The Center and Circumference of Silence: Yoga, Poststructuralism, and the Rhetoric of Paradox Author(s): George Kalamaras Reviewed

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The center and circumference of silence: Yoga, and the rhetoric of paradox poststnicturalism,

George

Kalamaras

[T]he divine eye is cento" everywhere,

circumference

nowhere. Yogananda

?Paramahansa

THE CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL DEPRIVATION OF POSTSTRUCTURALIST POETICS

In recent decades sacred experience in general, and in particular that of silence, has been interrogated by poststructuralist theory. This critique argues against the naming of a condition that it perceives as being separate from discursive repre sentation, casting such a condition as a 'metaphysics' that sees itself as separate from social and cultural conditions (see, for instance, Derrida 1978: Chapter 4). Hindu philosophies of meditative silence, built as they are upon an examination of nondiscursive realms, quite naturally fall prey to certain of these post structuralist arguments. Jacques Derrida, for one, depicts the condition of the unsaid as a 'violence of primitive and prelogical silence' (1978: 130). Silence, he maintains, speaking cultural power. threatens is a condition subject must only of cultural oppression, a 'violence' that the or to overthrow if one is to have any psychological try is most silence often a 'death' that

hinders symbolic to experience; in the of absence furthermore, any 'meaning' it even as the endless 'play' of words?or, 'mirrors' Michel Foucault describes, prevents a play of discourse that alone contains, as he argues, 'a single ?themselves, power' that prevents the speaking subject from falling into the abyss of silence: access

For the postmodern sensibility in general, silence the power to make meaning. Specifically,

International ?

Journal

of Hindu Studies 1, 1 (April 1997): 3-18. 1997 by theWorld Heritage Press Inc.

4 / George Kalamaras 'Headed toward death, language turns back upon itself; it encounters something but a like a mirror; and to stop this death which would stop it, it possesses single power: that of giving birth to its own image in a play of mirrors that has no limits' means the only then, language becomes (1977: 54). In such a depiction, a of preventing one from slipping into the void of silence, nihilistic?or,

that inhibits one's power to make argues, 'primitive'?condition a such the Within meditative traditions of India become meaning. depiction, a of the rational or philoso suspect as either tools of metaphysical mystification phies of spiritual transcendence which ignore social dimensions of language and, thus, are grounded in and maintain oppressive systems of discourse. as Derrida in recent decades of post Both one of the greatest strengths and weaknesses structuralist poetics (which take their lead from poststructuralist theory) has been to pose problems with the nature of the 'sacred.' While Romantic concepts of sacred experience as a condition lying outside textuality have served in large discourse and the mean measure to reinforce hegemonic culture by mystifying as it several inscribes, poststructuralist critiques rightly argue, the absence ings in poetic of, and in some cases hostility toward, authentic sacred experience theory has left our most radical poetries culturally and spiritually deprived. The seems to lie in postmodern epistemology primary culprit in this deprivation indeed offers a new liberatory ground from which to itself. Poststnicturalism its method of dismantling systems of discourse. However, critique oppressive systems of discourse faces two serious limitations: the inability to conceive of the condition of paradox as, first of all, a generative experience, and, furthermore, as a kind of 'center' itself, albeit a reconstituted or 'decentered' one. Indeed, the concept of paradox as center ought to be examined with the same 'origins.' As Derrida, scrutiny that accompanies oppressive claims to discursive a first, originary expe among others, has argued, a concept of 'origins* implies rience, an 'essence,' that language can never represent. 'Origins,' he argues, or 'themeaning of being represented.. .will never be given us in person, outside the a concept can lead to a hierar sign or outside play' (Derrida 1976: 266). Such chical system which carries with it cultural oppression of those subjects who hierarchical speak from the margins and not from the cent?* of the privileged discourse. of radical poetries in the Iwant to argue that the apprehensiveness However, of last several decades to even approach a reassessment concepts of a 'center' 'center' at the core of poststructuralist poetic suggests itself a kind of oppressive theory often posits an epistemological theory. Specifically, poststructuralist that is, those ground that holds suspect those systems different from 'itself,' 'center.' positioned at the circumference of poststructuralism's epistemologies of poststructuralist critiques is thus plagued The very ground of meaningfiilness a in which deconstructive with theory often binary system of investigation

The center and circumference depicts

of silence

/ 5

the 'other' of alternative epistemologies as distinct from the 'self,' so to of own its of method discursive speak, analysis. This dichotomy of 'self and 'other* or 'center' and 'circumference,' ironically, appears to be dissonant with the intersubjective and dialogical ground poststnicturalism claims as its domain.

