Mirrors and Windows: The Pivotal Ideal

I have studied online interaction for some time, and a consistently touchy subject is the use of metaphors. Accusations of Gnosticism, along with claims of low intelligence, have been thrown around because of this.

While it might seem like a banal topic to some, I’ll explain why it is actually an issue of eschatological dimensions (dramatically speaking): Traditionally, in the West, the more popular way a metaphor is received is as a description of an underlying principle.

poem:

>*“The ass looks in the well,*

>*Even getting up at dawn…*

>*The well looks at the ass.*

>*…there’s already someone going by night.*

>*Wisdom is all-embracing,*

>*All the mendicants in the land cannot leap out”*

The non-deterministic factor of this throws a number of people off. A refusal to engage is fair, but dismissal and antagonism in reaction is anti-human and anti-Zen.

National Teacher Zhong said:

>*“It is like a crown prince is just an individual before he has inherited kingship, but after he inherits the throne, the whole land belongs to the king - is the land enthroned separately?”*

>

>"There is the completely unborn and undying, and the half born and half dying, half not born or dying"

note: apparently Zen masters understood category theory before it was a thing, hm I suspect we're not dealing with technical noobs here.

My postulations:

* In Zen terms, any metaphor by default has the associative prelude of Mind behind it. * Antagonism in reaction to metaphors is an indication of an unstable theory of Mind.

If you ask me, I think this is a smoking gun test of the true Zen gamers; the simple juxtaposition of the care of refinement vs. the stress test of extrusion. An unmasking of greedily clutching claws.

Why do you think people dislike metaphors? luv 44-greatrknin <3