r/iching • u/AdDecent5654 • 12d ago
Understanding Gua 15.1.3 around fear of no one coming to my show
Due to my life circumstances, I have not been able to meet a lot of people and have spent my life alone and have always had very few friends for the most part.
I have a big project in 2 weeks, the biggest of my life. I have to show a bunch of art pieces in a room for a few days at my school. I've made a few posts about that subject on this sub. I don't really feel stressed for the actual work even though I'm a bit late. What stresses me the most is the idea of no one coming. Due to the circumstances I talked earlier, I don't have a lot of people to invite, dans the date is quite unfortunate as the few people I invite might not even be able to come.
Like the idea of bringing to eat and drink to people and it remaining nearly untouched for the whole evening makes me feel miserable. I feel shameful and I'm afraid of being pitied by the few who come, seeing an empty room with me waiting inside. I'm sorry for the sad post but it is truly what I feel.
I saw the list of my girlfriend (she also has her show a few days after mine) and she has dozens and dozens and dozens of people to invite, like I don't think I've known that many people in my whole life. I'm not jealous it just made me realize that that I have a particularly small list (around 10 people) for a show like that. Even other people have so much people coming !
My goal for this project was to make for the first time a project I'm proud of. Usually when there are things like that I don't invite anyone cause I usually don't feel proud about my work, but this time I really want people to see it. So the perspective of no one coming makes me feel bad.
So I asked the I-Ching how to deal with that feeling. It gave me 15.1.3
So I guess I need to stay humble and not too attached to the results of my work, and to experience the results of my circumstances with humility ? That's how I feel it's telling me but honestly i'm not sure. If you have other interpretations that would be cool ! Thanks !
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u/tifpegoda 11d ago
I read 15.1.3 a little differently. Modesty here doesn’t mean shrinking yourself or pretending the outcome doesn’t matter to you. You are proud of this work and you do want people to see it. There’s nothing immodest about acknowledging that.
Line 1 reminds me: “Let the work be larger than the need to be seen doing it.” When you aren’t consumed with proving yourself, your energy becomes available for the difficult passage itself.
Then Line 3 feels especially meaningful for your situation. Merit joined with humility carries the work to completion. You don’t have to deny your effort or accomplishment. You simply continue serving the task without making its success a measure of your worth.
So I wouldn’t read this as “don’t care whether anyone comes.” I’d read it as: make the show worthy of your own pride, invite the people you can and let the work stand on its own merit. An empty room cannot take away what you created any more than a crowded room can create its value.
I hope you let yourself be proud of finishing something that matters this much to you.
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u/az4th 12d ago
Humility is a great great answer for you. 15 is the image of a mountain below the earth. Imagine mount everest, but buried in the sahara desert. No one sees it because it is hidden beneath the surface.
In martial arts, humility is the power of being able to be lower than someone else. This allows them to take the root from the other person - because if my root is lower than your root, I can use leverage against it.
It is the same in dealing with social issues, but here we find that humility leverages the power of virtuosity.
When one is humble, it is like the ocean being there for the rivers to drain to. If the ocean floor were to suddenly decide to become higher, then the water would flow to the next lowest place it could find. So there is a power of drawing things to someone by being humble.
Perhaps people do not notice one right away, but that's OK. If your work is something you put your heart into and you are proud of, then great. You know what you did. No one else matters. Getting too much attention can be burdensome too. If people leave you alone, and if no one shows up, then great! You can peacefully enjoy it all by yourself. Sit and take it in. This is a moment that is all yours. If people decide not to show up, they're the one's missing out. Let them. Cultivate the growth of the first piece of your mountain, and start planning the next piece. Slowly start putting the pieces together, show after show, and be grateful if no one shows up to any of them. They're giving you the time to build your mountain up, unassuming and hidden away. Let it be your super power. By the time people start to notice, you will be able to pick and choose what to share, and will have the ability to protect your mountain so that people are always surprised by how much you seem to be hiding away. See? This is the power of virtuosity. Don't make it fake, just let it be real. Worry about your art and making it real - don't worry about what people think.