Reclusland

Ok, so I know I said I’m not into that new-agey tendency to equate the “quantum” with the “spiritual” (and vice versa) but I came across a few of things on today on tumblr that seemed pretty relate-able nonetheless.  Granted, the first isn’t really “quantum” (though it seems that way at first), and the second and the third aren’t really “spiritual” either…

Is quantum mechanics messing with your memory?

When you observe any system, according to Maccone, you enter into a “quantum entanglement” with it. That is, you and the system are entangled and cannot properly be described separately.

The entanglement, Maccone says, is between your memory and the system. When you disentangle, “the disentangling operation will erase this entanglement, namely the observer’s memory”. His paper derives this conclusion mathematically.

Now, the point of the article seems to be that, if we take this idea as true, it follows that we experience “non-entropic events” (such as our coffee reheating spontaneously) we just simply don’t remember them.  That sounds pretty nonsensical to me, but that bit’s not really relevant to the point I’m making here.  Neither does it really matter whether it’s a “quantum” type of entanglement or not.

The key thing is the hypothesis the article starts out with: when we observe any system, the system and our “selves” cannot properly be described separately.

That strikes me as both true and very important.  And it brings to mind this quote from Eihei Dogen, also recently found on tumblr:

Just at the moment
Ear and sound
Do not interfere—
There is no voice
There is no speaker.

Which I would assume, this being Dogen, could probably be ended with something along the lines of “There is just the hearing”.

See also this excerpt from the Surangama Sutra if you feel like reading something a bit heavier.

Or, if you prefer light, there’s this J. Krishnamurti quote, also found on tumblr today:

Have you watched your thinking? I watched that car go by, it was a blue car. Can I watch my thought in the same way, as it moves from one thing to another? And if it does, find out if it can end; instead of it being a long thread, break it, see what happens. Can you break a thought and say, “Well, that’s enough, enough is enough” and just end that thought and see what happens before the next thought is waiting. Before it springs on you, watch it. In that space, in that interval, what happens?

And I’d like end by mentioning the Buddhist idea of the six sense objects/facilities:
- eye / sight
- ear / hearing
- nose / smell
- tongue / taste
- skin / touch
- mind / thought

Thought can be considered a way of sensing something, and even the english language admits this, in a way.  We “have” thoughts, we don’t “become” thoughts.  And yet, how much of what we think/know of our “self” is based entirely on thoughts we’ve had about it?

Ask yourself: if we “have a thought”, what is it that is doing the “having”?

Posted this recently on the research feed:

The Quintessence Field

• In the late 1990s, observations of supernovae revealed that the universe has started expanding faster and faster over the past few billion years. Einstein’s equations of general relativity provide a mechanism for this phenomenon, in the form of the cosmological constant, also known as the inherent “dark energy” of space-time. If this constant has a small positive value, then it causes space-time to expand at an ever-increasing rate. However, theoretical calculations of the constant and the observed value are out of whack by about 120 orders of magnitude.
• To overcome this daunting discrepancy, physicists have resorted to other explanations for the recent cosmic acceleration. One explanation is the idea that space-time is suffused with a field called quintessence.
• This field is scalar, meaning that at any given point in space-time it has a value, but no direction. Einstein’s equations show that in the presence of a scalar field that changes very slowly, space-time will expand at an ever-increasing rate.
• According to the UCL team’s models, inflation would have induced quantum fluctuations in the quintessence field. When the universe began its more sedate expansion after inflation ended, the field and its fluctuations would have been frozen into the fabric of space-time, so that the energy density of the field did not change with time.
• This field would have had no impact on the early universe, which would have been dominated by matter and radiation. But eventually, as the universe grew, its expansion rate slowed down and the influence of matter and radiation diminished, the relative strength of the quintessence field increased, causing the expansion of space-time to accelerate.

More modern day alchemy!  Sounding strangely reminiscent of the old “sphere who’s center is everywhere and who’s circumference is nowhere…”

And then today I read this from my “list of things to read” (can’t remember where I found it originally):

