November 17, 2023
Principle 11. Negation of Opposites. Week 3
“It does not matter in what faction events have placed you, what matters is for you to understand that you have not chosen any faction.”
Last time: Rabbits and Ducks
This Time: Whose faction?
Third Week:
Over the last two weeks we considered the overall structure and general implications of the principle of the negation of opposites. We also looked at it in the context of the past.
If you don’t use the suggested focus (i.e. past, present, etc) you might find it worthwhile to try out. It’s not meant to limit our reflections but to push them in ways we might not normally go. That can be challenging. If you can’t think of anything that fits at the moment, it’s interesting to try expanding ones search it to include other people’sm or possible, or fictional situations, perhaps in a guided experience, maybe in something you saw or read…
This week we try to focus on what it means or could mean for our present situations. How might I apply this principle? What consequences might arise? How might it change things? How will things play out if I ignore this principle?
Personal Reflections:
What follows are my reflections. I make no greater claim for them but offer them in the spirit of exchange and dialogue.
I hope you find these of some use in your own meditations. I find sharing my thoughts on these themes useful because it forces me to give them some order, but of course I’m also very happy to think this sharing might help to clarify, inspire — or infuriate others — even that last can be useful.
Some things are easier to see first in yourself and only later can you see them in others. But the reverse is also true. Some things are easier to see in others and only later can you see them in yourself. Have you noticed how this principle is sometimes taken to mean that the other people have factions? Sometimes people talk about factions as if they were outside of it all, as if they spoke without a perspective, without beliefs
Did you first see that in yourself, or in others?
Often, I slip into a very self-satisfied state. I see the others squabbling in their various factions, with their weird beliefs, and confused values. It’s as if I gaze on that sorry state from outside, interpreting the principle to say something like: It does not matter what faction events have placed them…
Sometimes I recognize that while, this position is very comfortable and inviting. It somehow insulates me, protecting me from the difficulties all around me. Then I reflect that this is like dreaming I’m awake. I have gained no insight into my faction. Instead, I have imagined that I don’t have a faction, as if I looked without a point of view, or beliefs, or hopes, or fears.
Of course, that is true when the conflict between factions is trivial, far away, or truly alien to me. However, what about my factions, my beliefs? I may not see my beliefs clearly since they are like the ground I stand on as I look out into the world. But nonetheless I can understand that they are there, shaping my understanding and colouring my vision of the world.
Sometimes I might feel that identification with my faction (for example, I might roughly define that as feeling identified with Silo’s Message) somehow resolves all that — as if that was not a faction, not a belief. But isn’t that tied to the same external look as that of the religions, and ideologies. Certainly it may be more than that, but not less.
Consider: My identification with particular positions, opinions, or factions seems at least in part to be the result of my circumstance. But some of it feels innate — as if it’s just the way I am. As if I might say — “I’m just that kind of person”.
It is odd how somehow I always seem to find myself on the side of the “angels”. Is that because of an accident of circumstance, or because of something I was born with? In either case what did I choose?
For your amusement, and possibly edification you’ll find attached a PDF of a children’s story about factions by Dr. Seuss. As well as this link to a video version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd76qZsqO_s
The good Dr had his own blind spots but left us some interesting “nonsense”.
Remember:
The principles are simply platitudes if you don’t make the effort to transform them into something more. They are only important if they can help you build a more coherent life filled with growing Peace in yourself and around you, internal Force to face life’s difficulties and the Joy of an open future.
Another Look:
Whatever your position, opinion, or your faction complete truth and liberty are not there, but rather the reverie. Truth and liberty arise when you realize that for your position, opinion and faction are for you reveries…
Worth Repeating:
Guiding our actions by the internal registers of unity and contradiction we can develop a coherent life increasingly filled with peace, force and joy.
Coming up:
This week we looked at how principle 11 "the negation of opposites” applied present situations. Next week we shift to the future.
Note:
These notes have been posted on our Facebook page (Community of Silo’s Message Toronto Annex), sent to our email list, and can also be found on my webpage at www.dzuckerbrot.com
Caption today’s picture: Which Side Are You On?
Later …
