Hexagram 52: Keeping Still艮為山 · Gèn

• Upper trigram　Gèn, Mountain: stillness, steadiness and stopping at the right time.
• Lower trigram　Gèn, Mountain: stillness, steadiness and stopping at the right time.

The Judgment

Keeping the back still, so the self is not felt; walking in the courtyard without seeing anyone. No blame.

艮其背，不獲其身，行其庭，不見其人，无咎。

Our plain English rendering, with the Zhouyi original

Reading

Mountain upon mountain: stillness and rest. Today suits stopping where you should stop, letting both thoughts and actions settle.

Something to do today

• Schedule a stretch of complete quiet today, away from screens.

How a hexagram is cast

The three-coin method: toss three coins together, counting heads as 3 and tails as 2. The total, 6, 7, 8 or 9, gives one line; six tosses, recorded from the bottom up, make a hexagram. A 6 (old yin) or 9 (old yang) is a changing line, which turns this hexagram into another and shows where things are heading.