ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the processes of change and balance as reflected in the hexagrams for the contemporary reader. Ken is one of the eight hexagrams formed by doubling a primary trigram, in the case Ken, Keeping Still, Mountain. Keeping still physically means quietening the body, slowing down, perhaps actually stopping, becoming like a mountain, broad-based, rooted, solid. Quietness of the heart and stillness of the mind have been sought for probably as long as human beings have been conscious. Hope, as T. S. Eliot puts it, is generally hoped 'for the wrong thing': it concerns a 'better' future moment; it is rarely neutral and cannot co-exist with stillness, which is, at heart, the same as acceptance. Ken stands in the northeast of the compass, and its positioning has led it to be associated with the mysterious place of transformation where endings become beginnings and the greatest achievement of life, wisdom, finally becomes unified with the Tao.
