On Negativity
"Negativity breeds tension, friction, gossip, discontentment; but it is also very accurate, deliberate, and profound. Unfortunately, the heavy-handed interpretations and judgments we lay on these experiences obscure this fact. These interpretations and judgments are negative negativity, watching ourselves being negative and then deciding that the negativity is justified in being there. The negativity seems good-natured, with all sorts of good qualities in it, so we pat its back, guard it, and justify it. Or if we are blamed or attacked by others, we interpret their negativity as being good for us. In either case, the watcher, by commenting, interpreting, and judging, is camouflaging and hardening the basic negativity."Chogyam Trungpa via Ocean of Dharma.
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At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.
-- George Orwell via Orwell's proposed preface to 'Animal Farm'
Bull's eye, Tom.
Yes, but Orwell is arguing FOR giving unfashionable opinion a fair hearing from the point of view of the conveyor of unfashionable opinion. Chogyam Trungpa, if I understand him right [there's an extended quote here] is arguing for disregarding negativity for what wisdom it might mask.
Q : Do I understand the mean of your quote correctly? Do you "support" both brashness of manner and listening to those who are brash?
Also, to your women readers I say this: Trousers!!
Brash? Of course not. But neither do I see a necessary conflict between those two quotes.
Brash in the sense of confronting social conventions. "Trousers!"
Maybe this is helpful to me. Chogyam Trungpa's idea of 'negative negativity' is defined thusly by an Amazon reviewer of CT's book 'The Myth of Freedom:
The message of Trungpa was "Stop being embarrased about yourself!". And he showed this example by indulging in the worst behavior imaginable. But, yes, you can sneeze in front of a group of people. You can leave your zipper down accidentally if you are a male. Or don't put on a bra if you are a female and then find that you clearly "see" through while you give a lecture! According to Trungpa, it this embarrassment which he referred to as "negative negativity". He pounces on this concept throughout this book and his others. Negativity is alright in itself. I get angry. But then I am embarrassed for BEING angry. So I gulp it down or explode. If we accept the basic negativity, feel it, then this is negativity. But if we shame ourselves for having it - then this manufactures even more anger or Negative Negativity. Which can eventually result in being a mass murderer. Everything is being projected outside on the world. You are not "eating your past" so to speak.
From this interpretation, Chogyam Trungpa does support being brash -- or is justifying his own brashness.
At minimum, he is advocating some sort of absolute independence. Independence from the stresses and pressures we perceive others place on us.
But, then, his life is one of irony. He'd have lived longer had he succumbed to the pressure [and wisdom] from others to combat his alcoholism.
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