Mingyi Hexagram Top Six: Darkest Hour Dawns Soon, I Ching Darkening of the Light Guidance

Have you ever felt that overwhelming, can’t-hold-on-anymore feeling of the Top Line of the Darkening of the Light hexagram —

That moment when you feel like you just can’t keep going?

Work’s going wrong,

Your love life’s a mess,

Your health is acting up too,

It feels like every bad thing

Is piling up all at once.

You tell yourself

Just hang in there a little longer,

Just push through a bit more and it’ll get better.

But day after day of pushing through,

Things don’t get better —

They just keep getting worse.

Until finally,

That tight string inside you

Snaps with a sharp “crack”.

Forget it,

Whatever, it is what it is,

I can’t do this anymore,

I quit.

But then,

Not long after you give up,

Things suddenly turn around.

If you’d just held on a tiny bit longer,

Just a tiny bit,

You’d have made it through.

But you just had to

Let go

At the darkest moment right before dawn.

That’s exactly the situation of the

Top Line of the Darkening of the Light hexagram.

The darkest hour

Is also the hour closest to dawn.

If you can hold on through it,

The sun will rise;

If you can’t,

You’ll be stuck in the dark forever.

「不明晦」(No Light, Only Gloom): The Pitch-Black Darkest Hour

The Top Line is the

Topmost line of the Darkening of the Light hexagram,

A Yin Line in a yin position,

The end point of the hexagram.

The Line Text says:

「不明晦，

初登于天，

后入于地。」

「不明晦」(No light, only gloom)

Means there’s no brightness at all,

Nothing but darkness and murk.

Not a single glimmer of light,

Pure, total blackness.

This is the darkest line

Of the entire Darkening of the Light hexagram.

The first five lines

Still have at least a little bit of light here and there,

But by the Top Line,

It’s completely, utterly dark.

「初登于天，

后入于地」

This line hits even harder.

At first it rises up to the heavens,

Then later it falls down into the earth.

What this means is,

People who deal in darkness, schemes,

And underhanded, crooked tricks

Might look really successful at first —

Climbing high, feeling smug and on top of the world —

But in the end,

They all come crashing down hard,

Plunging straight to the bottom.

Why does this happen?

Because when darkness reaches its extreme,

It destroys itself.

Darkness survives by devouring light;

Once all the light is gone,

Darkness starves to death too.

Look at history —

All those people who did every evil thing imaginable,

Did any of them ever have a good end?

Qin Hui, Yan Song, He Shen…

Every single one of them

Held immense power and lived in total glory for a time,

And yet in the end,

Every last one of them fell into disgrace and died a terrible, broken death?

This is the principle of things reversing when they reach their extreme.

When darkness hits its blackest point,

It’s time for it to turn back.

Darkness never lasts forever,

And light is never hidden forever.

The position of the Top Line

Is both the peak of darkness

And the end of darkness.

One more step forward,

And it’s dawn.

But here’s the problem —

So many people

Collapse right at that final step.

Not at the start,

Not in the middle,

They collapse

Just one step away from the sunrise.

Why Do People Give Up Most Easily at the Darkest Hour? Because They Can’t See Hope

Logically speaking,

The closer you get to the end,

The more you should hang on, right?

So why is it actually

The easiest time to give up?

Because you can’t see any hope.

When you first hit a setback,

You still comfort yourself —

It’s fine, just push through it, it’ll pass,

Tomorrow will be better.

When you fail the first time,

You can still summon the courage

To start over again.

When you fail the second time,

You start to waver a little,

But you can still hold on.

Third time, fourth time, fifth time…

After enough failures,

You start to doubt yourself.

Am I really just not good enough?

Is this just how it’s always going to be?

Is there even such a thing as “tomorrow”?

By the time you reach the Top Line stage,

You’ve been surrounded by darkness

For so long.

So long that you’ve forgotten

What light even looks like,

So long that you start to wonder

If there ever was any light at all,

So long that you start to think

Darkness is just how the world is supposed to be.

At a time like this,

Hope feels like

Such an impossible luxury.

It’s not that you don’t want to keep going,

It’s that you can’t find

A single reason to hold on anymore.

But you know what?

Right at this very moment,

A turning point is already on its way.

You just can’t see it, that’s all.

Because it’s so dark,

You can’t see the light up ahead;

Because it’s been so long,

You don’t believe there’s any light left to see.

But the light is really there,

Just a little bit further ahead.

Wen Laoshi often says one thing:

Most people don’t fail

Because they lack ability —

They fail by “just a little bit”.

Just a little bit less persistence,

Just a little bit less patience,

Just a little bit less luck.

But that tiny little gap

Is usually

The most critical part of all.

Hold on one more second,

And you win;

Let go one second too early,

And you lose everything.

It sounds cruel,

But that’s just reality.

The darkest hour is right before dawn —

This isn’t some cheesy motivational line,

It’s a law of how things work.

