tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69042249931370953172023-11-15T06:38:41.351-08:00Golden Hive of the InvisibleAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-34211996042181015982015-06-16T07:56:00.006-07:002015-06-16T07:56:50.276-07:00The Fertile Ground between Theism and Atheism<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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The two concepts, “God” and “Tao,” have much in common
and significant differences. The
concepts “Tao” and “Atheism” also have much in common and significant
differences. By examining these
commonalities and differences I hope to show that there is a fertile ground
between theism and atheism. In this
fertile ground, there are forms of spirituality of great depth that are free
from untenable, supernatural beliefs and the mindsets such beliefs engender. Here we highlight one of those forms,
philosophical Taoism, and compare and contrast it with theism and atheism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b>God vs. Tao</b><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The concepts “God” and “Tao” are both totalizing
concepts, i.e. concepts that embrace all that is. Both can be thought of as the invisible,
unknowable source of the visible, knowable world. As such, they represent that from which we
arise, which sustains us, and to which we ultimately return upon death. Both represent the ultimate principle of Nature,
and also the ultimate principle of our sense of being, our awareness and sense
of agency.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is around the concept of agency, that the two ideas
are most divergent. The theistic concept
of “God” generally includes the idea of a being that has agency in much the
same way that we think of ourselves as having agency. If we imagine God as the creator of the
world, we imagine him (for convenience I’ll stick with the convention of using
the masculine pronoun) creating it in somewhat the same manner as a human
architect creates a building. First he has
an idea and from this idea he creates the material world. For the theist, the world is the realization
of God’s idea of the world. There is a
master plan and purportedly we humans fit into that plan in some way. Specific theist religions specify various
ways in which we fit, and how we are to behave in this life based on how we fit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In addition to being its creator, the theist god is also
the source and sustainer of the world’s order.
As governor of the world, his agency is often portrayed as being
analogous to a great king or ruler. Something
of the theistic idea of the relationship of God and nature’s order is
exemplified in the Greek mythic figure of Helios and his son Phaethon. In the myth, Helios promises his son any wish
and the son choses to drive the chariot of the sun. Helios immediate sees his mistake, but cannot
break his promise. Phaethon is unable to
master the chariot’s steeds which causes the sun to veer wildly from its course
causing all manner of damage. Zeus has
to destroy Phaeton in order to restore the natural course of order.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We can see behind this myth the idea that a powerful
governing agent is needed to control Nature, which otherwise tends toward
chaos. Though this myth comes from
Greece, the Judeo-Christian God is conceived as having much the same
relationship. Throughout much of the
West, there is the idea that Nature tends toward chaos and it takes the active
intervention of the deity to keep Nature in order.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As it is in the great cosmos, so it is in the
microcosm. Thus a strong ruler is need
to govern the people, who otherwise tend to rebellion. Thus parents must be strict in governing the forces
of chaos in their children. And thus we
as individuals must actively wrestle with the chaos of the inner demons which
threaten to overwhelm us. The general principle is that left alone, things tend
to disorder. A teleological agent,
whether divine or human, must actively intervene to maintain order.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Taoism has a diametrically different idea of agency. The Tao is neither an agent nor a plan. Nature arises from the Tao and sustains
itself spontaneously. There is no master
plan, no governing agent. For Taoism, Nature
left to itself tends toward organization.
The celestial orbs follow their path through the sky and the seasons
follow each other in due succession. And
again, what is true for the great cosmos is true for the microcosm. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Left to themselves, the people will find a proper
organization for the conduct of their affairs and well-being; thus the ruler
should as much as possible should rule without interference. With a due amount of care, nurture and
education, a child will naturally grow to be an adult; thus parents should not
impose their idea of what the child should grow into, but allow the child to
grow to its natural strengths. Similarly
in our own person, rather than trying to become some preconceived ideal of a
human, we should seek to become the human we most authentically are. For the Taoist, this is most readily achieved
through the cultivation of inner quietness and passive achievement, rather than
the active pursuit of external goals. Contemplation is the method of this inner
quietness and passive achievement.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Taoism present no theory of how the cosmos achieves
organization. For that Taoist, that is
simply a mystery. From the viewpoint of
modern cosmology, we might point to three different aspects of this
mystery. The first is the simple mystery
of why there is something rather than nothing.
The second is the mystery of how, in a cosmos ruled by entropy, Nature in
the first place obtained such a vast concentration of energy. The third aspect is why this cosmos, starting
as it does from what appears to be a simple thermodynamic event – the Big Bang
– evolves into a world of such intricate order.
To put this another way, given the Big Bang, the overwhelming
probability is that after a billion years or so there should be nothing but the
background radiation. Yet this universe
has not only the background radiation, but an improbable collection of galaxies.
And on at least one of them beings who can observe and ponder the mystery of
being.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Taoist acceptance of the mystery of the cosmos has a
simple honesty to it. Note that in
theism, God’s agency is offered as the answer to the mystery of the cosmos; yet
if we interrogate the idea of God, we have to conclude that the presence of a God
and his agency is certainly at least as great a mystery as the appearance of an
organized cosmos. God is inexplicable.
Thus theism uses one inexplicable, God, to explain another inexplicable, the
presence of a highly organized cosmos. Why
multiply inexplicables? Why not simply
accept the primary mystery, ala the Taoist, and let it rest at that?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Taoism’s positing of a cosmos that organizes itself, as
opposed to a cosmos organized by an agent, presents a rather radical
alternative to theism and the traditions based on it. Before going further, I would like to take a
brief detour to explore some Western ideas that provide a naturalistic
justification to the idea of a “self-organizing” universe. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b>Spontaneous Self
Organization</b><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The idea that good things can come about spontaneously
has much in common with a modern idea that is termed “self-organization.” To the best of my knowledge, the first
appearance of this idea in Western thought is in Adam Smith’s idea of the
invisible hand of the markets. For Smith,
markets need neither a plan nor external governance; they can arise spontaneously
and function as a well-organized system merely from the desire of humans to
maximize their own gain. <o:p></o:p></div>
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While Smith’s idea of the hidden hand of the markets marks
a kind of introduction to the idea of self-organization in the West, it is in Darwin’s
idea of evolution by natural selection that we find the idea in a more full
blown form. The Reverend Paley gave
voice to the predominant teleological idea of his (pre-Darwinian) times when he
argued that the complex structures and organizations of living things and the
remarkable adaptations of plants and animals required an intelligent
designer. Darwin demonstrated that
living things could adapt and organize on their own without any central plan or
external interference. This idea, along
with Smith’s, was a truly radical innovation for the West, and has still not
really penetrated to the core of Western culture. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The basic principle of self-organization is that
organization can arise without a pre-existing plan or central agent. The cosmos self-organizes because matter is
attracted to other matter (by gravity) and both attracted and repelled by the
other forces. Living organisms
self-organize within an ecosystem, because they desire to eat and not be
eaten. Human cultures and institutions
self-organize out of the desire of humans to interact or not interact with
other humans. In all cases it is the
relationships of the various elements and the strength of the attraction and
repulsion motivating these relationship that lead to self-organization. Neutral
things to not self-organize. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That we live in a highly organized cosmos is based on the
fact that the fundamental parameters that comprise the laws of nature have the
precise values that they do. Cosmologist
have shown that of all the possible values of these fundamental parameters,
only an astronomically tiny sub-set of them can lead to any form of enduring
organization. That the parameters of
this universe do lead to an organized universe has been called the “the mystery
of the fine-tuning of the parameters.” I
do not think it a reach to state that here, when the cosmologists speak of this
“fine tuning,” they are referring of the same mystery contemplated by the
Taoist, though with much greater detail and no spiritual implications. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One last point, before ending this brief description of self-organization. If we try to present a typology of
organization, it would seem there are at least two main types: self-organization
and organization based on a central plan.
Interestingly, there is no English word to denote this second type of
organization, but I will call it “algorithmic organization,” because a central
plan can be thought of as a kind of algorithm.
Within this typology, we might note that there are at least two
different types of algorithmic organization.
I will call these the organic and synthetic. By organic I mean that the plan is immanent within
the set of elements that are being organized.
The way the structure of a living cell develops from the “plan” carried
by its genes is the good example. By
synthetic I mean that the plan is external to the elements being
organized. A building based on a blueprint
is an example. It should be noted that
all three types of organization – self organization and organic and synthetic
algorithmic organization -- can be present in a single phenomenon, such as a
natural garden. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b>Tao vs. Atheism</b><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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There are many forms of atheism and attempts to
generalize about atheistic belief undoubtedly will not apply to all of them.
For the purposes here I use the word “atheist” to refer not only to those who reject
all forms of the notion of God but also the efficacy and meaningfulness of any
form of religion or spirituality. <o:p></o:p></div>
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While atheism rejects the notion of a cosmic agency,
often atheists celebrates the triumphs of human agency in its effort to create
a better world. Typically for an atheist
better means a world where people are happier and have more pleasure and less
pain. Such pleasure is often associated
with a material cause; the improvement of our material conditions is seen as
the main way in which human well-being will be increased. Many atheists place great faith in technology
to produce such improvements in our material condition, and at its extreme it
generates a kind of technological utopianism.
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Philosophical Taoism is similar to atheism in its
rejection of a cosmic agent that creates, governs, and cares about the
Universe. But it differs from atheism in
its attitude toward human agency and dependence on material conditions to
improve human well-being. Taoism is a
form of spirituality and all meaningful forms of spirituality are based on the
notion of cultivating our inner resources.