Bakhtin describes, language acts shape one another in a kind of 'mutual cause-and-effect and interillumination' (1981: 12). If this is so, then true intersubjectivity needs to include the 'other* not simply as a measure of egalitarian responsibility, nor even as a nod toward benign relativism, but rather as a generative method of refining and even interrogating the ground of of one's own poststructuralist critique. meaningfulness of refining the ground of poststructuralist poetic theory, then, be to a 'distinct' that between might reopen dialogue seemingly epistemologies, is, between what lies at both the 'center' and 'circumference' of radical poetic theory. Such a dialogue could be approached not just through classical rhetorical strategies, say, as through the process of dialectic hallowed by Aristotle (1932) more rhetoricians. Nor should it be approached only through the liberatory analysis of deconstruction, which still often positions competing discourses in a binary way, for instance, as 'others' distinct from the 'self of a liberatory project. Rather, a new dialogue might occur from within an arena that foregrounds reciprocity, a system, for example, which holds binary categories? such as 'center' and 'circumference'?suspect. One such arena is Eastern philoso phy, particularly the Hindu-yogic centuries in India. tradition that has arisen during the past several and other classical One method

As Mikhail

A dialogue between Eastern and Western theory, positioned within an arena that foregrounds reciprocity, can enrich not only poststructuralist poetics of the to reconsider itself, as Harold West, but it can also enable Indian philosophy Coward (1990: 12) (following the lead of his teacher, T. R. V. Murti [1983]) notes, from the perspective of the philosophy of language. Because of space limitations, Iwill center my discussion on the form?- rather than on the latter of to It is my intention to focus on paradox as sacred experience, a that the is meditative of argue system philosophy yogic reciprocal paradigm capable not only of accommodating paradox and recasting it as a generative these concerns. condition but also of offering an epistemology compatible with that of radical poetics, one that can ultimately enrich poststructuralist poetics in ways truer to their radical intent. I proceed with my discussion of the compatibility of the Hindu-yogic tradition andWestern poststructuralist poetic theory, however, letme first claim as my philosophical ground the Advaita Ved?nta tradition?radical (or absolute) nondualism?the tions of Hinduism dominant school of Hinduism. even, are diverse; Certainly the meditative for instance, traditions of Advaita tradi (non Before

6 / George Kalamaras dualism) Ved?nta ways, For instance, although comprehensive. in a variety of chiefly favors a nondualist system, it has manifested themost influential being radical nondualism, and even a form of dualism, and Ved?nta by the dualist school, comprehensive. As Georg role in these schools the Dvaita Feuerstein of Madhva. notes, yoga and was term yoga is 'played a varyingly The are themselves

represented similarly

interpreted differently by a of variety of specific psycho (1990: 389). Yoga, comprised spiritual practices, has as its goal the joining or 'yoking' of the individual 'self an emphasis on 'Self (brahman),1 (?tman) with the larger, more expansive of the the that with Ved?nta. it shares Advaita (Indeed, etymology nonduality on certain non 'to join, to yoke.') Therefore, focusing word, yoga, itself means dual yogic aspects of the Advaita Ved?nta tradition can offer us ways to deepen prominent their protagonists' our understanding help demonstrate of Hindu of this dominant methodology its harmony with a major philosophy thought and can also of the West, post

[of Ved?nta]

