Guest guest Posted August 21, 1999 Report Share Posted August 21, 1999 To continue with selections from Robert Carter's essay entitled "Zen and Ontotheology via Heidegger," "We must let nothingness/emptiness/silence speak, and this is a silence in the midst of silence, an 'authentic saying'. Then, and only then, can the flower petals of naming be correctly seen to have arisen out of and against the background 'of the lightening message of the graciousness that brings forth'. This is the double aperture of seeing the formed gesture, against the profound background of the empty and silent stage. The gesture of language is but a gathering, a hinting, in a clearing of being, in an unspeakable emptiness." --------------------------- FREE - yourname - Just visit http://www.philosophers.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 23, 1999 Report Share Posted August 23, 1999 I want to return again to the passage Dennis and I have been discussing, but this time include the lines right before the lines we have been focusing on. >"We must let nothingness/emptiness/silence speak, >and this is a silence in the midst of silence, >an 'authentic saying'. Then, and only then, >can the flower petals of naming >be correctly seen to have arisen out of and against >the background 'of the lightening message >of the graciousness that brings forth'. >This is the double aperture of seeing the formed gesture, >against the profound background >of the empty and silent stage. >The gesture of language is but a gathering, >a hinting, in a clearing of being, >in an unspeakable emptiness." A line-by-line commentary: >"We must let nothingness/emptiness/silence speak, >and this is a silence in the midst of silence, >an 'authentic saying'. Might this mean: We must let the formative background silently speak along with the spoken gesture; we must learn to 'read' the 'silence' which embraces (as 'lining') the formed gesture; to 'hear' the evocative saying of the silent Emptiness? >Then, and only then, >can the flower petals of naming >be correctly seen to have arisen out of and against >the background 'of the lightening message >of the graciousness that brings forth'. Does this mean there is some kind of meaningful relation between the formed linguistic gesture and the background, such that the relationship gifts additional meaning to the occurrence of the gesture, the gracious bringing forth? >This is the double aperture of seeing the formed gesture, >against the profound background >of the empty and silent stage. The 'double aperture' awareness sees both the gesture and the evocative profound background of the gesture. >The gesture of language is but a gathering, >a hinting, in a clearing of being, >in an unspeakable emptiness." Our express gestures of language also gather hints of the unspeakable emptiness surrounding the gesture. To the extent that our 'being' is shaped by our language, we too are gestures with hints of Emptiness/Being. Or perhaps because language is an expression of our being, it contains hints and intimations of what we really are. -- Max --------------------------- FREE - yourname - Just visit http://www.philosophers.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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