How can the divine Oneness be seen? In beautiful forms, breathtaking wonders, awe- inspiring miracles? The Tao is not obliged to present itself this way. It is always present and always available. When speech is exhausted and mind dissolved, it presents itself. When clarity and purity are cultivated, it reveals itself. When sincerity is unconditional, it unveils itself. If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things.
I submit there is great confusion over the concept of one. There is the mathematical understanding of 'one' as singular or exclusive and there is the metaphysical understanding of 'one' as manifold or inclusive. Mathematical oneness comes from the language of the mind and metaphysical oneness comes from the language of the heart.
This confusion is apparent when we talk about the 'oneness' of -O- as we assume a mathematical 'one' that is separate while we are discussing a metaphysical 'one' that is unity. It is true that -O- is "one" in the mathematical sense of the term, but it is also true that -O- is "one" in the metaphysical sense of the term. -O- is singular for the reasom there is nothing but -O- and at the same time -O- is unity for the same reason. -O- is not a separate one nor separate manys for the one contains the many while the many contain the one.
The biggest problems with using the mathematical concept when discussing Metaphysical issues is the idea of separate entities. -O- is separate from Nature. Man is separate from Nature. -O- is separate from Man. These separations are true only in a logical sense for one cannot separate one from the other in an existential sense. Mathematical ‘oneness’ is a product of dualistic thinking that looks at the surface and assumes it has plunged the depths.
One does not ‘find’ the Divine Oneness in certain places and not in others. The Divine Oneness is everywhere. This is what is behind one of the teachings of all the Great Masters - “Look”
Chapter 48 Hua Hu Ching
Do you wish to free yourself of mental and emotional knots and become one with the Tao? If so, there are two paths available to you. The first is the path of acceptance. Affirm everyone and everything. Freely extend your goodwill and virtue in every direction, regardless of circumstances. Embrace all things as part of the Harmonious Oneness, and then you will begin to perceive it. The second path is that of denial. Recognize that everything you see and think is a falsehood, an illusion, a veil over the truth. Peel all the veils away, and you will arrive at the Oneness. Though these paths are entirely different, they will deliver you to the same place: spontaneous awareness of the Great Oneness. Once you arrive there, remember: it isn't necessary to struggle to maintain unity with it. All you have to do is participate in it.
It does not matter whether you confirm or deny for confirmation is denial and denial is confirmation. -O- is not “There” because there is no “There” -O- is not. Denial is true up to a point just as confirmation is true up to a point. Neither is true, in and of itself, and both are false if taken as all there is to reality. Is relies on Is Not in order for us to comprehend reality, not to experience it.
Standard Disclaimer: This is just my 2cents worth.
To go anywhere in philosophy, other than back and forth, round and round, one must have a keen sense of correlative vision. This is a technical term for a thorough understanding of the Game of Black and White, whereby one sees that all explicit opposites are implicit allies ‑ correlative in the sense that they “gowith” each other and cannot exist apart.
Alan Watts
Perhaps the hardest thing there is to imagine, other than Nothingness, is Oneness. To what do we compare One with? We communicate through the manipulation of symbols, thus we require a symbol as an aid in that communication. The most effective symbol that has been used to illustrate Oneness is the Yin Yang symbol of the Tao.
The symbol includes the positive with the negative in balance, generating an image of Oneness. That which is Yin is not the Totality; that which is Yang is not the Totality; the Totality is Tao. Without Yin, there would be no Yang and without the Yang, there would be no Yin just as a coin has ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ sides. Reality has the appearance of duality and we make a mistake by assuming each side is a fundamental and separate reality. Yin and Yang are not two separate realities as in either/or, but two aspects of the same reality, as in neither/nor.
This is where dualism, monism, and nondualism fail as far as I’m concerned. Dualism assumes Yin and Yang are inherently real and existentially separate entities. This is looking at the surface and thinking one has plumbed the depths. Monism fails because it assumes one ‘side’ is real and the other false. This is intellectual laziness, like ignoring something in the hope it will go away. Nondualism is closer to truth but the point is still missed. One can take the path of acceptance and end up in Tathata, or the Suchness of Reality. One can take the path of rejection and end up in Sunyata, or the Emptiness of Reality.