This cultivation of inner resources leads both to liberation from
external conditions and a sense of well-being based on that liberation. Taoism neither rejects technology nor
celebrates it – Taoism accepts the world as it is, and technology is simply
part of the world as it is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Further, all the major forms of spirituality call for the
diminishment or turning over of the human ego, the basis of human agency, to
the “otherness” that brings us forth. In
theism, this is turning one’s life over to God. In Taoism it is bringing one’s life into
complete harmony, even absorption, with the Tao, the way of Nature. These two are different, but in relationship
to an atheism that puts its faith in human agency and technological progress,
the theist and Taoist view are relatively similar. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In regards to their view of the individual’s relationship
to this spiritual other, perhaps the difference between Taoism and atheism can
be best clarified through their potential approach to something like the twelve
step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Step
three of the twelve steps is “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives
over to the care of God as we understood Him.” For the purposes of this step both God and
Tao can represent a “higher power” to which we can turn over our will and our
lives. This is a recognition that there
are limits to human agency and beyond the ego’s agency there are “forces”
beyond that ego that can lead to spiritual transformation. The theist sees this “force” as an at least
partially external deity. Taoism simply
accepts it as part of the mystery. The
important thing for the Taoist is the efficacy of this presence, not the how or
why of it. Many atheists, on the other
hand, express antagonism to this idea of turning one’s life over to a higher
power. Some have attempted to develop alternative forms of substance abuse
treatment that emphasis the individual’s will power as the means to a cure.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are many other similarities and differences between
theism, Taoism and atheism, but we need not go into them here.</div>
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<b><i>The Fertile Ground</i><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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In logic “A” and “not-A” contain all cases. Thus one might be inclined to think that
theism and a-theism similarly include all cases. But language tricks us here. The terms “theism” and “atheism,” both in
their denotation and connotation, do not contain all cases: between theism and
atheism there is a large and fertile ground, a ground that for lack of a better
term I’ll call “pantheism.” Taoism is
one form of pantheism, but there are many others. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Many people, when their sense of rationality and
meaningfulness cause them to reject theism, jump to its opposite, atheism. Here, in summary, I would like to simply suggest
that before making such a leap, one might profit by exploring the fertile
ground the lies between theism and atheism. <o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-56387535039107071292015-02-05T08:49:00.002-08:002015-02-05T08:53:24.506-08:00Not Knowing<div class="MsoNormal">
We know what we know and we don’t know what we don’t
know. That we can be rather sure
of. But think about this question: “What
is the ratio of what we know to what we don’t know?”</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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That ratio, it would seem, is part of what we don’t
know. If we think about everything that
humans currently know – e.g. the information that fills the great libraries --
most of us should admit that the ratio is rather small. And even if we are among the most
knowledgeable of people, the ratio is still likely not very large.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another question: “What is the ratio of everything that
humans currently know to everything that could possibly be known?” There are cosmological theories that posit
countless numbers of other universes. If
these theories are true (whether they are or not being another thing we don’t
know), then the ratio is possibly infinitely small.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But to narrow things, what if we just consider the visible
portion of this universe? Well, there
might be numerous solar systems with intelligent beings, some possibly
considerably more so than us. Currently
we know nothing of their worlds; currently we don’t know if such worlds exist. So even here the ratio is possibly very, very
small.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We could get even narrower and consider just this earth; we
would seem to know quite a bit about that.
For instance, it is probably the case that the known and cataloged
species of plants and animals currently living are a fairly large ratio of all
the currently existing species. But it
has been suggested that for every currently living species there have been a
thousand that are now extinct. If this
number is anywhere near being correct, than the number of extinct species we know
anything about would seem to be a rather small percentage of the total. So the ratio of what we know about the living
species that have comprised the earth’s biosphere throughout its history
compared to everything there is to be known is again very small.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At this point a person may throw up her or his arms and say,
“well I know what I need to know!” But
how would a person know this since we don’t know what we don’t know? Most of the people I know seem to me to be
missing some important pieces of knowledge about quite basic things, and they
also seem to be blithely unaware of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Socrates, who was considered by many a very wise and
knowledgeable person, famously stated that “I know that I don’t know.” From the foregoing discussion, I think this
is something of which each of us could be reasonably sure.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To know that we don’t know seems to be negative knowledge,
and should we not be more concerned with positive knowledge? Perhaps, but anyone who spends time reading comments
on the Internet might wish that more people understood the limits of their
knowledge. (Why are there so many people
who passionately believe in the most un-belief-worthy notions?) I would
suggest that having at least some sense of the limits of ones knowing is actually
a very positive kind of knowledge. <o:p></o:p></div>
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You need to know a great deal, I would suggest, to truly
know that you don’t know. One has to
spend a lifetime trying to know if one is going to have any creditability in
saying “I know that I don’t know.” So if
the person who says “I know that I don’t know” actually knows a lot relative to
most, is this person a liar? Or is it a
recognition that all knowing isn’t equal?
There are the answers to big questions and answers to small questions,
and while Socrates and most of us probably had plenty of the later, it is in relation
to the former that our un-knowing is significant. But here again, do we know what the really
significant questions are?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: “what can be said
at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot state clearly we must pass over
in silence.” I don’t necessarily think
this statement is true and later in his life Wittgenstein apparently became doubtful
about this himself. But I do think it is
sometimes wise to be silent. Silence,
like the knowing of one’s ignorance, might seem the negation of knowledge, but
is it? Perhaps I’ll just shut up and listen
to what the silence says.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-34611573066528754152014-12-23T07:39:00.000-08:002014-12-23T07:39:33.719-08:00The Tao of Christmas<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I do not choose to celebrate Christmas, but as an American
it’s hard not to. Christmas is now as
much a secular holiday as a Christian one. </div>
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Like many other Spiritual Naturalists, I was brought up
Christian but grew to find Christianity both spiritually unsatisfying and
intellectually unpalatable. Among the
many things I found objectionable was its personifications of natural law. Around the same time, I discovered the
Eastern religions, and in them, particularly Taoism, I found a spiritual
philosophy both deeply satisfying to my soul and not in conflict with my
reasoning mind (ignoring some of the peripheral bits).<o:p></o:p></div>
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I don’t celebrate Christmas, yet I must admit that the
season still has a certain hold over me. I have good childhood memories of
Christmas and I applaud the sentiments of good will and peace towards all
expressed at this time. Also, the winter
solstice seems a proper time to celebrate the season’s turning from maximum
darkness to increasing light. And, I rather
like the central image of the Christian holiday, the birth of Christ. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Away in a Manger <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The central image of Christmas, the incarnation of God
into the history of the world, is the epitome of personalizing. That the being responsible for the creations
of the “firmament of heaven” is also the babe in the manger is crazy, but an
appealing kind of crazy if one reads it mythically rather than literally. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As a myth, I think most Taoists can find something
pleasing about the central Christmas image.
The idealization of the baby speaks to an idea easy for Taoist to relate
to. The first lines of chapter 55 of the <i>Tao
Te Ching</i> are translated by Stephen Mitchell as “He who is in harmony with
the Tao, is like a newborn child.” The
first part of chapter 76 is translated by Ellen Chen as:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“At birth, a person is soft and
yielding, at death hard an unyielding.<o:p></o:p></div>
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All beings, grass and trees,
when alive, are soft and bending,<o:p></o:p></div>
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When dead they are dry and
brittle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Therefore the hard and
unyielding are companions of death,<o:p></o:p></div>
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The soft and yielding are
companions of life.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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The babe in a manger is an apt symbol of the Taoist ideal
of living in a humble, open, flexible and yielding manner.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>A Child Is Born
Unto Mary<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The divine child is born of Mary, and the simple logic of
this statement means that Mary is the Mother of God. Taoism avoids personifications of the divine,
but in the instances where personalizing language are used, the Tao is
presented as feminine. In the first chapter of the <i>Tao Te Ching</i> we are told that the “Tao
is the mother of all things” and this idea is repeated in chapters 25 and
52. Chapter 51 tells us that Tao gives
birth to <i>Te</i>, which gives shape to the
world. In chapter 6, Tao is
characterized as the Valley Spirit and the Dark Mare and in several chapters it
is associated with water and darkness, both qualities of “yin,” the feminine
principle, in Taoist symbology. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Like Taoism, the image of the birth of Jesus is suffused
with a feminine and earthy quality, something rarely encountered in other
aspects of the religions of the Levant. The
benign presence of animals in this scene adds to its earthiness. The quality of yin is more to be found in the
Christmas scene than just about anywhere else in the Bible.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Silent Night<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Although perhaps a little more of a reach, the divine
birth is also an apt symbol of what is perhaps the most central concept of
Taoist ethics, <i>wu-wei</i>,
non-doing. Perhaps no idea of Taoism is more
alien to the West than the idea that a minimization of action can be the best
way to accomplish one’s ends. The
development of a child inside its mother provides a wonderful example of the
principle. It requires no special
“doing” on the part of the mother.
Nature takes care of the baby’s development and the changes necessary in
the mother’s body to give birth and to provide the child nourishment. The Tao can be characterized as a kind of “intelligence”
within Nature that enables it to self-organize into things as marvelously complex
as a human life. The divine child born
beneath the stars is an apt symbol of the ease and naturalness with which the
Tao accomplishes its ends. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>In the Beginning
Was the Logos</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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One reason Taoism avoids personifications of the divine
is that one cannot personalize the Tao for the same reason that one cannot
speak the Tao, the Tao is unknowable and unspeakable. It is the mystery of being. But one can, I think, personalize <i>Te</i>, which is the second most central
concept in Taoism. In fact, the relation
of Tao and <i>Te</i> might well be
personalized in the idea of God and God’s son.
Tao is the un-manifested source of creation; <i>Te</i> is the manifested creative process. But much like the mystery of the trinity, Tao
and <i>Te</i> are different principles and
yet also the same. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>Te</i> is the
principle that brings regularity and shape to the world. It is something like the Greek idea of <i>logos</i>.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is called the Logos. This is often translated as “the word,” but
it can also be translated as the source of regularities in the world – the way
it is used as a root in such words as “biology” and “psychology.” In this sense, we might translate <i>Te</i> as <i>Logos</i>. In chapter 51 of the <i>Tao Te Ching</i> we are told that Tao gives
birth to <i>Te</i>. The birth in Bethlehem is an apt personification
of this statement.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Peace on Earth, <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In its institutional forms, Christianity is about as
different from Taoism as you can get.
Yet, I think that the message of the historical Jesus has many Taoist
characteristics. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Jesus said, “And which of you by being anxious can add
one cubit unto the measure of his life?
And why are ye anxious concerning raiment. Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” This passage from
Matthew, except for its reference to Solomon, would not seem out of place in
the <i>Tao Te Ching</i>. The Christian idea of giving oneself over to
the divine will, that which the lilies do naturally, is the same basic idea as
the return to the Tao, though clothed in different raiment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Again, Jesus said, “But I tell you, love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in
heaven.” The sentiment here would also
be much applauded by a Taoist, though I think a Taoist might interpret it a
little differently than is typically done by a Christian. A Christian might applaud the strength of
virtue it takes to show love to a person considered an enemy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The Taoist, on the other hand, would recognize that it is
only attachment to our own field of action that makes us consider anyone an
enemy. The enemy is one who threatens that to which we are attached: no
attachment, no enemy. So the Taoist
might say. “Love your enemies and pray for them that you might learn the nature
of your attachment that has made of you an enemy-creating fool.” Considering that it is actually impossible to
love your enemies – you can only truly love by overcoming enmity itself, which
is to say by ceasing to find in the other any reason for enmity – the Taoist
interpretation might actually be closer than the traditional Christian
interpretation to what Jesus was trying to get at here.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
While many of the sayings attributed to Jesus are in accord
with Taoism, many are not. While the
image of divine birth may harmonize with Taoist sentiment, the images of God
triumphant – God as king or emperor – do not.
