Hexagram 52: Gen (艮)

Keeping still in the toes: no blame, and it benefits from holding correctly for a long time. Changes into Hexagram 22 (Bi-Grace).

The toes are where movement begins, so stillness at the toes is the earliest possible stop - before the step, before the decision, before the commitment. 无咎 is the reward for stopping that early, and 利永贞 adds the condition: it only works if the stillness is held, because a stop that is not maintained is just a pause. If this is your line, the reading is about catching the impulse at its very start rather than trying to stop it once it is already moving.

Keeping still in the calves: one cannot rescue what follows, and the heart is not pleased. Changes into Hexagram 18 (Gu).

The calves are the part of the leg that moves because the thigh moves, so stillness here is a stop that has already been forced by something above it. 不拯其随 is the honest admission: you cannot save the thing that follows, and 其心不快 says the heart is not pleased about it. This is the line for the person who has been stopped against their will and cannot fix it. The hexagram's answer is not to struggle against the stop but to notice that the displeasure is the only thing still moving.

Keeping still in the loins: the spine is split apart, and the danger scorches the heart. Changes into Hexagram 23 (Bo).

The worst line in the hexagram, and the reason is structural. 限 is the waist, the joint between the two halves of the body, and stillness applied there does not stop movement - it severs it. 列其夤 is the spine splitting, and 厉薰心 is the danger rising into the heart. The image is of a person frozen at the middle, unable to move either half, and the classical reading is that this is what happens when restraint is applied to the wrong place: not stillness but a break. If this is your line, the warning is against forcing a stop where the body needs to bend.

Keeping still in the body: no blame. Changes into Hexagram 56 (Lu-Wanderer).

The middle line, and the first one that is clean. 身 is the trunk, the part of the body that is not a limb and not a joint, and stillness there is the correct kind - the kind that does not sever anything because it is applied to the whole rather than to a hinge. 无咎 is the whole verdict, with no condition attached. If this is your line, the reading is that the right level of restraint has been found: not the toes, not the waist, but the body as a whole, which is the difference between stopping and being stopped.

Keeping still in the jaw: the words are ordered, and regret disappears. Changes into Hexagram 53 (Jian-Development).

The jaw is the part of the body that produces speech, and stillness there is not silence but order - 言有序, the words come out in sequence. This is the most practical line in the hexagram and the one most often quoted: restraint applied to speech does not mean not talking, it means talking in the right order. 悔亡 is the reward, and it is the only line in the hexagram that promises the disappearance of regret. If this is your line, the instruction is to slow the mouth, not to close it.

Keeping still with sincerity and depth: good. Changes into Hexagram 15 (Qian-Modesty).

The closing line, and the only one that earns 吉. 敦 is the thick, sincere, settled quality of something that has been kept still long enough to become solid - the mountain that has stopped being a decision and become a condition. Every earlier line in the hexagram was about stopping something; this one is about having stopped, and the difference is that 敦 is not effort anymore. If this is your line, the reading is that the stillness has finally become yours rather than something you are performing.