Erin,
enoonan wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>
> I just came across this quote I like
> "Besides what a few grumpy critics claim (hi Platt), postmodernism is not a
> bunch of meaningless intellectual mind games. On the contrary, it is a
> reaction to the most profound spiritual an philosphical crises of our time,
> the failure of the Enlightenment."
Nice. Where's it from?
>
> Scott I enjoyed your critique of postmodernism and so wanted to ask you a
> question. This differential mysticism sounds like postmodernism to me.
> Derrida said that deconstruction often involves a way of reading that concerns
> with itself with decentering- with unmasking the problematic nature of all
> centers.
Magliola coined the term (differential mysticism) after explaining
Derridean "differance", so, indeed it should sound postmodern. But,
Magliola argues, it goes beyond intellectual, Western postmodernism in
that it is a skillful means toward Liberation. Which, to be sure, leads
one to ask whether or not Liberation is a new center. I think then one
must remind oneself of another Madhyamika Buddhist dictum: nirvana is
samsara. Also, Franklin Merrell-Wolff's last thought before his
Enlightenment was "there is nothing to attain".
ERIN: You say that centric mysticism can be thought of SOM perspective but
> the anti-SOM has been bothering me lately.
> Derrida says that all Western thought behaves in a binary way, forming pairs
> of opposites in which one member of the pair is priveleged, freezing the play
> of the system, and marginalizing the other pair.
> Lately I have been thinking that an MOQ that marginalizes SOM may be a centric
> mysticism.
> "Differential is more about skillful means, emphasizing
> detachment by deconstructing whatever one has glommed on to"
>
> Is there any danger in glomming on to MOQ?
Only if one thinks it's the last word, or if you start lighting candles
to Quality. As long as one sees it more as a framework for considering
things-in-general, I don't see a danger. And to note where others have
said similar things. I haven't found the MOQ as original as others have.
Coleridge, for instance, uses the concept of polarity (e.g., between
natura naturans and natura naturata -- he also sees the same process as
happening in our thinking as in nature) much as Pirsig uses the DQ/sq
split, and where Pirsig exalts Quality, Coleridge exalts Reason and
Imagination. In my view, either works just as well.
There is also a thesis-antithesis-synthesis aspect to all this IMO.
After all, even the name "postmodern" shows it is more negative than
positive. So I wouldn't swear that it is impossible that there could be
a New Metaphysical Order someday. I don't think, though, that it will be
a reversion to a New SOM. I think more likely that modernism/SOM and
postmodernism are all antithesis, and that the reversion will be to
something more religious/spiritual, but thanks to
modernism/postmodernism, purged of superstition and idols (like
God-as-Supreme-Object). One can also recall Pirsig's saying that LILA
hadn't mined more than one percent of what can be done. As that
percentage goes up, it seems likely that some revision will be necessary.
And then, who can see four levels without wondering about a fifth?
- Scott
>
>
> Erin
>
>
> SCOTT: Robert Magliola differentiates between what he calls "centric"
> mysticism
> from "differential" mysticism, and I'm working the differential side of
> the street. Centric mysticism might be thought of as mysticism from a
> SOM perspective, where there is typically some goal: union with God, for
> example. Differential is more about skillful means, emphasizing
> detachment by deconstructing whatever one has glommed on to. Each has
> its value, though I think differential is the better tool for this
> modernist-to-postmodern age.
>
>
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