I am really interested in the odds right now.
Odds strongly favor remaining at odds ad infinitum, unless...
Whenever I feel overwhelmed by anger, fear, sadness
We discover
The Balance
We are that great act. It's called
Forgiveness.
We say, "forgive and forget." Could there be an ontological root to that saying? Maybe we can compare the (supposedly) disparate paths of the heart and mind to find out.
First, some dilettante mathematics of infinity. Well, maybe it's not quite that bad. I'll leave it for others (
1,
2,
3) to decide.
Infinity, Zero and One have a fascinating relationship. They are capitalized here to
imply their Divine origins. Each is Whole and they are sort of holons of each other. Only for convenience are these considered numerically here - the contention is that they are not numbers, but realities. Zero is not the natural number (non-negative integer)
0. One is not the natural number 1. Infinity is not a succession of natural (or real) number running forever to
oo (used here as imperfect but suitable symbol for numerical infinity). However, those numerical concomitants -
1,
0,
oo - are useful to describe the relationship of the Divine as a ratio of the capacities of Heart and Mind - forgive and forget.
Consider the ratios expressed simply but not precisely as fractions:
1/
0 =
oo, or
1/
oo =
0. They are better described by saying: as the denominator gets larger, the real number expressed by the faction gets smaller, and visa-versa, with the limits on each end being
0 and
oo. Notice also that the numerator doesn't really have to be
1; it can be any real number. After all, if we use 1 or 39.37008, what is the difference? In this case it's just an artifact of unit convention: 1 meter is the same distance as 39.37008 inches. The point is, the unit
1 can be anything at all relatively, but absolutely it is whole.
Now, let's look at the Heart-Mind ratio.
The path of the bhakta, the heart path supposes mastery as the state in which the heart is so full of devotion that there is no room for anything else. It's the realm of saints, and the object of devotion is always the same Whole, regardless of which units (i.e. religious preferences) are used to describe that Whole. It is said that the subject, the heart of the saint, is so full of devotion to the object, that subject is able to recognize itself and its object as One. Think of stories of the lives Christian saints bearing stigmata. These people were so devoted to their ideation of the One, that they embodied the particular features of that ideation. Whether those stories are true seems irrelevant, or at least metaphorical. They point to a higher reality, and that seems to be the point of bhakta stories. These so-called saints are mystically connected to the One through the Heart in such a way that it's all they experience.
The same can be said, but in the inverse, about the path of the jnani. The Buddhist example of no-mind is probably the most recognizable. Meditation is supposed to quiet the mind. There are other examples, like Sri Ramana Maharshi's teaching of atma-vichara, or self-enquiry, was aimed at dismissing limited identification to the point of dissolution of ego. Whether or not that is to believed as a viable goal, the idea is to sweep out the little things so that nothing remains but the unadorned Self. The jnani supposedly sees through the mind because it has been made clear and unobstructed. A good example is the quote by J. Krishnamurti, who said, "Do you want to know my secret? I don't mind what happens." The sage is mystically connected to the One though Mind and that experience is supposedly complete.
For the bhakta, the Heart dismisses partiality. For the jnani, the Mind does it. Either way, there's nothing left to worry about. The two paths are supposed to be equal because they both reveal that there is no difference between emptiness of mind and fullness of heart. Zero, or emptiness is not void, but unbounded potential. Infinity, or fullness is not bloated, but unbounded realization. They are inversions of one-another - two sides of the same One coin. Flip it. Forgive or forget. Either by way of the bhakta or the jnani, We win!