Finishing a study of Hexgram 50, The Cauldron, from the I-Ching. I used my two favorite translations, the Wilhelm/Baynes translation and the Taoist I-Ching, Liu I-Ming and Thomas Cleary. First, my thoughts on I-Ming.
I'm very familiar with the works of Liu I-Ming, I believe I have everything that has been translated into english that he wrote. He believed that throughout life we develop what he refers to as acquired conditioning. This conditioning blocks us from our true potential and seperates us from the Tao, which I've long known to be God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus.
The cauldron is a vessel used for refining by heat, by using the cauldron something new is obtained through purification. Purification comes mostly from removing the old, rather than filling your mind with facts and processes. When refining gold, fire is used to burn away the impurities. The impurities of life is the acquired conditioning. In order to shed the aquired conditioning it must be burned off in the fires of the cauldron.
Its more useful to get rid of the old, rather than just adding more philosophy and theology to a mentality thats already flawed. When your more concerned with your own desires and passions, you will miss what the Lord has in store for your life. In this translation, Ming refers to the "mind of the Tao," which I see as the will of God. If you are constantly foccused on your own self, what you want for your life, you will miss what God has in store for you. The mind of man is in direct competition with the mind of God, this is where we sin, eating from the tree of knowledge.
If you fill yourself with the Tao, the will of God, you will be less moved to commit sin, the human mentality. We will always be tempted, and we will always sin, but we can live each day as it comes and avoid sin as much as possible. Eventually we can become more like Jesus by knowing his will, and filling outself with his will, and the vagaries of wealth and status, and other things that draw us away from the Lord, will be less tempting every day as the illumination grows inside.
However what happens when the path to God becomes more and more narrow, when the rain falls, when your journey becomes impeded. Your strength to continue is being dragged out by your own human mentality, this is when you need to examine your life, and repent. When you repent, seek forgiveness and reconcile yourself with the Lord, then the human mentality is emptied, replaced with the Will of God.
Be wary of complacency, of being too comfortable, this is dangerous. Again, the human mentality competes with the will of God, so you must be on the guard to continually follow the will of the Lord instead of your own will. If you try to follow your own way, rather than aligning yourself with God, you'll fill the cauldron too much and it will spill. Your human mind will obscure the mind of the Lord every time. Emptying the human mind and filling yourself with the Lord is a continual process, unless you nurture the process, the human mind will obscure the mind of the Lord.
When the process is complete, when the work of renewal is finished, things naturally revert to emptiness. In stillness one is uncontrived, in action one is spontaneous. Strength is flexible, flexibility is strong. Without applying strength, strength is complete. Without applying awareness, awareness is penetrating. Merging in reality with the will of God, this is the ultimate in serenity. Transcending life, one is no longer constrained by life.
In the Wilhelm/Baynes translation, rather than refining, the idea in this book suggests the idea of nourishment or preparing food. All that is visible must grow beyond itself, we are either growing or we are dying. Wood serves as nourishment for the flame, which is the spirit. We have to feed the spirit for it to grow, just as we have to feed our bodies to grow.
Here in the cauldron we see civilization as it achieves its true potential through faith. The cauldron serves in offering sacrifice to God. The highest earthly values, or human mentality, or acquired conditioning, must be sacrificed to the Lord. However the Lord manifests himself in the prophets and holy men, to venerate them is to venerate God. The will of the Lord as revealed through them should be accepted with humility, it is through this that true understanding and enlightenment can occur. One can not find the will of the Lord on his own.
The fate of fire depends on wood, as long as there is wood the fire lives. It is the same in all of us, there is a fate that lends power to his life. If one succeeds in assigning the right place to life and fate, bringing the two into harmony, then his fate is on firm footing. This fate is the will of God. In a highly developed civilization every person of good will can in some way or other succeed, if they are ready to purify themsleves, to clear out the human mentality and accept the will of the Lord. Even if a one falls into envy or disfavor, if one sticks close to their actual achievements and follow the will of the Lord, the envious could inflict little, if any harm. Even if one finds difficulty or fails to be recognized, sooner or later the difficulties of life will resolve themselves, and good fortune and favor will find them. Even thou rain falling may hinder your travels, rain is cleansing, and will release the tension placed apun the journey eventually.
When going through the process of refinement, one must devote themselves to the path completely. If one does not, and goes about with inferior people, the execution of the work will fail. Its like spilling the cauldron. Confucious once said, "Weak character, coupled with honored place, meager knowledge with large plans, limited powers with heavy responsibility, will seldom escape disaster." Again, one must devote oneself completely to refinement, to burning off the acquired conditioning, to find and become one with the will of God, not letting oneself be led astray.
By following the path of refinement, one becomes like precious Jade, mild and pure, strong yet flexible.
