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Hexagram 58 · Duì

The Joyous Lake

兌 · duì
Joy shared is doubled; encourage one another.
Duì · Lake
above
Duì · Lake
below

Core Meaning

The Judgment: The Joyous: success. Steadfastness rewards. True joy rests on firmness within, expressed as gentleness without.
The Image: Lake resting upon lake, each replenishing the other. So the wise person joins with friends for discussion and shared practice.

Lake resting on lake, each replenishing the other: Duì is the joyous — gladness grounded in inner firmness, the strength that shows itself as gentleness and friendliness.

Its sociology is the two lakes: joy is replenished by exchange — friends in discussion and practice, gladness shared and thereby doubled. Its discernment lists the counterfeits: joy imported from outside, joy bargained over, joy seduced by whatever passes. True joyousness rests on something within that circumstance cannot repossess.

The Joyous Lake in Your Question

Love & Relationships

Duì is warmth itself in love: shared delight, easy laughter, the friendship at a romance's core. Its standard is contented joy — complete in itself, asking nothing of circumstance — over the hungry kind that needs constant feeding from outside. Encourage one another, the two lakes' way; and stay honest about the fifth line: warmth extended toward what is disintegrating deserves clear eyes.

Career & Money

Professionally, Duì governs morale and the cultures that learn: teams where discussion and practice replenish everyone, where firmness inside wears friendliness outside. Joy is a working asset — people persevere toward what gladdens them. Guard it from the counterfeits: perks as bargained joy, hype as seduced joy. The genuine article rests on work worth doing, shared.

Personal Growth

Inwardly, Duì locates joy's spring: inside, fed by truth and companionship, not imported from possessions or applause. Its practice is the joseki of the two lakes — find the friends with whom understanding is exchanged and practiced, and let gladness circulate. Weighed, bargained, or borrowed joy exhausts; the contented kind renews itself overnight.

The Six Lines

A line speaks only when it is a changing line in your own casting.

Line 1
Contented joy, complete in itself, asking nothing of circumstance. Good fortune.
Line 2
Sincere joy, immune to dubious pleasures because it knows finer ones. Regret vanishes: good fortune.
Line 3
Joy that comes from outside — sought, imported, leaned upon. Emptiness drawing in distraction: misfortune.
Line 4
Joy weighed and bargained over finds no peace. Cast out what is beneath you, and joy follows of itself.
Line 5
Sincerity extended toward what is disintegrating: a danger to know clearly and guard against.
Line 6
Seductive joy, drawn by every passing pleasure: a vanity that the times will lead wherever they please.

Related Hexagrams

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