A SMALL FOX HAVING NEARLY CROSSED THE RIVER GETS ITS TAIL WET

A small fox, having nearly crossed the river, gets its tail wet.

64. Not yet settled.

Fire is above water, not yet settled means something has not yet reached settlement. Above is fire, below is water ; the fire is above water. When fire is above water, the fire cannot heat the water and the water cannot control the fire; water and fire in separate places is the image of being not yet settled. What superior people see in this is that once people get mixed in temporal conditionings, the real gets obscured and the artificial comes forth, body and mind are unstable, vitality and spirit are clouded, volatility erupts and greed arises; taking misery for pleasure, they go to any lengths and become extremely unsettled.Nevertheless, sages have a way of restoring the primordial within the temporal; it is just that people have never thought of this settlement. If they wanted this settlement they would be capable of settlement. Therefore superior people carefully discern things and keep them in their places. ”Things” here means the primordial and the temporal, the real and the false earthly and celestial;”place” means where these things abide. Carefully discerning whether things are real or false, it is necessary to be perfectly clear in mind, with genuine knowledge and perception, free from any doubt or confusion whatsoever.This is the work of investigating things to produce knowledge. In respect to the reality or falsehood of things, keeping them in their places, so that real is recognized as real and the false is recognized as false and the two are not mixed up, is the science of rectifying the mind and making the intent sincere. When one discerns things and understands the truth, and also keeps things in their place and does not act recklessly, the mundane and the celestial are not mixed up, the real and false are distinguished; then here is settlement in the midst of the unsettled. This is like water conveying moisture and fire conveying heat, each accomplishing what it can accomplish, each on a separate path.
The primordial is tat whereby real body is made, the temporal is that whereby the phantasmic body is made. Before the primordial and temporal are settled, the mundane and the celestial are mixed up, the real and the false are confused. If one can distinguish the real from the false, one will know the places of the primordial and the temporal. The temporal has its place in the temporal, which is clearly obvious; one should not mistake something temporal for something primordial and forcibly seek settlement. The words ”carefully discern” have a most profound meaning. Discernment requires investigation and penetration of every subtlety, without any carelessness allowed. This is particularly so because the primordial and the temporal are so close that it is easy to mistake then; only by careful minute discernment is it possible to recognize truly and know clearly that each has its place. When one can keep each in its place, then the primordial can be preserved and temporal conditioning will not act up. Then the unsettled can be settled; the true earthly and the true celestial conjoin, water and fire commingle, and the spiritual embryo forms. The reason the sages put the hexagram not yet settled at the end as so that when people are not yet settled they will investigate the truth and hasten to seek settlement.

(The Taoist I CHING , Thomas Cleary)

I ching in wiki