Interpretations of patterns of empowering and disempowering conditions

Correlating a Requisite Diversity of Metaphorical Patterns (Part #7)

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Cognitive adaptation of the I Ching conditions for the existentially challenged: The following exercise is an adaptation of portions of texts offering a sense of the "conditions of change" (above) in various domains, as previously presented (Transformation Metaphors derived experimentally from the Chinese Book of Changes (I Ching) -- for sustainable dialogue, vision, conferencing, policy, network, community and lifestyle, 1997). The intent of this adaptation is however to highlight the "cognitive weather conditions" of the increasing numbers of people faced with conditions of despair, depression, nothingness, and the like (as indicated in a section below). With this concern, the wording in the earlier exercises appeared to lack this sense of angst -- although the Chinese original claims specifically to frame the relationship between fundamental conditions of uncertainty and the associated decision-making dilemmas.

As typically expressed the conditions recall too readily a form of moralistic, deterministic, "motherhood statement", namely directives ("shoulds" and "musts"). Although these appear unquestionably appropriate, they are readily experienced as objectionable by many in existential agony -- namely as too bland for those who are living "on the edge", under conditions framed by such terms as depression, disillusion, despair, disgust, denigration and denial.

The point is well made by the protest of Jack Nicholson (in the movie As Good As It Gets): I am drowning here and you are describing the water. Such concerns, with similar references, are reflected to a higher degree in the compilation by Jon Jenkins and Maureen Jenkins (The Other World, in the Midst of Our World, 2001) describing 64 states of being experienced in ordinary life -- as excerpted below.

The approach taken was therefore to use portions of the previous exercise for the 64 traditionally recognized condition,s but to amend the text using two "devices":

• substitution of "??¿??" for the "cognitive operator" in each case (¡¿ Defining the objective 8 Refining the subjective ?! Explaining reality 8 Embodying realization, 2011)
• reconfiguring each derived comment as a question in its own right, ideally as a "deadly question" (In Quest of the Most Deadly Question, 2013)

The result is far from satisfactory since it leaves the reader with the (useful) challenge of associating meaning with "??¿??" -- otherwise typically over-defined. Ideally this might imply dimensions such as:

• knowing or unknowing in the face of experiential reality, each constituting its own kind of trap (as with any assumptions relating to knowledge and ignorance, certainty and uncertainty) helpfully publicized via the notorious "poem" of Donald Rumsfeld during his capacity as US Secretary of Defense (Unknown Undoing: challenge of incomprehensibility of systemic neglect, 2008; Going Nowhere through Not-knowing Where to Go, 2013)
• attention or inattention under conditions of information overload, limited attention span, and particular preference (Investing Attention Essential to Viable Growth: radical self-reflexive reappropriation of financial skills and insights, 2014)
• a sense of information experienced as energy, and of energy experienced as information, as might be associated with feelings of cognitive empowerment or disempowerment. This could complement psychosocial understanding of energy as separately discussed (Reframing Sustainable Sources of Energy for the Future: the vital role of psychosocial variants, 2006)
• a sense of cognitive strategy as would be recognized by the streetwise, in martial arts, or in many games (most notably go and chess)
• a sense of undetermined identity, or even existence, which may well characterize the experience of many faced with dilemmas as to who they are (other than "nobody") and in what way they really exist (if that can be unquestionably assumed by them). Such issues can be explored in terms of radicalization, liminality, or a wave theory of being (Being a Waveform of Potential as an Experiential Choice: emergent dynamic qualities of identity and integrity, 2013; Living as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds: global implications of "betwixt and between" and liminality, 2011; Radicalisation of Existence and Identity: recognizing the global emergence and influence of daimonic dynamics, 2015)
• understandings of harmony, as most notably articulated through the Japanese cultural concept of wa. This implies a peaceful unity and conformity within a social group, in which members prefer the continuation of a harmonious community over their personal interests. Here it would be the disruption of wa which merits attention as suggested by the work of Christopher Alexander (Harmony-Comprehension and Wholeness-Engendering: eliciting psychosocial transformational principles from design, 2010).
• the experience of nothing and nothingness as it might manifest with respect to 8 conditions (Configuring the Varieties of Experiential Nothingness, 2012)

Of particular interest, given the contrast with "climate" as a more enduring characteristic, is the sense in which there are likely to be cultural preferences and biases with respect to interpretations and emphases. These can be explored in the light of the articulations proposed by various authors, as summarized separately (Systems of Categories Distinguishing Cultural Biases, 1993). Most notable are the mindscapes of Magoroh Maruyama (Mindscapes, social patterns and future development of scientific theory types. Cybernetica, 1980). Of further relevance, given the preoccupation here with ease and disease, is the commentary on Maruyama's work, and its development (Maurice Yolles and Gerhard Fink, Personality, Pathology and Sagiv-Schwartz Mindscapes, Social Science Research Network, 2012).

