Facts are only important insofar as they are used to reveal truth. In that respect, a fact is no more valuable than a fiction, if by the use of fiction one intends to reveal truth. And neither one is of any value at all when used to render harm.

"Truth is found where contradictions meet." -Lindsay Clarke

You Go, Niels

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement; the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
— Niels Bohr (1885-1962)

Conflicts of Interes

Conflicts of Interest

"The opposite is beneficial;
from things that differ comes the fairest attunement;
all things are born through strife."
--  Heraclitus

"But every tension of opposites culminates in a release,
out of which comes the 'third.'  In the third, the tension
is resolved and the lost unity is restored."
-- Carl G. Jung


In essence, every human problem could be viewed to arise from some conflict of interest, a dilemma arising from views, public or private, which are not complimentary.  Environmental issues generally come from a conflict between short-term economic values and long-term perspectives on health and well-being.  Many of the social and political conflicts in the United States, in fact, spring up from that fundamental issue of short-term gain vs. long-term interest.  The dilemma can be that many feel the short-term often serves a few, while others believe the long-term benefits a multitude.  Short-term may refer to only the year's bottom line financial report, while long-term may refer to the well-being of generations.  This is certainly the case in environmental dilemmas, and it is the case in many issues around our Health-care institutions (HMOs and PPOs benefit the short-term values of corporations sometimes, it is believed, at the expense of true health care), and in many of the political disputes (e.g. republicans tend to support short-term values of businesses while democrats tend to emphasize interests of the common citizen).  Even in our private, inner lives, we find conflicts between time at work and time at home, or with ethical issues in such cases where we desire not to lie but find ourselves wanting to lie in order to protect a particular interest.  Being trapped on the horns of our own inner dilemmas can be very disconcerting indeed.  And it is generally these inner mental dilemmas which we all face that lead to the outer conflicts of interest which create social and political discord.

It's really rather amazing, and often quite amusing, to recognize that although dichotomies between points of view have existed throughout history, and must continue to exist due to the nature of relying upon "the evidence of the senses" and the limited knowledge of the mind, we still tend to believe our unique perspective is more valid than that of others, or that a certain body of knowledge (our own) is "true."  Despite the fact that science continually revises its rules and axioms about the world, despite that the world around us continues to alter in ways we could never have anticipated, despite the fact that the passions of the human psychic anatomy can overcome the rational and other perceptive faculties, it continually surprises us to see ourselves carried away by argument and dispute.  This is probably the primary source of all humor.  Shakespeare got tremendous mileage from this human condition!  Nevertheless, how could it be otherwise for us?  We are forced, by limited powers of reason, perception, or imagination, to accept and work with our existing level of awareness, whatever it may be.  This is something that makes humor, truly, a God-send.  And yet, there's nothing funny about desiring some intimate connection with Truth.  The soul demands it!

There is a principle that could perhaps provide some remedy to the persistence of troubles arising from conflict.  It is that "Truth is what the opposites have in common."  This law is inherent in all spiritual teachings, and was articulated to me by my dearest mentor.  It's at the heart of Jung's statement quoted above.  It's inherent to much of the teachings of Heraclitus and the Logos to which he constantly refers.  To Heraclitus, the Logos was a singular principle out of which all laws and conditions emerge.  As with all spiritual teachings, he instructed that reality is singular and all that exists owes itself to a unitary principle, which he called the Logos.  It's easy to see that if everything we experience, and can experience, comes from a single source, then there must be something that all things (whether persons, objects or ideas) have in common and which, therefore, binds these things into one whole.  Therefore, truth is definitely not only what the opposites have in common, but what all things have in common.

This insight brings new light to issues of conflict.  It indicates that there must always be a common ground.  Perhaps the issue, then, is not so much whether a resolution exists, but whether the will to discover it is present.  Finding that willingness and giving it new birth in every conflict is essential to the realization of all of our higher ideals.

Heraclitus and Socrates both taught that each is endowed with the capacity to see what the opposites have in common.  For Heraclitus it was a matter of coming into harmony with the Logos.  Socrates spoke of ascending into the "pure upper regions" where souls rub shoulder's with souls (as distinct from limited personalities and their peculiar perceptions and understandings), where truth is clearly visible.  He was not talking of an "afterlife," but instead he was saying that this is possible for anyone who practices philosophy, or love of, and living the life dictated by, wisdom.  So, we have the ability, but it's only by exercising that capacity that it is strengthened and enhanced.

Unity of Opposites

Truth is what the opposites have in common




“All beauty is the making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves,” – Eli Siegel


In the Hegelian system, truth is seen as a process of progressive synthesis of opposites to a "higher" truth (Hegel, Phenomenology of the Mind)


[Ghandi] was a very great reconciler of opposites and he was that without strain or artificiality. He loved greatly and accepted unreservedly that truth can reside in opposites.  (The Essence Of Gandhi, G. Ramachandran)



Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Heraclitus
Heraclitus: It is impossible to step twice into the same river…it scatters and regathers, comes together and dissolves, approaches, and departs.
Some scholars theorize that Heraclitus was illustrating his concept of the “unity of opposites” that the river is the same and yet different river (Cohen 4 -- Cohen, S. Marc. “Heraclitus.” 2002. U of Washington. 29 Nov. 2004 <http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/heracli.htm>)



From “Lessons in Jewish Wisdom”:
The deepest truth of any matter must be expressed as a paradox -- as two mutually exclusive and equally true statements. The real truth then appears as the elusive product of their tension and interaction. Unless one is grappling with paradox, one is not at the heart of the subject. . .
Source:  http://www.amyisrael.co.il/smallvoice/prayeranddestiny_excerpts2.html




doctrine of ha-achdut hasvaah (the unity of opposites) as it appears in the Kabbalah and Hasidism  …  The key to rational mysticism in the Kabbalah is the notion of ha-achdut hashvaah, the “coincidence of opposites,” an idea which not only “deconstructs” the poles of the various oppositions through which the world is ordinarily comprehended, but also shows that each term of an opposition (e.g. God/man, word/thing, freedom/necessity, good/evil, etc.) is completely (and logically) dependent upon its opposite, i.e. dependent upon the very ideas and things that the term was meant to oppose or exclude. (http://www.newkabbalah.com/Coinc.htm)

Points of View

Any two opposing views, which must tautologically remain “points of view” however “well founded,” are points of view on the ultimate Truth, which, even though hidden, nevertheless exists.   Darwinism and Creationism are examples fresh in the public forum of the times of two points of view on a common reality – because that common truth remains hidden, opposition and conflict ensue.  Were the truth to be seen, the underlying foundation of being, there could be no conflict.  Only the apathetic and bruised cynicism of the ego-mind keeps that truth from view.  

The ultimate nature of one’s own being, which some call Soul, must exist within the living reality of that ultimate truth – this is true according to all the great sages throughout time (e.g. Socrates, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Rumi, Hafiz, Kabir, Nanak, Sawan Singh, Soami Ji, Milarepa, etc.).  Socrates himself proclaimed, All truth resides in the soul.

“The soul… when perfect and fully winged she soars upward, and orders the whole world…
…every soul of man has in the way of nature beheld true being; this was the condition of her passing into the form of man. But all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world; they may have seen them for a short time only, or they may have been unfortunate in their earthly lot, and, having had their hearts turned to unrighteousness through some corrupting influence, they may have lost the memory of the holy things which once they saw.”  -Socrates, Phaedrus

Truth and Illusion

The illusions and untruth of the world are as important to its continued functioning as is the Truth itself, which is largely hidden from view.