Gate 38 — Opposition — The capacity to preserve individual integrity in resistance to destructive forces

Full breakdown

We're turning now to the individual process. Hexagram 38, Opposition, is polar to hexagram 39, The Obstruction. The nature of the pressure in these two gates is very similar, even though it's aimed at different outlets. Gate 38 is aimed at the Spleen system, and this channel, 28-38, is tied to the development of our intuitive process. Gate 38 is the Gate of the Fighter — its fuel is the energy to fight, or not. That energy is intrinsic to it. For people who carry gate 38's energy, I always try to stress that the only fight worth entering is the fight that reveals the meaning of life, its significance, its value. Because that's built into the very nature of the fight. Life is genuinely valuable — that's exactly why risk shows up at the other end of the channel. There's nothing more complete in its own particular quality, and nothing that delivers a sharper experience, than gate 38 simply ignoring you. It doesn't notice you, it doesn't hear you. You could talk without stopping for breath, and ten minutes later it'll look up and ask, "Did you say something?" It's absorbed in its own process. That's the fuel, or the pressure, driving the individual process.

The gloss over the lines speaks of the capacity to preserve individual integrity in resistance to destructive forces. Individual integrity. This is about the value of individual life — not collective, not communal, not tribal. The meaning, the value, the significance of one individual's life. Dig into any spiritual seeker and they'll all ask you the same question: what's the meaning of my life? What am I living for? At the core of individual being sits this deep need to know the value and meaning of one's own life.