Discordia

A young zen student studied for years and years and could find no peace. He went from roshi to roshi asking »What is the buddha?«, but remained dissatisfied with the answers he recieved. Finally, one said »travel to this building, where you must sit in the northeast corner of the basement, speaking to no one, for an entire month.« The monk did as he was told, and found the house to be broken down and condemned, with a full community of squatters living within. He found a large pile of rubble in the northeast corner of the basement, and sat upon it. After a month, two of the squatters walked by. One asked the other, »Who IS that guy?« The other replied, »Some say he is a Holy Man. Others say he is a Shit Head.« Hearing that, the student was enlightened.

THE SACRED CHAO

THE SACRED CHAO is the key to illumination. Devised by the Apostle Hung Mung in ancient China, it was modified and popularized by the Taoists and is sometimes called the YIN-YANG. The Sacred Chao is not the Yin-Yang of the Taoists. It is the HODGE-PODGE of the Erisians. And, instead of a Podge spot on the Hodge side, it has a PENTAGON which symbolizes the ANERISTIC PRINCIPLE, and instead of a Hodge spot on the Podge side, it depicts the GOLDEN APPLE OF DISCORDIA to symbolize the ERISTIC PRINCIPLE.

The Sacred Chao symbolizes absolutely everything anyone need ever know about absolutely anything, and more! It even symbolizes everything not worth knowing, depicted by the empty space surrounding the Hodge-Podge.

HERE FOLLOWS SOME PSYCHO-METAPHYSICS.

If you are not hot for philosophy, best just to skip it.

The Aneristic Principle is that of APPARENT ORDER; the Eristic Principle is that of APPARENT DISORDER. Both order and disorder are man made concepts and are artificial divisions of PURE CHAOS, which is a level deeper that is the level of distinction making.

With our concept making apparatus called »mind« we look at reality through the ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us. The ideas-about- reality are mistakenly labeled »reality« and unenlightened people are forever perplexed by the fact that other people, especially other cultures, see »reality« differently. It is only the ideas-about-reality which differ. Real (capital-T True) reality is a level deeper that is the level of concept.

We look at the world through windows on which have been drawn grids (concepts). Different philosophies use different grids. A culture is a group of people with rather similar grids. Through a window we view chaos, and relate it to the points on our grid, and thereby understand it. The ORDER is in the GRID. That is the Aneristic Principle.

Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with contrasting one grid with another grid, and amending grids in hopes of finding a perfect one that will account for all reality and will, hence, (say unenlightened westerners) be True. This is illusory; it is what we Erisians call the ANERISTIC ILLUSION. Some grids can be more useful than others, some more beautiful than others, some more pleasant than others, etc., but none can be more True than any other.

DISORDER is simply unrelated information viewed through some particular grid. But, like »relation«, no-relation is a concept. Male, like female, is an idea about sex. To say that male-ness is »absence of female-ness«, or vice versa, is a matter of definition and metaphysically arbitrary. The artificial concept of no-relation is the ERISTIC PRINCIPLE.

The belief that »order is true« and disorder is false or somehow wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the ERISTIC ILLUSION.

The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T) Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears disordered. Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear differently ordered and disordered.

Reality is the original Rorschach.

Verily! So much for all that.


The words of the Foolish and those of the Wise
Are not far apart in Discordian Eyes.
(HBT; The Book of Advise, 2:1)

At least she was more creative than Mr. Tell and even the biblical snake at using apples for merry mischief.... and as »gimme that oldtime religion« says: That's good enough for me. :-)

Hail Eris!

The reader of this message is a genuine and authorized pope! Feel free to invoke your popely powers in the name of Eris. Religion is one of those things that defines reality, so you'd better pick a good one. Reality is what you make it. What's sauce for the goose may not be sauce for the poodle.