#buddhist science

[void-meditatum]

[curiouscatalog]

From: Transactions - The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. 9. 1823.

Q41 .E2 v. 9

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

I knelt before my God. “God, why did you call me here?” I was but an acolyte, hardly worthy of His attentions.

God tilted his head to the side. “I wished to tell someone a story, and you happened to be nearby,” He explained.

I nodded, unable to conceal my excitement. To be called upon by God, at such a young age? It was unheard of! “I would be honoured to hear any wisdom from your lips,” I said.

His expression unchanging, God began. “Once upon a time, there was a boy. He had wealth and power, but he wanted the world.”

A story about overstepping your bounds, I thought. About the follies of ambition. Did God think me too eager? I had best be more humble. I lowered my eyes and bowed deeper.

“He plotted and schemed, seeking to rule. But a team of pure-hearted heroes saw through his deceits and rose to stop him. They waged an epic battle, good against evil, chaos against order,” God continued, not showing any sign of noticing my change in demeanour.

“Good almost won. Those heroes were indomitable, unstoppable. The boy feared for his life, for everything he earned. So he unveiled a great weapon, a bomb that would take out the world, for if he could not have it, no one should either.”

Ah, I thought. Selfishness. Pride. Two great sins. Perhaps He had seen me gloating over my skills? Yes, that must be it.

“He blew up the world, and as he did so, he discovered a secret. The path to immortality. The boy Ascended, and when the dust settled, he sat on a throne of radioactive stone and bodies, ruling over a broken people.”

God shook his head and closed his eyes. He had too few eyes, I thought idly, then cursed myself for the heresy. God was Perfection itself, the final form. It was not my place to critique Him. “That boy became a young king. His power grew endlessly, safe in the knowledge that his enemies had been vanquished.”

Carelessness, now. Would the king fall, betrayed by a trusted ally? Would his kingdom flounder from lack of tending? I listened intently. When God spoke, those who listened were blessed.

“Other kind souls, who saw the horror in his actions, took up arms. Time and time again, he destroyed them. Centuries passed, and the people stopped looking at him as a king, and started seeing him as a god. They forgot the story of how he rose to power, and invented a legend. They worshipped him.”

Idolatry! The worst of all sins. He would be cast down by our God, the true God. I grinned to myself, pleased by my deductive skills.

“He was showered in gifts and partook in every pleasure possible, every vice and depravity. He glutted himself on the rarest delicacies, slept with the most gorgeous men and women, killed those who so much as irritated him. His dominion was absolute. None would challenge him.” There was an air of resolute pride in God's voice, but it swiftly softened to his usual solemnity.

“The centuries turned to millennia. The young man still enjoyed his bed-warmers, and his fine wines, but he did not take the same thrill in them that he once did. The world had grown boring, he decided. So he entertained himself with the thought of gaining more power, the idea of taking other lands, other peoples, other worlds for himself. For a brief while, he felt whole again, alive.”

This must be about contentment, I concluded, not without a hint of panic. The story had taken so many twists- How was I to know what he meant to tell me?

“But time struck again, and the millennia turned to eras. He had conquered every galaxy there was, seen his very first struggle mirrored across the universe, and found his life no more fulfilled for it. His power was incomprehensible. Entire species would kill on his whim. He was no mere god, but God himself.”

“The concept of indulging his lust no longer appealed. Though his body was still young, he had seen too much to produce any interest in any merely mortal pleasure.” God sighed.

I was confused. What was this story about? I had missed something, failed his test. A bud of panic welled up in me.

“So the god turned inward. He pursued the works of philosophists, who were awed by their god's sudden interest in his work. He pondered on the meaning of good and evil, and wondered about the heroes he once fought. He realised he had been a tyrant and a monster, and made laws to make the world a better place.”

I gasped. Of course. This was about kindness! Forgiveness, and learning from your mistakes were both valuable teachings, so often forgotten in today's society. By putting us in the shoes of a heathen, only then could we truly understand the meaning of empathy.

“But even that faded with time, and as a final resort, he returned to his homeland, where he once resided. He hunted down the deathplace of his old enemies, the location of his former castle. And he wept for the very last time there, as the final shreds of his humanity died.”

“You see, he had been gone so long, so very very long, that the world itself was unrecognisable. Plates had collided and produced a mountain where his plains-home once was, the sun had turned a deep red with age, and even his people had evolved and distorted to become a new species. There was no trace of the world he once lived in, the boy he once was, the life he once lived. He, as he knew it, was gone.”

“And now, the eras turn to aeons,” God concluded. “And I wonder: What will be left? When the sun that was once his explodes, will he embrace it and end the saga? Or will he live on for all eternity, changing and changing and never dying?”

