The Advantages of Obstruciton

A friend and I were talking. I happened to mention that there is a woman at work I don’t ‘love’. Granted, we’re civil to one another, however she and I will never really be friends. I asked him his opinion about this. ‘Do you think it is necessary to make an effort to be friends with her?’, I asked. He responded that sometimes an obstruction is useful to teach us discernment. It can show us what we are willing to accept and what we want to change. ‘If the situation isn’t bad’, he suggested, ‘then why not leave it?’ The I Ching teaches that an obstruction lasts only as long as it is needed. It suggests that as you correct yourself, things fall into place and have a way of working out, so I have decided to do nothing right now. This replaces pressure to act (a sign of the inferior element) with faith and trust (a sign of the Higher Self)