Each of these stances is true but they all fail when taken past a certain point. Dualism is true until you posit that each ‘side’ of the duality consists of intrinsically real entities. Monism is true up until you posit the reality of one ‘side’ and the falsity of the other. Nondualism in the sense of Sunyata is true in a limited sense and nondualism in the sense of Tathata is true in a limited sense. As it is written in the Heart Sutra - “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form”.
It is the working of the mind that requires the duality. If I want to explain ‘light’, I have to explain dark, for without the contradistinction, ‘light’, in and of itself, is a meaningless concept. Without the concept of ‘right’ there can be no concept of ‘left’ and without the concept of ‘this’, ‘that’ has no meaning. ‘Hot’ is that which is not ‘cold’ and cold’ is that which is not ‘hot’. The concepts of hot and cold are relative - a piece of steel heated to glow red is hotter than frozen water and at the same time, it is colder than the center of a star.
We communicate through symbolic language but the trouble is that we confuse the symbol for the reality, assuming the name is the thing. We cannot satisfy our hunger by eating the word ‘sandwich’ and we do not breathe the word ‘air’. One problem is that language is mechanistic and causal, thus giving one a map chock full of things, which does not match the territory. It was bad enough to have made the split in the first place and I think we blew it by forgetting that the split was a matter of linguistic convention to begin with.
Standard Disclaimer: This is just my 2cents worth.
Language is important for knowledge to be expressed. Can the Tao be described without words? Can wisdom be given without words? The words aren't the thing, but they can help us navigate through it.
Words like thoughts can affect our health, for both ride along the stream of vibration. Words and thoughts are barometers that lets us know the nature or state of our heart. Is not focus, that space between thought, word, and breath? When you shut down all three, does not focus and concentration become enhanced.
Everything is connected because anything can reveal the nature of something. The cause is in the effect, and the effect is the cause acting or expressing itself. The words aren't the thing, but the thing (reality) is the impetus or motivation behind the words.
We express what we feel through action, but action is not exactly what we feel, rather, it is the outlet of feeling. The manifested is just the outlet of the unmanifested, and time is the bridge that connects the two.
There is the agent, and the functioning of the agent, their relationship is one and yet different. Just as there is oneness and difference between the power and the wielder of power. there is oneness and difference between them due to desire being a energy that is not power, but, rather the conjunction where both come together.
There is the agent, and the functioning of the agent, their relationship is one and yet different. Just as there is oneness and difference between the power and the wielder of power. there is oneness and difference between them due to desire being a energy that is not power, but, rather the conjunction where both come together.
Hi Willie
From my perspective, the conjunction is not existential, but logical. One cannot join what is not separate. A coin is a Heads/Tails unity.
Standard Disclaimer: This is just my 2cents worth.
A coin has a head and tails side, but the monetary value is not self-imposed. A antique coin is the same as a new coin, but some of us give the old coin so much more value. Similarly desire gives one thing value over another. What we desire is in a sense nondifferent from the object desired and in a sense different from it.
The way i see it, we experience a duality within a nonduality. We will experience duality due to having senses, feeling, and mind. Our actions and experiences affect us, this carries over to an conditioning effect of phobias and addictions.
This means that nature works on us, it has influence over us, but, because this conditioning can only operate on us if we are within nature and not external to it makes for a nonduality. In this way I perceive a duality within a nonduality.
The way i see it, we experience a duality within a nonduality. We will experience duality due to having senses, feeling, and mind. Our actions and experiences affect us, this carries over to an conditioning effect of phobias and addictions.
This means that nature works on us, it has influence over us, but, because this conditioning can only operate on us if we are within nature and not external to it makes for a nonduality. In this way I perceive a duality within a nonduality.