I blinked. “Great God,” I murmured, making the holy sign, “Forgive me, but I do not understand. What is the moral of this story?”

God did not frown, nor show any sign of anger. His voice was even as he said, “There is no moral, boy. Some stories are just that. Meaningless tales. Idle words. I never expected you to understand. Simply be grateful that you will never live as long as I will. Now go, and live your life. Love and make children and die, like I never got a chance to.”

Finally, it clicked. This was a test, to see my tenacity. He gave me a false fable, meant to bewilder me, and sought to see if I would still attempt to make sense of it. And because I admitted my lack of comprehension, I proved I was humble, and because I tried to understand anyway, I proved I was intelligent. Smiling, I got up and left.

God watched me go with eyes that had seen eternity.

The direct result of this

[intermundia]

well it was a good rant!

i was wondering if you re buddhist? bc of the way you talk about the jedi as monks and your feelings about that, but i don't want to assume anything ,:)

yes and no, i would say. discovering and learning about vipassana or insight meditation saved my life in college, and it opened up a path of wisdom that had previously been closed to me. the spiritual practice has been more and less present in my life at different times over the years, and i am currently living in the middle of nowhere and so i'm not active in a particular dharma community. i've meditated a lot (at times), and have a few different favorite teachers, both current and former monks, whose books i've read and lectures i've listened to that have been very formative, like pema chödrön or rodney smith at SIMS for example. so i am not a religious person, but have been deeply shaped by buddhist wisdom and have respect for buddhist cultural traditions, let's go with that.

[errantabbot]

Depth Psychology, Religion, and Breadth

In depth psychology, we frequently note that the best preparation for being a clinician is the widest possible education, not just in the sciences, but also in the humanities.

One needs to be exposed to, and conversant with, the fullness of life and the potential for human experience to be capable of authentic presence and meaningful interpretation.

The Roman playwright Terence once aptly wrote “I am human, and therefore, nothing human is alien to me.” When one can truly broach this threshold, they might be capable of authentically attending to (and even understanding) the varied meanderings of the human condition.

Definitely the same can (and should) be said of religious professionals.

Any religious schema taken on its own accord, that is, standing alone and generally imbued with an aura of uniquity with regard to the quality of its claims, and its capacity for discerning and conveying existentialist “Truth,” runs the risk of becoming utterly bankrupt- drunk on its own juice, and belligerent toward reality.

Therefore the German progenitor of the “science of religion,” Max Muller once rightly proclaimed that “He who knows one [religion], knows none.”

Assuredly religious adherents, professionals and laity alike, must be deeply committed to the metaphors and narratives of their religious tradition, so as to discern and apply the wisdom to be found at its heart. But, first, they must be able to authentically approach them as such, i.e. interdisciplinary assertions usually approximated in multiple cultures and times, in ways that can broaden one’s appreciation for their own preferred set of rituals and dogmas when examined in such context.

~Sunyananda

[luuney]

waiting for the day i become a pet in all sense of the word

[cadmar]

The Mismatch

On average, it takes about 1/10th of a second from receiving the sensory signals to triggering a neural pattern.  That is happening about 10 times a second.  Each signal is a burst of electrical-chemical and each signal is new!  In other words, after a neural pattern is triggered, the system is reset back to zero.  There is no accumulation.  We are looking at something entirely different from what we saw just moments ago!

The evolutionary purpose for our neural speed is the flexibility to change our focus at a moment of danger and this will greatly improve our rate of survival.  Also, this speed at 1/10th of a second gives us the ability to notice and to track fast moving objects and animals.  We collect information so much faster than the speed of most dangerous situations and animals!

Our emotional and physical body’s reactions are vastly slower.  Almost a second!  Every time we get a new neural pattern, it stimulates an emotional response.  Eventually, there is an accumulation which becomes our memories.

If our emotional reaction was set to equal the speed of our neural network, then there would be no accumulation.  We would always reset our emotional reaction back to zero.  

For example, this is the process: the first time you see something, your emotional reaction is, “That’s nice.  That’s lovely”.  Within 1/10th of a second, another neural pattern and now we have added, “That is very lovely.  Quite beautiful!”  Then comes along another neural pattern and our emotional reaction is now, “That is so beautiful, it would be lovely to have.”  Then comes another neural pattern and now our reaction becomes, “It is so beautiful, I desperately want it now!  I am going to take it”. This emotional reaction becomes a long-lasting memory to the neural pattern!  Our emotional reaction keeps building till a maximum level of intensity is obtained!

