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Thursday, February 25, 2010

The semantics of Duality

The concept of duality is an ingrained thought in us. We can seldom go outside the matrix of opposites. To every aspect described, there is a contra. So, what exactly is duality? This is a question I have asked myself a lot lately. It is something I strive to understand, because of the fundamental position it occupies in the way man has come to see everything. Think about it.

Man and nature; mind and body; spirit and man; self and man; good and bad; pleasure and pain; knowledge and ignorance; system and environment. The list goes on. In fact it is endless. Take any aspect and you can always create its complement. In my thoughts about duality, I have come to see there is a bias in the way we see things. When we refer to a pair of opposites, our thoughts compress it into a binary logic. That either something is present or it is absent. There is no middle ground. The deterministic view of things. The Newtonian way of understanding. The world at the scale we see.

But is the world 'organized' as such? Personally, I am beginning to think the whole idea is flawed at its core. My reason for such an argument is ground on the presumption that duality is a simplified view of a more fuzzy world. We don't deal with 0 and 1 in reality. We have a spectrum ranging from 0 to 1 passing through everything in between. There is a continuum. The problem of duality is centred in the act of communication and is not a reality in itself.

Take the case of an important human emotion, viz. happiness. Our intuitive understanding of such a feeling is binary. When I say I am happy, it precludes the possibility that I am sad. That is because we see happiness and sadness as two binary states. But if such a case were true, then what is the meaning adjectival qualifiers like very happy, delighted etc. Certainly they do denote a greater or lesser happiness. Another duality? This would only result in an endless regress.

What I want to say is that when we deal with duality, there is a degree associated with it. For eg. Happiness is not merely a state. It is a state with a degree or extent. Happiness then is not a pure quality. It is rather an admixture where the quality of 'happy' is more than 'sad'. I might then go on to add that when we are neither happy nor sad, it is a case where the two qualities are in equal proportion. The state of indifference.

The key idea here is that there is no boundary in duality. The perception of duality is the passage of the aspect from preponderance in one end of the spectrum to the other side. Both qualities exist at all times nonetheless.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Insanity attacks :|

Causality, Spontaneity, Evolution and Interdependence.... i am going in circles now :(

This is driving me crazy. It's official. In the event of my madness turning into a chronic disease, i hereby attribute the result to the Universe (if it exists), to myself (if it were my dream), to the lord (if it were it's dream), to the void (if nothing exists)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

To the Unknown Woman

there is this connection with you,
i've not felt even with the closest few,
the freshness of the morning dew,
reminds me each day of you

there is a mystery surrounding you,
everytime, it's something totally new,
i've tried hard to think it through,
but it remains an unsolved clue

there is a certain charm 'bout you,
it shakes me up, out of the blue,
i'm frozen, i know not what to do,
do i've to say anymore, take the cue

i've wanted to say this all along,
when you're with me, i'm brave and strong,
without you, i'm like a lyric without a song,
for your love, i shall wait forever, eternity long

Universal Confusions

I am going insane. It has to do with this damn universe. Seriously. It taunts me with impossibilities. It makes me see inherent contradictions in its existence. And yet, here I am, typing out mumbo jumbo about it. I cannot sleep properly. My head spins trying to figure out what stuff this universe is made of. Cosmology has the answers. But the problem lies in asking the right questions. And I am stuck here. What do I ask? What is it I want to know?

Is it how big is the Universe? The Universe can be as big as you want it to be. Multi-verses stacked upon a solo universe floating in vacuum. The ad infinitum progression of universes to perpetuity. Who can ascertain if the Universe (i.e. the mother of all multiverses) is finite or not?

What exists on the other side of the point-sized Universe at big bang? Does the other side have a meaning at all.

Where did it all begin? Did it begin at all? Is there an 'it' in the first place?

There must be some way all the contradictions are reconciled in an underlying substratum. The Ouroboros keeps frequenting me. It is floating in my mind. The head trying to bite of its tail and complete a cycle.

Suddenly the question 'why' seems to be a totally wrong question to ask. Causality is at the scale of the Universe where Newton rules. In Einstein's world, does 'why' have a meaning? What happens when the Universe has an Einstein world size and a Newton world density.The head meets the tail. The beginning meets the end and everything goes haywire.

What is space? Is it a positive entity? Or is it nothingness. But then what is nothingness. Is nothingness infinite. Then again, another contradiction.

How do i frame the right question? Do words retain their meaning in those questions? I don't know what to ask. All I am left with is silence. I am in awe. I live in an Universe which defies imposition of any kind of rule over its existence. I can hear it say, "I am here to break all the rules you pesky humans make. You can never figure me out. Good luck with that."

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

It's not what you think ;)

The decision had been pending. With breakfast out of the way, I turned my attention to settling a more important matter. It was time to take a decision. I started weighing the pros and cons. The first one was quintessentially a native of Hyderabad while the second one was a pucca Southie and largely a product of Chennai.

I was torn between choosing from the two. Which one would be THE ONE? A matter of great importance, I am sure you would all agree.

My mom was more amenable to the one from Chennai, while my dad felt the other one was better. My sister liked both of them equally. More than all that, I had known each of them personally, from childhood. The neutrality of the situation should explain why I was facing such a dilemma.

Time was running out and everyone around me was getting impatient. I had kept everyone waiting long enough. It was time to choose.

Eventually, I placed the order for filter coffee at the counter. Tea would have to wait for another time.