From: Scott Roberts (jse885@localnet.com)
Date: Tue Feb 01 2005 - 05:12:30 GMT
Platt,
(I've changed the subject heading)
Well, it's a great poem, but I don't think it gets at what M-W is saying, by
which I mean that your poem and M-W's experience are about different cases.
In your case, what is being expressed is "though we seem to be separated, at
a deeper level, we are one". M-W is relating a kind of thinking that goes
"Because it is X, it is not-X, and because it is not-X, it is X". If we
substitute that into the first expression, it would be "because we are
separated, we are one", which is saying something different. But I could be
off-base, as a consequence of treating intellectually that which should be
treated aesthetically.
The closest I have been able to come to what I think M-W is referring to is
when I think about consciousness, in particular to its durational and
changing aspects. To be aware of a change (say one note to another in a
melody), something had to endure across the change. But to be aware of the
enduring (both notes as one melody, or even one continuous note), something
had to change. So conscious is not changing because it is changing, and it
is changing because it is not changing. One can't get out of this
contradictoriness with the idea that a part is staying the same while a part
is changing, since that just pushes the problem back to the part that is
staying the same: how can it be aware of change without changing, and if it
is enduring through the change, how can it be changing?
- Scott
>> Here's the Merrell-Wolff quote:
>>
>> "While in the State [of High Indifference, as he called it], I was
>> particularly impressed with the fact that the logical principle of
>> contradiction had no relevancy. It would not be correct to say that this
>> principle was violated, but rather, that it had no application. For to
>> isolate any phase of the State was to be immediately aware of the
opposite
>> phase as the necessary complementary part of the first. Thus the attempt
of
>> self-conscious thought to isolate anything resulted in the immediate
>> initiation of a sort of flow in the very essence of consciousness itself,
>> so that the nascent isolation was transformed into its opposite as
>> co-partner in a timeless reality....It seemed to be the real underlying
>> fact of all consciousness of all creatures." [Experience and Philosophy,
>> p.286]
>
> Thanks for the quote. I wrote the following poem in 1990 to my daughter
> who was dying of brain cancer. If I understand what Merrell-Wolff says, my
> poem reflects his view, at least partially. I wonder if you agree.
>
> Black is true
> So is white
> Dark is true
> So is light
> Each alike
> Each apart
> Yet both are one
> At nature's heart.
>
> Straight is true
> So is round
> Silence is true
> So is sound
> Each is different
> Each a pole
> Yet both are one
> In existence whole.
>
> Reality to us
> Seems to be split
> Black and white
> Distinct parts of it
> But black could not be
> Without white there, too
> Both are one
> In the broader view.
>
> You and I
> Are like these poles
> Two things apart
> With separate souls
> Each unique
> Each a face
> Yet both one
> In timeless space.
>
> The world we see
> Divided and split
> Is an illusion we need
> To survive a bit
> Each is born
> Each will die
> Yet both are one
> In reality high.
>
> The real we see
> Is not the real
> Though joy and pain
> Is what we feel
> Trapped to ground
> We look above
> And know the truth
> Through faith and love.
>
> We are one then
> You and I
> Faith and love
> Are binds that tie
> And in my life
> Where'er I go
> You'll be there too
> In the essence flow.
>
> The touch of eye
> The lilt of smile
> Have joined us now
> And for all the while
> So when we part
> And life seems done
> Down deep you'll know
> That we are one.
>
> Platt
>
>
>
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