We begin today's essay where we always begin...the question of how is that this day is before me--taken in the most basic and simple sense of 'being there'. Yes, the desk is before me. Yes, I am typing on a Microsoft keyboard. No, I don't like it, I much prefer writing with a pencil. Have you ever noticed how cheaply made pencils are today? No one uses them any way.
Back to the meditation of this day: before me as desk is before me and I type---see how the desk is not simply 'before' me or 'in front of me'' or even 'outside of me'. No. The reason is that the desk is also 'inside of me'! I know what you are thinking---what kind of crack is this guy on?---But I can assure you that this is a reasonable claim. And if you the reader were to begin considering these matters and keep at it in serious philosophical meditation, in a matter of time, you too will come to see the nature of this paradox: inside-outside.
If meditated upon consistently for many days and years the nature of this paradox will become clearer. This is the path to "open up" the inquiry of the soul. Prior to the out being outside and in being inside---I have analyzed this in another blog---Scriptorjesus, Realistpsychology, or some other blog in the Scriptor domain. At any rate I will rehearse again it here: there is my cup---it is whitespeckel'd dull blue campfire gear---it contains my morning tea---honey sweeten'd hazelnut strongbrew. The cup contains my morning tea (or what's left of it).
The cup contains my tea....'contains'? Pardon but what do you mean by 'to contain'? Oh, for something to be in inside of something else. And what do you mean by 'inside'? Oh, that one spatial reference contains another. And is the container contained by something else? Yes. and no!
Think harder. Well, yes the cup is on the desk and the desk is in the room. And isn't the room in the house? Well yes now that you say so, I can see this. So if one thing is on another and inside another and another---how far do you think this pattern goes on?
Can all be contained in one container--or can all be held in no container?
This is the basis for the question concerning the nature of the universe, is the universe inside of something or outside of something? What outside might there be? What if there were no outside? Either way it is paradoxical---the asymptotes and excesses of the debate concerning the meaning of 'inside' or 'outside' collapse at the extremes of the dialectic. Thought then to the very end, the inside-outside dichotomy collapses.
Now, believe it or not, we are on the trail of our inquiry---yes, to investigate the presence of this day, and give thanks accordingly for the gift, but also to realize that the ultimate telos of our inquiry into the being there of the teacupteamug also entails implicately the being there (in terms of inside-outside dichotomy) of all that is. It's not as if there is just the cup without its surrounding environing world, and this environing world does not hang suspended in the void either!
Best understood as womblike, the nascence of being, of my being present to the presence of this new day! Present to the presence as in the investigation of the blue teamug.
a)Yes, it is on the desk.
b)Yes I see it and that which I see is within my mind.
Both a) and b) propositions dissolve at the extreme of the dichotomy if extrapolated to the sense of 'all there is' or the 'universe'. That leaves us with the following question: How is this state of affairs to be considered?
In the investigation of the teamug, or anything else that is present before or around me, the harmony of the soul is already presupposed.
How so?
Because I began this day with a cup of tea. The idea of writing an essay came up, I came to my office to type this essay which is ostensibly about the mug (a)---but also requires my perceptual and hermeneutic appropriation of the mug (b). Yet, if I am honest, I will say there is no separation of these worlds---my investigation began with the true and complete synthesis of my life already given and from this plenitude I snatched the cup out of the room interrogatively. Even before I typed one word I was already HERE. Even before I typed one word, the desk is HERE. This pre-given harmony and truth is the life of my soul.
"God made the universe for us as if there were only one of us," I think St. Augustine said that.
"You can be in my world if I can be in yours," I said that.
"I'll let you be in my dream if you let me be in yours," Bob Dylan said that.
Back to the meditation of this day: before me as desk is before me and I type---see how the desk is not simply 'before' me or 'in front of me'' or even 'outside of me'. No. The reason is that the desk is also 'inside of me'! I know what you are thinking---what kind of crack is this guy on?---But I can assure you that this is a reasonable claim. And if you the reader were to begin considering these matters and keep at it in serious philosophical meditation, in a matter of time, you too will come to see the nature of this paradox: inside-outside.
If meditated upon consistently for many days and years the nature of this paradox will become clearer. This is the path to "open up" the inquiry of the soul. Prior to the out being outside and in being inside---I have analyzed this in another blog---Scriptorjesus, Realistpsychology, or some other blog in the Scriptor domain. At any rate I will rehearse again it here: there is my cup---it is whitespeckel'd dull blue campfire gear---it contains my morning tea---honey sweeten'd hazelnut strongbrew. The cup contains my morning tea (or what's left of it).
The cup contains my tea....'contains'? Pardon but what do you mean by 'to contain'? Oh, for something to be in inside of something else. And what do you mean by 'inside'? Oh, that one spatial reference contains another. And is the container contained by something else? Yes. and no!
Think harder. Well, yes the cup is on the desk and the desk is in the room. And isn't the room in the house? Well yes now that you say so, I can see this. So if one thing is on another and inside another and another---how far do you think this pattern goes on?
Can all be contained in one container--or can all be held in no container?
This is the basis for the question concerning the nature of the universe, is the universe inside of something or outside of something? What outside might there be? What if there were no outside? Either way it is paradoxical---the asymptotes and excesses of the debate concerning the meaning of 'inside' or 'outside' collapse at the extremes of the dialectic. Thought then to the very end, the inside-outside dichotomy collapses.
Now, believe it or not, we are on the trail of our inquiry---yes, to investigate the presence of this day, and give thanks accordingly for the gift, but also to realize that the ultimate telos of our inquiry into the being there of the teacupteamug also entails implicately the being there (in terms of inside-outside dichotomy) of all that is. It's not as if there is just the cup without its surrounding environing world, and this environing world does not hang suspended in the void either!
Best understood as womblike, the nascence of being, of my being present to the presence of this new day! Present to the presence as in the investigation of the blue teamug.
a)Yes, it is on the desk.
b)Yes I see it and that which I see is within my mind.
Both a) and b) propositions dissolve at the extreme of the dichotomy if extrapolated to the sense of 'all there is' or the 'universe'. That leaves us with the following question: How is this state of affairs to be considered?
In the investigation of the teamug, or anything else that is present before or around me, the harmony of the soul is already presupposed.
How so?
Because I began this day with a cup of tea. The idea of writing an essay came up, I came to my office to type this essay which is ostensibly about the mug (a)---but also requires my perceptual and hermeneutic appropriation of the mug (b). Yet, if I am honest, I will say there is no separation of these worlds---my investigation began with the true and complete synthesis of my life already given and from this plenitude I snatched the cup out of the room interrogatively. Even before I typed one word I was already HERE. Even before I typed one word, the desk is HERE. This pre-given harmony and truth is the life of my soul.
"God made the universe for us as if there were only one of us," I think St. Augustine said that.
"You can be in my world if I can be in yours," I said that.
"I'll let you be in my dream if you let me be in yours," Bob Dylan said that.
