Case Study
I arrange a professional meeting to share details of my I Ching project and the psychological research project of my counterpart. Prior to the meeting we conduct a survey and the I Ching answers with hexagram 50 – the caldron.
The caldron: if I imagine a pot and think of the alchemical process of cooking, then this image already fits quite well the character of our conversation: we meander between European and Asian philosophy, psychological models and methods, physical and spiritual areas of experience and little by little add yet more ingredients to the common caldron of our conversation.
At the beginning of hexagram 50 – the caldron stands powerful – possibly impetuous – growth (lower trigram Sun, the wind / tree), from which a clear form arises (first core character; Qian, the heaven): our common goal of developing a coherent world-view.
Qian, the heaven (first core character) is relatively stable, somehow similar to achieving an interim goal. Applied to the situation of our conversation that might refer to solving a sub-problem, a puzzle piece that finds its place in the wild whirling dance of our exchange of experience. But Qian moves on, opens again and converts into Dui, the lake (second core character). Dui stands for absorbing and expressing, for extending our borders and for admitting the new. And while Qian monologues, Dui opens the dialogue.
Hexagram 50 – the caldron ends in Li, the fire (upper trigram), an instance that separates “the clear and the unclear”: that which was absorbed in Dui, is being treated here, sweeping out the useless, integrating the “clear” / useful. And that is quite a fine description of our conversation: we share our findings, we move forward on intuitive, spontaneous, yet seemingly invisible but clearly mapped out routes, and together try to fill the blank spaces in our various maps of human existence.
Debra Kaatz writes on LE2 Xing Jian:
At Xing Jian… our delight of the world helps us to let go of old frustrations. Xing Jian means to act or walk quietly and leisurely through a gate filled with light…. Xing Jian means to walk through the gateway of moonlight that illuminates the dark. Kaatz 2005
The current interpretation can be found here: https://www.no2do.com/hexagramme_en/877787.htm
Bibliography
— Kaatz, Debra. 2005. Characters of Wisdom: Taoist Tales of the Acupuncture Points. The Petite Bergerie Press.
