Wednesday, June 29, 2022

In the Beginning Were a Couple of Triangles?

In yesterday's post we spoke of what must be the first vertical polarity or distinction within the Godhead. In it, according to Schuon,  

are prefigured or pre-realized all possible complementarities and oppositions: subject and object, activity and passivity, static and dynamic, oneness and totality, exclusive and inclusive...

I'm thinking that this ultimate Principle of Complementarity must be the basis of Bohr's complementarity principle in quantum mechanics -- at least if the latter is ontological and not just an epistemological limitation. 

I'm no physicist, but back off man, I'm a metaphysician, so I certainly reject the idea that our act of observing creates the reality. If that were the case, then the Dodgers would have won last night, and Trump would still be my president. And if I created Brandon, then being God isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Says here in this book (The Creator and the Cosmos) that there are at least ten other interpretations of quantum mechanics, some of which are actually sane, others even more woowoo than the Copenhagen Weed interpretation -- for example, that "The physical realm is the materialization of pure thought," or "All possible outcomes will actually occur."

Okay Deepak.

Some people will believe anything in order to avoid God. At which point they really become religious. 

Back to that principial and primordial complementarity within the Godhead. I would say that we can and indeed must arrive at this principle via natural reason alone. What we could never know -- at least with certainty -- is of God's tri-complementarity. This must either be revealed or not known at all.

As it pertains to the horizontal, I'm gonna say that every true complementarity we encounter must be rooted in Big Vertical. Importantly, some oppositions are genuine complementarities, while others are merely contraries, dualisms, or privations.

For example, male-female is as true a complementarity as there could be. Likewise subject-object, time-eternity, and self-other. 

Conversely, the progressive left is by no means the complement of conservative liberalism, rather, its negation -- as feminism is the negation of femininity, "homosexual marriage" the negation of marriage, and secular humanism the negation of man.

I say time and eternity are complementary, because I suspect there is something analogous to time in God, only a kind of higher dimensional temporality. The above referenced book got me to thinking about this subject as well, because I've never liked the idea that God is utterly static and changeless. Ever since Plato -- and even before -- a lot of eggheads have considered time to be a mere privation or entropic deterioration.

Well, I say our experience of time is a distant reflection or analogue of an eminent perfection in the Godhead. Of course I could be wrong about this, but in my opinion the party never stops up there. Yes, I am fully aware of the fact that the Father has generated the Son from all eternity, and that there is no time "before" this. But be reasonable. Even timelessness takes time!

If we see true complementarities all over the place, there must also be -- and for all the more reason -- genuine tri-complemenarities in our horizontal world. Let's try to find some.

The most obvious one would have to be Mother-Father-Child. These terms cannot be reduced to anything less, and each implies the others. Or, how about the substance, or constitution, of the human person, who consists of Intellect, Will, and Sentiment; or Truth, Freedom, and Virtue.

There's also science, which is rooted in the subject's conformity to the object, which results in knowledge. Likewise art, which is something like creator-creation-beauty.

There's also the Sat-Chit-Ananda of Vedanta, but I want to stay in my westernmost lane.

Although not coming at it from a strictly Christian perspective, Schuon goes into a little riff on the divine ternary. He explains that it can be regarded from two perspectives, as upright () or downright (triangles. Both are "dynamic," in the sense that the horizontal base forms a duality moving toward, and harmonized in, the point (which is either above or below).

In the upturned triangle,

the duality of the base is contemplative in the sense that it indicates, through the summit, a turning back towards unity...

It is also "relativity intent on conforming to absoluity (sic)," and it very much reminds me of the psychic movement that takes place spontaneously in a healthy mind, and which my old pal W.R. Bion referred to as PS <--> D, i.e., the sudden emergence of meaning out of the scattered elements of thought. 

Which in turn reminds me of Michael Polanyi's triad of subsidiary particulars, the focal target, and the knower who links them in a kind of endless progress from tacit knowledge toward explicit meaning. I could explain it better, but I'm a little rusty on my Polanyi.

In the downturned triangle there is movement

through the inverted summit, towards extrinsic radiation or production.

Or just say toward creation, or "infinite Possibility," or overflowing manifestation with "numberless refractions." 

I say, let's put the triangles together with their ascending and descending currents, in which case we come up with (✡︎), and why not? Seems like a good place to end this meshuggana post. Let's eat!

