I Ching Lin Meaning: Hexagram 19 Explained

Draw Lin 臨 and students easily hear: a patron has come, opportunity has come, those above will lift me.

There is that layer. Lin is indeed drawing near, overseeing, looking down from above, a situation starting to become large. Lin is not telling you to open your mouth and wait to be fed. It asks: when opportunity draws near, what do you use to approach? Approach with feeling, luck. Approach with sweet words, nothing beneficial. Approach with wisdom: that is what a great ruler should do.

First get the image right. Lin is Earth over Lake, Approach. Kun 坤 above, Dui 兌 below. Earth above, Lake below. Earth on the lake, near the water, like a ruler approaching, looking from high to low, a shore drawing near water. It is not Lake over Earth, Cui 萃. Cui is Dui above, Kun below, lake on the earth: gathering. Lin is earth on the lake: overseeing, drawing near, from small becoming large. Reverse above and below and you misread “you approach people, people approach you” as “everyone crowding together.”

Why after affairs it can be great

The Xugua says: 「有事而後可大，故受之以臨。臨者，大也。」 After there are affairs, then it can be great; therefore Lin follows. Lin is the great. Before it is Gu 蠱. The stall has been put in order, the affair done, then it can be great. Great is not bragging. Pattern opening, influence touching others, opportunity turning from far to near.

This is practical for a reading. People who draw Lin have often just handled a stall, or are about to be put in a place where they can manage people, touch the market, stand on their own. Lin without having worked on Gu is more like being lifted up suddenly; the eighth month arrives and it is unlucky. After affairs, then great: the order cannot be reversed.

The judgment: 「臨，元亨利貞。至于八月有凶。」 The first half, four virtues complete, very good. The second half throws cold water: by the eighth month there is unluck. Among the twelve message hexagrams, Lin is when yang qi is soaking and growing; walk to Guan 觀, around the eighth month, yang already waning, yin already full. At the peak of fullness, guard against decline. Draw Lin: not telling you not to be glad. Telling you not to treat this breath of yang as permanent.

The Tuan says: 「臨，剛浸而長。說而順，剛中而應，大亨以正，天之道也。至于八月有凶，消不久也。」 The two yangs below gradually grow; Dui is joy, Kun following; nine in the second firm and centered with a response: therefore great opening by correctness. Waning not long: this growth will not keep growing. In class I put it earthy: Lin is a rising tide. The eighth month asks whether you can swim when the tide goes out.

The Xiang says: 「澤上有地，臨。君子以教思無窮，容保民無疆。」 Earth on the lake, Lin. The superior person teaches and thinks without end, contains and protects the people without bound. Truly approaching people is teaching, thinking, containing, protecting. Not stepping on them. Draw Lin and only use power to press: the image is earth approaching the lake; you made it a mountain pressing people, and the qi goes crooked.

Career and wealth: opportunity is near; receiving should be slower than the mouth

Ask about career and draw Lin: overall beneficial to advance, to receive, to send influence out. Good for taking a management post, starting to lead people, pushing a product in front of clients, visiting, letting those above see you. Dui is joy; people are willing to be drawn near by you. Kun is carrying; you have to carry the affairs that come after being drawn near.

For wealth, Lin is like water risen to the shore: orders, people, money, all nearer than the last stage. You can talk, collect, expand the range of service. By the eighth month there is unluck, financially: treat a peak season as a peak season. Do not spend the next eight months of revenue in advance. Fill leverage in fullness, and when it wanes the first to die are people who thought they would keep approaching forever.

The initial nine and nine in the second are both called approaching with feeling. Feeling is approaching with a true heart, not with technique. Draw these two lines: at work, approach clients, people under you, opportunity with substance and attitude, luck. Nine in the second is wider, luck, nothing unbeneficial. At six in the third, sweet approaching, nothing beneficial. Sweet is using nice-sounding words to approach. In sales it most looks like: only sweet, no goods. Already worried about it, no blame. Already feel it is wrong, take it in, then no blame. Still sweet, nothing beneficial.

Six in the fifth, approaching with knowledge, what a great ruler should do, luck. Approach with wisdom: that looks like a great ruler. Draw six in the fifth: the place has arrived. You can no longer use the first line’s simple feeling. Use knowledge: see people, see momentum, see what should be near, what far. What a great ruler should do is use wisdom, not favor, not sweetness.

Love and people: drawing near is fine; watch the sugar coating

Ask about love and draw Lin: the distance between the two is shrinking. Good for meeting, letting a relationship turn from far to near, putting the heart up close. Lin is the great: love can also grow from ambiguity. If you are single and draw Lin, people will draw near, occasions will appear; do not pretend to be busy. Pretending to be busy is pushing water already at the shore back.

Sweet approaching is extremely common in love. Sweet words, dense replies, painting the future very beautiful: at the moment very joyful; the hexagram says nothing beneficial. Dui itself is the mouth, joy. Used correctly, it is feeling; used past, it is sweetness. If you are already together, Lin reminds: after drawing near you have to contain, protect, not only approach and not carry. Above is Kun; earth has to be thick. Approaching the door every day and unable to carry the other person’s life: the tide goes out and you see the bottom.

