[AdvaitaToZen] The Not Two Narcissus

[Guest guest]

--- Pedsie2 wrote:

 

> The legend of the self-ravishing Greek youth

> has it that he fell hopelessly in love with his own

> image when seeing his reflection on the pristine

> still waters of a pond. A girl named Echo, also

> fell in love with him when she spotted the naked

> youth gazing at himself. Filled with passion, Echo,

> shed her robe and approached him.

>

> Narcissus, briefly glanced at her, and returned

> his gaze to his own reflection. In this parable,

> Narcissus stands for the " I. " His image on the water

> stands for self-knowledge (he wants to possess

> himself by knowing himself). Echo ( the rejected other)

> stands for undefinaded existence.

>

> That is the dilemma of the narcissistic Advaita search,

> possession is an impossibility if there are not two.

 

 

We all know the story of Narcissus, he who was so completely infatuated

with his own reflection that he refused all human company in the name

of self-absorption. We know also that his fate was death, starvation

due to a complete indifference to the world around him. Narcissus was

the first nihilist -- accidental self-destruction as a result of

overzealous self-obsession.

 

The story of Icarus is different, for he was not obsessed, but rather

possessed, by his reflection. They say that Icarus, flying on wings of

wax and feathers, flew too close to sun, his wings melted and he fell

to his death in the ocean waters below.[14] This is only part of the

story. For Icarus was (no less than Narcissus) posthuman. And it was

not the sun, but the gravity of his reflection, peering up at him from

the ocean waters below, that caused his (literal) downfall. Pulled,

disciplined, infatuated, Icarus simply could not help himself -- his

mistake was to self-conceive, his accidental self-conception his

downfall.

 

Narcissus is Icarus born again.

 

Taken from: The Lacanian Conspiracy by Ted Hiebert

http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=459

 

 

 

 

Mail

Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour:

http://tour.mail./mailtour.html