The wording in the interpretations remains unsatisfactory, and perhaps necessarily so, if the qualities of the "cognitive weather conditions" listed thereafter are somehow to be associated with the pattern.

Indicative list of first 4 adapted interpretations of conditions of I Ching sequence (for complete table see Annex 2)
S/S	1	Creative (Ch'ien) [primal power]: As a result of ??¿??, can creative energy and inspiration engender new patterns? [In order to bear fruit, creativity eventually requires the existence of a receptive environment. (Resulting in: Receptivity).]
E/E	2	Earth (K'un) [receptivity / primal structuring]: Can ??¿?? respond to the actions and opportunities of its environment and thereby bring about change? [Initiatives emerging in a receptive environment first experience difficulties. (Resulting in: Initial difficulty). ]
A/T	3	Initial difficulty (Chun) [beginning growth / sprouting]: Can a cooperative response bring order out of chaos as a result of the profusion of changes being brought about by ??¿?? -- constituting confusing obstacles to its further development? [When first launched, initiatives tend to be handicapped by inexperience. (Resulting in: Inexperience). ]
M/A	4	Inexperience (Meng) [enveloping / clouded awareness / young shoot]: Aided by enthusiasm, can ??¿?? succeed despite inexperience, provided appropriate guidance is sought with the right attitude? [After overcoming problems of inexperience, initiatives await further support. (Resulting in: Waiting). ]

Psychosocial dis-eases and the eases they imply: The concern here is to recognize in more appropriate language the nature of eases and diseases -- of which the latter are framed conventionally by the above-mentioned Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This of course uses the conventions of a purportedly healthy, detached observer -- a "normal" person unchallenged by any such uneases. In that sense it is especially unhelpful to those who have to live in a world challenged by the pattern of dis-eases and eases -- as usefully highlighted by the game of snakes and ladders.

The previous section interpreted the language of the I Ching in the metaphorical terms of its traditional weather-related pattern. However, as noted, that language remains inadequate to the existential experience of someone somewhere "in the game". The concern here is whether other vocabulary can be used to approximate more closely to that experience. It is in this sense that the above-mentioned work of Jon Jenkins and Maureen Jenkins (The Other World, in the Midst of Our World, 2001) is especially relevant in describing 64 states of being experienced in ordinary life. This is effectively the result of a collaborative effort of hundreds of people associated with the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) in the 1970s. It took an earlier form as The Other World: a spirit journal (1987).

Use of the phrase "other world" helpfully distinguishes the internal existential focus on personal "cognitive weather" from the detachment of the external perspective -- echoing the distinction made above between "climate regimes" as categorized globally and "weather" as experienced locally and personally. Stressing that the sense of an "other world" is not particularly religious, it is considered there as a poetic image pointing to the finally incomprehensible dimension of reality.

The authors indicate their sense of a "state of being" as an experience which is simultaneously an awareness, a feeling and a resolve. They offer a description of such a state in the words of Joseph Wesley Mathews (The Recovery of the Other World, from a speech given on 3 July 1972):

One day a man [sic] is driven by whatsoever vicissitudes of life into the consciousness that he himself must die. It is like being in a state of shock. A strange force intrudes. Suddenly he is submerged in awe; he feels it hovering all about him; he feels its penetration into the deepest corners of his innermost being. In quiet terror, and with an inexplicable fascination, he knows the fragility of his total existence; he feels his contingency, and beholds the passingness of all things. It is like a mortal wound from which he knows he will never recover. As the absurdity, the irrationality of it all seeps deep within, a burning objectless anger rises and rages until futility itself turns into a heavy numbness and everything becomes disoriented; all is nothingness; and there is no place any more to stand, just terrifying mystery. And hanging helplessly, swirling in emptiness, engulfed in awe, it dawns at long last, like the rising of a black sun, that exactly here is the final real before which he is fated and invited to live and die his life. This is the great encounter with the aweful mystery.

The question raised in what follows is the nature of any correspondence between the 64-fold pattern of the I Ching and the 64-fold pattern articulated in the particpative ICA context. This challenging correspondence is the third of the 5 correspondences tentatively correlated in this discussion. As with the I Ching, each of the numbered conditions is accompanied by extensive commentary. The states of being are clustered into groups of four, termed "treks". Four such treks form an area, of which there are four, making a total of 64 conditions. As with the I Ching, the pattern constitutes a map. There is no particular starting or ending point -- resembling snakes and ladders to a degree -- rather it frames a perpetual journey.

The move from awareness of surface appearance to profound consciousness of the self and of reality is never finally achieved. People always face new crises which challenge their assumptions, violate their expectations and demand their creativity, regardless of the perceptual level they have achieved.

