Case Study
I arrange a professional meeting to share details of my I Ching project and my counterpart’s psychological research project. Prior to the meeting we conduct a survey and the I Ching responds with hexagram 50 – the caldron.
The cauldron: if I imagine a cauldron and think of the alchemical process of cooking, then this image fits quite well the character of our conversation quite well: we meander between European and Asian philosophy, psychological models and methods, physical and spiritual realms of experience and gradually add more ingredients to the common cauldron of our conversation.
At the beginning of hexagram 50 – the caldron there is a powerful – perhaps impetuous – growth (lower trigram Sun, the wind / tree), from which a clear form emerges (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, this could refer to the solution of a sub-problem, a puzzle piece that finds its place in the wild, whirling dance of our exchange of experiences. But Qian moves on, opens up again and transforms into Dui, the lake (second core character). Dui stands for absorbing and expressing, for expanding our boundaries and taking in the new. And while Qian monologues, Dui opens the dialog.
Hexagram 50 – the caldron ends in Li, the fire (upper trigram), an instance that separates “the clear from the unclear”: that which was absorbed in Dui, is being treated here, sweeping out the useless, integrating the “clear” / useful. And this is pretty good description of our conversation: we share our findings, we move forward on intuitive, spontaneous, but seemingly invisible yet clearly mapped routes, and together we try to fill the blanks 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.
