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DISCLAIMER: This document does not meet current format guidelines Graduate School at the The University of Texas at Austin. of the It has been published for informational use only. Copyright by Sharon Avital 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Sharon Avital Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Rhetoric of the Ineffable- Awakening in Judaism, Christianity and Zen Committee: Barry Brummett, Supervisor Robert Abzug Dana Cloud Joshua Gunn Margaret Syverson The Rhetoric of the Ineffable- Awakening in Judaism, Christianity and Zen by Sharon Avital, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2010 TO MY PARENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No words can describe the happiness and gratitude I feel as this long journey nears its end. Nevertheless, this page is dedicated to expressing this inexpressible gratitude. From this appreciation page at the beginning to the reference page at the end— this dissertation expresses a primary tenet: there are no origins, everything is interconnected, and nothing is independent. This dissertation is all things but original. It speaks the minds of innovative thinkers, it was revised to the advice of brilliant teachers, and was written thanks to the support of beloved friends and family. The fresh water of Barton springs, the bustling streets of Tel-Aviv, the magic of Oaxaca, the lessons of my pain and joys, English and Hebrew, Otherness and Hospitality—this dissertation stands in the midst of them all. But beings must be named and the first to be recognized is my advisor, Professor Barry Brummett. Throughout this long and winding road, Barry remained attentive, responsive, grounded, funny, and very smart. Meeting me wherever I was at each point in time, he gently nudged me in a better direction. I have also been fortunate to have had other wonderful scholars on my committee: Professor Robert Abzug, Professor Margaret Syverson, Professor Dana Cloud and Professor Joshua Gunn. Your commitment to bringing academia and life together—helping this world realize its perfection—have inspired and touched me deeply. You are not only great scholars but also great teachers in the more profound sense of the word. I owe a great debt to my other teachers too: Swami Surpananda, S. N. Goenka, Master Ama Samy, Flint Sparks, and Betty Holms. The realizations sparked by their wisdom and compassion framed my meetings with the texts…and everything else. (Insert: tears, laughter and prostrations.) v Wonderful and bright friends have helped by offering advice and proofreading skills: Bhikkhu Cintita Dinsmore, Jonas Moses, Thad Cox, Meghan Dunn, Dannee Pye, David Collins, and Josh Hanan. Some of these and others have helped me be at meaningful points in time: Mai Segev, Zum, Sharon Peri, Laura Farb, Michael Worchel, Heather Hardeman, Ted McConaghy, and Rachid Moussaid. I have been lucky to study in a wonderful department filled with a most helpful staff. Susan Corbin, Jenniffer Betancourt, Deanna Matthews, and Margaret Surratt have all assisted me with every question, trouble, and need. Like four mothers, they attended to the well-being of each and every one of us, making sure that the trains remained on the tracks. Last but not least, this dissertation is dedicated to my most beloved and supportive family. From beginning to end, each letter and every space was created thanks to them. vi The Rhetoric of the Ineffable- Awakening in Judaism, Christianity and Zen Publication No._____________ Sharon Avital, Ph.D The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Supervisor: Barry Brummett This dissertation rhetorically analyzes the ways in which ineffable moments of awakening are constructed in the context of three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Zen. Close textual analysis revealed that awakening is constructed differently in all three religions and that ineffability itself assumed different meanings in all cases. The conventional understanding of language as arbitrary and as based on human convention does not apply to Hebrew which takes itself to be a sacred language. Words are understood in this tradition as creative elements that convey more than trivial information and the term ineffability does not occupy much thought in Judaism. Christianity is grounded in a representative model of language and equates words with mortality and temporality. Awakening is constructed ontologically as moments in which textuality and corporality are transcended and one merges with the infinite divine. Zen is cautious about the ways in which language constructs the illusion of vii distinct identities, but ineffability is not constructed as an ontological concept in this tradition. Awakening is understood as beyond all words. The tropes recognized in the Jewish construction of awakening are metonymy, dialogue, differences, juxtapositions, particularities, haunting, and intertextuality. In Christianity, the dominant tropes are allegory, typology, metaphors, substitution, replacement and abstraction. Awakening is modeled after the resurrection of Jesus and is understood as a dramatic and ineffable event. The dominant rhetorical moves in Zen are suchness, nonsense, and paradoxes. Differences are also found between the construction of subjectivity, the perception of time, aesthetics, the linguistic model and ineffability. Judaism views itself as an architecture of time, but this time is not linear and is instead understood by the qualitative moments of the events. Awakening maintains the reverberations of past events into the present, but present moments are given significant attention. In Christianity, man is understood as grounded in space and progressing on a linear axis of time from birth towards his telos. Ineffability is constructed spatially and the event of awakening divides life into before and after. Zen attempts to deconstruct time and views it as sunyata, or ―emptiness‖. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. XII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION- INEFFABILITY AND AWAKENING ........................................ 1 The Ineffable and Rhetoric ......................................................................................... 8 The Ineffable – Definition and History ..................................................................... 14 The Breadth of the Ineffable ..................................................................................... 21 Mystical Experiences ............................................................................................ 26 Aesthetic Appreciation.......................................................................................... 31 Love ...................................................................................................................... 36 Pain ....................................................................................................................... 38 Summary ............................................................................................................... 40 Awakening ................................................................................................................ 42 What is entailed by ‗Awakening‘? ........................................................................ 43 The Awakened Ones and the Birth of Language .................................................. 50 Research Questions ................................................................................................... 55 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 55 The Texts .................................................................................................................. 56 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW—FROM REPRESENTATION TO CO-CREATION ......... 58 Representation........................................................................................................... 59 Plato: Language as Ontology ................................................................................ 60 Aristotle: Words and Things ................................................................................. 64 The Crisis of Representation ..................................................................................... 67 Resemblance ......................................................................................................... 69 Order ..................................................................................................................... 71 The Death of God and the Appearance of Man .................................................... 75 Origins and Contexts................................................................................................. 81 Eastern Philosophies ............................................................................................. 82 Western Philosophies ............................................................................................ 86 Wittgenstein .......................................................................................................... 90 Jacques Derrida ..................................................................................................... 93 Terministic Screens ................................................................................................