Anygua EST · 2026
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052 · U+4DF3
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Keeping Still

GÈN
Stillness · Right stopping · Thoughts within position
Upper · Gen ☶ Mountain / Lower · Gen ☶ Mountain

Judgment

— I Ching · classical

艮其背，不获其身，行其庭，不见其人，无咎。

Keeping his back still so that he no longer feels his body. He goes into his courtyard and does not see his people. No blame.

Image

— Great Image

兼山，艮，君子以思不出其位。

Mountains standing close together: the image of keeping still. Thus the superior person does not permit their thoughts to go beyond their position.

Six Lines

— Bottom to top

Initial Six · 初六 ⚋ yin
艮其趾，无咎，利永贞。
Keeping his toes still. No blame. Continued perseverance furthers.
Stop at the first toe — the moment before the misstep. No blame; sustain the discipline.
Six in the second · 六二 ⚋ yin
艮其腓，不拯其随，其心不快。
Keeping his calves still. He cannot rescue him whom he follows. His heart is not glad.
Stopping the calves — cannot rescue the one he follows; an unhappy compliance.
Nine in the third · 九三 ⚊ yang
艮其限，列其夤，厉薰心。
Keeping his hips still. Making his sacrum stiff. Dangerous. The heart suffocates.
Forced suppression at the waist; the spine bound; the heart smothered. Wrong way to stop — through rigid prohibition.
Six in the fourth · 六四 ⚋ yin
艮其身，无咎。
Keeping his trunk still. No blame.
Stopping the whole body — each part holds its place; no blame.
Six in the fifth · 六五 ⚋ yin
艮其辅，言有序，悔亡。
Keeping his jaws still. The words have order. Remorse disappears.
Stop at the mouth — speech finds its order; regret vanishes.
Nine at the top · 上九 ⚊ yang
敦艮，吉。
Noble-hearted keeping still. Good fortune.
Substantial, profound stillness (dun gen) — fortune.

Modern Readings

— Interdisciplinary

Career & Management

Strategic patience, active brake, refusing the FOMO of industry hype. When everyone is chasing fake demand, restraint and consolidation is leadership.

Psychology & Cognition

Mindfulness (gen qi bei). 'Knowing when to stop yields stability.' Manage craving and anxiety; do not be dragged by externals.

Decision Guidance

Stop at toe (line 1), at mouth (line 5) — the right places. Do NOT force-stop at the waist (line 3) — that suffocates. Keep thoughts within your post.

Western Parallels

— Cross-cultural

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (Jon Kabat-Zinn); the Stoic discipline of 'staying in your own lane'; Cal Newport on deep work via attentional restraint; Lao Tzu's 'knowing when to stop one is not in danger'; Viktor Frankl's space between stimulus and response.

· All texts here come from public-domain editions of the I Ching and supporting commentary.
· Anygua does not predict, score, schedule, ward, or recommend rituals.
· The same input via the same method will always reproduce the same hexagram — verifiable below.