Nisargadatta’s Difference Between Consciousness & Awareness

• When he uses the term “consciousness” he seems to equate that term with the “I Am ” and when he talks about “awareness” he is pointing to something altogether beyond the consciousness (“I Am”), that is, to the absolute.
• When the realization has established itself that I am the consciousness itself when I realize that I am the “I am” he take us to the next realization which is when I subsequently realize that I am NOT the “I am,” I am beyond that, I am pure awareness only!
• If I am conscious it is always conscious OF something. Consciousness always has an object of which I am conscious. So while the realization of my identity as the “I am” is very much closer to reality than the idea that “I am so-and-so, a person” it is still a step away from the final realization of the absolute, that I am the non- dual awareness which is allowing the consciousness to be conscious. Awareness is that which is shining through the consciousness, but it is beyond the consciousness itself.
• You are beyond the beingness, beyond the consciousness, beyond the sense of presence, you are the pure awareness only by which the conscious has been able to come into being: you are the absolutely pure original awareness only.” This latter realization can only proceed out of the former realization. First I must realize that I am the “I am,” the universal consciousness, then out of that I can realize that I am NOT the “I am!” I am actually the absolute only, and nothing else REALLY exists at all! Everything else is no more real than a dream.
• (T)he consciousness can only exist because of the prior shining of pure awareness. The awareness, on the other hand, does not depend on any way whatsoever on the consciousness, and is not even touched by it. The consciousness comes and goes, waking and sleeping, birth and death, but the awareness is always there. The consciousness suddenly appears in the morning on top of the birthless and deathless ever existing pure nondual awareness. Other than that absolute, there is really nothing.

Some interesting parallels there between Nisargadatta’s awareness and this “quintessence field”.  Though I am not a fan of “quantum souls” or “chakra string theories” any commonalities between high-level subject investigation and high level objective investigation do interest me.  For poetic purposes alone, if nothing else…

PS: I am working on some sesshin stories, hoping for some time this weekend to finish them up.

Heading back to the Monastery for another sesshin. Be back on Sunday (this one’s a long one)….

And with that, good bye.

(found here)

Finally wrapping up the Paradiso.  Wonderful stuff.  Love the 10 levels of reality here.  It starts with a stationary Earth, up through each sphere which turns wider and wider, and then ends in the unmovable Empyrean.  Stillness to movement to stillness, very nice.

Sorry for the silence here.  I’m still realing (pun completely intended) from a retreat last weekend with Malidoma Some (hence the last post), and my thoughts are moving too quickly to word-ize them at this point.  Plus on Monday I’m off to the Monastery again for a full week’s sesshin.  After that I expect things will stabilize a bit more…

Just a heads up that I’ll be heading up to Zen Mountain Monastery from Thursday through Sunday.  Totally incommunicado, as usual, but ya’ll feel free to carry on as usual in my absence.

<cricket chirrup>

<cricket chirrup>

<cricket chirrup>

Well, in any case, here’s some pictures that’ve been on my hard drive for years, for your enjoyment:

Buddhi is dependent upon an alliance through misapprehension, Avidya, with Purusha in order to accumulate -or attempt to accumulate- knowledge. Once the realization arrives through this accumulation that information gathering and the mutable knowledge gained therefore is not Wisdom, the alliance (Avidya) disappears and only Purusha remains, immutable and free.

This comes from a rather scholarly Buddhist Geeks article by John Eberly giving a background on Ramana Maharshi, self-inquiry, and other forms of Indian spirituality.  Well worth the read, if you can summon up the focus to follow the ideas through the thick underbrush of  language.   The above in particular hit me.

For those not inclined to read the article all the way through, this quote, to my mind, states something like: We get confused trying to accumulate facts about things, thinking these “mutable knowledges” as permanent wisdom.  Only when we see these as mutable and not the same as the wisdom we mistake it for, are we able to begin to understand wisdom.

Am I arguing that it is useless to gather knowledge?  No, we’d be in a pretty dark place without knowledge.  The problem is, if we assume some bit of knowledge as being somehow true (ie: as being Wisdom), we stop looking at it. Rather than trying to grasp and hold as much information as we can, it is better to learn how to quickly and accurately perceive information as it flows through our awareness.  We gain nothing but blindness by attempting to hold on it (or for that matter, by attempting to push it away as well).

http://reclusland.tumblr.com/day/2010/04/29

or to be more correct, it’s a link to a poem… (and not just the TNH piece)

I wonder if one of the bigger problems with having a sense of a separate self is that we only seem to be able to look externally OR internally.  We can’t seem to do both at the same time, not without one coloring the other in ways that aren’t actually what’s going on.  When we’re watching what goes on outside, we end up ignoring certain things that are going on inside, and vice-versa.

But although we’re ignoring them, on some level we do know there’s something being ignored; we just don’t know what it is.  And this not knowing is dukkha, the potters wheel that’s squeaking because it’s not turning smoothly, that agonizing tick in the back of our minds of something’s-amiss-here.

