Innocence in Decision

Thunder rolls under heaven and everything answers it spontaneously — that is the timing this hexagram trusts. If the move springs directly from a clean motive, without hidden angle, act on it plainly and in the present (line 1). Do the thing for its own sake, not for the harvest you are counting on: line 2 is exact here — when every step is measured against the expected yield, anxiety enters, spontaneity dies, and the act corrupts at its root. Concentrate on what is in front of you and let the outcome belong to the future. But the source is everything. Innocence cannot be simulated; if you are calling "spontaneity" a cover for what the ego already wanted, that is wilfulness, and it fails. Right motive, right hour — then move.

Sometimes the innocent move is to do nothing. Line 5 names it: for trouble that arrived from outside, not of your own making, use no medicine — the urge to intervene, to fix, to administer a remedy only feeds the disturbance and entangles you. Some situations resolve only when left alone, and recognising them is a large part of wisdom. If you are stuck against opposition and other people's doubts (line 4), hold your course: what is truly yours cannot be lost unless you give it away, so don't be swayed off it. And if you have been pressing and it keeps misfiring (line 6), the time itself may be against you — step back and let the situation ripen. Waiting from a clean heart is still innocence.