And the passage from chapter 76 that I quoted above, that “the soft and
yielding are companions of life,” is given a particular poignancy when we contemplate
that other central image of Christianity, the hard and unyielding cross.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>God Will Towards
All</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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For a Christian, the later events of the story of Jesus
are key to the redemption of humanity.
The Taoist believes the world, and humanity as part of the world, is
what it is and has no need of redemption. I agree here with Taoism. But I live in a country dominated by
Christians, I am part of an extended family even more dominated by
Christians. Although I see it from a
rather foreign point of view, at least I can share with Christians the sense of
beauty and meaningfulness in the Christmas story and its central image of the
divine incarnated in the world. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In the spirit of the season, I hope for each Christian,
and every other kind of person in the world, that the peace that goes by many
names – God, Tao, Nature, Allah, Brahma, and others – will settle deep into
their soul and guide them forward in the increasing light.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-8394868343660412622014-11-14T07:56:00.004-08:002014-11-14T07:56:47.673-08:00Encounters with the Goddess?<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16.5pt;">When I was thirteen, I
had a wonderful dream. The dream was quite complex and involved, but here are
the main elements. I was in a huge arena, which I came to understand in the
dream was the “arena of the world.” There was a large crowd of people walking
up stairs into the arena, but I was walking down a set of stairs away from it.
I walked down many flights of stairs, and came to an underground passageway. I
entered the passageway and I saw a door ajar with a golden light coming from
it. I opened the door, and inside was a beautiful woman, giving off a radiant
golden light. We exchanged no words, but I felt a great joy in her presence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The dream was so
beautiful and powerful, that I wrote it down when I woke up, so I was able to
remember many of the details. I had never heard of Jung at the time, but years
later, when I read Jung, I immediately recognized the woman as the Jungian
anima. While I know a Freudian would quickly read such a dream in a youngster
at the age of puberty in sexual terms, there was nothing sexual about the dream.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many years later, at the
age of twenty-two, I had a dream that contained the following: I was on the
North Shore of Lake Superior at a place like Gooseberry Falls. There was a gas
station built out on the rocks by the water, a Mobil station. I stopped in the
station and went into the bathroom. There was a stairs leading down into a
lower level, and men were walking up the stairs. I walked down. When I got to
the bottom there was a woman there lying naked in a pile of rags. Semen was dripping
out of her vagina. I looked at her and I knew she was the same woman I had
visited in that earlier dream.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A few years before this
second dream, I set about living the hedonistic life style. I wanted to explore
every avenue of pleasure and maximize the amount of pleasure I could have.
Being the early seventies, there was a great opportunity. I lived the sex,
drugs, and rock and roll scene to the maximum. I had a great time, but after a
few years, I felt like ashes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was at this time that
I had the second dream. It had a very powerful effect on me. I understood
immediately the connection between the two dreams. The first dream was a
calling, and the second told me I was failing in my calling. Recognizing this,
I put an end to my pursuit of hedonism, and went back to my Zen Buddhist
practice that I had abandoned. (The Mobil station and the North Shore are
personal elements of the dream — my earliest sexual encounter is associated
with a Mobil Station, and the North Shore has always been for me a sacred, holy
place.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The encounters with the
Anima, the Goddess, did not end there. The most recent was a few years ago on
an October night at Gooseberry Falls on the rocks by the Lake. I was meditating
in the moonlight. During the meditation, I had made a commitment towards a
certain course of action in my life. But as I was getting up to leave, a female
voice said to me, “No, that is not the way it is to be,” and then told me the
way it was to be. From the distance of a few years, I can now see that the
course of action I was told to take was both wise and also aligned with that
original calling.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, I understand if at
this point the reader thinks I’m simply crazy. It is very un-modern to hear
voices and heed them. I write all this only to give a concrete example of how
the archetypes can operate. I do not believe that the Goddess I have so wonderfully
met exists as an entity out in the world, but nor is she something solely in
“my” mind. I do not think she belongs to the supernatural, or is in violation
of the dictates of naturalism, but I do think she challenges any simplistic
understanding of dreams or the nature of the unconscious.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While I’m not sure what
level of reality all this occurs on, I do know that through these dreams and in
this calling, I feel deeply blessed, and I wouldn’t trade that blessing for
anything.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<u><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Afterword<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wrote this piece several years ago for the Humanistic
Paganism website. I am now in my early sixties, and it amazes me the degree to which this dream from my youth speaks so much about my life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are many different callings in life – a life of
leadership or service to the community, to scholarship and research, to the
arts and crafts – to name a few. There
is not one best way, but for each individual I would suggest that the best way
is to find and follow your true calling.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was called to be a mystic or what in earlier times would
have been a shaman. There have been
cultures and times when this was a respected calling, but ours is not such a
time. There have also been cultures and
times when the Goddess -- the divinity of the earthly, dark, and soulful -- was
the main object of human veneration. Our
time is also far removed from those. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because
our times are the way they are, it has been a prerequisite of this calling to be
an outsider (to walk away from the arena of the world); that has its costs, but it is a small price to
pay for the deep abiding joy comes from fealty to those eternal inner values the Goddess symbolizes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-35489352962759164882014-10-22T12:22:00.001-07:002017-05-01T09:36:44.950-07:00The Joy of Big QuestionsAbout twenty years ago I was roaming around in a Redwoods grove in California, and in response to the grandeur of the scenery, I began to think about what it meant to call something in Nature beautiful. At first I just started thinking about the question, and then I began to read about it, and later to talk with other people who were interested in the question. For about 10 years this question became a focal point of my reading and contemplation.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In tangible terms, all of this mental focus has resulted in little more than a few of my posts on this site such <i>Nature Appreciation 101</i>, <i>Beauty in the Equation</i>, <i>Something Special May Happen, </i>and <i>The Teleology of Beauty,</i> though it enters into most of what I write. Yet I can imagine few better uses of my time than pursuing that question. It was a joy and remains a joy.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I grew up in rural Minnesota on the banks of the Mississippi River and have taken joy in wild nature from as early as I can remember. Nobody taught me this or even encouraged it, it was just ingrained in my temperament. In particular I loved animals, and living on the river brought me each spring and fall the great bird migrations. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I studied natural history as much as I was able in college and worked as a park naturalist and outdoor education instructor for several years after college. Though even as a child I tended to ask philosophical questions, I took no philosophy courses in college (which was fortunate -- academic philosophy as often extinguishes natural curiosity as enhances it).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After college, I started reading philosophy quite widely -- my introductory text being Bertrand Russell's <i>History of Western Philosophy</i>. By the time I took that walk through the redwood forest, I had gained a pretty good understanding of Western philosophy. After that walk, I focused for a few years on aesthetics and the philosophy of beauty. One thing that surprised me was how little had been written on the beauty of nature. Indeed, many philosophers of beauty denied that nature had beauty. In the final end, I realized I was not going to find an already prepared answer to my question -- that I would have to work out the answer for myself. And that is where the fun really began!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The question about Nature's beauty led me from philosophy to what I might call the anthropology of nature -- what other people's and their cultures thought about the value of nature. This also lead to a long study of how various religions valued (or failed to value) wild nature, which included the study of mythology (another joyful intellectual excursion). It led also deeper into scientific findings and particularly cosmology. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My readings went on and on in all kinds of different directions, but I won't go on and on about that. At a certain point in time, I felt I had answered the question to my satisfaction. So, what is the answer? Partly that beauty is like a butterfly -- it is best to enjoy it on the wing. Trying to pin down beauty in a verbal formula is like killing the butterfly and pinning it in a box. I won't do that. If you are interested in this question, I suggest you pursue it yourself.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Philosophy, IMHO, should be the asking of deep, heartfelt questions; it should be as impractical and beautiful as watching birds or butterflies. Unfortunately, it has been turned into a somewhat soulless, impractical, often egotistical activity. If you love big questions, the questions proper to philosophy, I suggest you follow your own inner philosopher and not get too caught up in the formal discipline.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-86270649866532901272014-10-01T09:11:00.003-07:002017-05-01T09:28:56.146-07:00An Alternative American Dream<br />
<div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: right;">
“They say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: right;">
--John Lennon<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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After the financial crisis of 2008, I heard and read many stories about people who lost their jobs, their saving and their homes during the crisis. These are stories of people who worked hard, thought they were investing wisely, thought that owning a home was going to be a good thing. These stories are often accompanied by a statement about pursuing the “American Dream” and the great disappointment in seeing that dream turn sour. I have great sympathy for these people, but I am not so sympathetic to their "American Dream.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The American Dream, as it stands today, is almost entirely defined by ownership and consumption. A big house, with a big lawn; a big lawnmower to mow that lawn; a big car or two or three; big vacations, like a cruise aboard a big ship; big catalogs filled with things to fill those big houses, cars, plans and bellies…. This is not surprising since the images of what comprises the American Dream have largely been created by marketing executives and their staff in hundreds of offices throughout America (and the rest of the world). This army of marketers has but one function, to motivate consumptive behavior by stimulating desire and envy. In an earlier age, if you had asked someone the name of the being whose sole function is to stimulate desire and envy, they would have said, "the devil."<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Closely associated with the myth of the American Dream is that of “a lifestyle.” In the sixties, when I was coming of age, we talked about an "alternative lifestyle." Such a lifestyle was to be an alternative to the “normal” work and consumption filled postwar lifestyle. It was an attempt – a short-lived, largely failed attempt – to cease being a consumer. The marketers quickly saw the commercial potential of the idea of an alternative lifestyle and quickly co-opted it. Like the American Dream, one's lifestyle is largely defined by what you own, wear and consume. In addition, one's lifestyle now is portrayed in advertisements as something to which we have nearly a God-given right. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Well, if we are going to dream, let’s dream. How about an American Dream of community – a diverse community of people who actually share each other’s lives and enjoy each other’s company? And, in this country that calls itself the most religious country in the world, how about a dream of people in deep communion with ultimate things, whether they call that God or Nature or the Great Spirit or something else? How about people who find such joy in that deep communion, that they really haven’t time for trips to the mall or on-line shopping. How about a dream of people who love the American ecology and would never think about stripping from the great Web of Being a sterile swath of grass lawn, much less waste hours mowing it?</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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No investment bankers can feast their fat, ugly egos on authentic human relationship, or spiritual contemplation, or enjoyment of natural beauty, or empathy with all living things. No local bankers can repossess these, leaving us homeless in our homeland. How about an American Dream that cannot be sold and repossessed? </div>
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Unlike John Lennon, I am not a dreamer. I have no illusions. The marketers have won, and that is not going to change. They are powerful and clever and well camouflaged. They infiltrate and co-opt alternative dreams. No, we are not going to change that. But we can change ourselves. As individuals or small groups, we can live an alternative American Dream. We can dis-incorporate the marketers message from our sense of the world and its value. We can re-incorporate community, spirituality, material simplicity, and natural beauty deeply into our lives. <br />
<br />
Imagine that!</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-10962889748039159062014-09-22T09:50:00.000-07:002014-09-22T09:50:55.788-07:00The Dance<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>The Dance</b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The great galaxies dance<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Upon their darkened stage<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In languid pirouettes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Their graceful arms wave.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The radiant stars dance<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Throughout the timeless scenes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Creating with their light steps <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Astrologic dreams.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The crusty earth dances<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Its jig with the sun<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As the horny moon entrances<o:p></o:p></div>
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His waters to swoon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And trees dance with seasons<o:p></o:p></div>
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And flowers dance with rain<o:p></o:p></div>
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And people dance together <o:p></o:p></div>
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Through life, love and pain<o:p></o:p></div>
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And people dance together <o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">And live and love again.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-10064447210484249602014-09-15T12:50:00.001-07:002017-05-01T09:47:46.616-07:00The Great Mystery<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In Vol. 19 of The North American Indians, Edward Curtis
writes: “there is a tendency, both by observers and the Indians themselves, to
translate Wakó<sup><span style="font-size: 6.0pt; mso-text-raise: 6.5pt; position: relative; top: -6.5pt;">n</span></sup>da (Wáka<sup><span style="font-size: 6.0pt; mso-text-raise: 6.5pt; position: relative; top: -6.5pt;">n</span></sup>-ta<sup><span style="font-size: 6.0pt; mso-text-raise: 6.5pt; position: relative; top: -6.5pt;">n</span></sup>ka)
as ‘Great Spirit.’ Such a translation is not borne out by the primitive use of
the word nor by Siouan thought. The translation should be ‘Great Mystery.’
