ZAM

Raw art: August O'Connor; Enhancements: Dr Jabir

ZAM

The Monist insists One Reality is true.
But Dualists believe that Reality is Two.

The most famous Dualist was Rene' Descartes
Who thought Matter and Mind are Reality's parts.
Also Muslims and Catholics divide up the Whole
(along with Billie Holiday) into Body and Soul.

Bishop Berkeley for whom
                       Berkeley campus is named
Was a Monist who claimed 
                          only Mind can be blamed
For all we perceive 
                  through the senses that guide us
And the whole starry universe
That only just seems to be living outside us.

That Matter is King is the orthodox creed
Of the Monistic church of the science stampede
Whose catechism states in mathematical patter
That mind is merely some mishmash of matter.

A different foundation has been nurtured among
Atmanspacher, Spinoza, Wolfgang Pauli and Jung
Dual-aspect Monism is beating the drum:
Saying Reality's Heart is unspeakably One.

But this One when envisioned 
                            from multiple stances
Can seem to divide into alien romances.
One kind of cutting makes Matter and Mind
Which humans call life of the everyday kind.

But what if a different style 
                                   of carving up the One
Would give us new experiences 
                            that physics cannot plumb?
By slightly twisting our angle of view
Could we find different ways of being two?

To dramatize this Dual-Aspect Monistic view
I've chosen ZAM as acronym 
                                     for One begetting Two.

(ZAM stands for "Zwei-Aspekte Monismus")

I am ZAM.

As pure white light divides itself
into both red and blue
the fundamental Oneness
splits Herself in two

I am ZAM.
I am ZAM.
I am ZAM.

And best of all, honey,
so are you.

Dr Jabir opens the veil