Does this spring from seeing our internal reality as separate from our external reality?  I can certainly see this causing problems, since the two aren’t ever actually separate each other.  Reality is pouring in at us from all sides at all times, and bubbling up within us as well, each in no way contradicting the other.  Nothing that exists in the moment can ever be out of step with anything else that exists in this moment, because it’s happening at the same time all together.  There’s never any part of reality, within or without, that’s on “pause” when we’re focused on one of the two.  But we have to act like there is, because, for whatever reason, there’s some resistance, some holding back that stops us from placing our selves directly in reality.  The connections not complete, there’s resistance in the wires…

Why do we do this?  I have no idea.  Neither am I sure what causes that split in the first place.  Just holding up pieces, trying to see what fits together and what doesn’t.

Strangely, the process of creating the illusory sense of a self arises out of compassion, but confused compassion, which is desire. This may sound odd, but it is as if there was an eddy in reality that befuddled empty and compassionate awareness, which is not a thing nor separate from things. Thus, somehow it seems that there is something to defend, some separate self that must be protected. Thus, out of confused compassion, barriers and defense mechanisms continue to be erected to defend this territory, this illusion of a separate self. Spiritual practices are designed to systematically debunk this illusion and penetrate these barriers by providing clarity, whereas all of the traditions can easily become part of these barriers, cultures to defend, knowledge to assume is self or owned by self, and that sort of thing.

I am very interested in the idea of “an eddy in reality”, what that might mean, and what it might be. Intimately tied to this idea is the idea of “crossing to the far shore” common to both Buddhism and the I Ching. This is why the yanas (Hine-, Maha-, and Vajra-) are called yanas.

Also:

Thus, with enough stability and clarity (concentration and wisdom), this natural, compassionate process of manifestation can begin to function more skillfully, as it has better information to go on, and can begin to see that creating the illusion of a separate, permanent self was not at all helpful (though it seemed to be). At this point, “it” will then let go of the illusion it has been perpetuating and return to understanding its natural state, which is freedom and non-duality.

My question here is, what was this natural process of manifestation doing before it got caught in the idea of a separate self.  And now that that separate self is seen through, what else can that process accomplish through this “one” who is now aware of it…

Such good stuff:

This is something that absolutely cannot be accomplished by an act of will. It only arises when the level of clarity is high enough and the heart accepting enough of things as they are. One might say that Grace favors the well-trained mind.

The product, which Alexander says is “in between art and science,” sounds appropriately primal and otherworldly. In one version, Alexander used what he describes as a tribal drum beat to represent the rotation of the sun, and he layered the voice of a singer (his sister) to represent the charge state of carbon atoms, for example.

“Every piece of scientific data tells a story. I’m expressing this story through music. These sonifications present scientific data in a way that is immediately visceral.”

The solar wind fills the solar system and interacts with the planets, explains Jason Gilbert, a research fellow in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences. On Earth, solar storms can disrupt power on the ground and on satellites.

(from futurity.org)

(more info on the YouTube page and at the University of Michigan)

Sorry I’ve been incommunicado the past few days (what’s that you say, a whole week?)  Yeah, I came down with what I can only assume is the flu.  Tuesday was spent entirely asleep, and then nothing but movie watching in bed for the rest of the week.  Made it through the entire Cowboy Bebop series and movie.  Fun times.  Oh, and my internet was out until yesterday.  4 whole days of completely passive vegetation mode.  Not something I’d recommend as a lifestyle option, but good for an occasional reminder that tension is not a necessary state of affairs.

But as you can see all is now well and good.  My cough is subsiding and I feel like my system’s rebooted itself, which gives the whole thing a sort of rosy glow.  Not sure when I’ll get to posting again, but keep you RSS readers tuned in!

And I see I’ve got some comments to read through as well…

Just a little aside today.  I don’t really like talking about the day job on here, but I got an email from one of my colleges in China.  I’d asked about his trip back home during last week’s Chinese New Year holiday, and he mentioned that the trains were absolutely packed.  Imagine 1.3 billion people all taking the train back to their hometown (some of them taking 36 hours to get home).  LA road rage ain’t got nothing on that.  Here’s a business tip for you MBA types out there: intra-China air flights for cheap.  Find a way to make it happen and you’ve got money in the bank…

Anyway, this colleague of mine used the phrase “Oh my Lady Gaga!” as a stand-in for “Oh my God”.  Certainly worth a laugh and a bit strange as well.  I then found out from another co-worker that this came from a Chinese pop-starlet using the phrase on television.  I googled it out of curiosity and found out that it actually came from an episode of Ugly Betty.