Without putting it in words, Siouan philosophy says, ‘We know not <i>what it is</i>,
but we do know <i>that it is</i>.’”<o:p></o:p></div>
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I would suggest that the world would be a far better
place if people everywhere, when speaking of “God,” “The Great Spirit,” “Tao” (or
whatever other word they might use to refer to that which is the ultimate
source of the world, of life, and of our selves) were to recognize and admit that
“We know not <i>what it is</i>, but we do know <i>that it is</i>.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The poet W. B. Yeats wrote in the <i>Second Coming</i>, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are
filled with passionate intensity.” The
Siouan philosophy forms a wonderful middle ground between these extremes. It has great conviction that this ultimate
source exists -- it is not agnostic in the least -- but it also recognizes that
IT is a mystery, IT’s what we don’t know.
What could be more absurd that being passionately dogmatic about a
mystery?</div>
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I have to wonder if the reason people get so passionate
about their religious beliefs is that it gives them the right to feel
exclusive, that “I have the truth and you don’t.” Such spiritual egotism is the opposite of a
genuine spirituality. If the Dakota
tribes really adhered to an approach to God as Curtis suggests, they were
spiritually superior to the average Christian (or Jew or Muslim or Hindu or
Buddhist).<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-40147579750102987262014-07-09T13:01:00.001-07:002017-05-01T08:43:46.043-07:00Credo of an Organization to Which I'd Like to Belong<div class="MsoNormal">
We seek knowledge, but know that we don’t know.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We seek wisdom, but recognize our foolishness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We seek to be generous and loving, but recognize we are often selfish and resentful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We recognize that in recognizing our own failings we should become more patient with the failings of others, but we are often quick to judge the failings of others.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, we try to do our best to be loving and to find beauty and joy in our brief sojourn on this remarkable earth, and sometimes we succeed wonderfully. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-22499122157814333372014-06-24T07:33:00.003-07:002015-09-22T14:47:23.263-07:00The Marriage of Spirit and Soul<div class="MsoNormal">
In his book <i>Alchemy:
Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul</i>, Titus Burkhardt writes of the
chemical marriage: the marriage of gold and silver, which is symbolic of the
integration and harmonization of one’s spirit and soul. In the mythic language of alchemy, the spirit
is characterized as male and associated with the sun and gold, while the soul
is characterized as female and associated with the moon and silver. In this alchemical ideal of the marriage of
spirit and soul, the spirit descends to the soul and the soul rises to the
spirit. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Exactly what the alchemists meant by “spirit” and “soul” is
not completely clear; a defensible interpretation is that by “spirit” the
alchemist refers to that aspect of our being that articulates with words, plans
and sets goals, makes judgments – the part of our being that we call upon for
self-governance, that we deem as the seat of reason and rationality. By soul, the alchemist refers to all the
other aspects of our being including the part that gives rise to appetites, emotions, but also the place of
dreams and imagination. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The notion that the spirit should descend to the soul is rather foreign to Western spirituality. Generally in the Western tradition the role of spirit is to ascend. The spiritual realm is upward, celestial. The spirit governs the being, not through the descent to and cultivation of the soul, but by the repression of the body with its irrational appetites, compulsions and imaginings. Self-control and control of
one’s appetites, emotions, and thoughts are the spiritual ideal in much of Western spirituality (and also in the Aryan influenced aspects of the spirituality of India). Spiritual asceticism becomes a method of
attaining this ideal. There are writings
in these traditions that speak of the tremendous embarrassment felt by males in
having a spontaneous erection – the ideal of complete control demands the
control of even that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The notion of the chemical marriage in alchemy is quite similar to the integration
of <i>yang</i> and <i>yin</i> in Taoism, which
has many similarities to alchemy. Rather than the spiritual ideal of the snow-white mountain peaks, Taoism posits a spiritual ideal of the valley. Lao Tse writes of the
“Valley Spirit,” and posits a spiritual ideal not of upward rising tongues of
fire, but the downward flowing of water.
For the Taoist, that which rises will inevitably descend. In the ascent of the mountain, the spirit may seek to leave the mess and chaos (that is so characteristic of the soul)
behind. But such ascent can only succeed briefly; we are bodily and soulful beings, and the spirit inevitably must come back to the raw facts of its physicality. The Valley, on the other hands, its more stable. It collects everything into itself. The
waters from the turbulent mountain rush roiled and muddied to the valley. The Taoist contemplative does not seek to wrest
spiritual clarity from out these turbid waters, but simply to come to a
quietness wherein the waters of themselves become calm and clear. Then the clear waters mirror the peaks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A prominent Western myth is that of St. George and the
dragon. In this myth, as with much Western spirituality, the spiritual goal is to kill the dragon, In alchemy, the soul is often
associated with reptiles, and such reptiles as the snakes in the Caduceus
of Hermes and the dragon of Chinese fable are favorable creatures. In the alchemical and Taoist systems, the
ideal is to cultivate the dragon, which is to say, to cultivate the soul.*<br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The soul is the realm of Eros, to bring yet another mythic
system into the discussion. Eros brings
great pleasure, but also great turmoil to our life. For one who seeks self-control, Eros is a snake in the grass.
For one obsessed by self-control, Eros is a dragon. For one who seeks to cultivate the soul, Eros
is much as the myths portrayed him/her, a lovely but troublesome part of our
being -- a bringer of pleasure and depth, but also of turmoil and
obsession. Cultivation of the soul is, above all else, cultivating a habitat for Love. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is in relation to sexuality that Western spirituality,
and particularly Christian spirituality, seems most badly to fail us. That a significant portion or the Catholic
priesthood, who have vowed themselves to chastity, are found guilty of rather
perverse sexuality, may well be viewed by that priesthood as just further
evidence of what a horrid and powerful dragon they are fighting. From the
alchemical point of view (and the Freudian), however, it is simply a mistake. While Eros, and the soul as a whole, is
complex and troublesome, nothing in the soul is intrinsically bad – there is no
weed in the garden of the soul that does not have a proper place and role
within that garden. And a weed in its
proper place is not a weed at all, it is a flower.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And here we return to a metaphor suggested earlier -- the
soul as garden and the spirit as gardener.
The spirit descends to the soul and cultivates it -- finds the proper
place for each aspect of the soul to flourish. A flourishing soul is a fulfilled soul, a
deeply content soul. A content soul
fills the spirit with joy. And this is
the reward and value of the marriage of spirit and soul spoken of by the alchemist – soulful contentment and
spiritual joy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
* <i>Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating
Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life</i>, is the title of a book by Thomas
More. More’s writing is deeply
influenced by the psychologist James Hillman.
Hillman has waged something of a one-man crusade to bring our restless
spirits back to the soul, gaining allies like More, the poet Robert Bly, and Phil
Cousineau along the way. Cousineau’s
book <i>Soul: Readings from Socrates to Ray
Charles</i> is a particularly informative and enjoyable exploration of the
soul’s realm. Hillman was influenced by
Jung, who was highly influenced by alchemy.