structuralist poetics. and Furthermore, within this tradition, I will emphasize yogic philosophies the awareness an of practices that enable the practitioner of silence to achieve the Hindu scriptures repeatedly nature of experience. Self-realization, of is actual the and describe, yoga (meditation and ?sanas) practice experiential, state that philosophical is the central method of attaining the enlightenment discourses describe. In other words, the study and practice of yoga is a site of nondual 'praxis.' By claiming the yogic tradition within Advaita Ved?nta metaphysical as my principal citing, then, I also hope to argue implicitly for a further dimen sion of the nondual aspect of meditative silence, namely, a true praxis in which theories and practices inform one another in reciprocal, nonhierarchical ways. also occasionally draw upon elements of other Eastern mystical that are closely aligned in purpose with Hinduism, and particularly philosophies as well as that share concepts regarding knowledge, yoga?those philosophies will sometimes I as the ground of such meaningfulness. silence Specifically, schools such as Zen) some the of draw upon Buddhism Mah?y?na (especially and and Tantrism (a distinct school of obscure origin within both Hinduism of divine or feminine the the of ?akti, principle Buddhism, emphasizing concept in both outer rituals of devotion and those of a more inner or sym experience, Finally, Iwill bolic nature). to Hindu-yogic I have chosen not to limit my discussion philosophy since the and perhaps varied. is and Furthermore, is diverse tradition (as Hinduism) yogic between on the intersections more significantly, occasionally yoga and drawing traditions will often allow me to illuminate my points with other meditative greater complexity and concreteness. This seems particularly appropriate given the interest inWestern poetics in recent decades in both Zen and Tantric Bud

The center and circumference dhism. An analysis and even of the fine lines of distinction

of silence

/ 7

between Eastern mystical seems more appropriate tradition alone, practices, for an article on comparative religion. Drawing on the commonalties of some core tenets of various Eastern meditative practices as they relate to the Hindu those of the yogic

yogic tradition, as I will do here, should more properly facilitate my goal: to that yogic meditative philosophy demonstrate is a system capable not only of accommodating paradox and recasting it as a generative condition but also of an offering epistemology compatible with that of radical poetics, one that can ultimately enrich poststructuralist poetics in ways truer to their radical intent

YOGIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE PARADOX OF BEING AND BECOMING

traditions of India have always relied upon paradox as a central method of exploration, as well as a means of describing an experience of 'higher consciousness' itself. Buddhist philosophy (particularly the Zen traditions that The meditative arose in China and Japan after Buddhism's migration from India), for example, and its focus on the k?an have attained recognition to various degrees in American poetic theory, from experiments of the Beat poets in the 1950s, up through the introduction of the radical juxtapositions of the Surrealist movement (thanks to themore lucid translations of the past several decades), particularly of the French and Hispanic traditions. As I (Kalamaras 1994: 115-17) have argued elsewhere, the seemingly contradictory phrases of traditional Zen k?ans, such as 'What is the sound of one hand clapping?' and 'What is your face before your parents were born?,' are designed to short-circuit the discursive capacities of the mind and open it to an experience of the nondiscursive, where a reside in condition of reciprocity rather than conflict. seeming opposites

of yoga, the philosophies Just as significantly, though, paradox permeates to descriptions of the qualities from methods of attaining 'divine consciousness' of this experience itself. In the case of the former, for instance, numerous Tantric and Hathayogic texts, among others, delineate specific techniques for 'neutral the binary experiences of discursive consciousness. Many of these tech niques (such as mentally focusing upon the apparent contradictions of inhalation and exhalation, or even yoking often divergent impulses of 'body' and 'mind' izing' themselves work with para reciprocal 'mind-body' relationship) texts such as the Vedas case the In of the Br?hmanical latter, techniques. the Upanisads? of most the fourth and these, ?especially philosophical unified experience of medi repeatedly describe the condition of sam?dhi (the into a more doxical

8 / George Kalamaras tators) as a paradoxical condition, where experiences of 'self and 'other,' 'this' and 'that,' and 'center' and Circumference' reciprocally reside and are not in conflict. both the practice of yoga and the outcome is, paradox constitutes a As (enlightenment). generative experience, paradox can lead one to enlight enment and also permeates this supreme consciousness pursued by yogis and attained by advanced meditators, what Alex Comfort calls 'the oceanic expe (1984: 4). This highly fluid condition in which opposites reciprocally reside, thus presents an interpretation of paradox as a generative experience which is, indeed, meaningful. One 'paradox' of yogic practice, then, is that the condition of paradox is not only a method of attaining the supreme, unified but also an outcome of the practice of paradox this another way, paradox is not a method of transcending itself means of itself and of engaging in a more complex investigating a with condition of that is nonconflictive way apparent opposition rocal. One might say, then, that it enables an epistemology of where More theory and practice?in
one.