45 comments:

julie said...

And if I created Brandon, then being God isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Ha - indeed.

Some people will believe anything in order to avoid God. At which point they really become religious.

And they never stop recruiting, at least until it's time to drink the Kool-Aid.

julie said...

As Ace says today, "Let's believe all the things!"*

*except the true things

Cousin Dupree said...

Six more women have come forward claiming Trump grabbed their steering wheels!

Gagdad Bob said...

People want to believe things they find upsetting, I guess for the same reason they like horror movies.

Gagdad Bob said...

They want to believe Trump is a racist, that the country is crawling with white supremacists, that the Supreme Court banned abortion, that WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! from global warming, that a woman earns 70% of what a man does, etc., etc., etc.

Gagdad Bob said...

That hundreds or thousands of unarmed blacks are killed by the police... That January 6 was an "insurrection"...

julie said...

Indeed; meanwhile, the things that really are true and upsetting don't faze them at all.

They're like children worrying about imaginary monsters while blithely playing with fire or stepping in front of a moving vehicle.

Gagdad Bob said...

That the Court is coming after interracial marriage and birth control...

Gagdad Bob said...

Just as the left worries about imaginary problems while denying the real ones, they focus on imaginary evils while ignoring the real thing.

julie said...

That is, when they're not actively celebrating and promoting it...

Gagdad Bob said...

Come to think of it, worrying about imaginary threats is indeed a psychological defense mechanism that displaces the worry away from real fears. Conversely, getting diabetes cured my hypochondriacal tendencies, since it gave me something real to worry about. I guess the moral of the story is that these Karenoidal progressives are in desperate need of real problems. In which case, Brandon is their man!

julie said...

That's something we worked through with my daughter. She'd be super excited about an upcoming event (birthday party, trip, whatever), then spend the intervening time in a literal panic over the most astoundingly imaginary problems. Took a little while to figure out what was triggering the anxiety, but since we did it hasn't been happening, and she understands herself a bit better.

As far as the Karens go... oof.

It's almost enough to make you think Islam has a point when it comes to some wimmin.

Gagdad Bob said...

Anxiety is truly a first world problem. As Happy Acres Guy often says, it can easily be cured by 12 hours of daily backbreaking work on the farm or in the kitchen!

Gagdad Bob said...

My son has a fair amount of anxiety, but there is definitely a kind of "anxiety barrier" one must overcome if one is to abide in true slack. Our ancestors did not survive by not worrying about predators and hostile tribes, so a degree of free-floating worry is natural and inevitable. The desert fathers (or all contemplatives, really) talk about how, when they removed themselves from the world, they then had to face down the interior enemy.

Gagdad Bob said...

No one and noplace in which to project one's demons!

julie said...

And nowhere to hide, either. Terrifying!

Gagdad Bob said...

It's also important to understand that for political haters, the hatred is not unpleasant, rather, a pleasantly addictive process that eliminates psychic toxins and thereby "purifies" the ego, and which also confers righteousness and moral superiority, not to mention social status in their tribe.

Gagdad Bob said...

I think that's the context for understanding "love thine enemies."

Gagdad Bob said...

Similarly, the left is so insane it makes it too easy to impute sanity to oneself.

julie said...

Agreed, it's a serious temptation. There are some pretty nutty people on our side of things, too, but they often seem perfectly sane compared to what we see on the left. The only solution is to keep testing against reality, to the extent we can.

Nicolás said...

To be a conservative is to understand that man is a problem without a human solution.

Nicolás said...

And maturity of spirit begins when we stop feeling responsible for the world.

julie said...

One of the most wicked messages people have been pounding into kids' heads for decades now is the idea that it is their responsibility to change the world. Trouble is, it's a message that people on all sides like to support.

Cousin Dupree said...

Children trying to change the world. But enough about journalists.

Gagdad Bob said...

Keynote addresses at this year's APA convention:

--Vaccinating Children Against the Virus of Racism
--The Minoritized Arab/MENA Experience in the U.S.
--How Inequality Impacts Cooperation in Humans and Other Primates
--Advancing LGBTQ+ Health Research by Centering Race, Gender, and Culture
--Rethinking American Indian Mental Health Services:Explorations in AlterNative Psy-ence
--The Role of Bias in the Workplace. More than Theory—the lived experiences of a designated hire
--Repressing and Redressing the WWII Japanese American Incarceration
--LGBTQ+ International Psychology: What the World Can Teach Us
--Investing in Adolescents’ Ethnic-Racial Identity Development to Promote Youth Adjustment, Ethnic-Racial Equity, and Social Change

Amazing: in one generation the left has destroyed psychology. Well done!

julie said...