Paganism, nature religions, and religions of the Goddess also in their various
ways work for the re-integration of spirit and soul.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-501237014652740992014-04-01T09:30:00.000-07:002014-09-22T09:53:25.723-07:00A Random Walk?<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In
his book</span></em><em> Full House: The Spread of Excellence from
Plato to Darwin</em><i>,</i> Stephen
Jay Gould presented the idea that the appearance of progress in evolution can
be explained as “a random walk.” According
to Gould, in evolution there is a left bound, a minimum at zero complexity, but
no right bound on complexity. Evolution thus
has only one direction to move in, and that is toward greater complexity over
time. There is no need to posit a direction of increased complexity or progress, only a random process, which
leads to increased complexity because it can’t really lead to anything
else. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
While the idea that evolution is a random walk certainly
is reasonable, I find at least one reason to question it: If we accept some form of the big bang theory,
then our universe starts off in a highly disorganized state. Yet several billion years later, when the
first life appears on earth, the universe has become organized into stable
galaxies and planetary systems. Just how
to account for this increase in cosmic organization is a rather contentious
issue, but I don’t see any way that “a random walk” describes this process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Further, at a certain point in the history of evolution, we
find one species, the human, who starts to organize his world. Over a few hundred thousand years, we find
this creature going from organizing simple shelters to creating such highly
organized entities as the Library of Congress, the I-Pod, and the space
program. Again, how to account for this
massive increase in organized complexity is rather contentious, yet again, it
cannot be accounted for by a random walk.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
So the question arises, if what happens between the big
bang and the rise of life on earth seems to have a direction of progress, and
the development of human learning and technology clearly has a direction of progress,
should we feel so confident that evolution, which lies between these two, lacks
a direction of progress? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
There is a lot of talk about a theory of everything in
physics, but one thing seems clear to me – such a theory of everything won’t actually
explain much of anything outside the realm of physics. I would like to predict here that somewhere
in the future there will be another kind of theory of everything that will
actually explain a good deal more. This
theory will be a theory of organization – a theory that
comprehensively accounts for how the universe self organizes and in the process
of self organizing generates new forms of organization, such as the algorithmic
organization by which genes produce organisms and ideas create buildings and
machines. Darwinian Evolution will be a part of this larger theory, rather than a theory somewhat isolated from the other forms of development and organization occurring in the universe.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-44310856614997463302014-03-28T09:10:00.000-07:002015-04-21T08:56:52.026-07:00We Are Stardust?<div class="MsoNormal">
As much as I like the music of Joni Mitchell, the fact that
I am made of stardust makes no emotional impact on me. But in the spirit of that oh-so reasonable
one, Mr. Spock, I do find certain things about that fact interesting. First,
the fact that the universe has stars at all strikes me as very curious. Amongst the many things required for a star
to exists, one is that the ratio of the strength of gravity to the strength of
the electromagnetic force has to be roughly in the proportion that it is -- the
electromagnetic force is roughly 38 magnitudes stronger than gravity. Thirty-eight magnitudes is a huge number –
something in the order of the number of atoms in the planet earth. Of all the proportions available to nature,
that it should have that particular one is certainly interesting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even more interesting, perhaps, is what happens after you
gather enough gravity together to overwhelm the electromagnetic force. New elements are forged, and huge quantities
of energy are released via E=MC2. But
for new elements to be forged, there must be available another force strong
enough to overcome the relatively powerful repulsion that protons feel for one
another. The strong nuclear force, which is roughly 137 times more powerful
than the electromagnetic force, allows this, and allows nature to develop about
90 stable elements. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What use
the universe has for so many elements is anybody’s guess, but without a rich
diversity of elements, we wouldn’t be here. Being so powerfully attractive, you would
think the strong nuclear force would pull everything
together in one big lump. But despite its great strength, the range of
that strength drops off steeply, so steeply that it is not felt beyond the
atomic nucleus. Could a force be designed with more perfect
specifications for the task of creating a multitude of different kinds of
elements? That, of course, is a terribly unscientific way to frame the question. Nonetheless, I think it is just the kind of
question that a curious person might be inclined to ask.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our universe seems
to have been born (if one can be permitted poetic language here) with the proportions
of its forces already set – we might even think these forces are something of
an analog to the genes that guide the development of an embryo into a fully
realized creature. Why these proportions? There are many theories (though I don’t
believe any of them are either falsifiable or provable). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One such theory that
currently is popular is the idea of infinite inflation. To give the briefest sketch of the theory, it
posits that the so-called big bang and ensuing period of inflation that created
our universe is just one of countless such periods of universe creation. Most such periods result in a sterile
univerese, but by the sheer force of numbers, some of them have what it takes
to create interesting universes and even beings that find such universes
interesting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Note that this
theory (and I believe all such theories that involve a multiverse) requires an
infinitely potent entity, the multiverse, to create
an infinite quantity of universes.
Consequently, the multiverse must not be subject to entropy, indeed must
be dis-entropic. But if it is, than we
simply cannot assume it is naturalistic in any sense we understand that term,
for entropy is absolutely core to our own understanding of nature. How the multiverse operates is beyond
anything we currently can understand. It
is pure mystery.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now I find all this
very interesting, and I do not draw any conclusions from it. But it does strike me that an omni-potent
multiverse has something of the characteristic of a God. I
might even say that when it comes to the great mystery of the source of it all,
theism and atheism have about equal status, which is to say they both purport
to say more than a reasonable person ought to say. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I'll leave the rest to silence...<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-75333663600739849072014-03-12T07:49:00.004-07:002015-04-21T09:01:48.691-07:00Desire and the Contemplative Life (or the Marketer’s Worst Nightmare)<div class="MsoNormal">
It is natural to desire and civilized to repress desire, at
least some of the time. The question is,
and it is a central question of morality and ethics, which desires to express
or repress and how much so? A culture provides
a provisional answer to this question in the form of laws. We may desire to do bodily harm or take
possessions from another, but the law may dictate serious consequence for any
who give in to these desires. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Religions and quasi-religious systems have proposed moral
codes that are often quite different from the law, generally more restrictive
concerning which desires we are encouraged to give into and which we are
encouraged to repress. At the most
extreme, we find a religious philosophy like Buddhism that sets as its ideal
the cessation of all desire.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Religions, often but not always, posit consequences of our
actions here on earth in some form of afterlife or reincarnation. Their moral codes, the system of “oughts” and
“ought-nots,” generally do not make complete sense without reference to that
specific notion of an afterlife. Thus
the moral clarity that a religion can provide requires faith, and many of us
can see no clear reason for such faith. For
a person who does not believe in an afterlife, there really is no clear or
authoritative directive as to which desires ought and out-not be pursued. For such a person, how our desires affect the
quality of our life in this life or the life of those we care about, is much
more central. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a general idea, derived from the philosopher David
Hume, that you cannot go from an “is” to and “ought.” This is not really correct. Within a goal directed context, it makes perfect
sense to go from “is” to “ought.” Thus,
if your goal is X and Y is necessary to achieve X, then it follows that you
ought to do Y. But to the question,
“What ought to be the ultimate goal of my life?” there are no facts that lead
to a clear answer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most people probably give little thought to the question of
the ultimate goal of their life. A
society provides a set of standard aims and ambitions, and most people simply
grow into one of those normal roles.
Wealth, status, love and friendship, raising a family, pleasure and
security are among the accepted aims of most secular societies, and most people
aim to maximize some or all of these.
Each of these aims defines a certain set of oughts and ought-nots. For instance, the pursuit of wealth requires
a certain kind of prudence: the repression of the desire to have and enjoy now
for the expectation of having more and being able to enjoy more in the future. Even the exclusive pursuit of pleasure
requires some consideration about the consequences of giving in too completely,
such as the negative consequences of having too much to drink.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While the normal goods, and the societal forms through which
we channel our desires to attain these goods, are enough for most people in
most societies, we may raise the question whether any of these goals,
individually or in combination, provide the best or highest quality of life?
There is no clear answer to this question, but there is the testimony of
various thinkers, artists, mystics through the ages that suggest that they are
not.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The philosopher Aristotle, in his <i>Nicomachean Ethics</i>, suggests that <i>eudaimonia</i> is the goal of most people. (<i>Eudaimonia</i>
is often translated as “happiness,” but I would suggest that the term is closer
to well-being.) He also states that
intellectual contemplation is the highest form of happiness. This idea is rather alien to modern Western
society, but it was a highly respected ideal in the West for nearly 2,000
years. A contemplative ideal has had an
even greater standing and longevity in India and other parts of the Orient.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contemplation is a focusing of one’s awareness and attention
on some object, idea or experience. Such
a focusing requires the quieting of natural desires (deepening contemplation
requires the virtual cessation of such desires). Desire makes us aware of something we lack
and points us toward objects that we believe at some level will fill that
lack. In a state of desire, we are not
content with where we are and we are impelled to move (mentally, physically or
both) elsewhere. In contemplation we can
feel deeply content with where we are and what we are doing. We are content – not in the sense that
someone who has just satisfied a desire (say eating a bowl of ice cream), but
content with the very nature of our being.
During contemplation the contemplative needs nothing but contemplation
to be perfectly content. The seated
Buddha is the image of such contentment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is not my intention to conclude that Aristotle or Buddha
is correct about what leads to happiness or contentment. If I have anything to conclude it is that
each person has to figure out his or her own goals and ways to achieve those
goals. Further, I would not wish to
conclude that because some way is good, more and more of that way is better and
better. Life is a dynamic affair; why
not have multiple goals? I do wish to
suggest, though, that though the contemplative life is no longer one of the
standard norms of our society, those old masters where not incorrect about
it. Its rewards are wonderful, and you
really do not have to pay a penny for them – contemplation provides joy for
free. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in the sixties, people would speak of “an alternative
lifestyle,” which meant an alternative to the market based lifestyle. Now the term is used by marketers to sell an
array of products that help define one of the many so-called lifestyles. The market needs consumers, people who desire. Contemplation offers an alternative to being a
consumer. A person who has learned to
find deep inner happiness without having to pay a penny for it is the marketer’s
worst nightmare. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
To be a marketers worst nightmare seems an honorable goal!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-14623881622652141862014-02-11T08:03:00.000-08:002014-02-11T13:07:30.113-08:00Desideratum<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes begets no, good begets bad, left begets right – such is
the symmetry of verbal things. Yet symmetry begets asymmetry. So to assert a truth is to invite its denial;
to praise a value is to invite a scoffer.
It hardly seems worthwhile to assert or deny at all. Yet silence begets noise. So when I wish for
silence I often speak and when I speak I wish for silence. Thus, if I speak of big things, may I do so
humbly and may my words reach toward a rarified clarity or an unresolvable
ambiguity. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-82579185401519780182014-01-29T09:55:00.000-08:002015-09-03T08:38:08.032-07:00Progress?<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For a few centuries now there has been an accelerating pace
of technological change, which has also led to an accelerating pace of social
change. Some people call this change
progress, and I would certainly not totally disagree with that assessment. But I would caution that the perception of
progress is greatly distorted by a certain bias, a bias I am not sure has yet been
clearly articulated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In every change there is something gained and something
lost. The perception of technological change is distorted because what is gained is gained rapidly and is relatively easy to
quantify, while what is lost is lost slowly and is often of a more qualitative nature. The quick, quantitative improvement makes a far
greater impression on us than the slower, qualitative loss.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As an example, in the late 19<sup>th</sup> century in
America, houses often had large porches and during the hot summer hours people
spent time on these porches. From the
porches people could communicate with neighbors walking by on the sidewalk or
with other neighbors sitting on their porches. These interactions enhanced a neighborhood’s
social culture. When air conditioning came along, the early adopters could stay
inside on the hottest days to escape the heat.
