The Buddha's first teaching after awakening was the Middle Way between asceticism and indulgence. Nagarjuna extended this to a metaphysical principle: the Middle Way between eternalism (things truly exist) and nihilism (nothing exists at all). Neither existence nor non-existence but dependent origination. Hex 15 (Modesty) is the mountain hidden within the earth — excess is diminished, deficiency is filled. It is the only hexagram where every line is favorable precisely because it occupies no extreme. Hex 62 (Preponderance of the Small) adds nuance: 'In small matters one may be successful.' The Middle Way is not dramatic. It does not seek the grand gesture. It is the bird whose song says 'it is not fitting to strive upward, it is fitting to remain below.' The Middle Way is the most radical position because it refuses to take a position.