I think we are pretty much saying the same thing. I feel the sensual experience is nondual and the perceptual experience is dual. The former is the immediate awareness of the full moon; the latter is the monkey mind yapping about how beautiful the full moon is tonight.
It sure would be nice to have the ability to do a Vulcan Mind Meld to transmit these concepts. These words are just too clumsy.
Standard Disclaimer: This is just my 2cents worth.
Behind the father-image, behind the mother-image, behind the image of light inaccessible, and behind the image of profound darkness, there is something else which we cannot conceive at all.
Alan Watts
Let us examine some of the duality myths through the image of the Taiji (the Yin Yang symbol). I’m not using the word ‘myth’ in a derogatory manner; a myth is a story that is not quite true and not quite false. The first duality myth I would like to yak about is the ‘duality’ between -O- and Nature.
Is -O- separate or is -O- identical? Think of Yin as the dark portion of the symbol and Yang as the light. The Yin aspect of -O- can be thought of as the ‘other’ aspect while the Yang can be thought of as the ‘identical’ aspect. -O- is a Reality that encompasses both Yin and Yang in a harmonious whole. -O- is ‘other’ in that no one thing is -O-. We can say.-O- is ‘identical’ in that -O- is the core Reality of each and every thing. Each is a partial truth as -O- cannot be limited to ‘other’ or ‘identical’.
Once we start imaging it as there being one type of thingie that is called -O- and another type of thingie called Nature, we set up a duality based on the mistaken idea that truth is either/or. There are times the experience can be described as ‘other’ and there are times when the experience can best be described as ‘identical’. Neither side is the Whole Truth for each side is but a finger pointing at the moon. Neither side denies the other because they are polarities that balance each other in a harmonious whole. There is a balance between the Yin of ‘other’ and the Yang of ‘identical’.
From Wikipedia
A paradox is a statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition; or, it can be an apparent contradiction that actually expresses a non-dual truth.
A. All things are devoid of independent existence. (Sunyata)
B. All things manifest from the same Source. (Tathata)
C. All things can be said to neither not exist nor to exist.
Sunyatatha is my attempt at comprehending the dualistic appearance of Reality. As indicated by the Sunya portion, Reality is empty, but as indicated by the Tatha portion, Reality is full. While this may seem to be contradictory, it is only linguistically so, as the actual nature of Reality is not a choice between Sunyata and Tathata as the One True Story. There is truth in Sunyata and there is truth in Tathata but Truth can be found in neither story alone.
Sunyata is true but we should not dwell there. Tathata is true but we should not dwell there either. They are not independent of each other and cannot exist apart from the other. Yin and Yang is no different in essence, than ‘other’ and ‘identical’ is, in the overall. Oneness is not Yin or ‘other’. Oneness is not Yang or ‘identical’. Other can be known, is true, but is not real. Identical can be known, is true, but is not real. -O- is true and real, but cannot be known in the same sense that we know "One plus one equals two."
Rather than contradiction, this is paradox. Emptiness, think of ‘other’ is a partial understanding; Suchness, think of ‘identical’ is a partial understanding. The reason they are partial is that neither alone is Reality. They are codependent - without the ultimate affirmation, there would not be the ultimate denial. There is no inherent Tathata; there is no inherent Sunyata. By inherent, I mean an independently existing reality. With the negation of inherency, contradiction is replaced with paradox. When one thinks contradiction, one is thinking dualistically, as in there are two distinct realities, one of which cannot be true. When one thinks paradox, one is thinking nondualistically, as in there is a unity that can be explained two ways, neither of which is true.
Does it matter that neither side is the absolute truth? Not in the least, for Reality is much grander than either Tathata or Sunyata can encompass. I realize this is crude and clumsy, but one can think of the physical aspect of reality as the body, and the spiritual aspect as the mind, of -O- in an integrated whole. Both Tathata and Sunyata are the surface of that what cannot be comprehended.
The Divine Oneness is the ultimate paradox.
Standard Disclaimer: This is just my 2cents worth.