A major contrast with the I Ching is that no effort is made to indicate pathways between conditions -- along which a journey could be recognized. This might be implicit to a degree in the clustering by "treks" -- possibly to be considered as circuits, with some suggestion of being patterned cognitive feedback loops or metabolic pathways.

	Indicative presentation of first 16 of 64 states of being in terms of four of 13 defining categories (excerpted from The Other World: a spirit journal, 1987; for complete table see Annex 3)
Areas / Treks		Reflective (concept)	Affective (a sense of...)	Affective (like being...)	Analogy (it's like...)
1/1	1	radical contingency	terrifying numbness	mortally stunned	hearing the worms cough
	2	absurd existence	benign madness	critically disoriented	riding a tilt-a-whirl
	3	ultimate reality	intense shock	irrevocably outcast	wandering in a thick fog
	4	primordial wonder	total paralysis	helplessly suspended	hanging over molten lead
1/2	5	incarnate living	double identity	fatally split	experiencing bi-location
	6	ubiquitous otherness	constant pursuit	under surveillance	having nowhere else to run
	7	final limits	chronic weakness	perpetually conquered	racing in a field of tar
	8	total exposure	deep guilt	perpetually embarrassed	standing nude in Times Square
1/3	9	vibrant powers	eerie strength	intensely enlivened	opening the floodgates
	10	transformed existence	joyful anxiety	radically relocated	waking up on another planet
	11	second birth	trustful expectation	unconditionally recast	recovering from amnesia
	12	dynamic selfhood	forever surprised	ceaselessly evolving	watching a pinwheel explode
1/4	13	essential dubiety	irrational self-doubt	shatteringly ridiculed	feeling you've really been had
	14	cryptic disclosure	secret resentment	totally injured	being finally excommunicated
	15	transcendent immanence	insatiable yearning	chronically homesick	knowing you'll never go home
	16	singular adoration	burning desire	hopelessly enamored	being reluctantly love-sick

The contrast between the two is intriguingly evident in the first being framed as conditions, implying the potential for change (hence The Book of Changes), with the second emphasizing "states of being" -- but as stages on a journey (possibly to nowhere). The I Ching could even be considered as a map of a complex network of cognitive snakes and ladders. The particular transitions between conditions in the numbered sequence forms a continuous circuit in that case (as indicated by the animation below).

Insights from comparable ordering initiatives: In the process of any effort to map either of the above patterns onto the other, of particular interest is what could be considered (by some) to be emphases (or dimensions) missing from both. In this respect a useful test would be provided by comparison with the insights formulated in the Brahmajala Sutta. This is considered to be one of the Buddha's most important and profound discourses, weaving a net of 62 cases capturing all the philosophical, speculative views on the self and the world (Bhikku Bodhi (Tr). The Discourse on the All-Embracing Net of Views; the Brahmajala Sutta and its commentarial exegesis, 1978). A summary is presented separately (Comprehensive set of ways of knowing: the All-Embracing Net of Buddhist culture, 2009).

Relevant insights might also be derived from use of the periodic table as a metaphor to order modes of human knowing, as discussed separately (Periodic Pattern of Human Knowing: implication of the Periodic Table as metaphor of elementary order, 2009; Periodic Pattern of Human Life: the Periodic Table as a metaphor of lifelong learning, 2009; Tuning a Periodic Table of Religions, Epistemologies and Spirituality -- including the sciences and other belief systems, 2007).

Given the poetic form through which the Chinese metaphorical description is traditionally expressed (notably for mnemonic purposes), could some form like haiku -- with its "cutting edge" emphasis -- be adapted to carry (in English) the poignancy of each condition (Ensuring Strategic Resilience through Haiku Patterns: reframing the scope of the "martial arts" in response to strategic threats, 2006). This would go further in framing the existential nuances of the respective conditions.

As a cognitive challenge, as mentioned with respect to learning the multiplication table, it is appropriate to note the skills required and widely developed in response to Rubik's Cube. This 3x3x3 cube can be explored as a metaphor for engaging with the relationships between the cognitive weather conditions variously represented in the above tables -- but presented in three dimensions (with surfaces to be appropriately marked or colour-coded, possibly according to the BaGua mirror pattern). There are different variants of Rubik's Cubes with up to seventeen layers: the 222 (Pocket/Mini Cube), the standard 333 cube, the 444 (Rubik's Revenge/Master Cube), and the 555 (Professor's Cube), the 666 (V-Cube 6), and 777 (V-Cube 7). Virtual variants also exist in 4D and 5D. Arguably these suggest possible designs of forms of "wellness/illness" cubes through which patterns of coherence can be explored.

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