The premise of this project is as follows: if you can understand how comedy works, you can understand how ‘the mind’ works. But we don’t get taught how to think, or rather, we get taught how to think ‘in opposites’.
I first came across this idea when reading Fritjov Capra, The Tao of Physics many moons ago.
The “this” is also “that.” The “that” is also “this.” . . . That the “that” and the “this” cease to be opposites is the very essence of Tao.
Chuang Tzu
This needs to be seen in contrast/context of ‘that’ so that this and that cease to be opposite.
The this and the that are non-separate
The this and the that are non-dual.
The idea that underlying what we could call Western mind (but is really Western language) we tend to split ‘this’ away from ‘that’.
It is not only in Taoism do we see this principle.
Putting it another way, from The Third Patriarch of Zen I found this: Hsin Hsin Ming by Seng-T’san
The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood,
the mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
Source: http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/buddhism/third_patriarch_zen.html
If you take a look at the logo of the Crazy/Genius school and you will see this principle.
It’s complex yet simple, about nothing and everything, subtle yet obvious.
As soon as there is an ‘us’ there is a ‘them. As soon as there is a front, there is a back. As soon as there are expectations, disappointment emerges (then you have %s of likelihood); as soon as there is loyalty, there is the chance of betrayal.
The aim is to live without reference points, transcending the ‘splitting’ of this/that in our perception of reality, mediated by language.
The Crazy/Genius School of Thought has the rebirth of this principle in the logo – taking the well know Taoist symbol and (somewhat accidentally) re-creating it.
