Letters to the Editor
hontonoshijin
Published Letters: 141 Editor's Choice: 14
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wilber
[Read the article: You are the river: An interview with Ken Wilber]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The fact that so many posters have already responded to this article so early shows what a hunger is there.
The pre-rational and trans-rational distinction is extremely useful. As Wilber says, transrational states are testable. You can put in the work to get there, and see for yourself.
The alternative to crediting their reality is to suppose that all of the many thousands who report such states, or describe the training required to attain them, are deluded fools or liars.
I would agree with Wilber that the transrational does not reject the rational, but includes it.
Another way to put what he says about ego or the small self is that the point of meditation is not so much to get rid of it as to understand it and not mistake it for all of one's being. The attempt to get rid of it is as pointless as the attempt to get rid of a crowbar by thinking it out of existence.
I ind the point-of-view (personal pronoun) description of views of the godhead useful and illuminating too.
Re quantum uncertainty: Would it not be possible to think that what we mistake as probability functions for the location of an electron, say, are instead descriptions of where whatever is more or less closely resembles our model, the electron?
As for the "existence" of god. Existence is a human concept. Need the holy conform to our concepts?
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Palfrey
[Read the article: What happened to the D.C. Madam?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Two of the women involved have committed "suicide." Not one of the clients involved has been charged. David Vitter was not forced to testify.
I am very skeptical of conspiracy claims. Nevertheless, doesn't this situation merit a thorough investigation? We know there were people from very high political levels who paid for her services. Why don't we know their names? Is this another one of those stories that is just going to conveniently go away?
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steroids
[Read the article: The new format]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Have little to say about the change in format. I like reading words. Have found that I far prefer reading a column to watching a video. Odd, and wouldn't base my approach on that if I were you, but there it is. Written words matter to some of us.
Real point of this letter, which I send to you because I don't know who else might get it, is a question.
First media statement: Barry Bonds is bad because he used steroids and took unfair advantage.
Second media statement: A recent study shows that steroids don't work, they actually interfere with performance.
Do these two statements go together? Seems to me you can't have it both ways. If the second is true, then Barry deserves an asterisk for hitting all those home runs, but not because he had an advantage--because he labored under a disadvantage. He might have hit 80 that year if he HADN'T taken steroids.
If the first is true, well there's something wrong with the second.
Yours for consistency in public myth-making.
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to planetary eulogy
[Read the article: Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Your slurring nastiness on Loretta Martin's name is unforgivable. You should be thrown off this site.
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to Jeff Smith
[Read the article: Psycho Christians and the media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I call them Christianoids, by analogy with the word humanoid, which refers to something which is not human but vaguely resembles the human in some respects.
Grew up among them, by the way.
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nazism
[Read the article: Mutterings over the graves of soldiers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The word "Nazi" is in common pejorative use. Seems to me it is a useful word, but would be more useful if we could agree on a definition. I suggest the following attributes may always be found in a Nazi state:
1. Military or militaristic government
2. Deletion or suspension of civil rights
3. Government control of media and arts
4. Extreme xenophobia
5. Scapegoating (all our problems are being caused by evil
others)
6. The dream of purity (pure race, pure morals, etc.)
I would say that our government is not yet Nazi, but that there is a powerful contingent who seek to make it so.
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porn
[Read the article: I'm secretly addicted to porn]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I got bored with porn because I became convinced that none of the men knew how to fuck. It was all pound and slam and hurt. Very unappealing. No empathy.
Like your "glimpse" of what the yogis have said. It seems incontestable that there is more to existence than we can understand, and that we are part of a larger (?) phenomenonon or of larger phenomena. It helps me to think that the planets and stars are not for example doing calculus when they "obey" the "law of gravity." They are just doing what they do. Calculus is our way of estimating what they will do next.
Would suggest the metaphor of the "machine" has a few unfortunate implications. Seems a relic of a certain system of metaphors. We have invented machines, not the other way around. Whatever the universe is, it is not a machine (though I agree with the idea you express).
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crushes
[Read the article: Women and their "girl crushes"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cannot recall ever having had a "man crush" (perhaps I am a troglodyte, but the very term makes me cringe). Nevertheless, seems an intelligent article. There are of course exceptions, but perhaps the best approach is to assume that most decent people, male or female, hetero or gay or lesbian, want pretty much the same thing--freedom, health, kindness, respect, the chance to live in peace, develop their abilities, love and care for those they love, and follow their own natures without hassle.