Friday, August 03, 2012

A Dream for the Blind: A Meditation on Tiresias



What power has "the light of truth" over blind Tiresias? 
Light divides; truth becomes double. A rift is thereby opened, separating truth disclosed by the light of 
reason from sacred, secret truths. What reality does this abyss have for Tiresias?
Tiresias experienced the truth of "the other side of existence" to which rationality, enlightenment, remains 
forever blind. The price paid for this sacred truth was the sacrifice of sight.
The offense commited by Tiresias was not against Hera: it was the decision itself, by which he betrayed his 
privileged knowledge of the fundamental non-duality of existence. Blindness was both his punishment and his 
recompense.
Blindness bestows the gift of prophecy. The blind visionary cannot but fail to enlighten those blinded by 
sight and light: sacred truth remains ineffable, incomprehensible according to reason and speach. 
Tiresias: the prophetic midwife present at the birth of the traged
What power has "the light of truth" over blind Tiresias? 


Light divides; truth becomes double. A rift is thereby opened, separating truth disclosed by the light of reason from sacred, secret truths. What reality does this abyss have for Tiresias?


Tiresias experienced the truth of "the other side of existence" to which rationality, enlightenment, remains forever blind. The price paid for this sacred truth was the sacrifice of sight.


The offense commited by Tiresias was not against Hera: it was the decision itself, by which he betrayed his privileged knowledge of the fundamental non-duality of existence. Blindness was both his punishment and his recompense.


Blindness bestows the gift of prophecy. The blind visionary cannot but fail to enlighten those blinded by sight and light: sacred truth remains ineffable, incomprehensible according to reason and speech. 


Tiresias: the prophetic midwife present at the birth of the tragedy named Reason.



"Man's destiny is to try to avoid the unavoidable. 

His eyes, although eager for light, 

persistently avoid the sun..."

(G. Bataille, Inner Experience)



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