Dear all,

The I-Ching seems always very critical of any decision I want to take.
I am finishing my second MA's in Politics and I really wanted to go on on a Phd. Maybe not in Politics, but I wanna go on studying (forever if i find a way to do so ).
I asked the I Ching if I should enrol in a Phd (the sentence was phrased as follows: What do you think about me enrolling in a phd? and I got 41 unchanging.

not a promising hex right?
I would be very thankful to have some insights of yours. Thanks!

What do you think about me enrolling in a phd?
41 > 41

☶ ☶
☱ ☱

Hexagram picture: Plastron

The plastron is prepared for cracking but unused.

Overall judgment: Work experience in your field would help you to understand advanced courses fully.

Text:

41J
Decrease combined with sincerity
Brings about supreme good fortune
Without blame.
One may be persevering in this.
It furthers one to undertake something.
How is this to be carried out?
One may use two small bowls for the sacrifice.

Undertake something. Get a job in your field.

41I
At the foot of the mountain, the lake:
The image of Decrease.
Thus the superior man controls his anger
And restrains his instincts.

You need experience in dealing with critical problems.

Perhaps it would be wise to curb your ambitions here.

Thank you pocossin and willofox.
I also got the impression of "having to curb" my expectations - but why?
I am a straight A student as they say.
Maybe as pocossin suggests I should get more work experience? Being in my late 20s it would be probably now or never, and I am sure a part of me will always regret it.
Could you please suggest me a good question to follow up on this response?
Thank you!

Ok as always the Iching shows me the very bottom of what I fear- in a painfully honest way.
I asked the Iching what should I do with my professional life and I received:
56.2.4.5.6 to 48.

(to this I should add: I have moved countries and studies and maybe even personalities at speed of light in the past four years, and apparently it won't change over the next years).

It is a depressing response. I know it shouldn't: the IChing advices to focus more on the process of transformation than on results to what it is my -quite empyrical- experience with it.

Anyway I am puzzled by 48.3. It comes up quite a lot when I ask for my carreer.
What is wrong with it? Who is not drinking from the well (me or the outer world) and furthermore, why?

Try, What work should I do to regain balance?

If you were in the UK I would suggest working for an MP as researcher.

What would you like to do besides study?

Perhaps its time for you to give something back to the ones that follow in your footsteps. Anyway, being a perpetual student would actually achieve what? Nothing as you would never apply what you learnt, you would just end up like a collector, with a string of letters after your name and who would that impress? Nobody.

A professional hermit seems to be your destiny, a wise man always looking for that extra bit of information to add to the reams already stored in your brain. Continually searching, never resting, tirelessly looking for the wisdom of the "gods". To end up a font of information that nobody uses as you block off access to it by holding on to it.