I just discovered this morning in my re-reading of "Art of Loving" by Fromm that I am a paradoxical thinker. It was a huge revelation to me.
Most of the West has followed Aristotle's logic - A cannot be non-A. Most of the East plus most of the mystics have used paradoxical logic - A and non-A do not exclude each other as predicates of X.
"Teachers of paradoxical logic say that man can perceive reality only in contradictions, and can never perceive in thought the ultimate reality-unity, the One itself... The world of thought remains caught in the paradox... Thus paradoxical logic leads to the conclusion that the love of God is neither the knowledge of God in thought, nor the thought of one's love of God, but the act of experiencing the oneness with God."
A Taoist thought: To know and yet think we do not know is the highest attainment; not to know and yet think we do know is a disease.
Yes!!! That is exactly what I think and have come to know.
So I was pondering how do I apply this to Palm Sunday? How do I experience it and therefore make it meaningful? I was thinking of some of the elements: Jesus entered with people celebrating, knowing what they did not know; only Jesus knew the outcome; Jesus did the hard thing that he felt was the right thing; the people were clueless for the most part; there was a larger story going on.
Our lives are also played out with most onlookers clueless about what is going on a deeper levels, often we may be clueless too. A triumph may only be so by appearance, Jesus told us to judge not by appearances but judge righteous judgment. What have been our failures have led to our successes which led to failures that set the stage for success, etc. Failure is not failure and success is not success. They are a string of lessons and they are more.
I detach from judging the dance around me and just am. I watch it, knowing it is not what it seems to be. I trust the One.
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