Joel KNoll wrote:
DQ: The Totality is not really a unity - that's yet another dualistic category which needs be abandoned. It's neither a multiplicity, nor a unity; neither finite, nor infinite.
JK: help my misunderstanding, dq. how is "unity" a dualistic category?
It only has meaning in contrast to its opposite - namely, multiplicity.
how can anything be neither a multiplicity nor a unity, and neither finite nor infinite?
The non-duality of Nature itself demands it.
One can only begin to understand this point by giving up the idea that Nature has an objective existence of some kind. In reality, there isn't a three-dimensional universe "out there" which is fixed and solid. That is an illusion. All there is, in each moment, is a continual flux which cannot be grasped. Nothing really exists at all, apart from what appears to exist at any given moment.
If you can grasp this point, which admittedly is very profound and subtle, only then will you be in a position to understand the way in which Nature is formless and beyond all dualities.
kant was correct in stating that one of all possible contradictory predicates must be true of any given object.
That's true of everything, except Nature itself.
sometimes it seems like you just string shibboleths together to put everybody on. if you intend to say anything more substantial than "blah, blah, blah" then come out and say it already...
The points I am making here are very specific and pointed. I realize they are difficult to grasp, especially if you are unfamiliar with this kind of thinking, but I assure you they are tremendously important as far as one's philosophical development is concerned.
there is reason to believe that actual thoughts are flitting behind your smokescreen of verbiage, so share them with me and tell me what the "dualistic categories" are and precisely why they should be abandoned, and finally, what you think they ought to be replaced with.
They should be replaced by truthful thinking, which is both a skill and an art.
It's a skill which involves knowing how to approach the non-duality of Nature with one's dualistic thoughts. All thoughts are dualistic by nature, so I don't mean that one has to learn how to produce non-dualistic thoughts. Rather, I mean that one has to learn how to avoid shackling Nature into dualistic categories - such as "existence" or "non-existence", "finite" or "infinite", "objective" or "subjective", "unity" or "multiplicity", "eternal" or "temporary", and so on. Only when you discover the knack of not subjecting Nature to this straightjacketing, will you finally be able to understand its fundamental identity.
In my experience, the best way of achieving this outcome is by utilizing a multi-pronged intellectual attack:
- Thoroughly understanding the concept of cause and effect and religiously applying it to utterly everything in your life, in every moment of your existence.
- Thoroughly understanding the concept of the Totality and perceiving its essential formlessness. Understanding that the Totality cannot be a thing with form, distinguishable from other things with form.
- Thoroughly understanding the truth that all experience is within the mind, that all things are manifestations of consciousness, that existence and consciousness are one.
If you can master each of these avenues of thought (which can take years, as they are all massive issues) and if you can fuse them together to form an even deeper understanding, you will be getting very close to enlightenment.
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