Page 11 - Ruminations

9. Five odd symmetries

Humility and skepticism. The arrogance of skeptics and the self-
abnegation of the humble obscure their basic shared attribute:
ignorance. The humble acknowledge their own ignorance, and
skeptics acknowledge someone else’s. Further, the true believer and
the megalomaniac have even more in common, both lacking humility
and skepticism and denying their own ignorance.

Enlightenment East and West via symbols corresponding to
pharmacopeia. Allopathically, Zen and other mind-stilling forms of
meditation use mental powers to destroy or transcend symbols,
exposing the limitations of representation and leading the way to
unmediated experience. Homeopathically, minds can analyze symbols,
showing the limitations of logic and leading to enlightenment via their
proper use, the negation of delusion based on reification.

Religious believers and rational atheists. The latter have logic to
establish their position, but must deal with as-yet unexplained
phenomena; the former point to writ or miracles in which they have
faith, but need to deal with the illogic that entails. Both deny the
validity of that which supports the other’s position: the atheist claims
empiricism trumps unverifiable claims, and the believer claims its deity
is superior to or immune from logical analysis.

Intellectuals and anti-intellectuals. Ironically, the latter want to
preserve the intellect (as an attribute of spirit or soul, therefore a
metaphysical absolute); the former want to do away with the intellect
as an illusion (no empirical evidence exists for “mind”, plenty for
brain activity).

Fantasies and absolutes. Fantasies of the absolute are for children,
so they needn’t worry about living: fairy tales, presenting the fantasy
that fantasies must be absolute, promise a state of grace in which
desired outcomes neither end nor cease in desirability. Absolute
fantasies are for adults, so they needn’t worry about dying: irrational
faith, presenting the fantasy that absolutes are not fantasies, promises
relief from anxiety through the abstractions of theology and ideology.