 All this from the mismatching of the two processes.  If our emotional reaction is 1/10th of a second, then we would always reset our emotional reaction back to zero, the original setting, and the highest level we would have is, “That’s nice.  That’s lovely”.  No emotional desires and wants.  Our memories would be on this level, “That’s nice” and not on the “It is so beautiful, I desperately want it now!  I’m going to take it!”

This is our biological process and our birth into sin!

The resetting of our emotional reaction to zero, to match our neural network, is enlightenment!  This is spiritual growth and development!  Of course, our “reality” of our perception  is physical and  is the same process as our biological emotional reactions.  At 1/10th of a second, we have a different sensation than from the accumulating effect  after many neural network patterns, say 10 of them, that this chair is solid, hard, and can hold my weight!  At 1/10th of a second, we would be having a different perception!

When we reset our physical body’s reactions to the neural network speed, we will have a completely different and more truer view on reality!  

[buddhismnow]

Instruction, observation, and experience. by Trevor Leggett

Enquiry, too, can become a sort of slogan, as blind faith can become a slogan. Instruction, observation, and experience. by Trevor Leggett http://wp.me/pFy3u-uo

A pupil of a Zen master in Tokyo attended his sangha where it was expected that the students penetrate deeply into truth, in the world and in themselves. This particular pupil had to go to the countryside on a business trip, and he stayed overnight. He attended a service in the local temple. When he returned, he saw the teacher and one or two of his fellow pupils and he said, ‘You know — oh, it…

[internationalnewspod]

The daily weird news roundup for Weds, Nov 30, 2022. Check out the International News Service wherever you get podcasts.

[13thpythagoras]

Does quantum tunneling (process which enables our sun to burn and shine bright) also sometimes cause our DNA to spontaneously (randomly?) mutate?

“it is a system of particles whose lowest-energy state is one in which the particles are in repetitive motion. The system cannot lose energy to the environment and come to rest because it is already in its quantum ground state. Because of this, the motion of the particles does not really represent kinetic energy like other motion; it has "motion without energy" “

This quote above, is the definition of a time-crystal. 

Is repetitive motion and self-replication one and the same?

The quote below is the definition of DNA:

DNA/ˌdē ˌen ˈā/

noun

BIOCHEMISTRY

a self-replicating material...

Is there a difference? 

[raffaellopalandri]

Book Of The Day - Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Vol. 1: The Physical WorldBook Of The Day

Book Of The Day – Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Vol. 1: The Physical WorldBook Of The Day

Today’s Book Of The Day is Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Vol. 1: The Physical World by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Thupten Jinpa (Editor). This series of books, of which Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Vol. 1: The Physical World represents the first volume, will give the readers the fantastic opportunity to have a multi-cultural insight of…

[putmenthedirt]

seeing oomfs (not even on here but on twt too) shit on my beliefs makes me so sad :( obviously not everyone has to believe in the same stuff but i’d like to imagine ppl would be respectful at least

[libraryofbaxobab]

August 16, 2023:

I didn't see that ending coming for sure, but the rest of it kicked ass. Nonstop action: ghosts, dinosaurs, hallucinations, time slips, impending medical diagnoses, bratty rich people, a (possible) murder mystery... don't blink or you might miss something.

8/10 #WhatsKenyaReading

[sheilamurrey]

Nick Polizzi talks about Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen Buddhism and offers a prayerful practice

When I opened my email today from Nick Polizzi and The Sacred Science, I stopped and read this with prayerful intention. It’s been one of those days. This is helping: “Hi Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey, Last year, one of the most influential Zen masters of our time, Thich Nhat Hanh, departed his physical body at age 95. Lovingly known as the “father of mindfulness,” his wisdom lives on and…

[errantabbot]

On Cognitive Dissonance and the Cogs of Our Minds

Cognitive dissonance is such a powerful force. It’s mind boggling how willing people are to construct and accept absurdities so as avoid disruptions to their worldviews and presuppositions.

Case in point, instead of grappling with the *fact* that we’re living amidst a human propelled climate crisis, an unbelievable number of people are sitting inside of their nearly sweltering homes, and opining that “the government” somehow orchestrated the wildfires and crisis in Maui.

Of course, the only thing orchestrated is the bizarre symphony of wishful imaginations supporting this (and ample other) nonsense.

I used to teach that the cogs of reality are far stronger than those of our minds, and that when the two don’t mesh up, the real cogs of the manifest world will inevitably chew up those thinner mental bits of machinery. And of course on the macrocosm this is absolutely true. And then there’s the microcosm that somehow yields to (significant) delusion with some regularity.

Aigo.

~Sunyananda

[baltears]

the way replaying golden sun after playing both the first two games will make u suddenly remember that the outcome of this entire apocalypse hinges on a religious dispute between two villages