Neurotika Blog – Paradigms.

As we evolve through the changes -we are faced with a crisis. In some ways we come to a point where we unlearn what we’ve learned. Our belief system is based on a paradigm -that we use to respond to whatever life gives us.

When we come to the crisis -we realize that this paradigm is wrong for us -and we accept a new paradigm. All systems and structures are no more than tools. The finger pointing at the moon -is not the moon. These tools are ways of simplifying a complex world. They are ways of strengthening -but are necessarily imperfect. One has to change a paradigm occasionally. The law of entropy is -that whatever does not change inevitably dies. So the paradigm you follow is no more than an imposed law or doctrine. All laws and doctrines are false and misleading. However one can use it -as a weapon against suffering.
All dualities are heresies. They arise out of man’s need to impose language on reality. But once again -it’s just the finger pointing at the moon. Man sees the two sides of his nature -and invents a reason for opposing forces of the universe. Still it is true that all contradictions are at one in the human heart. He does not know this because he’s discarded the part of him that listens to the secret language of nature. This is the paradigm of ‘manifest destiny’ and comes from a history of plunder and misuse. This paradigm is the rootless state of mankind. How he seeks for his lost soul -in the possessions and drugs of his lifestyle. How he escapes the truth by surrendering to the worries that come out of ignorance and distraction. Man has called down a whirlwind -and waits for judgement. He believes that desperation is the normal mode of life.
Art is an expression that arises out of questions. The man who believes in an ultimate truth is fixated upon his ideals. Questions that provoke controversy are not welcome. The man who preserves and secures his world -is often irritated by such questions. His paradigm is ‘The Tower’ and it stands as a testimony to his ordered world. It is true that in times of disaster -this fortress falls. Even so he invests his money in the bank of the world -and not the bank of the soul. Even if he assumes that the tower is always going to stand -he is fraught with a dour pessimism. He speaks of doom and desolation as he argues for his fate. He is determined by the past -and pulled by the future. This is what I call the paradigm of Time. This is the realm of chronological Man. He plans a beginning and an end -and follows a dead history. This paradigm is inevitably a thing of consequences. Art is a refutation of this and disregards that one branch of past-future. Art is an infinite crossroads of possibilities -in this labyrinth of reality. The paradigm of art is of optimism.
Such an optimism is needed in order to create -because we are faced with the possibility that our art will be accepted in a fashion. We are not afraid of consequences -and so we remake reality. The paradigm of Time -is the paradigm of judgement. We are punished for our sins. If we are afraid of some kind of reckoning -we would not bother creating artwork. We must choose a new paradigm -one not only of optimism but of freedom. This is the ‘rising sun’ model -where we look forward to an unblemished foresight. The rising sun paradigm is a thing of survival -in that if we do not look forward than we are defeated -and the defeated man dies inexorably. To respond -to have ‘responsibility’ is to believe good fortune will come. Every man chooses a different truth anyway -as all things depend on belief anyway -so why not choose a truth you like?
The optimist does not accept things submissively and in fact creates his dreams in outside reality. The truth he invents -invariably leads to deliverance from lies. Truth is a jewel you hold up to the light -it changes as it moves. The paradigm of the rising sun -is an attitude. Art is only done by those who are active and involved in their society. To invite disaster is to isolate yourself. To respond to things -one must risk being the fool. When we face the rising sun -we do not face the setting sun -we have exchanged one paradigm for another. We have taken charge of our life.