Like any idea that doesn't conveniently fit with our normal expectations, a few bookkeeping items will help us to appreciate the extraordinary nature of paradoxes.
Numero uno is the definition of the word. Paradox...sounds like a pair of docs, which is another paradox I will share with you in a future post. Paradoxes come in different flavors.
The version that is most valuable for our purposes is a statement of conclusion that seems self-contradictory or absurd but is really true.
Many spiritual adages are constructed this way. "The more you know the less you know, " It is better to give than receive." Of course the proof is in the pudding as they say. Your own life experience will inform you. This is the great lesson of maturity, to see for yourself the wisdom which arises from living the paradox. It transcends our conditioning, both mental and physical through the realization of its living truth.
The next version of paradox is a statement of conclusion that despite a valid argument and valid premises leads to a nonsensical conclusion. One of the most famous is called Zeno's Paradox of Motion. In this story an arrow is fired from point A to point B but it never arrives. Why? Well, according to Zeno the arrow at any instant cannot reach point B because prior to getting to halfway to point B, you must get halfway to halfway to getting to point B. And so on...ad infinitum. Of course Zeno was unwilling to have the arrow fired his way.
And the last version is a statement in which no truth value can be assigned. An example of this kind of paradox is;
1. This statement is false.
2a. Suppose 1 is true.
Contradiction: If it’s true that it’s false then it isn’t false.
Our focus is on paradoxes of the first kind and the opportunities for a wise awakening.
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