Q & A
The following Questions and Answers pertain primarily to
topics of this website and related issues.
Which concepts and topics play the most important role on
this website?
abstraction
(see Healing
Thinking through non-identity
(Korzybski))
AQAL map, AQAL model, AQAL philosophy, etc. (see
Wilber's AQAL Map and
Beyond)
balance (see, e.g., Health)
both/and logic (see, e.g.,
Healing Thinking through both/and logic, Buddhist and Jain
logic)
Buddhist logic (ibid.)
complementarity, perspectivism (see, e.g.,
Complementarity
of different maps and mandalas)
continuum (see, e.g., Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 4:
The Dynamic Mandala)
continuum morphology (see Plant
Morphology)
dance, kosmic dance (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 7:
The kosmic dance)
dynamic mandala (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 4:
The dynamic mandala)
dynamics, transformation, flow, fluidity, change,
impermanence (see The dynamic mandala and
Transformation of the dynamic
mandala)
either/or logic (see Ways of
thinking)
extensional devices (see Healing
Thinking through non-identity
(Korzybski))
form is emptiness (see, e.g., About)
fuzziness, fuzzy logic, fuzzy sets (see Healing
Thinking through fuzzy logic)
healing thinking (see Healing
Thinking and Being)
healthy thinking (see Healthy thinking
and Ken Wilber)
health, healing (see Health and
Quotes on health and
healing)
hierarchy (holarchy) (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 1:
Hierarchy and beyond)
holistic, holism (ibid.)
holomovement (ibid.)
integral, integration (see Links and
Wilber's AQAL Map and
Beyond)
integral movement, integral philosophy, integral spirituality
(ibid.)
Jain logic, anekant, many-sidedness (see
Healing thinking through both/and logic, Buddhist and Jain
logic)
jokes, kosmic joke (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chpater 7:
The kosmic dance)
language, language structure (see Present
Interests)
laughter, laughter yoga (see Laughter and
Laughter
Quotes)
liberation, enlightenment (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 7:
The kosmic dance)
laws of thought (see Ways of
thinking)
mandala, map (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 4:
The dynamic mandala)
meditation (see Beyond
thinking, writing, and speaking - the
unnamable)
mystery, mysterious (see, e.g., Quotes from
holistic scientists)
mysticism (see Mystic Quotes)
network thinking (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 2:
Either/or logic and beyond)
non-Aristotelian logic (see Ways of
thinking)
non-identity (see Healing
thinking through non-identity
(Korzybski))
one, oneness (see, e.g., Quotes from
holistic scientists)
play, playfulness (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 7:
The kosmic dance)
process, process philosophy, process morphology (see
Plant
Morphology)
spirituality (see Wilber's AQAL Map and
Beyond and
Wisdom Quotes)
tolerance (see, e.g., Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 6:
Complementarity)
undivided wholeness (ibid.)
unnamable (see Beyond
thinking, writing, and speaking - the
unnamable)
wholeness, interconnectedness (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 1:
Hierarchy and beyond)
Yin/Yang, Yin/Yang thinking, Dao (Tao) (see, e.g.,
Ways of thinking
and
About)
etc.
Which
authors (scientists, philosophers, sages) mentioned on this
website have the greatest significance to
me?
Arber, Agnes (see Plant
morphology)
Aristotle (see, e.g., Healing Thinking and Being,
Chapter 1: Ways of thinking)
Bohm, David (see Present Interests
and
Hierarchy and beyond)
Buddha (see, e.g.,
Healing Thinking and Being, Chapter 3)
Cusset, Gerard (see Plant
Morphology)
Dalai Lama (see, e.g., About)
Einstein, Albert (see, e.g., Quotes from
holistic scientists)
Gebser, Jean (see, e.g., Healing Thinking and Being,
Introduction)
Jeune, Bernard (see Plant
Morphology and
Publications)
Kosko, Bart (see, e.g., Healing
Thinking and Being, Chapter 2)
Korzybski, Alfred, and Kodish, Susan and Bruce (see
Healing
Thinking and Being, Chapter 4)
Laozi (Lao-Tzu) (see, e.g., About)
Laureyssens, Dirk (see Links and
Perspectivism and
Complementarity)
McClintock, Barbara (see, e.g., Quotes from
holistic scientists)
McFarlane, Thomas (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 6:
Complementarity)
Osho (see Wilber's AQAL Map and Beyond, Chapter 7:
The kosmic dance)
Rutishauser, Rolf (see Plant
Morphology and
Publications)
Wilber, Ken (throughout the website)
etc.
