This passage made me wonder what the biggest contradiction of my life was. After the meditation, it became clear. "I" am the biggest contradiction. At a deeper level, we are an undifferentiated whole, and this undifferentiated whole finds no meaning without "I." The "I," funnily enough, finds no meaning unless it goes back toward realizing it is a part of the undifferentiated whole. What a contradiction!
I was reminded of a wise monk who, over a hundred years back, reflected on the human condition and refused to think of it as an illusion (the usual translation for maya). Instead, he emphasized that it is a contradiction. Thinking about the difference b/w these two words, it seems to me that illusion is a condition we can find ourselves helplessly facing. Contradiction is created in our minds due to the lines we've drawn on the undifferentiated whole. In other words, contradiction is about decisions we make, and so, if we draw lines differently, we can always go to a plane where the contradictions don't exist. The path of waking up seems to be one of drawing fewer and fewer lines, and therefore, facing fewer and fewer contradictions.
Finally, the notion of love as a tool to break contradictions resonated with me. Love, if one were to look at it scientifically, gets us to forget the lines we've drawn, however momentarily. The moment we forget the lines, we also forget the contradictions that arose from those lines, and therefore, experience greater oneness with the undifferentiated whole.
On Nov 2, 2010 Somik Raha wrote :
This passage made me wonder what the biggest contradiction of my life was. After the meditation, it became clear. "I" am the biggest contradiction. At a deeper level, we are an undifferentiated whole, and this undifferentiated whole finds no meaning without "I." The "I," funnily enough, finds no meaning unless it goes back toward realizing it is a part of the undifferentiated whole. What a contradiction!
I was reminded of a wise monk who, over a hundred years back, reflected on the human condition and refused to think of it as an illusion (the usual translation for maya). Instead, he emphasized that it is a contradiction. Thinking about the difference b/w these two words, it seems to me that illusion is a condition we can find ourselves helplessly facing. Contradiction is created in our minds due to the lines we've drawn on the undifferentiated whole. In other words, contradiction is about decisions we make, and so, if we draw lines differently, we can always go to a plane where the contradictions don't exist. The path of waking up seems to be one of drawing fewer and fewer lines, and therefore, facing fewer and fewer contradictions.
Finally, the notion of love as a tool to break contradictions resonated with me. Love, if one were to look at it scientifically, gets us to forget the lines we've drawn, however momentarily. The moment we forget the lines, we also forget the contradictions that arose from those lines, and therefore, experience greater oneness with the undifferentiated whole.