That

rience'

state of awareness

itself. To put but, rather, a and intimate

this case,

'Self-realization'

and recip true 'praxis,' and meditative

technique?are

is that the supreme realization of 'divine consciousness' specifically, one's own Being is the same as the condition of Being within the entire universe; furthermore?and condition of Being is known by perhaps paradoxically?this the practitioner to be one that is ever-changing, in short, a condition of Becoming. This is a concept found throughout many central yogic texts, including the It is especially articulated in explanations of spanda (the dynamic Upanisads. as described in Kashmir Saivism. As Mark of 'absolute' quality consciousness) Dyczkowski argues:

is its freedom to [T]he dynamic (spanda) character of absolute consciousness assume any form at will through the active diversification of awareness (vimar?a) in time and space, when it is directed at, and assumes the form of, the object of awareness. The motion of absolute consciousness is a creative a to state state of the created from uncreated the transition movement, Being a of Becoming. state of perpetual Becoming In this sense Being is in it constantly phenomenalises into finite expression....Rightly (satatodita); are the inner and outer faces of universal understood, Being and Becoming consciousness which becomes spontaneously manifest, through its inherent power, as this polarity (1987: 77). of the consciousness in which then, is a condition Supreme consciousness, Being is not static and stable, say, like the nihilistic state that Derrida (1978:

The center and circumference

of silence

/ 9

but rather ever-changing and dynamic. 96-97), for one, attributes tometaphysics, in which In the context of such a nondualist model, 'Being is in a state of that I want to suggest that the endless play of meanings perpetual Becoming,' theory locates is, thus, not distinct from but similar to that of poststructuralist meditative awareness of symbolic transaction. Therefore, while poststnicturalism traditions warily points to paradox as a condition of psychic stasis, the meditative of Hindu yoga find sustenance in paradox. Paramahansa Yogananda has described this experience of cosmic consciousness in paradoxical terms, namely, that 'the divine eye is center everywhere, circum the yogi, through various ference nowhere' (1981 [19461: 208). Paradoxically, meditative the body in practices, withdraws consciousness from the periphery of a 'center' of with in total intimacy ways which heighten the inner sensorium; awareness, then, the advanced meditator's consciousness expands to embrace the immensity

of the universe, moving beyond all awareness of limitation, psycho logical borders, or psychic 'circumference.' Since the sacred unified experience embraces all things, it cannot include a of thfe condition hostile to itself. That is, when perceived from the perspective non a of one condition in immersed nonbifurcated consciousness, meditative, 'subject' and 'object,' even psychic expansion or fluidity between apparent contradictions inform one another in significant nondialectical ways. In the 'profane' of discursive awareness other words, inmeditative consciousness, is reconceived as reciprocally connected to the 'sacred' of the nondiscursive?to discursive borrow terms from Mircea consequently, Eliade consciousness,
'profane.'

(1959). The 'sacr?d' experience of cosmic is sacred only because it no longer excludes the

One of the great paradoxes of the 'sacred' experience of meditation, therefore, One contains is that nondiscursiveness might (or silence) symbolic experience. an say, then, that language culminates in silence, and one locates in silence emptiness that is 'full.' It is full in large part due to its expanded perception of the interanimation Silence it, according to the yogic tradition, a refer to as profound experience of sound that permeates all things, what yogis Om, the sound of the molecular vibration of the universe one hears when one's is free of discursive separation between subject and object. As Sir consciousness has noted, Om is the 'Maha?akti,' or 'Radical Vital Potential,' of the universe. '[T]he letters A, U, M, which coalesce into Om,* he argues, represent the continuous dissolution and rejuvenation of the 'molecular activity' John Woodroffe 'matter' (1985 [1922]: 296). Numerous yogic texts, then, refer to the state of to Om, or to the underlying sam?dhi as an unbroken attentiveness meditative as unmanifested potential, that sound of an undifferentiated universe that exists of of all things. is also full in that it carries with

10 / George Kalamaras is, as a 'radical vital potential.' This full-emptiness, what W. T. Stace has described as the 'vacuum-plenum paradox' (1960: 162), is a dynamic state of awareness where silence and sound reciprocate, self and other merge, and distinctions between this and that dissolve. in that language and A central paradox, then, exists in Hindu-yogic philosophy silence are reciprocal rather than conflictive. As poet Octavio Paz, himself a practitioner of Tantric yoga, has noted: of the