But they probably also expected that the porch culture, and its
enjoyments, would still be there if they wanted to go out and participate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Air conditioning provided an immediate and quantitative
relief from the unpleasantness of the heat.
But over a period of many years, as more and more people installed air
conditioning, the porch culture diminished greatly – and the enjoyments that
had come with it also diminished. It may
well be the case that the early adopters of air conditioning years later
complained about the loss of the porch culture without even suspecting the role
that air conditioning had played in it.
The loss was slow and its causes not immediately clear. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One could refer to many such examples, but I will explore just
one more – photos. In the early years of
the 20<sup>th</sup> Century, when my parents were born, photos were relatively
rare. I thus only have a few photos of them when they were young. But I value those photos and have examined
them closely trying to derive every piece of information I can from the few
available. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Photos are now ubiquitous.
Many children will have thousands of photos taken and saved by the time
they are adults. Again we have a rapid
and quantitative gain – but the question is, will any of these photos be
treasured? Indeed, will anyone even
bother with them as they are so common?
The rare is valued, but not the common.
It is very possible that what seems now a great a treasure of photos,
will end up largely ignored. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I speak to many young people today who are keenly aware of
the wonderful new things their digital tools and toys provide. As a person who grew up in a world where we
made our own entertainment from the outdoors, our friends, and a lot of
imagination, I am keenly aware of how much young people have lost. The
entertainment we made for ourselves was a wonderful old thing, and the new
digital entertainments seem shallow and shoddy to me in comparison.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Okay, I've turned into a sentimental older person who is
slowly becoming a Luddite. But the point
here is to say “when evaluating progress, recognize that it generally takes a
good deal more effort to account for what has been lost than what has been
gained.” If you fail to make that
effort, you very well may be blinded by progress.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<u>Afterword</u>:<br />
The greatest qualitative loss, IMHO, from the great rise of modern technology, is the loss of inner resources. Around 2,500 years ago, Aristotle argued that contemplation the greatest form of human happiness. This notion was well understood and respected in Western society for the next 2,000 years, and was even more well understood and respected in the East. How many people today have a clue what Aristotle was talking about. How many people have access to this amazing inner resource, this dependable source of inner joy? Technology has greatly increased the quantity of information at our disposal, and this is arguably a gain. Contemplation allows us to penetrate to the deepest qualitative core of the information we are given. Perhaps, just perhaps, the gain does not equal the loss.<br />
<br />
<u>Afterword Two; Sept. 3, 2015</u>:<br />
I dawns on me that one of the reasons we have so much trouble keeping our resolutions, particularly the kind many people make on New Years Day, is similar to the reason we can get fooled by so-called progress. Let's say we are trying to eat more healthfully. We desire this because we think that it will improve the quality of our lives overall, and it probably will. But this improvement is subtle, qualitative, and spread out through time. Eating a big bowl of ice cream gives us a definite, quantitative, even if very short blast of yum. Our minds register these quantitative blasts of yum much more strongly than such subtle improvements as eating healthily, and so by Valentine's Day, most of us have forgotten our New Year's resolutions.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-81622820820035781702014-01-15T09:32:00.000-08:002014-01-15T09:32:10.805-08:00Comment on Quote from James Hillman - One<div class="MsoNormal">
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“To speak of <i>my</i> anima and <i>my</i> soul
expresses the personalistic fallacy.
Although these archetypal experiences of the personal give salt and
substance to my personal individuality, making me feel that there is indeed a
soul, <b>this “me-ness” is not mine</b>. To take such experiences literally as mine
puts the anima inside me and makes her mine.
The more profoundly archetypal my experiences of soul, the more I
recognize how they are beyond me, presented to me, <b>a present, a gift</b>, even while they feel my most personal
possession. Under the dominion of anima
our soulfulness makes us feel unique, special, meant – yet <b>paradoxically this is when we are least individual and most collective</b>. For such experiences derive from the
archetype of the personal, <b>making us feel
both archetypal and personal at the same instant</b>. “ <o:p></o:p></div>
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From
<i>Revisioning Psychology</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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James Hillman is one of my favorite thinkers/writers. I often agree with him, often disagree. It is in the areas that I disagree that I
enjoy him most. Wrestling with his
thought when I disagree is almost always an educational experience, an occasion
for a growth of understanding. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Hillman frequently criticizes spirituality. His reasons for this are very complex, well
thought out, interesting. Ultimately,
though, I think Hillman is in fact the most spiritual of psychologists – it’s just
that his spirituality cuts much deeper than most of the tender-minded
spirituality of our time. The above
quote (where the emphasis are mine), is one example. It would be interesting to do a lengthy compare
and contrast of this piece with something like Emerson’s <i>The Oversoul</i>, but here a few brief comments will have to do.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the so-called “Perennial Wisdom”, it is a common place
that the spiritual traditions from all over the world have in common a
particular experience -- I will term it the experience of non-duality, though
the different traditions characterize it under many terms and symbols. In brief, that experience is a direct
experience of the contingency of individuality and the experience of the “otherness”
that is the real foundation of our being.
This is sometimes characterized as a unity with God, Nature, the Tao,
etc. “Unity,” however, is understood to
be a kind of poor approximate for this experience, which ultimately defies all
words – “The Tao that can be spoken is not the real Tao.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hillman’s quote above (unintentionally I think) provides a
somewhat novel formulation of the perennial wisdom. The “otherness” in this case is archetypal
experiences of the soul. This otherness,
paradoxically, is precisely that which gives "me" my experience of “me-ness”, yet
this otherness is common to all – we all get our sense of individual “me-ness”
from a collective source. The self,
which to a large extent is created out of words, states “I have the experience
of these archetypes,” but in fact it is the archetypes that give rise to the “I”. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is this illusion of the “I” that the various forms of
perennial wisdom seek to penetrate – “Thou Art That” is the formulation of <i>The Upanishads</i>, which are probably the earliest
and most comprehensive source of the perennial wisdom. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One last note, “the anima” is symbolized as feminine; Hillman’s formulation can be seen as a return to the perennial wisdom as
experienced under the aspect of the Goddess, rather than its common later
formulation under some form of male personage.
The whole body of Hillman’s writing, in some ways, is a great call
for a return to the Goddess – not the sentimentalized Goddess of the New Age,
but the all encompassing Goddess, represented by Kali and Hecate, that contains
all the horror and ugliness of life, all the beauty and goodness, and finally
represents a wisdom that comes of giving honor to all that is encompassed in
living deeply.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-67942236402322026072013-12-30T09:02:00.001-08:002014-01-15T09:39:24.877-08:00Why I Am Not an Atheist<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Apparently some people are quite impressed with themselves
when they make the momentous discovery that the God of the popular imagination
is no more real than Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having made this discovery they declare
themselves to be atheists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That the
notion of God in the popular imagination and the institutionalized churches is not
the final word about God seems never to occur to them.
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At the level of thought, the reasoning of the atheists, and
the support for that reasoning provided by modern science, certainly trumps the
feeble attempts to refute that reasoning provided by believers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That there are ways of knowing outside of
such reasoning, however, seems not to be considered.</div>
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In the popular imagination, God has a form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the institutionalized churches, people who
declare themselves ministers of this well-formed God, tell us about his will
and suggest that we can influence this will with work and prayers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They even suggest that God has emotions, that
God loves us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A form requires a
limitation in space and time; words require a constraint on possibility,
emotions are transient – I will leave what that infers to the reader.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the realm of art, it is generally understood that average
works are not worth much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is only the
most exceptional works of art that have lasting value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would ask the atheist to consider the
possibility that spirituality may be much the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
wish to deny God, is it not “reasonable” to seek out the rarest, must
exceptional concepts of God, before coming to a conclusion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a problem here though: it takes a
rather exceptional viewer to penetrate a great work of art; likewise, it takes
a rather exceptional cognitive ability to penetrate a great spiritual teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cultivating that cognitive ability may take a
life time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reasoning is a great and very useful item in our box of
cognitive tools, but it is not a particularly good tool for penetrating great art
and even less so for penetrating great spiritual teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Restrain the turnings of the mind” – this, Pantanjali
declares to be the goal of yoga; it is also, I would suggest, a necessary part
of any kind of spiritual approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
penetrate a spiritual teaching requires a focused, quieted mind and the act of
penetrating such a teaching results in an even more focused, quieter mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spiritual works speak to an intuition in the
heart of silence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This intuition is one
of the ways of knowing outside of reasoning that I spoke of above.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And what of God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is a Zen koan that tells of a master who holds his staff out and
says: “If you call this a staff, you affirm it; if not, you negate it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beyond affirmation and negation, what would
you call it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the problem with words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every verbal affirmation engenders a possible
negation – in that great round that the Buddhists call Samsara, such
affirmations and negations chase around like cats and dogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To leave Samsara, to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven within you, you must find that which is beyond affirmation and negation.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A medieval monk called God “a cloud of unknowing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one way or another, the exceptional
teachings all declare the wisdom of “knowing that you do not know.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They speak of the Mystery that resides at the
source of being, and yet of the certainty that presents Itself in the heart of
humblest silence – that Thou Art That.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
presence within the humblest silence is not much of an argument to pose against
the reams of erudition and evidence put forth by the verbose scribes of atheism
– but it has convinced me utterly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is why I am not an atheist. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-33935392413727530282013-12-06T08:23:00.001-08:002013-12-06T08:26:21.273-08:00Caring about IndifferenceNature has indifferently brought us forth, sure enough. It has also provided us, like all other extant
living things, the tools to survive and prosper. We have done pretty well for
ourselves, it seems; why would we expect more?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cheetah’s are uniquely fast and humans are uniquely
articulate – Nature indifferently gave to the one its speed and to the other
its power of thought, even though Nature is indifferent to uniqueness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are not indifferent, however.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That we can care about Nature does not require that Nature cares about
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that we <u>can</u> care -- about other
people, other creatures, Nature – well, from whence did humans derive this
talent if not from the processes of Nature? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hidden in the so-call “big bang”; hidden, perhaps, in the
darkness prior to the big bang, lay the potential to bring forth beings that cared,
beings that were not indifferent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
are fruit of that potential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This ever
present and currently actualized potential – is it not a most curious fact
about Nature? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One can imagine (for Nature has also endowed us with an
abundance of imagination) that Nature wanted to see, so it evolved into
creatures with eyes; it wanted to care, so it brought forth creatures with
sensibility and sensitivity; it even wanted to be able to explore itself, so it
brought forth creatures with brains big enough to build precise telescopes to
search the depths of its endless space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps we satisfy some deep itch lodged in that originating
potential of which we are the fruit when we study and contemplate the great
questions of cosmology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no way
of knowing; but such imaginings can, I think, remind us that we are without
exception part of Nature’s great process -- and perhaps allow us to feel how
wonderful it is to be able to care about Nature’s abundant indifference.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-80634710438566390242013-11-25T08:49:00.002-08:002014-09-22T09:55:16.469-07:00A Prayer for Thanksgiving Day<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Prayer for
Thanksgiving Day</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Lord, let me more than a consumer be</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on this commercial-ridden holiday.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let your Light shine within me</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and satisfy me and satiate me,</div>
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that there be no lingering hunger </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
even after I have eaten my fill.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let my football-addled t.v. go dim</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that I do not waste this day </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or any other day</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
watching silly sports or any silly thing </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on these shallow, soulless screens.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lord, let your Light shine through this day </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and through the darkness of Black Friday</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and through the darkening days till Christmas </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and beyond…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that I may crave no more than I already own,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
even if all I own is this windy prayer</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to your unsubstantiated presence,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of which I am substantially thankful.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-17659324718905898262013-10-22T09:31:00.001-07:002013-12-30T09:05:19.111-08:00One Metaphor Riding Another<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->We are waves on the ocean -- so goes an old metaphor. Ephemeral, yes! But is there any more to the metaphor?<br />
<br />
A wave is a movement of water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Less than the water, perhaps -- the water was
there before the wave rose and is still there after it subsides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than an abstract imagining, though -- like
sound and light waves, the waves on the water can be represented through mathematical
abstraction, but you can’t surf on a mathematical wave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not quite matter, not quite an abstraction, a
wave is a form, a shape the matter takes for a brief time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The water makes a wave sensible, but the wave
is something other than the water, something not quite sensible.