This was the first I’d heard of it, but seriously, to have this small bit of American pop-culture reference coming to me via China, well, it sent me for a loop.  So I thought I’d post a little run-down of the story, along with an image of a globe with a face on it exploding.  Something to imply both the global aspect and the head-exploding aspect. Something kind of like this:

mixed with this:

Not the most original idea, I know, but that’s why this category’s called “ramblings“.  Anyway, the funny thing was, I couldn’t find any image like that.  Plenty of each option, but nothing with them combined.  However, a few pages deep into google image search for explode head globe, I can across this image:

And I decided I had best stop there.  More evidence of that endlessly echoing rabbit hole that is the internet…

The Christian idea of the kingdom of God, of the new Jerusalem, of a Heaven on Earth that’s not available until after the Rapture (and yet is spread across the earth and men do not see it) is the same religious meme, unleashes the same program on the nervous system, as the Buddhist idea that we are already fully enlightened beings, that we fully posses Buddha-nature here and now, and that awakening is our true original nature…

Just the cultural responses to this program are different.  This is a fault of the culture, not the meme-program itself, simply different stage dressing to an otherwise identical script.

Found these can’t-remember-where, but they are awesome.  All these and more available at this site.

Imagine that’s your consciousness,
raditating outwards
from the top of your head
to the bottom of your spine.

Putting aside my previous (and to be honest, ongoing)
obsession with magnetic fields as a metaphor,
I still feel there’s something important
about the two relationships depicted here.

And this is probably the more beautiful images I’ve seen recently.
It’s a depiction of a photon sphere,
which is essentially light from a star orbiting a black hole.

These makes me feel like those pictures of saints and angels must have made people feel in the “dark” ages…

We must learn how to “thing” without becoming “a thing” ourselves.

I am all of these things, yet they are not me…

Read an article on Futurismic that quoted a question from another article that really got me thinking.  I figured I’d throw it out to my readers here:

Why are we as a species so driven to find a definition for God?

The more I ask myself the question, the more I realize I can’t find an answer.  It’s kind of tripping me out.

Maybe this whole “Zen” thing is having more of an effect than I think…  ;)

Feel free to expound at whatever length you wish.  Any and all answers are welcome.

(links to larger version)

Krishnamurti starts off putting Chogyam to the test, essentially asking him “Why bother meditating?” I love it.  Krishnamurti’s having a great time; he’s almost smirking. And Chogyam, I have to admit, looks a bit nervous (at least until he finally gets to start talking halfway through the second video).

Just for reference, this takes place in San Diego, California, on 15th Feb. 1972.  Over 40 years after Krishnamurti broke with the The Order of the Star, and 5 years after Chogyam Trungpa had opened the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West.

(part 1)

(part 2)

(part 3)

(part 4)

(part 5)

That’s it for me, until after the 25th.  The holidays are a busy time, and when I’m not busy, I will be taking the opportunity to relax away from the computer for a bit.

But I want to leave you with something good, so check out the last two posts, and the one about the past crystalizing out of the future as well.

And ponder this: What is it to know yourself as the point where both the quantumly uncertain future and the classically physical past exist simultaneously, where the analogue and the digital meet?

“Judging, making up our minds what to think, is something for which we are, in principle, responsible – something we freely do, as opposed to something that merely happens in our lives. Of course, a belief is not always, or even typically, a result of our exercising this freedom to decide what to think. But even when a belief is not freely adopted, it is an actualisation of capacities of a kind, the conceptual, whose paradigmatic mode of actualisation is in the exercise of freedom that judging is. This freedom, exemplified in responsible acts of judging, is essentially a matter of being answerable to criticism in the light of rationally relevant considerations.”

- John McDowell: ‘Having the World in View: Lecture One’ (via fuckyeahphilosophy)

Free will or no free will?  Fuck that polarity.  Worry about the things you can consciously choose, choose them well, and the rest is not your concern.

When Cami Walker of Los Angeles learned three years ago that she had multiple sclerosis, her health and her spirits plummeted — until she got an unusual prescription from a holistic health educator.  Ms. Walker gave a gift a day for 29 days — things like making supportive phone calls or saving a piece of chocolate cake for her husband. The giving didn’t cure her multiple sclerosis, of course. But it seems to have had a startling effect on her ability to cope with it. She is more mobile and less dependent on pain medication. The flare-ups that routinely sent her to the emergency room have stopped, and scans show that her disease has stopped progressing.

“My first reaction was that I thought it was an insane idea,” Ms. Walker said. “But it has given me a more positive outlook on life. It’s about stepping outside of your own story long enough to make a connection with someone else.”

