I know that I exist right now," plus all the configurations that arise from the different connections inside the integration system. Gate 20 is the only so-called existential gate. Existential here means it operates in the present. The gloss over the lines reads: recognition and awareness in the moment transform understanding into right action. This is awareness in the present moment, and that wording — recognition and awareness — trips a lot of people up. Gate 20 is not an awareness gate. Don't get hooked on that idea. It's a mechanical gate that brings "now" into your being.

It's a mechanical gate with direct access to awareness — to gate 57 in the Spleen system — and in that sense, a potential for awareness is present here. What matters is that it represents the peripheral mechanics that let you sense, experience, and recognize the present moment. This force is nothing like the collective forces, which either project into the future or look back at the past. It's wholly and entirely occupied with the present moment alone.