Crumbs: October 9th, 2018. Neti, neti
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This issue of Crumbs covers a Western idea called 'via negativa' from a theological, eastern, mystic perspective. Via negativa ("the negative way") stated simply: it's easier to know what's bad for you than what is good. It's an idea that has guided me since I discovered it scattered across all Western disciplines. I am very Popperian and Hayekian. These philosophies state that we are always in a state of error, and at best we can only be "less wrong" about reality. They assert that trial-and-error is a great way to make progress because of how open-minded it is.
Popper, Hayek, David Deutsch, and Nassim Taleb are all advocates of this "via negativa" method and general approach of "error correction." The more trial-and-error, the more cuts and bruises you collect, the more you know what doesn't work. More poetically: the abrasions of your skin guide your learning and discovery, a mechanism of organic signaling, what the Greeks called pathemata mathemata (“guide your learning through pain,” something parents of young children know rather well).
The knowledge we get by tinkering, via trial and error, experience, and the workings of time -- in other words, contact with the earth -- is vastly superior and robust to that obtained through reasoning alone. Something self-serving institutions have been very busy hiding from us. There is even a Greek god, Antaeus, that derived his strength from contact with his mother, Earth. Just like Antaeus, you cannot separate knowledge from contact with the ground. Once severed, totally useless.
Taleb eventually formulates a 'via negativa' version of the Golden Rule: Do not treat others the way you would not like them to treat you. This 'Silver Rule' urges you to mind your own business and not decide what is “good” for others, because we know with much more clarity what is bad than what is good. In fact, the very idea behind the U.S. First Amendment is to establish a Silver Rule–style symmetry: you can practice your freedom of religion so long as you allow me to practice mine; you have the right to contradict me so long as I have the right to contradict you. Effectively, there is no democracy without such an unconditional symmetry in the rights to express yourself.
Historical aside: Gödel noticed a logical incoherence in the First Amendment: "Should a society that has elected to be tolerant be intolerant about intolerance?" Gödel detected this while taking the US naturalization exam. Legend has it that Gödel started arguing with the judge, and Einstein, who was his witness during the process, saved him. If your religion (or speech, etc.) specifically prescribes intolerance of others' religion or speech, then the First Amendment symmetry is broken. Thus, ideology that specifically advocates against First Amendment symmetry should be eliminated.
I love 'via negativa'. I'm convinced that negative knowledge (what not to do) is the most actionable form of knowledge. This knowledge arrives by taking risks, exposing yourself, and allowing open-ended experimentation. You know: what nature does naturally. Until recently, I only applied this technique to external things like opinions and ideas. These last two weeks led me to realize that theology and mysticism also preach an internally-focused version of via negativa as the path to enlightenment.
Of course! It's obvious in hindsight. Via negativa applied to the self eliminates what you are NOT. This is the easiest (and perhaps the only) thing you can assess at any given moment. In the same vein, if mystics or saints could actually tell you the Truth, they would. But the Truth cannot be named or described in a positive fashion. All they can do is give a description of your falsehoods. All they can do is help you unlearn. Via negativa.
It is said widely in the East, “Those who know, do not say; those who say, do not know.” Truth cannot be said; only the opposite can be said. The guru cannot give you the truth. Truth cannot be put into words, into a formula. That isn’t the truth. That isn’t reality. Reality cannot be put into a formula. The guru can only point out your errors. When you drop your errors, you will know the truth. And then you cannot say. Via negativa ultimately forces you to drop your words, concepts, and judgements.
I was surprised and happy to learn that via negativa became a common teaching among the Catholic mystics. The great Thomas Aquinas, toward the end of his life, wouldn’t write and wouldn’t talk--for years. He had finally seen. He realized he had made a fool of himself, and he said so explicitly. In the prologue of his Summa Theologica, which was the summary of all his theology, he says, “About God, we cannot say what He is but rather what He is not. And so we cannot speak about how He is but rather how He is not.”
Via negativa emerges even earlier. In India, they have a Sanskrit saying: “neti, neti.” It means: “not that, not that.” The practice negates identification with all things of this world which is not the Atman. Through this gradual process he negates the mind and transcends all worldly experiences that are negated till nothing remains but the Self.
Via negativa applied to yourself. It's a wonderful way to think about approaching enlightenment. Keep removing the parts of your perception that aren't real. When your illusions drop, you’re in touch with reality at last.
What if you already had joy in you? That would mean you don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you’ve got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of words and labels!
So, this is the Neti, Neti program of action:
(a) identify the negative feelings in you
(b) understand that they are in you, not in the world, not in external reality
(c) do not see them as an essential part of “I”; these things come and go
(d) understand that when you change, everything changes.
There’s only one way out and that is to get deprogrammed! Just like in The Matrix
[sad_keanu.jpg]
You become aware of the programming. You cannot change by an effort of the will; you cannot change through ideals; you cannot change through building up new habits. Your behavior may change, but you don’t. You only change through awareness and understanding of what is not real.
For example, don’t suppress desire, understand it. Understand it. Don’t seek to fulfill desire so much as to understand desire. And don’t just renounce the objects of your desire, understand them; see them in their true light. The goal is to drop illusions, to see things, to see reality. Every time you are unhappy, you have added something to reality. It is that addition that makes you unhappy. I repeat: you have added something...a negative reaction in you. Reality provides the stimulus, you provide the reaction.
Examples of illusions abound...some that came up in my reading:
The illusion, the error of thinking that, by changing the exterior world, you will change. You do not change if you merely change your exterior world.
That is it important to be respectable, to be loved and appreciated, to be important. That’s false. Drop this illusion and you will find happiness. We have a natural urge to be free, a natural urge to love, but not to be loved.
That external events have the power to hurt you, that other people have the power to hurt you. They don’t. It’s you who give this power to them.
Via negativa applies to my newsletters about words and free will. Every concept or word that was meant to help us get in touch with reality eventually ends up being a barrier to getting in touch with reality. That is, sooner or later, we forget that the words are not the thing. Words cannot give you reality. They only point, they only indicate. You use them as pointers to get to reality. But once you get there, your concepts are useless. The final barrier to finding God is the word “God” itself and the concept of God.
Krishnamurti said: “The day you teach the child the name of the bird, the child will never see that bird again. Oh, sparrows. I’ve seen sparrows. I’m bored by sparrows.”
Or as they say in the East, “When the sage points to the moon, all the idiot sees is the finger.”
Or in Europe somewhere, "We often use the finger to gouge the eyes out".
Crucially, there's a difference between information and awareness, knowledge and understanding. Someone may know they're an alcoholic, but not stop drinking. If they truly were aware of the whole process of alcoholism, they would stop drinking that instant. They know, but they don't understand. It's only the 'Aha' moment that counts. The finger vs. the moon.
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After finishing this draft, I picked up Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee. This was the page that greeted me a little bit in: