dauer said:
There's also a bit of more recent writing that challenges the notion human development can be fully understood in terms of levels that I'm looking forward to studying.
well, the interesting thing about both spiral dynamics and the kabbalistic frameworks is that they're holistic rather than strictly hierarchical, in that it isn't seen as a [simple] teleological progression but rather a process of ongoing development requiring all levels, nodes and connections to be in dynamic equilibrium.
yes, i meant 2d rather than 5d.
When you're talking about tensions, do you mean the way we could talk about a sefirah of a sefirah within an olam?
i suppose so, but that's more of a subtle, partzufic tension, the more overt tensions are those between the left, right and middle pillars and within the top, middle and bottom triads, as well as between the five dyads of the Tree, in particular the integrative tension between 6=9 and 1=10.
If so, I agree, AQAL doesn't seem to handle that as well, although there is a calculus that Wilber came up with for dealing with perspective that's addressed only in a few places which comes closer to that in some ways (I don't remember the calculus but, first you have to divide each of the quadrants into an inside and outside perspective. From there you could have things like a 3rd person perspective of a 1st person interpretation of a 1st person experience.
that sounds far more like the [nested] sefirah of a sefirah within an 'olam approach that you mentioned above and also wilber's idea of a "holarchy", which someone at work compared to a russian doll last week, which i thought was a very useful metaphor.
Where AQAL is useful I think is in providing a basic grammar for interdisciplinary dialogue that transcends traditions. In that sense it seems a bit like the esperanto of ideology and metaphysics. It requires everyone to compromise and in some ways might not function as well as individual systems, but it also allows everyone a way to communicate together. Of course we all know how successful esperanto has been.
oh, i see what you mean. that might be a useful way to talk about it, although of course esperanto is probably rather robust. but then again, estis un rano in mi bideo.
The formula expressed is valid. They might argue that it's only an issue of semantics, but it's at least semantically true.
that's what i meant.
In this case there's a strong hasidic influence on my thought in terms of "Not a leaf turns..." My thinking on this matter is very much in line with Reb Zalman who's used it to argue that Jesus on some level can't be seen as some great evil if a person believes in hashgachah pratit. But you've made similar arguments so maybe our views aren't so dissimilar.
i'm sure they aren't. remember, the hasidic thinking on this is influenced by the ar"izal, so it's going to be similar from where i'm coming from.
Have you written anything on that idea? I'd be interested in reading it.
well, it's nothing that complicated. all it is a theory that having systematically analysed the entire corpus of halakhah, rambam had deduced that the only irreducible axioms in it were these thirteen, from which everything else flowed as a logical consequence. consequently, he found it necessary to state them so categorically as "ani ma'amin be-emunah shleimah" precisely to highlight their unique status as axioms. the list itself is so interesting precisely because rambam is so often portrayed (at least in the traditional world) as a rational dogmatist (in a nice way, that is) whereas precisely what dogma may or may not have meant to him, as opposed to his contemporaries and successors, is a matter of some debate, if you read menachem kellner on the subject, which i do strongly recommend ("must a jew believe anything?") as it touches on the larger subject of the barriers to klal yisrael arising from the systematic misinterpretation of rambam. also, this was not the only list in town.
I've found that Yigdal and ani ma'amin work very well in the siddur because there it can be treated as tefilah rather than philosophy.
as irreducible axioms, they are more suited to contemplative approaches than to analysis.
The first time I picked up on that was when reading a pretty awful interpretive chantable translation of Yigdal by Joel Rosenberg. Worst verse:
"In Israel none arose a prophet like Moshe,
A prophet who would come to see the "image" in the sneh
Torah of truth God gave the people Yisrael,
By truest prophets hand that in God's house would dwell."
dear G!D, that really is shocking stuff. why do they do it? why not just learn the hebrew and come up with a tune that actually fits the scansion, like we do in the sephardi world? besides, ashkenazim miss out several verses of yigdal (and adon 'olam while we're at it).
c0de said:
Personally, (regarding all things mystic) I think that ideas which try to merge/rationalize extra-dimensional experiences with our material existence are ultimately dualistic and subjective.
subjective i understand, but why necessarily dualistic?
Those who want to believe in both the empirical rules of rationality, and want to believe in a connection with the transcendent at the same time are at a loss.
why on earth should that be when the concept of constructive paradox is available? this is precisely what the revelatory concept of synesthesia is alluding to - it is about tension resolved by dynamic equilibrium.
This is why I think we have to redefine our definitions. Instead of assuming that there is a transcendent reality and "us" on the other side of that reality - maybe "we" are already within that "ongoing reality outside of time"...
which is what i think.
dauer said:
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, you could say similarly that a banana is infinite.
i feel as if i should in some way take offence at this. of course a banana alludes to the Infinite by virtue of the curve in its basic form.
Avi said:
One can interprete rationally or irrationally.
to be precise; one may interpret rationally or irrationally based on axioms, but the axioms themselves are likely to be irrational, as it is the nature of axioms to be irreducible and thus a matter of faith on some level.
b'shalom
bananabrain