If language is the most perfect form of communication, the perfection language cannot help but be erotic, and it includes death and silence: failure of language....Failure? culmination of language. Why Silence

is not a failure, but the end result, the do we keep saying that death is absurd? What 14).

do we know about death? (1982 [1974]: Western

language theory often positions language against silence, emphasizing or theWord. This emphasis on logos, though, is often based upon a false logos understanding thatmeditation strives for a transcendent ground separate from the Word, and that it seeks stable meanings which lie outside linguistic referents. However, silence is a symbolic form tradition, meditative the yogi has within silence is a complete absorption itself, and the perception of Om, within the layers of this symbolic form, most notably the dimensions in the Hindu-yogic the most one sacred of all Hindu mantras. The relationship between silence and symbolic form is a subtle yet pervasive in Hindu philosophy. To begin with, language has held a central role in for thousands of years, placing language at the center of all Indian philosophy that of meditative silence. As Coward notes:

activity?even In contrast

to the relatively recent stress on linguistics and the philosophy of language in theWest, linguistic speculations were begun by the Hindus before the advent of recorded history. Beginning with the Vedic hymns, which are at least 3,000 years old, the Indian study of language has continued in an unbro

ken tradition upto [sic] the present day. The Indian approach to language was never narrow or restrictive. Language was examined in relation to conscious All aspects not constricted even to human consciousness. ness?consciousness of the world and human experience were thought of as illuminated by lan guage (1980: 3).

of logos the methodologies This emphasis on language has not foregrounded over those of silence, as has Western analysis. In fact, at the center of this specu lation has been a continuous examination of the integration of language, sound,

The center and circumference

of silence

11

and silence?specifically, that of Vedic mantras. In meditation, for instance, the or oral repetition (either mental) of a mantra is said to affect material and psychic as C. Mackenzie Brown (1986: 73), among others, has argued. conditions, of dualistic Mantras, therefore, are said to actually activate the dissolution perceptions, helping the meditator attain nondualistic realization. In the Hindu tradition, asWoodroffe (1985 [1922]: 113, 165-74) describes, one such mantra, is said to have the capacity to unite both masculine and feminine hamsa, tendencies, ham referring to ?iva, or themasculine principle of the universe, and sa referring to Sakti, or the feminine tendency. Hamsa means *I am He/She,' and is also a mantra often used to unite one's consciousness with that of brahman Creator of unification with the ('He/She'). When one attains the consciousness of all things, then, one attains a unified Self in which all opposites? even those of masculine and feminine aspects?are dissolved. There are numerous mantras, each used for different purposes or to effect

the most important being, Om, the particular material and psychic occurrences, root sound and source of all other mantras. Om, specifically, is described by with yogis as one of the most predominant manifestations light) of deep, (along meditative attention. The Upanisads, for instance, abound with descriptions of Om as the source of all things. The M?ndukya (1.1) is particularly Upanisad explicit in its depiction of Om as the eternal source: 'The syllable Om [which is the imperishable one with O m?the is the universe.' Becoming brahman] imperishable brahman?yogis As theM?ndukya Upanisad indivisible manifold the supreme Self. 'The Fourth, the Self, is Om, the (1.12) continues: syllable is unutterable and beyond mind. In it the tell us, enables one to realize

without a second. It is the supreme good?One Whosoever knows Om, the Self, becomes the Self/ A full description of the complexities of this most sacred of all Hindu mantras is beyond the scope of this present analysis. However, I want to emphasize that to central those rooted in Vedic, nearly all Hindu traditions?particularly a focus on the primacy of silence as theWord and Yogic schools?is Ved?ntic, a as condition from (not separate it), and the concept that the realm of non (meditative sam?dhi) is permeated with the all-encompassing conceptualization sound, Om. Because the condition of nonconceptualization its primary experience, Om, is likewise nondualistic?'One as theM?ndukya within Upanisad describes?containing ability dichotomous. to resolve is itself nondualistic, without a second,'

syllable. This universe disappears.

the its manifestation as all contraries and recast paradox reciprocal rather than At the core of nonconceptualization, therefore, lies the condition

of paradox?a sound-filled silence. It is within the realm of this paradox in which other paradoxes (such as subject and object, or symbol user and symbol) become resolved.

