|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Chain Links of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: Continuity of Space and the Power of Synergy
To the left is a picture of one of Thangtong Gyalpo's suspension bridges that still stands in Central Bhutan. It is interesting to consider that there might be more to the fact that Thangtong Gyalpo used chain links for his suspension systems than mere elegant functionality.
On the one hand, chain links symbolically illustrate the definition of Tantra, or "continuity:" a string of "energetic presences" or "moments of experience," like a string of beads. However, instead of a string being the symbol of the continuity of awareness within each moment's experience, chains rely on the use of space to create the continuity. As space is sometimes used within the Buddhist teachings as a metaphor for awareness or the nature of mind, this image--the interaction between space and form--is particularly profound.
On the other hand, as Buckminster Fuller points out in his book Operation Manual for Spaceship Earth, chains also illustrate the power of synergy, the power of the immense wisdom and perfection of reality's unfolding beyond the limited scope of our finite senses.
Fuller writes, "By questioning many audiences I have discovered that only about one in three hundred are familiar with synergy. The word is obviously not a popular word. Synergy is the only word in our language that means behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the separately observed behavior of any of the system's separate parts or any subassembly of the system's parts. There is nothing in the chemistry of a toenail that predicts the existence of a human being." (p. 70-71)
Fuller goes on to use the image of a chain in order to explain what he finds inspiring and revolutionary about the notion of synergy:
"Here is a "chain" that is 50 percent stronger than the sum of the strength of all its links. We think popularly only in terms of a chain being no stronger than its weakest link, which concepts fail to consider, for instance, the case of an endlessly interlinked chain of atomically self-renewing links of omni-equal strength or of an omni-directionally interlinked chain matrix of ever-renewed atomic links in which one broken link would be, only momentarily, a local cavern within a whole mass having no weakening effect on the whole, for every link within the matrix is a high frequency, recurring, break-and-make restructuring of the system.
Since synergy is the only word in our language meaning behavior of the parts, it is clear that society does not think that there are behaviors of whole systems unpredicted by their separate parts. This means that society's formally-accredited thoughts and ways of accrediting others are grossly inadequate in comprehending the nonconceptual qualities of the scenario "universal evolution." (p. 71-2)