The Power of Paradox For Enlightenment

Most of us in Western society have been brought up with opposing “values”, or virtues.  We the practical values like; winning, making money, eating, action and sex to name a few.

 The Paradox Dilemma

Then we are exposed to religious or moral values like; losing, giving, fasting, passivity, celibacy, to name a few.

These opposing energies often leads to unconscious tremolo and confusion that manifest in our reality.

To transmute our energy from opposition to paradox is a very large leap in our evolution. To engage in opposition is to be ground to bits by the difficulty of life’s problems and events.

Most people spend their life energy supporting this warfare within themselves. One has only to listen to any candid conversation among friends to hear a narration of all the things that are going wrong for them.

A large amount of energy is wasted by individuals in opposing their own situation. Opposition is something like a short-circuit; it also drains our energy away like a hemorrhage.

To transform opposition into paradox is to allow both sides of an issue, both pairs of opposites, to existing equal dignity and worth.

Let’s take this for an example: I should be working on Develop the Mental Strength of Warrior Intensive this morning, but I don’t feel like it and want to do something else.

These two opposing wishes will cancel each other if I let them remain in opposition. But if I sit with them a while they will present a solution that is agreeable to both; or even better, a situation that is superior to either one.

Sometimes a compromise may present itself that is better than opposition but is still not a good solution. I may go for a walk and then settled down to some work, trying to accommodate both my need for productivity and my need for exercise in the outdoors.

But this is not true paradox. If I can stay without conflicting impulses long enough, the two opposing forces will teach each other something and produce an insight that serves them both.

This is not compromise but a depth of understanding that puts my life in perspective and allows me to know with certainty what I should do. That’s certainty is one of the most valuable qualities known to us.

I am almost tempted to describe such a solution, but that would be misleading since every such solution has to grow from the unique situation that one faces. Formulas or devices are never enough at such a moment. The solution must arise from the dynamics of the opposing energies that are facing each other.

Isaac Dinesen, the Danish author of “Out of Africa”, once wrote that there are three occasions for true happiness in human beings.

The first is a surplus of energy, this is the province of youth.

The second is the cessation of pain, this lasts only for a brief moment.

The third is the absolute certainty that one is doing the will of our Higher Self, this is to be realized  by virtue of much work – inner work.

If one has progressed past the duality of life, one has come to the absolute certainty that one is doing the will of their Higher Self. This is the joy that every one of us knows to be our true heritage and that haunts us or inspires us as the goal of life.

This involves nothing less than taking the two lists of virtues and instead of entering a neurotic struggle that pits one against the other, allowing them the noble status of paradox.

It is good to win; it is also good to lose.

It is good to have money; it is also good to give to the poor.

Freedom is good; so is the acceptance of authority.

To view the elements of our life in this paradoxical manner is to open a whole new series of possibilities. Let us not say that the opposites are adverse, but that they make up divine reality that is accessible to us in our human condition.

It’s incorrect to label one of a pair is secular and the other religious. We must reframe this perspective and think that each represents a divine truth. It is only our inability to see the hidden unity that is problematic.

To stay loyal to paradox is to earn the right to unity. Indeed, the most valuable experience of life is this “unified” vision, the most treasured experience of mystical theology, which is achieved by surrendering to paradox.

The medieval world understood this experience, which took one beyond the collision of opposites and brought one into harmony with Infinite Intelligence.

If we stay with the paradox we will find that single vision that is beyond a quarrel and a compromise. We will find instead a unified attitude that organizes our energy to a fine focus that is worthy of the term “enlightenment.”

At Develop the Mental Strength of a Warrior Intensive you will experience firsthand the power of holding a personal paradox.

Reference: Owning Your Own Shadow – Robert A. Johnson