Diamond

[Guest guest]

Hello Dennis,

A delayed reaction unlike the pregnosis that we have

been discussing lately but without I hope the paradoxes

of the latter. I have been reading the Ananda Wood

essays which are lucid and coherent demonstrating the

usefullness of Philosophy as a prophylactic against the

zany and bizarre theses that litter the antechambers of

realisation. I have a reservation about his idea that

successive levels of description reveal levels of

greater reality. This table could be taken as gross

timber down through cellulose and so on to fleeting

quanta of energy. I am not persuaded that there are

any especially privileged levels of description.

Recently after a DIY feat I said to my wife "The

advaitin might feel that all we have done here is to

change the material identity of our floor from concrete

to clay". "Yes", she said "But I prefer tiles". Try

giving your fiancee a stick of charcoal with the

declaration 'I have given you the truth of diamond

namely carbon'....Then duck.

 

Best Wishes, Michael.

[Guest guest]

On Fri, 22 Aug 2003, ombhurbhuva wrote:

> [...]

> Try

> giving your fiancee a stick of charcoal with the

> declaration 'I have given you the truth of diamond

> namely carbon'....Then duck.

>

> Best Wishes, Michael.

>

 

namaste.

 

This leads to the point: "Is advaita for dealing with

yourself or for dealing with others ?"

 

Yes, ducking is the proper thing to do in the context

above. Yet, the thought behind giving the charcoal; is

it mischievous, sneaky or with the genuine thought. It

is that matters.

 

 

Regards

Gummuluru Murthy

--------------------------------

[Guest guest]

On 22nd Aug, ombhurbhuva wrote:

>I have a reservation about his idea that successive levels of description

reveal levels of greater reality. This table could be taken as gross timber

down through cellulose and so on to fleeting quanta of energy. I am not

persuaded that there are any especially privileged levels of description.

 

Michael,

 

I agree. What seem at first to be levels of reality are no such thing. When

reality is reached, it has no levels, nor any "lesser" or "greater". What

seemed to be levels of reality turn out to be no more than levels of

appearance. But, in uncovering such levels, successive levels of description

can be used to point towards an underlying ground in which all

differentiated levels are dissolved. Then there's no going further down.

 

Moreover, to reach that ground of reality, all levels of description must be

left behind. Descriptions can only point to it, by giving themselves up to

an enquiry that does away with them completely. They are like pesticides

that function to kill off the pestilence of mistaken conception. To be

properly successful, they must destroy themselves and leave no contaminating

residue of poison behind, after their killing job is done.

 

The only special privilege of any description is its use to destroy all

seemingly privileged descriptions, most crucially including itself. Hence

the famous problem of "golden chains" which result from great refinement.

These chains are said to be the most dangerous, for they seduce the prisoner

into a sickeningly poisonous infatuation that debilitates the living urge

for freedom and thus keeps on perpetuating the imprisonment.

 

In that way, a diamond can be far more problematic that a lump of charcoal.

It's harder to destroy and the need for its destruction is far less obvious

and appealing.

 

Ananda Wood