Healing Thinking and Being
(Book Manuscript by Rolf Sattler)
Your comments are welcome! Please contact me!
Contents
Introduction: The Need for Healing - The Prevalence of
Thinking in our Culture - Harmful and Healing Thinking -
Being
Part 1: Healing Thinking
Chapter 1:
Ways of
Thinking: Thoughts - Ways of Thinking - Laws of
thought (identity, contradiction, and the excluded middle)
- Beyond the Laws of Thought (Yin-Yang, Buddhist logic and
Jain logic, fuzzy logic, both/and logic, and non-identity
(Korzybski) - Conclusions
Chapter 2: Healing
Thinking through Fuzzy Logic: Fuzziness - Fuzzy Logic - Examples of
Fuzzy Sets - Harmful and Healing Thinking -
Conclusions
Chapter 3:
Healing Thinking through Both/and Logic, Buddhist and Jain
Logic: Both/and Logic - Buddhist Logic - Jain
Logic - Conclusions
Chapter 4: Healing
Thinking through Non-Identity
(Korzybski): Language and Reality - The Unnamable -
Korzybski’s Structural Differential - Harmful and Healing
Thinking - Conclusions
Interlude
Chapter 5:
Language
Transcending Logic: Exercises in Style – Playfulness and
Body Language – Poetry - Koans -
Conclusions
Part 2: Being
Chapter 6:
Beyond
Thinking, Writing, and Speaking - the
Unnamable: Limitations of Thinking - Transcendence
of Thinking - Conclusions
Chapter 7:
AQAL Map by Ken Wilber Integrates the Unnamable and
Namable: The AQAL Map - Why a Map? - Beyond Dualism
- Sacred Sex - Yin-Yang, Male-Female - Stages and States -
Healing in the Transpersonal - The Integral Psychograph -
Integral Life Practice - Applications in Society -
Conclusions
Chapter 8: Complementarity
of Maps and Mandalas: Maps - Mandalas - The Dynamic - Mandala
- Conclusions
Overview of the Book
I
begin Chapter 1 with a short discussion of
harmful thinking
that has
its roots in the exclusive use of the so-called
laws of thought: identity,
contradiction, and the excluded
middle. Since
these so-called laws are widely taken for granted, we
witness the prevalence of harmful thinking.
In contrast to harmful thinking, in the remainder of Chapter
1 and Chapters 2 to 4, I explore healing thinking based on
Yin-Yang,
Buddhist logic, Jain logic, non-identity
(Korzybski’s non-Aristotelian logic),
both/and logic, and fuzzy
logic.
In Chapter 5, I
point out that written and especially spoken
language
can at times transcend logic
more or less. Thus, the constraints of Aristotelian
either/or logic and logic in general are overcome or more
or less alleviated.
In Chapter 6, I emphasize that all thinking
is more or less fragmenting and limited. Names are given to
the fragments created by the thinking mind. Hence, the realm
of the thinking mind may be called the namable.
Beyond the
namable is the
Unnamable that cannot be
penetrated by the thinking mind, but Yin-Yang thinking,
Buddhist logic, Jain logic, and non-identity can at least
point to it and invite it. The experience of the Unnamable
can be profoundly healing because it is beyond conflict
and violence. I could
have ended the book with this chapter, but then I would
have implicitly acknowledged a dualism of the unnamable
and namable and perhaps a negation or devaluation of the
namable. To avoid this, I added Chapter 7 that
presents the
AQAL map by Ken Wilber, which integrates the
namable and unnamable. Healing in this world occurs through
the integration the namable and unnamable, of matter, body,
mind, soul, and spirit.
In Chapter 8, I conclude that although the AQAL map is very
comprehensive, it is only one view of reality. Other views
have to complement the AQAL map to provide more balance.
Health is balance according to Chinese medicine.
The
recognition of the complementarity
of different maps and mandalas provides greater
balance than adherence to only one view such as the AQAL
philosophy. Greater balance means greater healing power
and better health. The creation and contemplation of
mandalas is healing because mandalas are often kosmic maps
that integrate the namable and the unnamable.
Summary of Book
Our
common thinking and language cut the world into pieces –
pieces that may be more or less antagonistic to each other
and thus can lead to disharmony, conflict, and war. Changing
our thinking and language would help to create a more
harmonious and peaceful inner and outer world.
Our common thinking has its roots in Aristotelian logic and
therefore is often referred to as Aristotelian. To a great
extent Aristotelian logic is based on the so-called laws of
thought: the laws of identity, contradiction, and the
excluded middle (see Chapter 1 on Ways of Thinking). If
thinking exclusively implies these laws, it can become
harmful and destructive. Healing thinking can heal the harm
done by our common Aristotelian thinking. Healthy thinking
prevents the harm that can result from harmful thinking.
Healing thinking includes Yin-Yang thinking, Buddhist logic,
Jain logic, fuzzy logic, both/and logic or the principle of
complementarity in the widest sense, and Korzybski’s
non-Aristotelian logic (general semantics). These ways of
thinking transcend the so-called laws of thought. Some of
them may both include and transcend the so-called laws of
thought. In any case, they are healing thinking and healthy
thinking (see Chapters 2-4).