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
We are like waves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are a form that matter takes for a brief time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not the matter – the carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen and various minerals that comprise a body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ashes of a cremated person have no more
resemblance to that person than has any other soil of the earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor are we but an abstraction, a sign
pointing toward something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the
wave of the ocean, matter makes us sensible, but what we really are is not
quite sensible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Upon death, the material
corpse, like the water that comprises a wave, remains; but we are gone, as the
wave is gone when it crashes upon the shore. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Perpetually the waves arise and travel toward the shore;
perpetually life arises and travels towards death. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In essence each wave, each life, the same; in particulars
each different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Old Plato might have said that each wave is a brief, not
quite real, appearance of the Great Wave, the eternal archetypical wave -- and
each person, a brief but not quite real appearance of the Great Person, the
eternal, archetypical person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there
any truth to what Plato says?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who knows, though it seems worthy of a moment's contemplation on our journey towards
the shore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
For we are the form that can contemplate forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are the form that can sit by the ocean and
imagine our self a wave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we are the
form that can surf – that can catch the wave and a give it a ride, balanced and
attentive; like one metaphor riding another.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-59209756370853382242013-09-17T12:13:00.001-07:002015-04-21T09:05:10.096-07:00Being a Post-biological Being<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->Modern science has the threefold division of the physical
sciences, the life sciences, and the social sciences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While a common faith believes that in theory
biology can be reduced to physics and sociology and culture could be reduced to
biology, in actual practice this cannot be done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further, the modern idea of emergence
suggests that the faith in this reduction may be misplaced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are interesting implications of this
threefold division of the sciences. Here I will suggest one of those
implications: it can help clarify some of the ambiguities of the concept of
“nature.”<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In modern Western culture, the word “nature” is used in two,
quite different ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one sense we
use “nature” in opposition to artificial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Artificial means intentionally created by humans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taken to its extremes, this opposition
represents a dualism that has long been a part of our culture, and finds its
most extreme expression in the dualism of Descartes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we also use the word “nature” to refer to
everything that exists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what it
means to say that all of nature had its beginning in the big bang, or to say
that humans are a part of nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we reject dualism, we are still left with the question of
why the division between natural and artificial seems so natural.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, according to anthropologist Mary
Douglas, this divide is pretty universal among peoples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will suggest an answer to this based on the
tripartite divisions of the sciences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The division between natural and artificial is equivalent to
the division between the biological and the social sciences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unifying ideas of biology include the cell,
genetics, and Darwinian evolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
the most important unifying idea of the social sciences is culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the language of emergence, culture is a genuine emergence
from biology, analogous to the emergence of life out of chemistry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been noted that humans are genetically
very similar to chimpanzees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, humans
have organized the Library of Congress, put members of their species on the
moon, and instantaneously communicate intricate ideas to fellows humans located
all over the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chimpanzees have
figured out how to use a stick to help them get ants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If humans are genetically similar to chimpanzees, then the
obvious conclusion is that genetics has little to do with this difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The real difference isn’t in genetics, it is
in the evolution of culture over the past 100,000, or so, years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The chimpanzee is a biological being with a small addition of learned behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Humans are cultural beings that (often to our dismay) are still thoroughly
embedded in biology.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In sum, the dualistic division between the natural and
artificial should be viewed not as a division between nature and human, but as a
division <u>within nature</u> between the biological and the cultural.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the narrow perspective of biology,
humans may be just another species of animals, but from the more cosmological
perspective of emergence, humans are the loci of one of the three major
emergences (each the subject matter of one of the three divisions of the sciences) in this part of the Universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Far from being just another species, we are another type of being all
together, a post-biological being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is the reason that the social sciences cannot be reduced to the biological
sciences and the reason that we need a third genre of sciences, with unique methodology,
to study humans.<br />
<br />
Being post-biological beings does not put us apart from nature, but shows instead how we are a very interesting part of the evolving, self-organizing, wildly creative, all-inclusive realm of Nature.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-16578217795124156202013-07-12T11:41:00.000-07:002014-03-28T09:05:30.711-07:00Matter Thinking over Mind<h1 id="title">
<a href="http://humanisticpaganism.com/"></a></h1>
<div class="author">
</div>
The mind is made of matter! So I’ve been told, and I don’t disagree. But I have to wonder what this really means.<br />
<div class="pad" id="content">
<div class="post-5626 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-nature-2 category-psychology category-self-knowledge tag-atheist-pagan tag-naturalistic-paganism tag-science-and-god tag-science-and-myth tag-science-and-religion" id="post-5626">
<div class="entry clear">
<br />
What is matter? The keyboard I type at is made of matter; I see it
with my eyes and feel it with my fingers. The seeing and feeling,
though they appear to be outside my mind, are in fact in my mind. How
do I get from these appearances to something real? Logic tells me it
must be real, otherwise the whole world is just an appearance in my
mind, and such solipsism leads to absurdity. But logic is just in my
mind, too. Yet I will trust it on this matter and have faith that there
is reality behind the appearances.<br />
<br />
Now all of this consideration of appearance and reality has been
contemplated and analyzed in subtle details by the great
Enlightenment-era philosophers going from Locke and Hume to Kant and
beyond. There is no final conclusion to be drawn from this long,
wonderful discussion, but following it certainly helps us appreciate how
large and interesting the question is.<br />
<br />
As I trust that matter is more than an appearance, I also trust that
the scientific analysis of matter, which leads to modern atomic theory,
is on the right track. This theory tells us that matter is made of
atoms. The word “atom” was borrowed from the ancient Greek
materialists, and it means that which is utterly simple and
indivisible. But the modern atom can be split, it is not indivisible,
and it is certainly not simple. In fact, the atom as understood by
modern science is bewilderingly complex.<br />
<br />
For starters it has three main ingredients – protons, electrons and
neutrons. Protons, however, are apparently made up of quarks, three
quarks per proton. And neutrons are made of protons and electrons and a
little entity called the neutrino which seems to be about the closest
thing to nothing that something can be. Further, the electrons aren’t
really things that occupy a particular space and time in the atom, but
are smeared out over space and time, except when an experimenter decides
to take a peek. And indeed, all these little particles of the atom are
as much energy as matter. And then we have the gluons that comprise
the strong nuclear force that holds the quarks together but also serve
double duty to hold the protons together. Protons are about as happy
being near one another as a husband is being near an over-bearing
mother-in-law, but the gluons make them stay put.<br />
<br />
Protons and electrons carry electrical force, which is yet another
ingredient of the atom. The electrical force is pretty strong, at least
compared to the force of gravity. It is about 38 magnitudes stronger
than gravity (each magnitude represents another zero). What this means
in concrete terms is that all the gravity of the earth does not create
enough force to make the protons of one atom invade the territory of
another atom – it takes the weight of a star to accomplish that. When
protons from one atom invade the space of another, it creates a huge
amount of energy and a heavier atom, which means it’s a different
element.<br />
<br />
Now as strong as the electric force is, the strong nuclear force is
even stronger, about 137 times stronger. This allows the strong nuclear
force to hold up to about 90 protons together (after that things get
increasingly unstable) and this allows our universe to have about 90
different types of stable elements, each with different properties. Why
the universe needs so many elements is any body’s guess, but without a
rich diversity of elements, we wouldn’t be here; make of that what you
will. Now you might be thinking that, wow, since the strong nuclear
force is so powerfully attractive, why hasn’t it pulled everything
together in one big lump? The answer is that despite its great
strength, the range of that strength drops off steeply, so steeply that
it is not felt beyond the atomic nucleus. Could a force be more
perfectly designed for the task of creating a multitude of different
kinds of elements? Oops! That’s a terribly unscientific question.<br />
<br />
In sum, the atom is not the ultimate constituent of matter, but a
complex, dynamic interrelationship of parts, none of which seems to be
any more ultimate than the other. So coming back to the original
statement, “the mind is made out of matter” we have the problem that we
don’t really know, ultimately, what matter is. Further, we clearly have
no sensory information about this ultimate thing; as it stands, the
ultimate constituent of the world is but a vague idea in the mind (an
immensely tiny string perhaps?). So is it possibly equally correct to
say that “matter is made out of mind”?<br />
<br />
Scientific dogma would say that there is no necessary dependence of
matter on mind; the physical world would still be there even if there
was no mind to perceive it (but then again, science is an enterprise
driven by values, goals, and a special quality of attention, and some
adherents of science deny that values, goals, quality and even attention
have any real existence). On the other hand, science insists that there
is a necessary dependence of mind on matter — mind exists in and is
dependent upon the nervous system and the body that nourishes and
protects that nervous system and the environment that provides for that
body and the earth that holds that environment and the solar system that
holds the earth and the galaxy that holds the solar system and the
Universe that holds the galaxy and whatever it was that gave rise to
this intricately organized universe where even the merest atom of matter
is a complex relationship….<br />
And here typing away is this tiny mind, which I fondly claim as “my
mind,” and it holds thoughts of this earth and solar system and galaxies
and even the whole Universe.<br />
<br />
A potter might shape a cup from clay, out of which he can sip his
morning tea. Has the Universe shaped the mind so that it has a vessel
in which it can collect itself and reflect upon its mysterious beauty?
