beautiful contradiction
Every morning I have been reading the Dhammapada because it helps establish a productive framework for the beginning of each day. One thing I really enjoy about the edition I have is that the translation is also accompanied by a preliminary introduction of each section. I really enjoy the commentary of the translator. He often groups modern scientific psychology side by side to Buddhas observations. It has a very modern and elegant style of communicating Buddhas ideas in a very appropriate way. I am going to make this post a mixture of things, but firstly I want to express an idea I have held for about 4 years. This idea has been silently bugging me to be written down for quite awhile and I am just now getting around to doing so.
The idea is something I believe is fundamental regarding consciousness itself. To state it plainly, it is just the idea that contradictions are beautiful, or rather to compress it more I simply have been referring to it as 'beautiful contradiction.' So now I will start taking this apart and analyzing it systematically such that I can start to 'set the scene' and then be able to talk more freely. I suppose what I am about to do is no different than doing a quick summary so that I can talk more freely without any fear of being a rambling pain to read through.
The main topic of this post is why I think 'beautiful contradiction' serves as the mode which formulates the equation that fundamentally describes the basis for existence itself. Firstly the phrase 'beautiful contradiction' needs to be taken apart and explained. I am assuming that a contradiction is a logical system in which two aspects of the fundamental defining features directly oppose one another equally. Since this is the case the entire system can not be said to be represented by either fundamental attribute. Since this is the case in order to make use of an object it first needs to have clear specified parameters in which define its boundaries. Enough with the rambling regarding why contradictions are deal-breakers within logical systems. So since I assume that whomever is reading this has a intuitive understanding of why it is that contradictions are normally ugly to encounter, then, how can such a thing be beautiful? Let us think of the definition of beauty. That which is desirable, pleasant, ideal, ect. Does the concept of a contradiction not directly oppose the very meaning of beautiful? Doesn't this makes this phrase an oxymoron?
To attempt to clarify this, I do not intend for this phrase to be an oxymoron. I want to give my major example that initiated this thought. Emotions in regard to conscious beings, logically means a minimum of two things. A conscious body is inhabited by said emotion and that its opposite is not presently contradicting the current emotion. Given that it is possible for both a emotion and its opposite to coexist simultaneously, I am simplifying this example as much as possible. I will use the idea of loving someone deeply. In that instance, one is not going to be inhabited by both love and hatred in a healthy example. Or isn't it so that love is often intermingled by both itself and its opposite? If you agree that this is the case, then, having an wonderfully intense relationship with someone can adequately be said to then be a beautiful contradiction.
So in a way the word 'beautiful' is often used with intentions of expressing a desirable ultimatum that can be easily objectified. So then attaching beautiful with the word contradiction is logically an oxymoron. Often relationships are not things which are easily quantifiable and analyzable, thus making them not within the domain of easily objectified. I have taken apart this phrase and made a point to really inspect it. So what then is my intention in using this phrase? I did previously state that I am definitely not intending to misuse it as an oxymoron. So then its meaning is designed to operate in a linear logical traditional fashion. That being, I am applying beauty to the concept of contradiction. I am stating that the movement of contradiction is the very thing I find to be the source of producing the potential option of beauty.
Since I did previously mildly allude to the emotional operations regarding love, I now want to turn towards my main topic. I initially thought I would write this entire post upon the emotional movements regarding love, but I think I am going to shift towards what has been my guiding material each morning. My current focus is upon Buddhist concepts pertaining to the natural suffering ingrained within conscious beings. The perpetual grasping delineated by our egos is the root cause of our suffering according to Buddha. So then thinking that our existence as conscious beings permanently bound to the movement of a egocentric pilot, how then is such a state escapable?
Back to the phrase I coined in the beginning of this post. He suggests using the technique of inhabiting a beautiful contradiction. Such a method being the vehicle of choice. So then you may wonder, what is this vehicle? So like I previously did with the analogy of love and hate I am going to state two polar opposite modes of being. The first is grasping, which is the ego induced state of reaching towards acquiring something to possess fully under ones control. So what is the opposite of this state of the ego? Harmoniously and mindfully enduring existence without grasping.
So then it seems that the Buddhist option is that of striving to render the mechanism that houses the ego to that which resembles one without an ego? Isn't a non-egotistical conscious being simply a dead one? So then seeing that this conclusion is reached, does this mean the Buddhism is ultimately a negative system? This is were I shift gears. Now I want to ask you, have you ever hated your lover? There are different movements within the beautiful contradiction vehicle. Sometimes things are not simply operated by very linear logical controls. Sometimes in love the function of hatred has a fundamental purpose that allows for a desirable state to be reached. Meaning, that there are times when movements are provided by the mere existence of the opposite logical setting of love which is hatred. I certainly know for a fact there have been countless times within my existence in which I have absolutely hated myself, and other in which I absolutely loved myself.
Ultimately I believe the conscious existence we humans possess, is very much so an ongoing art project without a firm objective conclusion. Since this is one of my beliefs, I have been often visited by the impulse to write about my idea of the 'beautiful contradiction' vehicle I visualized one day. Conceptually this phrase has followed me about and snuck its way into how I tend to want to categorize particular events in my life. I have certain periods of time in my life in which I often like to refer to by some type of name. The phrase 'beautiful contradiction' has continually reappeared into my mind and now I feel as if I must share it.
What really spurred me into feeling compelled to share this, is that the very state of nirvana that Buddha refers to seems to be arrived at via this 'beautiful contradiction' vehicle I am speaking of. So the entirety of our human existence is guided by the biological pilot known as grasping. Earlier, I posed the questions of how then can one hope to escape the very biological conductor that powers our conscious will? It seems like an impossible task given that true freedom from grasping is only logically answerable by death. Within logical binary systems it appears that you have only two items to work with conceptually. But think about this example, you have object A, object B and a relationship between the two. Then visualizing this it becomes fairly evident that there is also a third object in connecting object A and B. What then is this third object? Space (S). Now to make this more visual, I am going to write the equation: A+S+B. There has to be space separating our object A from the object B, thus S exists in-between the two. Now to finish this thought, I am going to combine everything and attempt to provide a elegant conclusion. Let us let item A represent grasping, and our item B represent non-grasping, and finally the space separating the two I wish to make S represent the vehicle I have been carrying on about for this entire post. The beautiful contradiction vehicle is the very (S)space that comprises the very realm in which our (A)acquisition and (B)loss of all things occurs within.
Just to end this on a light-hearted note, I often think the best vehicle to remember this idea is that of music. Music is literally the movement of sound via tension and resolution. Such an instrument is the physical representation of what I just described using logic in painting a visualization of my 'beautiful contradiction' vehicle. I think ultimately, a much more familiar and pleasant way to express this idea was by simply making this analogy. The main reason I chose not to take the most efficient path in explaining this phrase, is that I wouldn't have much else to say! I wanted to articulate this thought as thoroughly as possible to express what it is that has been stirring within my mind for many years! I also find having to articulate such concepts to be a fairly enjoyable activity. I also think that such thoughts could potentially have some value for someone other than myself, but ultimately I do expend my efforts solely for my own personal recovery. This brain injury has been quite a challenge, so doing these posts also serves as material to demonstrate to myself that I am still capable of producing interesting insights. I have also many useful thoughts regarding the positive aspects of pride (since it has a terribly negative connotation). Anyways,
Cheers
周培森