i like science. i like the beauty of it and i like the dreams it can inspire. i like the wondrous gadgets that it can produce. and considering the age we live in, liking science is a good thing.

but thoreau said, 'you never gain something but that you lose something.' i've had a gnawing feeling of...of i'm not sure what to call it. a huge loss, of something amiss in our race. and for years i've read topic after topic of the human condition in order to try and gain a better understanding this loss. my current read, 'zen and the art motorcycle maintenance' has shed great light on my unease. he sums up the magnitude of what we as a race have had to trade to gain our magnificent achievements. our scientific thoughts have given us the power to physically change the very elements of this world we inhabit, but in exchange we have given up an understanding of equal magnitude - an understanding of what it is to be a part of this world.

when, for the one of the first times in human history, a society reached a point where its inhabitants no longer had to fight for daily sustenance, but could instead take the long years it takes to hone brilliant minds, we as a race were, with surgical precision, cut off from the rest of the species of this earth. socrates, plato, aristotle, these men were the brilliant surgeons who performed the surgery. and their scalpel of choice? dichotomy. the classifying and dividing of everything around us into 'this' and 'that', into Ideas and Substances.

we in the west were no longer 'one' as we were in the old world or as they were in the eastern philosophies. we subdivided everything - from our rocks at our feet, to the clouds in the sky, to the behavior of our minds into 'this' which is separate from 'that'.

plato for instance separated 'horseness' from 'horse' by saying that horseness is fixed and true and unmoving and horse is a mere transitory phenomenon. horseness is a pure Idea, whereas a horse as it appears to the human eye can live its life and die without disturbing horseness, it is a mere Appearance.

and aristotle furthered our separation when he came along and said that no, 'horse' is not mere Appearance it has an underlying, independent Something that, like Ideas, is unchanging, and he called this Something 'Substance' and for the next two millenia we've gone about dividing this Substance into smaller and smaller categories until the man of modern science was fully cast out of the womb of Oneness.

But what is it that the very cutting edge of science is finding these days? crazy, illogical, non-dualistic ideas: the better our tools of inspection become the more we subcategories we can find - we can subdivide things forever. that merely observing a phenomena changes its outcome. that particles can be in two places at once. that light is both a particle and a wave. and, here's the biggie, that everything is connected. put that in your dualistic greek pipe and smoke it, plato.

posted by bluematrix at 01/27/08 21:33 | link | comments (2)

i have a new motto...it's 'Let go of the rice". let me explain.

i've been reading 'zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' and the author talked about how being rigid in your thinking can lead to negative consequences...

" the most striking example of rigidity I can think of is the old South Indian Monkey Trap. The trap consists of a hollowed-out coconut chained to a stake. The coconut has some rice inside which can be grabbed through a small hole. The hole is big enough so the monkey's hand can go in, but too small for his fist with rice to come out. The monkey reaches in and is suddenly trapped - by nothing more than his own value rigidity. He can't revalue the rice. He cannot see that freedom without rice is more valuable than capture with it." - r. pirsig

as i examine my own life, i am wondering about things that i rigidly cling to that i would be better off just letting go of. some habits of mine come quickly to mind. and perhaps some possessions that require too much time, money and effort to maintain properly. goals that are no longer aligned with where i want to go with my life fit into the analogy as well

the imagery of this analogy really strikes a chord with me. i picture myself thinking, 'this thing i am clinging tightly to has always been a good thing for me in the past, even though right now i am in a bit of bind with it. if i try hard enough i will be able to keep it without having to give anything up.'

sometimes its hard to see the bigger picture and give up something that has always worked for you in the past. but the first part of solving a problem is actually being aware that there is a problem. beware of clenching too tightly to things, and keep an eye open for rigid thinking traps.

posted by bluematrix at 01/20/08 22:46 | link | comments (4)

'A dog is not considered good because he barks well. Neither should a man be considered wise because he speaks well.' - Tao Te Ching

mistrust of conventional knowledge and reasoning is strong in the Tao. it is not concerned with the artificial world of man, but of concentrating fully on the observation of nature trying to discern the 'tao' or the order of things. this careful observation of nature combined with deep intuition led taoist sages to profound insights which are only now being confirmed by modern scientific theories in quantum mechanics.

observing life on earth reveals refined relationships of complexity, chaotic order, creativity and sublime organization. the beauty of the unspoiled regions of the world; the harmonious complexity of natural ecosystems, have a ‘just-so’ quality, an integrated wholeness - this is the tao.

taoists see everything in a state of transformation and that all changes in nature are manifestations of the interplay between polar opposites, yin and yang, with the two poles being dynamically linked to each other. for the western mind, this idea of all opposites being connected is hard to accept. it seems paradoxical that experiences and values that we believe contrary are aspects of the same thing. cold things warm themselves, moist things dry, you can not define 'beauty' without 'ugliness'.

this change, this pull of opposites, is not a consequence of some force, but rather an innate tendency in all things and situations. the movements of the tao are not forced upon things but occur naturally and spontaneously. this spontaneity in nature is the way of things, and man as a part of nature, should model the way of nature. acting in harmony with the tao is acting spontaneously and according to one's true nature. it means trusting one's intuitive intelligence, which is innate in the human mind.

the actions of the sage therefore arise out of his intuitive wisdom, spontaneously and in harmony with his environment. he does not need to force himself, or anything around him, but merely adapts his actions to the movements of the tao.

'the tao of naure is to take from those who have too much and give to those who do not have enough. man’s way is different. he takes from those who do not have enough to give to those who already have too much.' - tao te ching. forgetting the way of the tao is the source of humanity's trouble.

posted by bluematrix at 01/13/08 23:00 | link | comments (1)

i've finally gotten around to reading a classic in the 'books that make you think' category - 'zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance'. not quite finished yet, but i can see why it's a classic. it also holds up pretty well despite being written in the early 70's. the fact that i like motorcycles and eastern philosophy doesn't hurt either. (speaking of which, i got to ride my katana today as the temps hit almost 70 here. kind of reinforces al gore's 'an inconvenient truth' i saw last night, but today was a nice change from the brutal cold earlier that started the new year off earlier this week).

the plot of the book deals with a father and son's motorcycle ride across the northern plains, but the author, robert persig, jumps back and forth between explaining interesting philosophical concepts and observations on the journey, so you don't get too bogged down in either realm for long. there was one passage in particular i liked about halfway thru the book where he talks about the journey being more important than the destination - an observation about life that has taken me a long time for me to recognize (and one that i still need to work on now and then).

in the passage the father and son stop to camp and to do some mountain climbing (having done some climbing myself, i can appreciate both the literal and figurative wisdom of his words). pirsig says that mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and you should find the equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion - if you get restless, speed up. if you get winded, slow down. each step then becomes not just a means to an end, but a unique event with unique observations. to live only for some future event is shallow. its the sides of the mountain where you spend most of your time. and it's the sides that sustain life, not the top.

but it is the top that defines the sides and it is the top that captures your imagination enough to want to take on the adventure in the first place. just remember to enjoy the journey as you climb towards your destination. there is an old chinese saying that goes 'he who stares at the stars too long, misses the jewels at his feet'. look around, enjoy yourself, strive for balance.

posted by bluematrix at 01/06/08 23:27 | link | comments