12 / George Kalamaras

A THEORY OF THE SACRED IN POSTSTRUCTURALIST POETICS: 'CENTEREVERYWHERE, CIRCUMFERENCE NOWHERE'

This reciprocal

of yogic meditative philosophy, a system capable of as a can to the poststruc offer accommodating paradox generative experience, an epistemology turalist perspective that is compatible with it, one that can paradigm poetics in ways truer to their radical intent. That is, the gaps demonstrated and at times even evoked in radical

enrich poststructuralist silences or discursive poetry

such as that of the 'language' poetry movement, can be recast in light of yogic meditative philosophy as conditions of 'emptiness' which are, paradoxi cally, 'full' of meaning. One such meaning might be the reconstitution, say, of the significance of 'center' and 'circumference' and a more complex rendering of their reciprocity. As Yogananda has described the sam?dhi experience, 'the

divine eye is center everywhere, circumference nowhere.' Such an argument for a reading of poststnicturalism Eastern meditative

through

the lens of

texts is not widely accepted in radical poetics. Poststruc turalist poetic movements often focus on the nonreferential aspect of textual a is One radical poetics that has exerted symbols. 'language' poetry, example much influence in American poetry since the early 1970s. The work of Charles Bernstein, Lyn Hejinian, Ron Silliman, and Rae Armantrout, among others, is to this 'movement' typical of this radical school. Although writers connected to define the poetics of language poetry?especially hesitate because language is by no means monolithic?we can make some observations about the ideas that As Joel share. Lewis poetic describes, language poetry, language poets the lead of poststructuralist theorists such as Roland Barthes, Julia following poetry Kristeva, Foucault, and others,

developed a stance that treats the poem as a text that is a part of a larger inter textual discourse. Rejected is the idea of the isolated iconic poem (that New Critic ideal) or the notion that language is purely representational?the idea of as a as a or for carrier melts that anecdote story being language away meaning unfolds. This emphasis is on textuality. The notion of the poem as a well urn, a perfect unity with an absolute meaning beyond paraphrase, a field of gives way to the notion of the poem as a linguistic complex, numerous a as and the sort the for of air-traffic controller poet meaning, wrought cultural and ideological Emphasizing poststructuralist textuality poetic codes thatmake up the poem (1990: 23-24).

and ideology, then, language poetry (as well as other theories and practices which share a common interest in

The center and circumference 'language'

of silence

13

as a nonreferential culturally-grounded symbol) sees its project as social and forms of discourse foregrounding critique demystifying oppressive (see, for instance, Bernstein's edited collection [1990]). One such form is the discourse of 'mysticism,' which from the perspective of this critique is often perceived as a romanticized 'transcendental' philosophy which privileges individual experience and the transcendence of symbolic expres sion over social and historical factors which shape and are shaped by symbolic form. However, as I have argued in my discussion of Om, the arena of mysti cism does not ever 'transcend' symbolic form but actually enables the meditator to enter a deeper, more that is, complex relationship with symbolic expression, with the textures of sound and silence. This may one further point of require Western poetics. elaboration, one more explicit to similar to Gaston Bachelard's Specifically, concept of 'intimate immensity' (1969 [1964]: 183-210), where the image user achieves psychic vastness from concentrated attention upon a poetic image, the meditator likewise achieves an 'intimate' attention psychic 'immensity' (the yogic sam?dhi experience) from to various yogic techniques, those grounded chiefly in paradox. For example, by concentrating upon the symbolic form of a mantra (the paradox being sound and silence), or even, say, upon one's own breathing (the paradox being inhalation and exhalation), yogis can become so intimate with the symbol that they psychi cally merge with it. To put this another way, yogis, by interiorizing conscious ness through deep attention to and concentration upon various symbolic experi ences, become 'intimate' with these experiences and with their 'individual' consciousness. consciousness, Through such intimacy, they attain the psychic vastness of cosmic a fluid, paradoxical, and nondiscursive condition where opposites and such concepts as 'individual' are lost in the more 'public' expe in all things (for a more see of yogic meditation,

reciprocate, rience of being interconnected with the consciousness detailed discussion of the nontranscendental quality Kalamaras I want 1994: 186-96). to turn now to a recent

interview in Lingo with the French writer Claude Royet-Journoud (1995: 160-67). While Royet-Jouraoud would probably resist my attempt to connect concepts in his work to those of Hindu philosophy ?in discussion above?his light of the poststructuralist critique of mysticism of concepts of 'center' nonetheless can provide insight into some of the similari ties between poststructuralist and Indian mystical concepts of 'center,' as well as begin pointing to a reconsideration in radical poetics. of themeaningfuiness of a concept of 'center'

