your mail...negative cognition

[Stanley Rice]

Kellner writes:
> Subject: non-existence, negative cognition in Indian philosophy
> 
> Of course, I am grateful for any hints on any account of negative cognition, 
> in Indian philosophy, European philosophy, or any other source, since
> I believe that the most inspiring hints always come from directions
> you would never investigate in the first place. 
> 
> Interestingly enough, the answer to my posting almost
> naturally rephrased _non-existent_ with something like
> _that which is beyond experience_ (precise reference lost).
> The problem is: What do you consider as _experience_? If

Dear Birgit,
Doubtless you are familiar with the Parmenides. And with Pelletier,
"Parmenides, Plato, and the Semantics of Non-Being".
   I was prompted to make a recension because I am in daily contact
with a Non-dual Master who knows by continuous direct experience
the reality of Nonduality, which is the same as experiencing what
Parmenides describes. Best wishes and happy new year.
   Stan Rice> 

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    T H E   W A Y   O F   T R U T H

    From records of the teachings of Parmenides of Elia, Non-dual Sage, and
founder of the "Eleatic School" of Non-dual teaching in Ancient Greece. Of
Parmenides Socrates said,

"...The great Leader himself, Parmenides--so venerable and awe-inspiring, as
Homer would have said ... I met him when he was old and I was young, and I
recognized in him a glorious depth of spirity and mind. I am afraid we may not
understand his words, and may be even further from understanding his real
meaning." (From Plato's "Thaetetus")

Karl Jaspers wrote that in the long history of philosophy "the influence of
Parmenides has been enormous." Much of this influence came from pointing to the
imaginary nature of "negative existentials," described in the following section
clearly setting forth the doctrine of Non-duality. We cannot imagine, or
discuss, "non-being." The form of this teaching is a poem, clearly representing
direct experience of Non-dual reality.

______________________________________________________________________________

[THE GODDESS SPEAKS TO PARMENIDES, AT HIS ENLIGHTENMENT]

It can never be shown that "not-being" exists. Inquiry along such lines is
useless. Do not let the habits of every day lead your eyes to wander aimlessly,
and lead your hearing and speaking to echo what only seems to be. Let reason
help you when you think about this matter. The sense of identity commonly
becomes lost when left to itself.

Rather consider steadily all things that are present to the mind, even though
they may apparently be far away. You cannot actually be separate from true
Being. What IS does not disappear into objective things and then collect itself
for you, in your mind.

It is all the same to me at what point I begin to describe this Truth, because
no matter where I begin the end is always the same as the beginning.

Give your best attention. I will describe the choice between the way of Truth
and the way of opinion. The way of Truth, the way of IS, can only BE. That is
the way of existence based in Truth. The other way, that of "is-not" assumes
that "not-being" can exist." That way cannot even be thought of. You cannot
know "not-being" by any faculty--and you could not express it in any case.

It is both possible and necessary to say and to think that being IS. BE is
possible, but "not-be" is not possible. Think about this deeply. Be warned also
against another mistaken road on which people wander thoughtlessly with divided
minds and random notions, confused and helpless like the deaf and blind. Most
people are lacking in judgment. They say that to BE and "not-to-be" both exist,
that these are equally possible, but different. They say everything is a flux
of dual tendencies--is and is-not, hot and cold, up and down, and so on.

There exists only one word to express the True way: IS. Along this way there
are many signs that IS has no beginning, and can have no end. It is complete,
absolutely still, and eternal. It has no past, no future, but simply IS--right
now, totally complete, one, and seamlessly continuous. How could any beginning
of IS be thought of, or investigated? And from what could IS have obtained
increase, or become? Do not say or think that IS comes from "not-being,"
because "not-being" cannot be thought of or expressed. What could have produced
any movement in "not-being," any motion of change, either earlier or later?

Either IS exists, or "is-not" exists. And there is no way of imagining that
anything but Being could possibly come from Being. The Law of Truth cannot
allow BEing either to appear or disappear, but only to BE. Choice has to be
made between these terms: IS, or "is-not." We should avoid the unthinkable and
unexpressable path, as not true-and choose the way of reality and Truth.

How could IS be something still to come? Or how could it come into being
either? If it were now coming-to-be, or were going to be at some future time,
then in either case there would be a time when it "was not." So there can be
neither becoming, nor coming-to-be. Since there can be no coming-to-be there
can also be no ceasing to be.

Being is immovable, held fast in necessity. It IS, without beginning and
without ending, because both coming to be and ceasing to be are impossible to
IS, the way things are. IS remains always exactly the same and immovable in
itself, fixed as IS. Necessity permits only IS, complete at all points. The way
of Truth permits no incompleteness of IS. It lacks nothing in any respect, for
if it lacked anything in any respect it would lack everything, and would not be
IS.

Thinking and the object of thought are exactly the same. You will not find any
thought whatever apart from IS. And you cannot discover either IS or thought
apart from words standing for thought. There is really nothing beyond IS
because the Truth of destiny exists whole and unchangeable. All the common
notions that people accept and rely on as if they were true are nothing more
than empty names and labels--coming to be and ceasing to be, being and "not-
being", movement in place or time, variety of shape and color, and so on.

If we are to imagine a limit because the mind seems to require it, let us
imagine IS complete in every direction, like a perfect sphere balanced every
way from the center. All directions have perfect equality when viewed from the
center, and there can be no "not-being" to prevent reaching out equally. The
nature of IS cannot be more here, or less there. What IS is inviolable, pure
IS. There is only IS, in every direction equally, there being only one
substance, homogeneous, pure IS.

Consciousness and IS are identical.

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T H E   W A Y   O F   S E E M I N G

[THE GODDESS CONTINUES, CONTRASTING THE ILLUSION OF DUALISM TO TRUTH]

I have described Truth, in the trustworthy and rational way. Now I will
describe the opinions common to people. As you listen, remember that these
opinions are only deceptions. People have become accustomed to thinking in
dualities, attaching names to opposites. This is a mistake, for dualism is only
erroneous thinking. People have become accustomed to name opposite qualities,
properties that depend on each other for definition: light and dark, rarified
and dense, light and heavy, and so forth. I will describe for you this false
way of thinking, as commonly understood--only so that you can talk with others,
knowing their illusions as commonly conceived . . .

(The Goddess goes on to describe the deceptions of duality, in the poem called
the "Way of Seeming.")
(Recension by S. Rice, from fragments of "The Way of Truth," by the Non-dual
Sage Parmenides, Eleatic School of philosophy, Greece, 5th century B.C..)



-- 
Stan Rice, Autospec Inc, srice at cruzio.com