On Wednesday, November 2, Head of School Christopher Nikoloff held the second session of his Cum Laude six-part lecture series, based on the book by Alan Watts, The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. His presentation focused on “The Game of Black And White”, a challenge to recognize the interdependencies in the world around us. Throughout the year, he plans on covering all six chapters.

In his talk, open to both students and faculty, Nikoloff engaged the audience, calling on and eliciting participation from mainly the students. He presented his audience with several dichotomies: sound and silence, dark and light, motion and stillness.

Nikoloff explained the necessary interdependence between both, since one cannot be understood without the other. The yin-yang sign effectively demonstrated the negative and positive working together, and how humans tend to ignore the negative. Mutual arising, or the simultaneous creation of two dependent concepts, can apply to one’s sense of self. According to Nikoloff, self does not exist without an other.

Govinda Dasu (12), who attended this talk and the previous one, resonated with the theme Nikoloff expanded upon.

“Polar opposites like good and bad, light and dark, are interdependent. Often, we strive for one extreme when the universe needs both for either one to exist,” he said.

For Zina Jawadi (10), Nikoloff’s lectures are particularly enjoyable because, “they are a nice change from our day-to-day schedules,” she said. She attended the last one as well and hopes to attend all within the year.

His next lecture series is scheduled for December 7, and will cover the book’s third chapter: “How to be a Genuine Fake.”