Over a cup of tea perhaps? Well the Universe needs to shape a whole
lot better mind than mine to get an answer to that question! But at
least I have been able to raise the matter and sip its mystery. Not a
bad way to spend the morning.</div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-25201354427524335752013-06-26T13:23:00.001-07:002013-12-06T08:37:44.999-08:00A Brief History of the Enduring <span style="font-size: 12pt;">A
central concern of spirituality is the pursuit of the enduring amidst this
world of change. The flowers of the
field last but a day, but the old oak has been there longer than anyone can
remember</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">.
(The word “endure” has the root drus, which is cognate with the Greek
word for "tree" and the English words for "oak," "truth," and "trust.") The ancient-seeming oak is itself but a flicker compared
to the constellations of the sky. A forest people may have found the oak to be the epitome of the enduring, but agricultural people
found the constellations, with their rebirth of the ever changing season, as the epitome of the enduring.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">In the West, we can pick up
the great debate about what was enduring with the Greek philosophers Heraclitus
and Parmenides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heraclitus noted that
all is change, but there is a timeless order to change, a logos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parmenides argued that the real can never
change, so all change is merely appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The timeless reality was thus supersensible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Democritus believed that what was really real
and enduring was matter, and matter was composed of timeless tiny bits, atoms,
and all change was the arrangement and rearrangement of atoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pythagoras noted the timeless truth of
mathematics. Working with the mathematical notions of Pythagoras and the Parmenidian idea of the
supersensible, Plato argued that there was a timeless world of forms or ideas,
and the ephemeral world (the world of our senses) in which these ideas take on material form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Christian idea of an eternal heaven and degraded
life on earth borrows much from Plato.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">On the surface, it might seem
that modern science is much closer to Democritus than Plato.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in its notion of timeless “laws” science
is following in the Platonic tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Newton’s discoveries of
the timeless laws of gravity were generally embraced by the European spiritual
traditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the scientific discovery
of “geologic” time, which required a revised notion of time and endurance, has
not sat as well with those traditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">While scientists like
Einstein could take spiritual comfort in the timelessness of the fundamental
laws of physics, in the 21<sup>st</sup> century even this notion is under
attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In theories like Lee Smolin’s
cosmological evolution, even the laws of nature are not truly lasting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, the only thing that can be considered
truly timeless is some shadowy cosmological potential for being</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Oriental spirituality has
taken a different approach to the pursuit of the timeless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where the Occident looked outward, the Orient
looked inward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The originators of the
yogic tradition of India (which has very little in common with what is
practiced as yoga today) noted that a distinction could be made between the
movements and turnings of the mind (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">citta
vritti </i>in Sanskrit) and that which was aware of these movements and turnings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where Western
dualism split the world between matter and ideas, Oriental dualism split the
world between consciousness and the contents of consciousness (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purusha</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prakriti</i> in Sanskrit).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
yogic traditions provided the methods for decocting a purified consciousness
from its muddying movements. The experience of purified consciousness is
the epitome of the enduring in much of Eastern spirituality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">As inheritors of a global
culture, we now have access to both the Western and Eastern spiritual
traditions; we can explore and compare the various understandings. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as inheritors of a triumphant consumer
culture, many may wonder why bother?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
ephemerata of the consumable world are so various, so interesting, that we may
think that they are quite dependable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Was i</span>t not their lack of trust in the ephemeral nature of
pleasure that caused earlier people to seek something more enduring?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Does our consumer culture offer
a better product than the old spiritual traditions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or does it mostly offer cleverly packaged
distractions that keep us from confronting the deeper issues of life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, I believe the later to be the
case, and feel ever blessed that I can occupy myself with the timeless ideas of
Western philosophy and science as well as in the deep states of timeless
rapture offered by the Eastern traditions. This is one of the alternatives available to us even though we can't find it for purchase at the local mall.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-37894297023243670182013-06-17T09:15:00.004-07:002013-06-17T09:15:25.638-07:00The Response of the Populous to Global Warming<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scientific enterprise has occupied a fairly clear and
distinct role within our culture, at least in the United States, but the
clarity of this role is blurred by the role of science in the call for new policy
that addresses global climate change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scientific enterprise in the U. S. is financed primarily
by the federal government and by corporate R&D.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corporate support for the science is almost
exclusively directed to the development of products that will make a profit for
a given corporation and thus enrich the company’s stock holders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taxpayer support for the scientific
enterprise is provided because the government’s investment in the science has
provided valuable increases in military strength, health care technologies, and
ideas that generate new products and new businesses that keep the economy
growing. (The scientific community is rightfully proud that it has also given
us wonderful new knowledge about the world we live in -- the kinds of knowledge
that Carl Sagan waxed poetic about in his show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cosmos</i> --but if this were the only value of science, I suspect that
government and corporate investment in science would be roughly at the same
scale as their investment in the arts and humanities.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, science is supported because
people expect it to make life better – more secure, healthier, and more
comfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Science produces, it gives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With global climate change, we find science in a rather
different role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than giving more,
it seems to be taking away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is asking
for, even demanding, sacrifice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It may well be the case that the general culture will more
and more have to get used to the scientific enterprise under this aspect of
asking for sacrifice, but it is important that we understand that at this time
the general culture does not recognize this as a legitimate role of science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the general culture recognizes only
one institution that legitimately has the right to ask for sacrifice, and that
is religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since the culture expects science to produce and to fix
things not ask for sacrifices in rectifying problems brought on by expanding technologies,
it should not be a great surprise that the attitude of that culture to the
problem of climate change is something like “you scientists created the
problem, you fix it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That science
created the problem is, of course, only partly true – the endless appetite to
consume resources, fossil fuels in particular, is OUR appetite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the prestige of science has come from its
ongoing ability to feed that appetite – the few within the scientific community
that have questioned the wisdom of feeding that appetite and its ever
increasing expectations has always been an easily dismissible minority.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You hear it said that people are “skeptical” of climate
change, but this is an overly simplistic statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As suggested above, it is not just skepticism
about observations and theories regarding climate change, it is questions about
the legitimate role of science in the realm of culture and politics that come
into play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus it is not enough to simply
do a better job of making the case regarding climate change and what is
required to reverse the conditions that have led to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The perception of the role if science within
our culture also needs to be addressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Communicating better about climate change is not just about
presenting the data in a clearer way, it is about the whole art of
communicating and relating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Communicating, relating, understanding culture – none of these, in my
experience, has ever been the strong suit of scientists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People with these skills tend more toward the
arts, humanities and social sciences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
enlisting more input from these areas might prove valuable in creating a more
effective communications strategy</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15767592207604157998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904224993137095317.post-32851015086426213462013-06-05T08:45:00.002-07:002013-06-05T08:45:55.251-07:00Translations<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Sri Aurobindo, a prominent Indian writer of the early 20<sup>th</sup>
century, wrote the following regarding the aim of a spiritual life: “The object
is to realize the one divine life pervading all.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
From a naturalistic point of view, this statement is either
nonsense or must be taken as a kind of poetic account that uses key words in a
non-literal, or specialized way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will assume
the second and try to interpret this “poetic account” in a way that might be
acceptable to a naturalistic thinker.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As a human being, I am capable of a creative response to
the conditions of my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This creative
response is made possible by the interactions of my awareness, intuition,
imagination, intelligence, intentionality, and the ability to act upon my
intentions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through these abilities (to
paraphrase the Serenity Prayer), I can transform things in my life that are
within my power to change and I can transform my attitude and interpretation of
those things that I do not have the power to change.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
From the point of view of the Big Bang Theory, we live in
a universe that started out in an intense thermodynamic event, an event that
engendered a self-organizing process that has led to the formation of dynamic
galaxies, planetary systems, and on at least one of those planetary systems
ever increasing levels of complexity, intricacy and of organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is not the creative response of my life,
which I spoke of above, completely a part of that on-going, intensifying, creative
process that began with the Big Bang?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
We know that for the Big Bang to have engendered this
on-going and increasing complex organization required that there be a select
set of fundamental parameters, and that the interactions between these
parameters need to be quite delicately “tuned” to the specific quantities that they
in fact are for there to be organization, rather than randomness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The standard model of particle physics lists
roughly twenty of these fundamental parameters (the strengths of the
fundamental forces and masses of the fundamental particles).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is estimated that across the entire range
of values these fundamental parameters could take on, only about 1 x 10^120 of
the sets of values would result in a universe with organization. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In put this in perspective, the odds that I will win the
next ten national lotteries are better than the odds of a universe that can
give rise to such things as stars and galaxies.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In reinterpreting Aurobindo's notion of “the divine life,”
I am simply using the term to stand for this mysterious self-organizing,
creative impetus of the universe – and my awareness of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From this perspective,
Darwinian evolution is but a stage of this divine process, the stage that brings
about the transformation of complex chemistry into complex organisms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For us humans, beyond the Darwinian biological stage, there is also a stage of cultural evolution that brought about the transformation of the biological organism we call homo sapiens to the creative, spirituals being that are capable of exploring, gather facts, and speculating on the cosmos and our relationship to it.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
If my ability to provide a creative response to the
conditions of my life is an extension of the Universe’s original self-organization,
than this itself is to realize that what I have been talking about as “my” life
and “my” abilities are not really such at all – “I” and “my” abilities are part
and parcel of the creative impetuous of the universe. My sense of separateness may itself be a creative response, but the
recognition of the ultimate illusion of this separateness reveals to me that
what I most truly am is this creative process, which I am renaming “the divine life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in this I have reached Aurobindo’s
spiritual aim: “to realize the one divine life pervading all.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Aurobindo was not interested in justifying the ancient
spiritual teachings to Naturalism, yet I don’t think he would have rejected
this interpretation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he would
have thought that the important thing is to experience and recognize the
integral nature of Being -- what the Upanishads mean when they state “Thou Art
That.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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