Although some of the above authors are mentioned only
briefly, all of them have great significance for me.
What is health? How can we understand health?
According to Chinese medicine, health involves balance. It is
also related to wholeness and holiness – health, wholeness,
and holiness have the same etymological root. Thus, we could
say that health implies balance in sacred wholeness (see also
Quotes on Health and
Healing).
What does healthy thinking mean?
Healthy thinking provides for greater sanity than harmful
thinking that seems exclusively based on the Aristotelian
laws of thought (see Healing Thinking and Being,
Chapter 1).
What
does healing thinking mean?
Healing thinking heals the wounds inflicted by an exclusive
reliance on the Aristotelian laws of thought that we tend to
take for granted (see Healing Thinking and Being,
Chapter 1).
How
do our ways of thinking relate to happiness?
The
Dalai Lama said “Achieving genuine happiness may require
bringing about a
transformation in your outlook and way of thinking.” In order
to transform our way of thinking, we first have to become
aware of its presuppositions and its limitations. Then we can
try to overcome them by more inclusive ways of thinking such
as fuzzy
logic (continuum
logic in contrast to either/or logic)
Yin-Yang thinking, both/and logic, Buddhist logic, and Jain
logic. Finally we can
transcend language based on logic and thinking to embrace
the mysterious
that cannot be
thought and talked about. “The most beautiful thing we can
experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true
art and science (Albert Einstein).
Why
laughter?
It is fun,
healthy, healing, liberating, and much else (see
Laughter
Quotes). Whenever we
are stuck in a thought or way of thinking, laughing can
liberate us and thus open the doors to new possibilities.
Why
playfulness?
Because, like laughter, it makes us unstuck. Often we do not
even realize how stuck we are, how much this limits, and what
misery it entails for ourselves and others. “Play is the
highest form of research” (Albert Einstein).
Why
do I consider Ken Wilber’s AQAL map very important?
For many reasons.
Many people tend to lead one-dimensional lives and equate one
level with reality. Ken Wilber’s AQAL map reminds us of the
many dimensions and levels of life and reality. It integrates
“matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit as they appear in self,
culture and nature” (Ken Wilber) (see
AQAL Map by Ken Wilber integrates the Unnamable and
Namable).
In
which ways does Ken Wilber’s AQAL map appear limited?
In many ways (see, for example, the Integral World website
and Wilber’s AQAL Map and
Beyond: Summary and
Conclusions). One of the
most fundamental limitations involves its basically
hierarchical (holarchical) structure, which means that
“the Kosmos is a series of nests within nests within nests
indefinitely” (Ken Wilber. 2001. A Theory
of Everything. Boston:
Shambala, p. 40). Besides the hierarchical (holarchical)
view of the Kosmos, I can see other ways or other ordering
principles that complement and enrich Ken Wilber's view
(see Wilber’s AQAL
Map and Beyond and for a
summary of these complementary views see
Ken Wilber, Holarchy, and
Beyond).
How
can we overcome limitations of Ken Wilber’s AQAL map?
In two ways: 1.
Incorporating constructive criticism presented by many
critics including myself (see, for example, the
Integral World website
and Wilber’s AQAL and
Beyond: Summary and Conclusions: Beyond Wilber’s
AQAL Map, and Removing Limitations in Wilber’s AQAL
Map). 2.
Recognizing the principle of complementarity, which means
recognizing that different and even contradictory maps
complement each other and thus together present a richer
picture of reality than any one map alone.
Dynamic
mandala – what does it mean to me?
A mandala with
many conceptual and artistic transformations, each of which
presents a different perspective of reality. Ken Wilber’s
AQAL map, which can be seen as a mandala, appears as one of
the transformations of the dynamic mandala (see
Complementarity
of Different Maps and Mandalas and
Wilber’s
AQAL Map and Beyond,
Chapter 5).
How do the major themes of this website: Ken Wilber’s AQAL
map, health and laughter relate to each other?
Laughter enhances physical, emotional and mental health.
Health enhances our ability to devise healthy maps of the
Kosmos including human existence.
Ken Wilber’s AQAL map appears healthy, balanced to a great
extent. However, it could benefit from still greater balance,
that is, it could be rendered still healthier (see, for
example, Integral World and
Healthy Thinking
and Ken Wilber).
Why do I consider Korzybski’s General Semantics so important?