Right before the sun comes up,

The sky really is at its darkest.

If you can’t make it through,

You’ll never see the sun;

If you do make it through,

You’ll get to see

The very first ray of morning light.

How to Get Through the Darkest Hour? Three “Dumb” Methods That Actually Work

So when you’re in the darkest hour,

How do you actually make it through?

Let me share three “dumb” methods,

But they really, truly work.

First method:

Lower your expectations, live in the present.

Stop fixating on “when is this going to get better”,

Stop staring only at the end result somewhere in the future.

The more you want things to get better fast,

The harder the present feels to endure;

The more you fixate on the end result,

The more it feels like it’ll never come.

What to do instead?

Turn down those expectations.

Don’t think about later —

Just think about today.

Today, I’ll eat properly,

Sleep properly,

And get done what needs to get done.

Take it one day at a time,

One step at a time.

Keep walking like that,

And before you know it, you’ll be out of the dark.

A lot of the time,

It’s not that the situation is that hard —

It’s that you’re thinking too far ahead,

And scaring yourself.

Second method:

Pick a tiny goal, and accomplish it first.

When you’re at a low point in life,

What’s the one thing you lack most?

A sense of achievement.

When you can’t get anything right,

You start doubting yourself more and more;

The more you doubt yourself,

The less you’re able to get anything done.

It’s a vicious cycle.

How to break it?

Pick a really, really tiny goal —

So small there’s no way you can fail at it.

Like reading ten pages of a book today,

Running one kilometer today,

Or tidying up your room today.

When you finish it,

You’ll get that little spark of achievement.

It’s small, sure,

But it tells you —

I’m still okay,

I can still get things done.

Relying on that tiny bit of achievement,

You can slowly build your confidence back up.

Confidence isn’t something you wait around for —

It’s something you build up

By completing one small thing after another.

Third method:

Remember this one saying:

This too shall pass.

No matter how hard it is right now,

How dark, how painful,

It will all pass.

Think back to that thing five years ago

That you felt like the sky was falling over —

Does it even matter now?

Think back to that hurdle ten years ago

That you thought you’d never get past —

Haven’t you pretty much forgotten all about it now?

Everything passes.

Good things pass,

Bad things pass too.

Right now you feel like

The sky is falling,

But look back on it in a few years,

And it’ll probably be no big deal.

This saying sounds like cheesy motivational fluff,

But if you can really believe it,

It can help you

Get through the darkest night.

These three methods

Aren’t fancy or clever,

They’re all pretty “dumb”.

But the “dumb” methods are usually the ones that work best.

Because they don’t depend on luck,

They don’t depend on other people —

They just depend on you,

Pushing through one step at a time.

Make it through,

And spring will come.

What Comes After the Darkness? A Brand New You

We’ve talked so much about pushing through —

But what happens after you make it?

What comes after the darkness?

Is it light?

Yes.

But it’s not just light.

What matters even more is —

You’ve changed.

People who go through the darkest hour

And still come out the other side

Aren’t the same as they were before.

You’ll be stronger,

Calmer, more steady.

Things that used to feel like the end of the world

Will feel like no big deal now;

Hurdles you used to think you could never get past

You’ll step right over without a second thought.

Why?

Because you’ve seen the darkest of the dark,

And you carried yourself through it —

What else is there to be afraid of?

You’ll know

Where your own bottom line is,

You’ll know how much

You’re actually capable of handling,

And you’ll also know

What’s truly important in life.

These are things

You can never learn when things are going well —

Only in hard times,

Only in the darkness,

Can you really understand them.

So in that sense,

Darkness isn’t all bad.

It’s a kind of filter —

It weeds out the weak,

And makes the strong even stronger.

It’s a kind of refining fire —

It burns away all the

Impulsive, fragile,

Vain parts of you

Until nothing is left but what’s real.

But there’s one condition —

You have to make it through.

If you don’t make it,

Darkness is your end;

If you do make it,

Darkness becomes your stepping stone.

Final Thoughts

The Top Line of the Darkening of the Light hexagram

Is the darkest line of the entire hexagram,

But it’s also the most hopeful line.

When darkness hits its blackest point,

Dawn is just around the corner.

This isn’t some cheesy motivational line —

It’s a law of how things work.

Things reverse when they reach their extreme,

Bad fortune gives way to good —

This is the truth behind all things in the world.

If right now

You’re at the lowest point of your life,

Going through a darkness

You’ve never known before,

Don’t rush, don’t panic, don’t give up.

Hold on just a little longer,

Push through just a little more,

Take just one more step forward.

Maybe one more step,

And the sun will rise.

Remember this:

The sun sets,

But it will always rise again;

When you hit rock bottom,

Every step you take is a step up.

As long as that little light inside you

Is still burning,

There will always be hope.

May you make it through the deepest night,

And welcome the dawn that belongs to you.