Below is the completely rewritten version of an article that appeared in August 2024. It has been translated from Dutch into English with DeepL. It will be manually edited and streamlined soon.
THE IMAGE of the two trigrams: Wind above, Earth below. A gentle breeze blowing over the earth. It touches everything, but leaves things as they are. Wind over Earth: the image of Observing. Perceiving things as they are, not as you would like them to be.
THE IMAGE of the entire hexagram: a gate. Once it is opened, it offers a view of the world that lies beyond. The gate also serves as a frame, so not everything is visible. Only a small section, a small selection, can be seen. The open gate is like our senses, like our eyes. They see, and they overlook.
Perception is a celebration of diversity and subjectivity. So many people, so many points of view, just as many impressions and beliefs. And soon, personally experienced reality becomes confused with self-evident truth.
An ancient Indian parable tells of an elephant and a group of blind men. They have never encountered an elephant before and have no idea about the existence or appearance of this animal. They are invited to get to know the elephant by touch. When they then take turns reporting their findings, one, who has touched the elephant’s flank, reports that an elephant must undoubtedly resemble a sturdy wall. A second had felt a tusk with his hands and now claims with certainty that the animal is shaped like a giant spear. The blind man who had held the tail in his hands is convinced of the vine-like nature of the elephant. Yet another cannot agree with any of the previous conclusions. He had examined the trunk and, according to him, the appearance of an elephant is very much like that of a giant snake.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Acht is meer dan Duizend to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.