Letters to the Editor
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Deeper source of consciousness
I applaud Wallace for trying to explain something that is probably beyond words for us 21st century beings.
First let me say that when I was a young man I used to be a skeptical materialist convinced of science as the only rational explanation for the world ( it did make the world feel safer, more something I could control ). But I have had personal experiences of something deeper than the 'thoughts', etc that we normally associate with consciousness - both while meditating ( on rare occasions ) and while engaged in artistic activities that require what I call 'creating-out-of-nothing'.
My question is - is our scientific knowledge is so complete that we can rule out a deeper level, a source of consciousness, that many people say they can access with their mind (or body ) but that scientists do not yet comprehend - nor can apply the scientific method to? I believe that we will look back on the year 2006 one day, as we now look back on the year 1506, as perhaps only the beginning of our real understanding of consciousness, science, and the world.
Just as we accept we do not understand the source of the initial big bang that created our universe - there was a source. We must accept that do not yet understand the complexities of the deeper sources of our consciousness ( or energy, or the universe for that matter ).
This 'source' does not have to be God - but as Buddha implied, there is something deeper, it exists and we can access it, sometimes.
Whatever ‘it’ is - It's worth exploring.
-magnus
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thank-you salon
I feel that one of the only topics not given enough of salon journalist's excellent attention and consideration, is spiritality. And not the cynical, jaded attention of evangelical scandal and the like, but wholehearted attention to topicas like buddhism, meditation, I dunno...pilgrimages, Archbishop Desmond Tutu? The power of now by eckhart tolle? While I love salon, I've been wanting to see a little bit of "what is enlightenment" magazine for a while now. Not new age, but in depth radical spritual teachers/ philosophers, leaders, etc. interviewed by some of the great writers at salon.
Thanks again,
D. James
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It's the Yoga, Stupid.
If anyone wants to learn what the East Asian traditions have discovered about consciousness, study and practice Yoga. Not the exercise crap that passes for Yoga in LA and London – the real, philosophical, intensely introspective and intellectual and experiential Yogic tradition of India. Their knowledge and insight into human consciousness is extensive and deep.
Buddhism inherited much of it’s views and methods from this Yogic tradition, and although Buddhism has contributed greatly to our understanding of the Mind and the Human condition, the ultimate aim of Buddhism is to surpass all of this, leave it alone, and not be distracted by it. Yogis, from my understanding, were not frowned upon for hanging around the Mind and finding out as much as they could about how it works.
All I “learned” from this article is that Buddhism shows us an underlying continuum of consciousness to which the current scientific tradition is structurally blind. Big deal.
If Salon is going to publish such superficial and un-enlightening interviews, how about now going and finding yourselves a real explorer of the mind in the true Yogic tradition? Not only would it contribute greatly to this topic of the science of consciousness, but it would also help to enlighten american as to what Yoga really was, before leotards and Nike got involved.
Oh, and by the way, the Dalai Lama is not The Buddhist Leader. He is head of but one tradition of Buddhism among many. He just has the prettiest clothes.
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The whole...
is greater than the sum of its parts.
Just as a fruiting body (mushroom) erupts from the underground mycelium, so too is consciousness born from a particular configuration of matter. What is a house but the assemblage of materials into a particular shape that has certain features but none which contains the "essence" of house. I believe this called a category error in Western parlance whereby an abstraction is reified.
The deal with reincarnation, even in the Vedas, is for the person to realize that one is not in fact a separate entity from Brahma, but that one IS Brahma. Upon this realization the cycling of transmigration is ended. I've never understood how a "realization" will end transmigration when there is none to begin with. However, I've accepted it as a sugar pill for people who need such things.
The realization that one needs to get to is that one's own life is the same life that permeates the very fabric of the universe. That "life" is what enables matter to become animate. It is neither separate nor distinct from the material universe. Rather, the material universe and the power to animate it are part and parcel of each.
For an analogy, the arising and demising of the myriad living beings is like the leaves on a tree or the waves of an ocean. The tree and ocean is the life force that permeates the universe. It is singular, never divided. And like the leaves that grow and die each year or the waves that go up and down, the living beings are born and die and yet are never separated from the tree or ocean. Our consciousness, our human consciousness, creates a false image of a self-existing entity we call a "self" or "ego". It is but an illusion which prevents seeing the thusness or suchness of all phenomena. Once the skin of the ego is pierced then awakening to thusness can be achieved thus becoming a Buddha, an awakened one.
Think of the ego as a balloon filled with sea-water floating in the ocean. Once the balloon is popped and the water inside merges with the water outside, that is when the "one with all" thing can happen and one enters the realm of the truly ineffable.
As for Wallace, he proceeds from a false premise and a truly shallow understanding of Buddhism.
Other than the 4 Noble Truths, the teachings of impermanence, no-self, and dissatisfaction are foundational to Buddhism as is the 5 skandhas (components or aggregates) that comprise a human being.
Hm. Perhaps another place for Wallace to look is in Meister Eckhart's sermon on the phrase "I am who am."