This struck me and I thought it was relevant to Zen. I know there are differing definitions of it or to even define it is met with derision. Sometimes thought Zen is simply accepting things as they are, but perhaps we get tied up in golden chains when we think what is is truth. Jaques Ellul says something in his book Humiliation of The Word that struck me and I think I agree with him.
We think that truth is contained within reality and expressed by it. Nothing more. Moreover, there is nothing left beyond reality any more. Nothing is Other; the Wholly Other no longer exists. Everything is reduced to this verifiable reality which is scientifically measurable and pragmatically modifiable. Praxis becomes the measure of all truth. Truth becomes limited to something that falls short of real truth. It is something that can be acted upon.
The Word is related only to Truth. The image is related only to reality. Of course, the word can also refer to reality! It can be perfectly pragmatic, used to command an action or to describe a factual situation. The word enters the world of concrete objects and refers to experiences of reality. It is the means of communication in everyday life, and as a result it fits precisely with all of reality. It conveys information about reality and takes part in the understanding of it. It can even create reality, producing effects that will become part of reality. Thus the word is ambivalent. But its specificity lies in the domain of truth, since this domain is not shared with anything else. On the contrary, the image cannot leave the domain of reality. It is not ambivalent.
Submitted June 14, 2019 at 01:28AM by tuibbertab http://bit.ly/2Zmn0w7
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