Principle 11 Negation of Opposites – Week 3 – 2024

November 14, 2024 

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?

Wednesday is our next meeting. We will use that occasion to discuss our reflections on this 3rd week of meditation on this principle of valid action.

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 it 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 to include possible, or fictional situations, perhaps from 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 that new perspective bring? How might it change things? How will things play out if I ignore this principle?

To help gain some new perspectives we will also play  

The Game of the Week.

Name It!

With your understanding of the principle in mind, try to come up with a new version of the principle, or some aspect of the principle. Then give that new formulation a name that synthesizes it or, in some way captures its essence.

Personal Reflections:

What follows are my reflections. I make no greater claim for them but offer them in the spirit of exchange and dialogue.  

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.

I find I often, slip into a 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 in 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 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 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 chose?

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

Certainly, like all of us the good doctor had his own blind spots, but he left us some interesting “nonsense”.

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…

Coming up:

This week we looked at how principle 11 "the negation of opposites” applied in past situations. Next week we shift from the past to the present. 

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.

Note:

Gloria will be our host for the next meeting. 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