For many reasons. It provides ways of thinking and linguistic
devices that lead to greater sanity than our commonly
accepted ways of thinking, writing and speaking that are
based on Aristotelian logic. Furthermore, it points beyond
thinking to the ground of being, the unspeakable, the
unnamable, the mysterious…(see Healing
Thinking and Being, Chapter 4).
Some
of Korzybski’s most famous quotes?
“Whatever you say it is, it isn’t.”
“The map is not the territory.”
“The word is not the thing.”
“Whatever
you say it is, it isn’t.” Why does this quote mean so much to
me? Why do I consider it of utmost importance?
It means that whatever you say about a person, a group, a
nation, a situation, a thing, etc., it isn’t. For example, if
I said 'He is bad,” he isn’t, if I said 'She is good,” she
isn’t, if I said ‘This nation is poor,” it isn’t, if I said
'This situation is hopeless,” it isn’t, if I said 'This thing
is awful,' it isn’t, etc. Whatever I said, it isn’t. It isn’t
because anything is infinitely more than can be said about
it. For example, nobody is only bad. Even someone who appears
very bad has countless other qualities and some or all of
these qualities including the badness may change as time
passes. Thus, one cannot really say what he 'is.' He is the
unspeakable, the unnamable, mysterious. If, however, we want
to underline the badness, it appears more appropriate to say
'He appears bad, etc,' whereby the 'etc' refers to all the
other qualities that may also include goodness as the Yang
includes Yin and vice versa. When we recognize that there is
also goodness in a person we call bad, then we can relate to
the goodness in that person through our own goodness, and we
can relate to the badness through our own badness. Hermann
Hesse, in his “Siddharta” wrote “never is a man wholly a
saint or a sinner.”
Recognizing that whatever we say he or she or it is, isn’t,
appears liberating because we seem no longer trapped in any
statement that implies an identification such as, for
example, the identification of that person or that nation or
that situation with badness. We can see that that person,
nation, or situation is infinitely more than just badness,
that it cannot be fully represented through thought and
language as has been amply pointed out by Korzybski
.
What
does E-Prime mean?
E-Prime (short for English-Prime) refers to a form of the
English language that avoids the verb ‘to be.’ Thus, for
example, instead of saying ‘His idea is bad,’ one would say
‘I find his idea bad’ or ‘I dislike his idea.’ This
expression indicates that I am involved with regard to his
idea and I express what I think or feel. What his idea really
‘is’, we don’t know. We can argue about it, but it finally
boils down to our personal view or opinions. So why not use a
form of language that indicates this directly instead of
pretending that we know what it ‘is.’
D. David Bourland, Jr., who studied with Korzybski, objected
to all forms of the verb ‘to be’ in all situations.
Korzybski, however, emphasized only two kinds of problematic
usages of the verb ‘to be,’ which he referred to as the ‘is’
of identity and the ‘is’ of predication. The ‘is’ of identity
links two nouns such as ‘This politician is a liar,’ whereas
the ‘is’ of predication links a noun with an adjective as in
the above example ‘His idea is bad.’
Instead of saying ‘This politician is a liar,’ one could say
‘This politician seems a liar,’ or ‘I consider this
politician a liar.’ If one does not want to eliminate the
‘is’ as advocated in E-Prime, one could at least say ‘This
politician is a liar, etc’ as Korzybski
suggested.
Whichever strategy we use, being aware of the two problematic
usages of the verb ‘to be’ could lead to a saner society (as
pointed out by Korzybski) because a
"great deal of human problems, confusions, conflicts, and
violence, at diverse levels - personal, interpersonal,
societal, and international - can be attributed to our use
of "is" in the identification and predication mode"
(Milton Dawes. 2010. Clearer thinking through practicing
E-Prime. ETC: Review of General Semantics 67(4), p. 451).
My book Wilber's AQAL
Map and Beyond as well as most
sections of this website were written before I became fully
aware of the problematic uses of the verb 'to be' and
therefore the above alternatives are unfortunately not always
incorporated. However, in this list of Q & A I have
mostly avoided the ‘is’ of identity and predication, or I
have used Korzybski’s "etc" qualification. In the question on
health, I used a formulation with ‘is’ and another without
it. In the answer to the following question on the kosmic
joke, I used ‘are’ because it does not refer to any limited
reality but to all-embracing kosmic reality.
How can we grasp the kosmic joke?
We grasp it by recognizing that we are already what we are
seeking. It seems like noticing that we already wear the
glassing we are searching (see The Cosmic Joke. Interview
with Chuck Hillig, In: Jan Kersschot.2004.
This
is It. Dialogues on th Nature of
Oneness. London: Watkins
Publishing, p. 164).
.