Read time 5 minutes. This is the first stand alone article in our series regarding paradox.
Looking back on the lessons we’ve explored so far, I am once again struck by the power of simplicity. The teachings can be intricate—sometimes overwhelming in their complexity. Yet within simplicity lies a capacity that meets everyone where they are. Paradoxically, it is simplicity itself that unlocks complexity.
The teachings lean often on paradox to make this point. Ironically, paradox can feel complicated. But if we can learn to see through it, paradox becomes the doorway to simplicity.
Duality and paradox
Traditionally, we view simplicity and complexity as opposites—locked in conflict. Where one appears, the other must disappear. This assumption is our first hurdle.
Non-dual teachings point another way. We naturally experience life in dualities—sadness against happiness, dark against light. Non-duality doesn’t erase differences; it reconciles them. Reconciliation restores harmony. It reveals that what appeared as opposition was never truly in conflict.
Through this lens, we begin to see how traditional logic limits us. Logic insists that complexity is better—deeper, more informed—and that simplicity is shallow or insufficient. That bias shapes every experience that follows, erecting boundaries against limitless potential.
Non-duality throws that framework aside. It reminds us of a paradox: simplicity itself reveals complex, experiential truths. This is not a minor shift—it is revolutionary.
Bias vs. preference
To step into this revolution, we must look at bias. Bias is not the same as preference. Bias favors one side unconsciously, without fairness or justification. It rests on assumptions and prejudices. Preference, by contrast, is neutral. We naturally lean toward certain foods, colors, music—but preference does not demand that one thing is higher than another.
Zen does not ask us to abandon preference. It asks us to abandon bias. There is a difference between having an opinion and cherishing an opinion. Which one do you think will be easier to let go of?
If we can release even one bias—our bias for complexity over simplicity—then the rest begin to loosen. The rigid lines we have drawn start to blur. The illusion of separation weakens. We find ourselves open to truths that are not only complex but also alive.
The paradox of complexity within simplicity
Knowledge itself is a paradox. On one hand, it informs. On the other, it limits. There is only so much that can be known. Beyond the known lies the unknown, the realm of the unlimited.
When knowledge calcifies, it breeds rigidity. We cling to categories, words, concepts. But ultimate truth resists such boundaries. It cannot be captured by language. Overanalyzing and overcomplicating only creates distance from direct experience.
This is why the teachings prize emptiness. To empty the cup is to make room. Let go of rigid knowing, and the unknown can flow in. Emptiness is useful not because it gives answers but because it clears space for direct experience.
What you resist, persists. To resist simplicity is to persist in complexity. To open to simplicity is to allow complexity to reveal itself naturally.
Authentic experience
Think of art. How many times have you stood before a painting or read a poem and asked, What does this mean? Traditional logic insists on finding an answer. Yet this pursuit divides: right versus wrong, correct versus incorrect.
But what if you simply looked? What if you let the art move you without needing to interpret? Suddenly, you are in direct relationship with the piece. You are not analyzing—you are experiencing. This is authenticity.
The same applies to life itself. When we insist on constant interpretation, we fracture experience. When we step back, look within, and allow, the boundary between observer and observed begins to fade.
Emptiness and flow
Simplicity is not lesser. It is the clear stream that carries us. Complexity arises within it naturally, like reflections on the water’s surface. The two do not fight each other—they coexist.
The most complex truths cannot be reached by force. They emerge when simplicity and complexity are reconciled. They enrich one another because both arise from the same source: Tao. Within Tao, opposites dissolve. Within Tao, paradox is not a problem to solve but a truth to embody.
This is the resonant magic of existence: the unification of seeming opposites.
Living with paradox
The teachings use paradox not to confuse us but to free us. They ask: can you sit with an unresolved paradox without needing it to collapse into one side or the other?
Traditional logic drives dualities apart, creating tension. But present, unbiased awareness reconciles them. Tension dissolves. Relations are restored. What once felt divided reveals itself as one.
This is not an intellectual trick. It is an invitation to live differently. To let simplicity show you complexity. To let paradox lead you to presence.
The first paradox is this: complexity emerges most authentically from simplicity. From here, many others will follow.
Explore more:
Walt Whitman’s Song Of Myself is layered with paradox. Of particular relevance to us are the paradoxical dualities of the self. Whitman alludes to the body and the soul, the individual and the universe, and the worldly and the transcendent. “Do I contradict myself? I contain multitudes.”
Consider this analysis by Jeffrey Gordon on Tin House within the context of experiential understanding. “… what presents itself to us as ever new, ever subject to discovery. This dimension cannot be mastered because it lies beneath the realm of language; it connects us with things in their primordiality, where their profiles are inexhaustible.” Yes, the profile of Tao, too, is inexhaustible.
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