Brilliant! What could possibly go wrong?

Gagdad Bob said...

I should submit Helping Legacy Americans Cope with Progressive Anti-White Hate Speech

Anonymous said...

Imaginary problems??? Imaginary Threats???

Republican officials from Arizona and Georgia and the Bill Barr who is a partisan Republican all investigated every claim of fraud thrown out by Trump including the most ridiculous hare brained ones such as Italian satellites changing votes on machines. Not one claim had any validity after investigation. There were about 70 lawsuits filed by Trump or on behalf of him, all of but one that was thrown out. Yet, not only is Trump still claiming a fraudulent election, he was behind trying to get a fraudulent slate of electors counted, having his VP illegally overturn a valid election, encouraging the violent invasion of congress to prevent a peaceful transfer of power, didn't do anything to try to stop the violence he instigated for hours, etc....

There are some things being blown out of proportion, but these are facts. You don't have any problems with any of these? Do you dispute any of these? Would you have any problem if Biden had done the same thing?

Anonymous said...

Julie, re "here are some pretty nutty people on our side of things, too, but they often seem perfectly sane compared to what we see on the left. The only solution is to keep testing against reality, to the extent we can."

I couldn't agree more. It is easy to focus on the extremes on both sides. I.e. the leftist nuts and those on the extreme such as AOC, don't represent the average Democratic view and the rightist nuts such as Margorie Taylor Green and Bobert, don't represent the views of the average Republican. There is nuttiness all around. The focus should be on what is real and what the greatest risks are. It is too easy to focus on the extreme and assert that this represents the common views.

Anonymous said...

Exactly: we need more realistic and moderate Dems like Joe Biden. Who really got 81 million votes, by the way.

Anonymous said...

Hey, if Trump is really guilty as charged, why bother with due process and rules of evidence? This is America!

Anonymous said...

You are right, that Trump hasn't been charged with anything (at least not yet). However, the facts are that this is the sworn testimony of staunch Republicans responsible for election integrity who have every incentive to try to find fraud and report on it. They couldn't find any.

Like Biden or not (I don't), until this is proof to the contrary, he did get 81 million votes. There hasn't every been any presented despite all of the investigations. It takes more than someone's gut feel to overthrow an election.

Anonymous said...

Correction: Make that overturn an election.

Cousin Dupree said...

But enough about the 2016 election.

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't we get to the bottom of the Russian interference in the 2016 election before we try to tackle 2020?

Anonymous said...

Not forgetting the electoral fraud of 2000 and 2004?

Gagdad Bob said...

The last time a Democrat lost a presidential election was 1988.

Gagdad Bob said...

Uh oh, Video proof of the J6 testimony.

julie said...

Epic.

Honestly, I wish he would have been as much of a brawler as that.

Anonymous said...

Like Trump has ever or ever will fight for anything other than his own personal real or perceived interests which revolve around his extreme insecurities (crowd size, ratings, the best of everything, etc...). If what he does or says intersects with anything you believe in, it is coincidental and he will pivot away from that as soon as he perceives it is to his benefit.

Cousin Dupree said...

Sounds like someone is getting tired of all the winning in the Supreme Court.

Anonymous said...

True, I'm not happy about many of the recent Supreme Court rulings, but there is nothing illegal about what is going on. McConnel did prevent Obama from putting Garland up for a vote which was against convention and arguably a dirty trick, but wasn't illegal, nor did it threaten democracy. Ideally, Supreme Court Justices should only look at the constitution and shouldn't be partisan, but that isn't the way things work and never did.

Cousin Dupree said...

I blame Trump for all these justices who refuse to read what leftists want into the constitution.

Anonymous said...

NO INJUSTICE NO PEACE!

Van Harvey said...

Gagdad Bob said "The last time a Democrat lost a presidential election was 1988."

With Bush 'New world order' 41? With respect, no, the last time the pro-regressive's lost a POTUS election was 1984... which... come to think of it... is some poetic nail hammering.

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