I have chosen Royet-Journoud as my principal citing not only because he has been instrumental in beginning a conversation between contemporary French and American poetry, but also because his articulation of the concept of 'center' illus

14 / George Kalamaras trates the kind of paradox of meditative philosophies at work silence. in both poststructuralist poetic theory and Such an examination of similarities, I want

to argue, can help demonstrate that the reciprocal paradigm of yogic meditative can indeed offer an epistemology compatible with that of radical philosophy truer to poetics, one that can ultimately enrich poststructuralist poetics in ways their radical intent. In particular, examining similarities can help reintroduce into a critique of poststructuralist poetics a concept of the 'sacred' without sacrificing are 'transcendent' (and implicitly hierarchical) forms of discourse that oppressive. terms of a in his of 'center' describes the writing this concept Royet-Journoud way: I've always seen my books as it were in suspension along the fluid periphery and at the same time linked by a shared center. Something of a fiction, of course, since I don't believe in a center any more than in origins.... But the center that unites all four [books] is always something dissolving, of coming undone (1995: 161). in process of

thus argues for the postmodern sensibility prevalent in move Royet-Journoud ments such as language poetics: a concept of text as decentered language-body, nor inward elliptical yet social, neither pointing outside of itself for meaning a toward 'deeper' signification. While Royet-Journoud posits the existence of it as unstable, 'cento,' he simultaneously deconstructs this concept, reconceiving of a of 'in process and existing, if you will, coming undone.' He dissolving, which take poststnic points to a key paradox, therefore, at the core of poetics the turalism as their epistemol?gica! relationship between Being and ground: the true to poststructuralist questions theory, Royet-Journoud no stable point of origins, concept of 'Being,' arguing that a text's 'meaning' has of at enactment the in lies but that 'meaning' confronting a text's opacity. all) (if as Here, then, he echoes Derrida's description of 'origins' (1976: 266), as well theories of nonreferential symbols espoused by other French poststructuralists. His Bruce Andrews, argument also corresponds to that of American language poet the is we first face who notes, for instance, that '[w]hat language seen in formal terms: the sign. There is no "direct treatment" of the thing possible, except of not be found the "things" of language. Crystalline poetry?or transparency?will in words' (1990: 104; emphasis in original). cannot exist, for such existence that is, ultimately The 'center' of Being, to even outside of Being, outside of the text. Furthermore, implies meaning an illusion and phantom. attempt to name this condition implies textual stability, Like many poststructuralist theory of textu thinkers, then, Royet-Journoud's Becoming. Furthermore,

The center and circumference ality approaches

of silence

15

the limitation of its epistemological method. Many poststructuralist critiques of paradox therefore conceive of it as stasis, a condition that language cannot ever penetrate, much less get beyond. A mystify ing and binding form, paradox deepens the opacity of textual meaning. The best that can be hoped for is to keep talking in the midst of such textual suspension, what Paul Christensen as 'The language merely drift[ing] forward, columns down the page, beginning arbitrarily and advancing ending arbitrarily' (1986: 22). But what if this 'something' that Royet-Journoud points to were reconceived not as a condition of merely static origins? What if has described inmedium-width this 'something' were reconceived?in the context of Hindu-yogic philosophy? as a condition of origins that was 'original,' but it was original only because by its fluid, continuous nature it posed problems with a static worldview, even, paradoxically, with the very idea of its own 'original' existence? In other words, what if the point of origins was 'original' only because it was continuously in flux? Furthermore, what if poststructuralist poetry took up the charge of its own in the ground of its syntactic slippages and paradoxical implication, finding meanderings Becoming? If we were a stable instability, so to speak, a condition of Being that is always

