Of dualities, contradictions and the nonduality

June 27th, 2013 by Charles Cameron

And here’s what the great Cardinal Nicholas Cusanus had to say about dualities and opposites in his Of the Vision of God:

I have learned that the place wherein Thou art found unveiled is girt round with the coincidence of contradictories, and this is the wall of Paradise wherein Thou dost abide

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Posted in Buddhism, Charles Cameron, christianity, judaism, literature, logic, movies, paradox, sports, Uncategorized, Zen | 3 comments

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  1. Mr. X:

    June 27th, 2013 at 9:07 pm

    Here’s a duality for you, in terms of Civil War 2.0 psychological preconditioning:

    http://www.redstate.com/dloesch/2013/06/27/26-of-obama-voters-see-tea-party-as-biggest-terror-threat/

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/02/poll-shows-2-percent-voters-think-armed-revolution-might-be-needed/

  2. Charles Cameron:

    June 30th, 2013 at 4:42 pm

    Stopping in briefly to give you a para of Zeynep Tufekci’s latest blogpost, “Come, Come, Whoever You Are.” As a Pluralist Movement Emerges from Gezi Park in Turkey, which uses a bit of sociological jargon — she’s a sociologist, after all — but turns it on its head:

    In sum, in Turkey, there is no political party or institutional infrastructure which reflects this generation or this emerging pluralism. In fact, people often call this “Gezi ruhu” or “spirit of Gezi” to try to find a name for this unprecedented political coalescence.
    .
    I have come to think of this moment as an anti-postmodern pluralism. Unlike early stage (or, well, “traditional”) postmodern approaches, the “other” is not configured as an opaque, unknowable, “outside” entity. There is multitude but there is also unity and a unifying grand narrative–a unity that is based on empathy rather than a single model of the desirable. The “other” is knowable through common human experience and suffering.

    And you see the  “multitude but there is also unity” here — in some ways it’s the sore insight around which her entire piece revolves. Elegant — that’s the second time I’ve found that word applicable to a blog post today — and I’ve barely finished my second coffee.
    .
    Her whole piece is illuminating on the situation in Turkey.

  3. Charles Cameron:

    August 31st, 2013 at 2:18 pm

    Ahdaf Soueif, in Egypt after the revolution: curfew nights and blood-stained days, commenting on Egypt:

    Finally
    .
    Everywhere the binary that the revolution so roundly rejects is being restated: the police state or the Islamists. We continue to reject it. I’ve always written that the police state is the enemy. Now I know that the Brotherhood, too, is the enemy. Their ideology, their world vision – as it stands – cancels out my existence. They will have it so; they will not make room for anyone else, they will exclude me in every way possible – even if it means killing me. They have already excluded me from the kingdom of heaven

    That phrase, “curfew nights and blood-stained days”, btw, would make a cool addition to my collection of “DoubleQuotes in the Wild“.