Gate 44 — Meeting — The success of any interaction rests on the absence of any preconditions

Full breakdown

We're moving now into the field of possibilities — understand that what's happening here is an invisible process. This is the movement from potential to possibility. I call this process conceptualization, borrowing a term usually tied to the mind. We need to let go of the idea that this word — conceptualization — describes an exclusively mental process. Let's assume instead that it can describe a moment of awareness where a leap is required. It resembles the flash of a neural connection in the brain. That's exactly the kind of jump made from potential to possibility. A very particular place. On the emotional level we're surrounded by waves, on the level of awareness by frequencies, and here, between potential and possibility, is precisely where the shift of frequency happens.

As we move further through the I Ching you'll see that it's almost always possible to read what happens between the lines. For example, if you take up 44.1, the process actually begins in 32.1, and conceptualization allows that awareness to reach a point of clarity. It's a very particular place. When you get into studying the lines on your own, don't lose sight of the fact that this movement can become visible — you'll discover it for yourself. You'll be able to see how the process of conceptualization unfolds, moving from potential into possibility.

Hexagram 44, together with its opposite, hexagram 24, and alongside 19 and 33, forms the Incarnation Cross of the Four Ways in the mandala. Meeting is one of these four ways, and the only healthy one. The thymus sits in gate 26, and our lymphatic system corresponds to gate 44. Regarding the relationship between the Spleen and the Heart center, keep in mind that this channel is the only place where they meet. B-cells are produced by gate 44, T-cells by gate 26 — together these two gates build the basic defense system of our organism. Together they form the healthiest channel that exists in the human being. The wonderful joke here is that the healthiest path is the material path. That's about as true as it gets, because every week ten million children are born on this planet who go hungry. Obviously they can't be healthy, because their parents lack the means to live, and they lack food.

In terms of material movement, gate 44 occupies, in the hierarchy, the position of a personnel manager. This is the Nose, capital N. It can sniff out anything at all. That's its purpose. Meeting is the gate of Vigilance. Its possibility lies in whether the transformation gets preserved in memory, or not. Remember, when we looked at gate 32 — the potential of this stream — we noted that it's the potential for recognizing what can be transformed and what can't. The moment gate 32, the financial director, says: "I'm going to spend my money on this," gate 44 is right there, ready to take that information and store it as memory. It holds onto it and works with it. Once something is stored in gate 44 as memory, it knows precisely that gate 26 can carry it forward, can bring it out into the outer world. Either way, gate 44 itself can't do that. The spleen system isn't a motor. It looks to the Ego and its willpower to actually realize any transformational potential.

First gate 54 rises with its energy for transformation. Then gate 32 says, "Fine, we'll take this on." And only then does gate 44 begin searching for a suitable Ego, so that the transformation can move further along and be manifested at the end of the path. The possibility of awareness here works at the level of osmotic regulation. This is cellular memory and water balance. This is the deepest cellular memory there is. It's a gate of pure instinct, which means that the first and second lines, with their tribal theme, represent the deepest cellular memory that can be found anywhere in a human being. These people have an extremely rich memory. It's spontaneous memory. Don't forget we're dealing with an existential center here. This isn't memory that can be summoned on demand, that can be requested. The memory of gate 44 is available instinctively, in the moment, and it switches on to recognize which Ego is capable of carrying out the transformation, and which isn't. The Ego — gate 26, with its capacity to manipulate, the Taming Power of the Great. As for the personnel manager, it always has to go along with the financial director's decisions.

The subtitle of hexagram 32 was: the one constant thing is change — and in hexagram 44 we get the success of any interaction, based on the absence of any preconditions whatsoever. There are no preconditions. There's only an instinctive memory of what's necessary, which simply responds, in the moment, to the right relationship and the right interaction, in order to carry out the transformation.