BoS Case 3: breathing in, and breathing out
>Luopu said: "One who has only understood himself and has not yet clarified the eye of objective reality is someone who has only one eye."
>If you want both eyes to be perfectly clear, you must not dwell in the realms of the body or mind and not get involved in myriad circumstances.
What are these two eyes? I'm thinking about this a lot, seems important not to be missing one eye and I'm not always sure if I am.
- Objective reality: when my meaning is meant to do work on the Other, meaning is fixed because it is shared: "pass the red brick" means "pass the red brick."
- Self knowledge: when my meaning is meant to do work on myself, meaning is fecund because it is private: "pass the red brick" means "mine was a difficult childhood."
(Wittgenstein, sorry.)
"Myself" might mean any closed system. Two people, 20 people, become one great cyclopic "I" when their discourse is sufficiently isolated from the Other.
Sharing meaning with someone new is the death of something that grew in private. "Don't build your cart with the barn doors closed." If you must, fair warning: the outside finds a way in. Don't forget it's just a cart, it is not yourself: otherwise you feel like you might die, opening the doors.
Or if I'm looking at another person, trying to understand them.
- "I examine my interior: I know exactly what you are, you're a disease afflicting an ordinary person." Dwelling in the realms of body and mind: drinks are on me.
- "I examine your exterior: I know exactly what you are, you're one of those and I'm one of these." Getting involved in the myriad circumstances: drinks are on you.
(I mostly quit drinking about 4 years ago, at the discouragement of a friend.)
(Drink too much, you start seeing double. Just say "no." Both eyes perfectly clear.)
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For good measure, the case itself:
>A rajah of an east Indian country invited the twenty-seventh Buddhist patriarch Prajnatara to a feast. The rajah asked him: "Why don't you read scriptures?"
The patriarch said: "This poor wayfarer doesn't dwell in the realms of the body or mind when breathing in, doesn't get involved in myriad circumstances when breathing out -- I always reiterate such a scripture, hundreds, thousands, millions of scrolls.
The dwelling and involvement is the drunkenness, says Prajnatara: we got two eyes for a reason. Breathe in with one eye, breathe out with the other eye.