Workplace people and Lin: those above will come to look; those below will also come to lean. You may be approached and also go approach people. Teach and think without end, contain and protect the people without bound: those two sentences are enough. Teach a little more, think a little more, contain a little more: nearer than drinking two more rounds. Using wine, sweetness, promises to approach people under you: sweet approaching. Already worried: change the mouth, change the practice, no blame.

The upper six, approaching with honesty, luck, no blame. Honesty is thick, approaching with thickness. At the very top, that wave of opportunity may be about to pass; you can still be lucky, relying on honesty, not grabbing another wave. Draw the upper six: good for harvesting, settling people, ending this stretch of approaching cleanly with a thick attitude. Insist on rising again and you are near the eighth month.

Lines: the way of approaching decides luck

Lin overall leans lucky. The tool of approaching differs, and the result differs. In class these have to be separated.

Initial nine: 咸臨，貞吉. Approach with feeling; keep correct, luck. The initial nine, yang-hard below, just starting to draw near. Draw this line: contact with a true heart, with action, not with a scheme. Correct is right, and also lasting a little. Do not draw near three days and change the object.

Nine in the second: 咸臨，吉無不利. Still approaching with feeling, luck, nothing unbeneficial. Nine in the second is centered, more in position than the initial nine. Draw this line: career and love can both advance; the range can be larger than the initial nine. Still feeling, not sweetness. There is feeling, then nothing unbeneficial; only technique, and this sentence does not apply.

Six in the third: 甘臨，無攸利。既憂之，無咎. Approach with sweetness, no benefit. Already worried about this, then no excess. This is Lin’s line that most needs a blow to the head. Draw six in the third: check your deck, your love talk, your management — is only sweetness left. Worry is a turn. Do not worry, keep sweet, and nothing beneficial becomes real harm.

Six in the fifth: 知臨，大君之宜，吉. Approach with wisdom, what a great ruler should do, luck. Draw six in the fifth: you are not a newcomer. Use the head to approach: system, choice of people, timing, advance and retreat. Feeling is still there; feeling is not enough to run a game. What a great ruler should do is written for people who already have power in hand.

Upper six: 敦臨，吉無咎. Approach with honesty, luck, no excess. The upper six, yin at the extreme; yang qi is about to go toward waning. Draw this line: leave thickness for people, leave momentum for before the eighth month. Honesty is luck of closing, not luck of attacking again.

Six in the fourth, arriving to approach, no blame: in class I also mention it. You have arrived, approached in place, no excess. Show up when you should show up; do it in person when you should. Arriving is truly arriving, not shouting from far away.

In class, how to receive so this tide is not empty

Draw Lin and I have students do three concrete things.

First, name the opportunity already near: a person, a post, an order, that step in love. After naming, choose feeling, knowledge, honesty to receive — not sweetness. Where one sweet sentence would save trouble, change it into one concrete thing.

Second, leave “the eighth month” on the calendar. Not necessarily the lunar eighth month. A reminder: this wave has a term. Do not sign a contract to a length you cannot carry; do not overdraft the body in a peak; do not blow the name full at a high point. Waning not long: the Tuan wrote it. I am not scaring you.

Third, look back whether Gu was worked through. After affairs, then great. The stall still there, approaching up is only taking insects along on a promotion. First fill leaks, then approach people.

After Lin is Guan. When a thing is great, then it can be contemplated. You have approached, become great; next you will be looked at, and you have to know how to look. The sweeter you receive now, the shallower you are when looked at later.

Compare: I Ching Gu Meaning | Hexagram 18 How to Read: Work on What Has Spoiled. The stall put in order, then great. After it is great, how to look, how to be looked at: I Ching Guan Meaning | Hexagram 20 How to Read: Contemplation, Seeing and Being Seen. In ease, guard a turn. Tai’s “no level without a slope” and unluck by the eighth month are the same kind of homework: I Ching Tai Meaning | Hexagram 11 How to Read: Advance or Guard in Peace.

I Ching Lin FAQ

Is Lin great luck, will I definitely catch the opportunity?

The direction is near, great, can be received. Receive by the wrong method and still nothing beneficial. Sweet approaching is the example. Opportunity is there; you receive it with sweet words; the hexagram will not help you.

Unluck by the eighth month: does this only last eight months?

Need not lock eight months dead. It says fullness will not last too long; waning will come. Some people truly weaken in autumn and winter; some are a stage after a high. The use is leaving a back hand, not counting a hundred days and then giving up.

Those above suddenly came to find me. I drew Lin. Should I say yes?

You can draw near. First see whether they are using feeling or sweetness. They only give sweetness, you only return sweetness: double sweet, the emptiest. There is a concrete thing, a name, conditions you can carry: then say yes. Approaching with knowledge is used at such a time.

How do Lin, Tai 泰, and Da You 大有 differ?

Tai is Heaven and Earth meeting, already open. Da You is already possessing. Lin is in the middle of drawing near, becoming large; the tide has just risen. Ask “is it open”: look at Tai. Ask “I have it, how do I hold it”: look at Da You. Ask “opportunity is near, how do I receive”: look at Lin.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.