The Logic for Refuting the False “Me”

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Negation Phenomena

Now we’re ready to go onto the second point of the four-point analysis, and this is becoming convinced of the logic that refutes that there is such a thing as these different levels of impossible “me.” The logic for this derives from the definition of a negation phenomenon. We introduced that topic very briefly before, and we saw that validly knowable phenomena could be divided into affirmation phenomena and negation phenomena, either of which can be static or non-static. An example of an affirmation phenomenon is "an apple," and a negation phenomenon would be, for example, "not an apple." So in order to know "not an apple," first you have to know "an apple," and then you have to preclude that it’s that – so it is not an apple.

So, the definition of a negation phenomenon: it is a validly knowable phenomenon – so you can validly know this – and it’s apprehended; "apprehended" means that it can be known with accuracy and certitude. How is it apprehended? It’s apprehended in the manner in which an object to be negated, an apple for example, is explicitly precluded. "Explicit" means that it is obvious, it’s not something hidden; and "precluded" means that it’s not that, it can’t be that. And how is that excluded? It’s excluded by a conceptual cognition that cognizes that phenomenon. That’s not a very easy definition but that’s the definition that we have.

So, preclusion is the conceptual process whereby we formulate sets and counter-sets – sort of a mathematical conceptual process. We have a set and we have a counter-set, regardless of how many members are in each set. The set and counter-set formulated by the preclusion are not only mutually exclusive – nothing can be a member of both sets – but they constitute an actual dichotomy. "Dichotomy" means that all validly knowable phenomena must be in either one set or the other set.

We have a set and a counter-set; they divide everything. So whatever there is has to be either in one set or the other set. There’s nothing that could be in both. Further, the set and counter set constitute an actual dichotomy even if one of the sets is a null set – that is, the counter-set contains no validly knowable phenomena, like "impossible existence" and "not impossible existence." That’s a dichotomy, but there’s nothing in that set of impossible existence. So preclusion implies a previous apprehension of the object to be negated and then exclusion of it from the set of all validly knowable phenomena other than itself. So you knew the object first, before; and then you say it can’t possibly be in any other set than the set that it’s in.

Now, you might wonder how can we apprehend something that doesn’t exist – the impossible “me,” the false “me?’ The only way that we can apprehend something that's impossible is by a mental representation that represents it. So we know a mental apprehension of this “me" – it could be some sort of feeling, some sort of picture or something like that of “me,” of who I am – but that representation doesn’t respond to anything actual; it doesn’t correspond to reality. Let's take the example of chicken lips. There’s no such thing as chicken lips, but we could imagine lips on Daisy Duck or something like that; cartoon lips that are chicken lips or duck lips on this cartoon, Daisy Duck. So there is a representation but it doesn’t correspond to anything real because there are no such things as duck lips or chicken lips. We are projecting human lips onto the cartoon, onto the duck or the chicken. So the same thing in terms of “me;” when we think of an impossible “me” it’s like thinking of chicken lips. Consider for instance our self-image. We imagine something that represents our self-image, but what we imagine that that corresponds to this representation doesn’t exist at all.

[See: The Appearance and Cognition of Nonexistent Phenomena]

So negation phenomenon can only be apprehended once a prior conceptual preclusion has been made. How do you know "not an apple?" First you have to conceptually know the apple and then conceptually exclude it and think, "Not that, not an apple." So a conceptual exclusion has to occur first. This is what we’re going to be doing in our voidness meditation; you have to exclude something.

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