SixtyFour Kōans

An intentional approach to the I Ching: the image is just a gateway towards the idea; once you have captured the idea, you forget the image.

One can gain insight into things in two ways: through extensive reading and subsequent reflection, or by contemplation.

The world in 64 images

The I Ching (1), the Book of Changes, is the oldest of Chinese classical texts and describes the world in 64 images. Originating from the shamanistic oracle tradition it is used as a wisdom book and for divination until today.

The world view that underlies the I Ching is rooted in Taoism(2) (Daoism). The basic idea is a primordial unity from which creation emerges: it gives birth to duality (yin and yang, light and shadow), which in return create our world by continuously shifting, moving and interplaying. The ethical teachings of Taoism advise man to learn about the principles of this world by observation and to realize the Tao by adapting harmoniously to the steadily evolving nature of phenomenal manifestations.

Panta rhei - everything flows

This concept of the flowing, ever-changing nature of our environment is found as panta rhei (3) also in European philosophy: everything is in constant flux, everything flows and it is impossible to make general statements about the permanently varying world of perception (Heraclitus (4), Plato (5)).

It was against this background that Plato developed his Theory of Ideas (6) (Theory of Forms): genuine, existing, unchanging, but sensually imperceptible, archetypal principles, over which the good (agathón) (7) floats as the highest authority. The I Ching substantiates this concept of archetypal ideas through 64 unchangeable images, which in turn are rooted in unity: the Tao.

The world of ideas and the world of senses

Plato shows very clearly the relationship between the world of ideas and the world of senses:

In stark, unbalanced contrast face each other the pure, absolutely immutable being of the Idea, and the constantly changing, pseudo-existence of the phenomenon "behaving itself in all ways": that one the being, which always is, this one tossed and turned by growth and decay. (8)

Wang Bi (9), a Chinese philosopher, wrote about the relationship between ideas and their substantiation through the 64 images of the I Ching:

The images are derived from the ideas. The words make the images clear. To express the ideas fully, there is nothing better than the words. The words are result of the images. Therefore, one can see the images by examining the words. The images are dominated by the ideas. Therefore, one can see the ideas by examining the images. The ideas are fully covered by the images and the images made clear by the words. This is why the words are intended to explain the images; once you have captured the images you forget the words. The images are intended to explore the ideas; once you have grasped the ideas you forget the images. Similarly, the purpose of tracking the trail of a rabbit is to get hold of it. Once you caught it you forget the trail. The purpose of the fish-trap is to get hold of the fishes. Once we have caught them we forget the trap. Well, the words are the trail towards the images. The images are the trap for the ideas. Whoever, therefore, stops at the words will not capture the images, and who remains with the images will not capture the ideas. (10)

The images are the trap for the ideas

The images drawn with words in the I Ching, the Book of Changes, are therefore only an aid to capture the abstract and immutable ideas. It is an approach dominated by intellect, an approach that requires reading and subsequent reflection.

I personally find the words of the I Ching very hard to understand - even in the very good 2007 translation by Georg Zimmermann (11). I attribute it to the fact that the original text (and a translation remains a transcription of the original and not its interpretation) comes from a context which is spatially, temporally, and in relation to the individual's life reality very far from ours.

no2DO

As a result, I decided to approach the 64 immutable ideas of the I Ching in two ways. The first is - just like the Book of Changes itself - noetic: In my project room no2DO (12) I attribute present-time life situations to the archetypal idea and describe them; then I name frequent, just all too human response patterns and finally suggest alternative ways to deal with the situation according the Taoist teachings: instead of fighting changes it is advisable the accept them as guidance and to use them for ones own life path.

SixtyFour Kōans

In the series SixtyFour Kōans I travel a different way. Just as in a blind study I assigned hidden titles and paint images without knowing which of the 64 ideas I am specifically working at. Instead of extensive reading and intensive reflection (as in no2DO) I am using an intentional cognitive process.

The approach of assigning hidden titles to paintings might seem arbitrary at first glance, and it certainly is as long as our conventional world view (13) based on Newton's laws is taken as a starting point. However, extending the paradigm and integrating the inconsistencies" of quantum mechanics (14) creates an environment where the human mind (15) may very well influence the physical world by intention. Additionally to the conventional physical contexts, there is quite obviously yet another kind of consciousness beyond causality and a linear timeline which exists and operates. (16).

All this results in paintings and titles that work like like Kōans (17): A seemingly paradoxical combination where the goal is not interpretation or explanation, but helping the viewer to transcend conceptual understanding and allow a leap onto another level of understanding.

Or, to paraphrase Plato:

Realization of what is [the ideas] occurs in the latest not through language but where someone manages to touch with the soul the nature of the individual being in what it is. (18)

In SixtyFour Kōans it is thus the observer himself who, by his own intuitive approach to painting and title, wins insight into the idea behind the image.

The image is just a gateway towards the idea; once you have captured the idea, you forget the image.