Is anything not a metaphor?

Proteus wrote: What I mean is... Akkarin's "pen explanation" for example

http://www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/Eastern-studies/86365-Koans?limit=10&start=50#90690

I don't know where I first came across this idea (might have been Watts) but I have given it in koan form here

The Pen

Akkarin was giving a lecture to some Jedi students. He held up a pen and asked "What is this?"
"A pen!" one of the young students shouted from across the room.
"No" replied Akkarin.
That is when Proteus, who had been attending the lecture in silence, stood up and walked to the front where Akkarin was standing. He took the pen and on a piece of paper wrote one word: 'this'.

As to your original question though:

is there anything that is Not a metaphor in this way?

Where by 'way' you mean:

colors are metaphors for simply different wavelengths of light, and sound only a metaphor for different patterns of disturbances of energy or vibration in the air, and touch only a metaphor for what happens when the brain transmits our nerves being triggered, emotions simply being metaphors for our perceptions of a moment

You have presented a completely unfair question. You have said that by your way of thinking could anything not be a metaphor. Well no... by 'your' way of thinking of course anything can be considered metaphor. To accept this as true however you have to rely on the assumption that your thinking is correct in the first place. So the 'real' question is whether this way of thinking is correct...

My way of thinking, is that the "Force" is the energy or "happening" of all things. The actual idea of "Force" is not that of a thing but of a process of action, of flow, of "being", since even the word "be" is a verb and not a noun (at least in English). To "be" is a happening of itself, and whatever something is "being", to me, seems to form what I am seeing as the metaphor.

Perhaps to say that this way of thinking is incorrect may be to say that thinking of "the Force", and all it entails: the flow of things, the universe as a system and a process, is also incorrect, since what I'm explaining mirrors this if you think about it.

I know that this way of thinking may not exactly the be the most conventional, but is it incorrect? And is it really unfair?

Am I (you, every individual) simply a metaphor for the universe (or a "character that God is pretending to be" as Alan Watts describes) playing with itself, dreaming of itself, thinking about itself, etc?

Is life a metaphor for the force then?

Is life a metaphor for the force then?

Proteus, I am not discussing whether your views are right or wrong, I'm merely questioning why some aspect of a world-view that encompasses everything could be wrong

The question shouldn't be about the aspect of the view but the view itself. It shouldn't be "Can something not be a metaphor with this view?" but rather "Can everything be viewed as a metaphor?"

Does that make sense?

so then what's the metaphor for the metaphor of the metaphor metaphorically ?

:evil:

BOOM....

My head exploded ......

Metaphor-ception....

I haven't reached the alan watts books yet, but anyway...

Also, this might be a little off-topic.

Proteus wrote: My way of thinking, is that the "Force" is the energy or "happening" of all things. The actual idea of "Force" is not that of a thing but of a process of action, of flow, of "being", since even the word "be" is a verb and not a noun (at least in English). To "be" is a happening of itself, and whatever something is "being", to me, seems to form what I am seeing as the metaphor.

Perhaps to say that this way of thinking is incorrect may be to say that thinking of "the Force", and all it entails: the flow of things, the universe as a system and a process, is also incorrect, since what I'm explaining mirrors this if you think about it.

I know that this way of thinking may not exactly the be the most conventional, but is it incorrect? And is it really unfair?

Well, i agree here. I'm no expert in quantum physics, but as far as i know, even still matter, with no movement at all, is just the effect of movement. Depending on the frequency or direction of this flowing energy, we get different form of matter, such as neutrons and protons and electrons. So everything there is, and ever will be will be because there is movement.

And there is more: Movement is the cause of life at all. If there was no gravitational pull from the centres of our galaxies, no gases could be compressed enough to form stars, and, therefore, us.

So what is death, then? Stillness? because even if we die, we just move somewhere else, and the percussions of our deeds and words will someday reach the farthest edges of the universe.

So yeah, you could see the the saying "force" as a metaphor for a lot of things. Life, god, movement, flow, take your pick.

Okay ... I was just being silly earlier, right before heading home from conservatoire.

In some sense, saying that everything is a metaphor is like calling the pen a metaphor, writing with it and calling that a metaphor, saying that the perception/observation of writing with it is a metaphor and then making the whole experience a metaphor ...

... but what is it the metaphor of ? Even the metaphor is just a textual/lexical element.

It seems that ren got in a good word from an empiricist (Hume) perspective. Then there is also the phenomena/noumena slant of Kant. Watts would say that "it's just what it is" and that "nothing is like we perceive it 'out there'".

So, as I see it, everyone is as right as they can be for the moment about this. Good topic, Proteus ...

Wooo, this discussion is getting me pumped!

I suppose if energy can be projected as a wave and a particle at the same time, it stands to reason that something can be a symbol and a metaphor and an oreo cookie all at the same time, even collapsing the scope of that set of parallel existences into one of those things that excludes the others until it decides to be both one of those things exclusively and all of those things at the same time.