to read Royet-Journoud through the more reciprocal paradigm of yoga, we would see that he begins to take up the depicted in philosophies of (albeit challenge by implication), pointing to it as a possible way to paradox reconstitute textual stasis in terms of something more fluid yet persistent, dis

solving yet present. As he has argued, even though 'the center.. .is always some of coming undone,' it is nonetheless present. thing in process of dissolving, That is, the 'center,' as he notes, is '[sjomething of a fiction' (emphasis added). If it is '[sjomething be some of a fiction,' then it might also simultaneously thing that is not a fiction. Here, then, Royet-Journoud approaches the language of the mystic, who holds paradox as central to a description of the experience of meditative silence. More precisely, the yogi turns to paradox as the only means of expressing in an unfettered way a perception of experience of simultaneity, one of psychic fluidity between subject and object. Such consciousness is often referred to by yogis in paradoxical terms as 'neti, neu," as in the Brhad?ranyaka Upanisad '[T]he Self is described as not this, not this.' Paradox, therefore, permeates the consciousness and discourse of the yogi. The 'center' of meditative awareness, like Royet-Journoud's center, is only a center (4.5.15), where

it is dynamic and not static, that is, because it is 'in the process of dissolving, of coming undone' and not in the process of solidifying. One might as a liminal space, perceive this 'center' inmeditation and poetry, consequently, one which looks neither forward nor backward toward meaning but is itself because entirely because its condition of Being is a state of perpetual Becoming. Here, it

16 / George Kalamaras repeating Dyczkowski's point that, 'The motion of absolute conscious is a creative movement, a transition from the uncreated state of Being to the created state of Becoming. In this sense Being is in a state of perpetual is worth

ness

Becoming.' C. H. Knoblauch

(1988: 138) argues that a dialogical ideology (one that takes it is up the charge of theMarxist argument for a rhetoric of intersubjectivity)?if to be truly dialogical?must own for critique of its present opportunities posi tion. I have been arguing that one limitation of poststructuralist been has analysis its very method epistemologies of investigation, as distinct from one the 'self that positions the 'other' of alternative of its own method of discursive

analysis. Reading poststnicturalism through the less binary, more reciprocal lens of yogic philosophy offers an opportunity for the kind of critique Knoblauch suggests. Recently, Andrew Joron has taken up a critique of poststructuralist poetics. He tells us: in that critical theory can never fully flight, anticipate, much less produce, the object of criticism, then an untheorized? exists at the inception of the poetic object. perhaps untheorizable?moment Renewed interest in Surrealism attests to a desire to resituate poetry at exactly this point where discontinuity practice exceeds (Joron 1995: 12). its theoretical measure?a point of Utopian If metapoetics is an owl's

The philosophies of the East and, in particular, the experiences of yogic medi tation offer just such a 'utopian discontinuity' that can inform our radical poetries in ways which reintroduce the quality of the sacred back into poetic theory with out succumbing to hierarchies and oppression. What is 'utopian' is the perma nence of Being, of a 'center everywhere'; what is 'discontinuous' is the shifting of this point of reference, the continual 'process of dissolving' of which Royet or in the Journoud speaks. It is a condition of Being that is always Becoming, words
divine

of the great yogi Paramahansa

eye' of mystical union 'is center

Yogananda,
everywhere,

it is a condition
circumference

where

'the

nowhere.'

Notes
1. Central ized divinity, to Hindu that is the assumption nondualistic of one's own

mystical

practice

yet-to-bc-real the Hindu

is, undifferentiated,

consciousness?what

refers to as an identification of the individual divine principle (?tman or self) with the broader, ultimate principle (?tman or Self). The former is the divine principle manifest ing within the confines of ego-personality, while the latter is the unrestricted divine

The center and circumference

of silence

17

principle manifesting as the expansive Self. Such an awareness of Self is paramount to an identification with brahman, the originary principle that underlies all creation. Thus,
?tman and ?tman are really the same; it is only for spiritual aspirants to perceive and

experience this nondualism for themselves. I have capitalized the word Self in those places where the concept is meant to denote the condition of the expansive, 'realized' awareness to which Hindu-yogic philosophy attests, while I have used the small case to denote themore limited awareness that is restricted by ego-personality.

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GEORGE

KALAMARAS

is Associate

Professor

Creative Writing

at Indiana University-Purdue

of English and Director University Fort Wayne.

of