Our language, especially the structure of our language,
reflects our way of thinking. Therefore, it is desirable to
use a language structure in accordance with healing and
healthy ways of thinking. Korzybski suggested extensional
devices that help in this respect. To overcome the
limitations of the law of identity and identification, he
suggested adding “etc.”. For example, instead of saying,
“John is dishonest”, one would say, “John is dishonest, etc.”
The “etc.” may include that he is handsome, charming, witty,
etc. It may even include that he is also honest at times.
Thus John is no longer identified with dishonesty. He is
infinitely more than just dishonest. This recognition and its
verbal expression is not only much more realistic but also
much less offensive. In other words: it is much less harmful
and more healing and healthy. Another device suggested by
Korzybski is the following: Instead of referring to “John”,
which is a vast generalization, one would refer to John at a
particular time, in a particular context, which could include
the whole universe. For example, one could refer to
“John-October 22, 2009-universe”. This would be much more
precise, taking into consideration that “John” is never
exactly the same (identical) at different times and contexts.
Implying that he is the same by using the same word “John”
when he is not the same, is a distortion that can be harmful
in many ways.
For other extensional devices suggested by Korzybski see
Chapter 4 on Healing Thinking through Non-Identity. One could
argue that his devices render language and communication
awkward and that therefore it might be preferable to only
think the devices such as “etc.” instead of expressing them
verbally. One should, however, not underestimate the power of
words and habits. What Korzybski called non-Aristotelian
training requires a change of our thinking and language.
Furthermore, it requires that we pause before we verbalize,
that we first see, sense, and intuit what can be represented
only very dimly by words and language.
Buddhist logic includes four truth-values: either, or,
both/and, and neither/nor (see Chapter 3 on Healing Thinking
through Both/and Logic, Yin/Yang, Buddhist Logic and Jain
Logic). Saying that something is neither this nor that (neti
neti, as the Hindus say), points to the vastness, the
infinite, beyond thought and language (see Chapter 5 on
“Beyond Thinking”). In the 7-valued Jain logic, the
indescribable is also part of logical reasoning and verbal
expression (see Chapter 3).
Both/and logic and complementarity can be incorporated into
our language by adding the word “both” and the complement(s).
For example, instead of simply saying, “This person is bad”,
we could say, “This person is bad and good”. Such an
expression also implies the Yin-Yang principle, according to
which anything also contains its opposite, which negates the
so-called law of contradiction.
The recognition of complementary mandalas and maps of reality
is another example of both/and logic and complementarity (see
Chapter 8 on Complementarity of different Maps and Mandalas).
Thus, instead of claiming that the Kosmos is basically
hierarchical (holarchical), as in Ken Wilber’s AQAL map
(Chapter 7), one could allow in addition other complementary
maps or mandalas of the Kosmos as I suggested in my book
“Wilber’s AQAL Map and Beyond”. This would lead to a more
comprehensive and realistic understanding of the Kosmos and
would eliminate much of the conflict that has arisen as a
result of Wilber’s dogmatic insistence on his holarchical map
and other one-sided tenets. The recognition of many-sidedness
can also be healing (see Alan Kazlev’s book in progress).
Fuzzy logic transcends the so-called law of the excluded
middle but includes it as a borderline case in which
membership in a fuzzy set is either 0 or 100%. In most, if
nor all cases, membership is somewhere between these
extremes. Since in everyday language it is difficult or
impossible to specify the exact value, we may indicate the
fuzziness by expressions such as “to a great extent (or
degree)”, or “to some extent (or degree)”, or “more or less”.
Although not very precise, such expressions are much more
precise than lumping everything into either/or. The binary
mode of “either/or” can be very distorting and as a result
harmful. For example, calling someone a liar when he was
caught only once in a slight misrepresentation, conveys a
distorted picture of that person and can do much harm to his
self-esteem, his social status, etc. He is not comparable to
someone who frequently tells major lies. Yet if both of them
are simply called liars, we obtain a distorted picture that
could be avoided or ameliorated through fuzzy thinking.
Besides the use of non-Aristotelian holistic kinds of logic,
strictures of Aristotelian logic can also be alleviated or
overcome through playful and poetic language. In spoken
language we can use in addition tone and body language to
mitigate the potentially harmful effects of Aristotelian
logic.
The deepest experience of Being is beyond mere thinking,
writing, and speaking: it is unnamable and un-speakable (as
Korzybski put it). We may attain it at times spontaneously or
through meditation; one of the quickest ways is through
laughter because we cannot laugh and think at the same time.
The AQAL map by Ken Wilber provides the big picture that
comprises both the unnamable and the namable and many levels
and dimensions of the latter. Although it is a comprehensive
map of the Kosmos, including human existence, it has
limitations. Therefore, complementing it by other maps
provides a still more comprehensive picture. Especially
useful are mandalas, maps that often represent the unnamable
in the center and the namable radiating from it. Creating
and/or contemplating mandalas can be profoundly healing.
Continue with the Introduction of this book ms, or return to its Table
of Contents