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Certain opposing viewpoints can be reconciled. The mental process of
recognizing
and handling these dual aspects is not trivial. "This synthesis is
transcendent, i.e.
it is a synthesis which cannot be represented as a phenomenon, or verified
in sensuous
experience."* This quote is from the year 1877. Here is a related quote
from the year
1413. "There must needs be a difference between truth and appearance."
These quotes
are from the Oxford English Dictionary. Printed next to each other
they connect distinct
ages. The Oxford Dictionary is suffused with quotations that perform
this little miracle
of joining minds. It is a hypertext wonder created generations before
"hypertext",
"hyperspace" or "hyperlinks" were in our lexicon. Today the World Wide
Web presents
wormholes to far away minds with such frequency that we are no longer
impressed by
this little miracle of cross-referencing. It works because of a Unity
that underlies all
of the sciences and all of the arts. This unity is "out there" ready
for us to tap into it.
Great art is not just a creation; it is a discovery of answers that
were there all along.
Einstein did not create "curved space" just as Columbus did not create
the Americas.
These things were discovered. Great artists are not just creators;
they are great
communicators.
The life stories of discoverers often have in them a touch of serendipity
or
synchronicity. When the moment of discovery is at its height, the scientist
or artist
feels that his thoughts are not coming from himself, but from a great
beyond with
which he is resonating. The artist might feel that he is in close communion
with strange
and unexpected company, clairvoyantly linked across the ages. This
is difficult and
controversial material, but you have an idea of what I'm trying to
say because of the
little miracles that language allows us to perform every day. With
a few dropped hints,
you are able to guess at what is intended. If a child gives you a happy
wave, you
suddenly know a remarkable number of things about how the child is
feeling. Why?
Because the cheerful wave allows you and the child to tap into a Unity
which precedes
language. The child's wave gives you a little leap of joy that involves
physical and
mental processes that no machine can possibly simulate. The leap is
reliable because
there is a permanent higher ground where minds may meet and resonate.
This higher ground is obviously not a place. It is more like an intelligence
or wisdom
that lies behind everything and upholds everything. You can call it
God's hidden hand,
but if you try to actually see it, you'll just find mathematics, or
beauty or even chaos.
When you see things in their totality, and balance their complementary
attributes, you
get a glimpse of the mystery of existence. You learn that life is in
the details and that
... matter matters. The physical composition of our bodies gives us
mental powers that
no software program might simulate. Ordinary gross matter, living or
inanimate, is a
miracle that we revere in our arts and sciences.
"A process in the mind of man . . . makes material sights and objects
first beautiful and
then emblematic."* Our minds do not respond to thunder and lightning
as any scientific
instruments might react. They make thunder and lightning alive in ways
that are not
computable. We discover "gods" and in the process act like little gods.
Each discovery
is achieved through a fusion of creativity and insight, what the story
teller (and philologist)
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) called sub-creation.
"This aspect of 'mythology' -- sub-creation, rather than either
representation or symbolic
interpretation of the beauties and terrors of the world -- is, I
think, too little considered."
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