And science appears to back her up.

(from the NYTimes)

This is not the law of attraction, this is not about visualizing yourself into wealth and beauty.  This is about making conscious decisions to be a positive effect in the world.  The other’s joy and happiness feeds you in a way that your own never would.  All it requires that you pay attention enough to choose, as best you can, what will actually be of help to someone.

The difference between the right word & the almost right word is the difference between lightning & the lightning bug. – Mark Twain

This made me laugh enough to want to share it with you all.  Sometimes, the oracles speak loud and clear.  :)

Q: Should I, in any direction, be pushing myself harder than I am?

A: The situation described here is that of one who, finding himself in an influential position in a time of progress, remains gentle and reserved. He might reproach himself for lack of energy in making the most of the propitiousness of the time and obtaining all possible advantage. However, this regret passes away. He must not take either loss or gain to heart; they are minor considerations. What matters much more is the fact that in this way he has assured himself of opportunities for successful and beneficent influence.

(changing 5th line)

(a little recommended reading for your Fridays/weekends)

Nearly 100 new species described by California Academy of Sciences in 2009

Wild chimps have near human understanding of fire, study says

Octopus snatches coconut and runs

Chimp’s stone throwing at zoo visitors was ‘premeditated’

What’s the secret to surviving during times of environmental change? Evolve…quickly.

Are humans evolving faster? Findings suggest we are becoming more different, not alike

Culture skews human evolution

Does evolution select for faster evolvers?

Plants evolve quickly in response to climate change

Sex In The Caribbean: Environmental Change Drives Evolutionary Change

DNA Is Dynamic And Has High Energy; Not Stiff Or Static As First Envisioned

Dynamic changes in DNA linked to human diabetes

WHAT, YOU THOUGHT THIS SHIT HAD STOPPED?

(links to source)

New Model of the Universe Says Past Crystallizes out of the Future

• The standard spacetime diagrams used in relativity accord no special status to the past, the present or the future. That’s because they assume that everything evolves from time-reversible local physics.

• it is possible represent such a universe using a kind of spacetime diagram in which space and time merge into a single entity. “The universe just is: a fixed spacetime block,”say Ellis and Rothman. In this view, no instant has any special status: “All past and future times are equally present, and the present “now” is just one of an infinite number.”

• Ellis and Rothman introduce a significant new type of block universe. They say the character of the block changes dramatically when quantum mechanics is thrown into the mix. All of a sudden, the past and the future take on entirely different characteristics. The future is dominated by the weird laws of quantum mechanics in which objects can exist in two places at the same time and particles can be so deeply linked that they share the same existence. By contrast, the past is dominated by the unflinching certainty of classical mechanics.

• What’s interesting is that the transition between these states takes place largely in the present. It’s almost as if the past crystallizes out of the future, in the instant we call the present.

• They point out, for example, that this crystallization process doesn’t take place entirely in the present. In quantum mechanics the past can sometimes be delayed, for example in delayed choice experiments. This means the structure of the transition from future to past is more complex than a cursory thought might suggest.

• Ellis and Rothman suggest that their model provides a straightforward solution to the problem of the origin of the arrow of time. “The arrow of time arises simply because the future does not yet exist,” they say.

Granted, the article ends with:  That’s a thought-provoking but ultimately unconvincing model in its current form. But it’ll be interesting to see whether Ellis and Rothman can conjure a little more substance from the idea. What it needs, of course, are some testable predictions, things that cosmologists usually spend little time worrying about. Don’t hold your breath.

So maybe nothing to get too excited about, but the picture that paints is beautiful.  Even if nothing else, this provides an excellent metaphor for how karma works, and of how the mind moves through time.

via ledgergermane

Found another, more in depth, article on that ribbon of energy in space which I mentioned last week, but what caught my attention was the accompanying animation.  Completely blew my mind:

Here’s some pictures (and links, when possible, to more detailed info), as an attempt to explain my ideas on this in exactly 10,000 words :

Did a tarot reading recently, asking for some advice, and I wanted to record/share the result here as a reminder to myself in the months/years to come.

The Twisting Path spread provides insight into the path ahead of you and the choices you must make. This is the spread for situations where more than one pitfall may lie ahead. The images of the Minchiate Tarot are drawn from a rare surviving 18th century deck of 97 cards – 19 more than the traditional Tarot. It is considered by many to be the single most powerful divination tool on the web, providing deep insight, rich in ancient symbolism, to any question you may pose.

The card at the lower left, represents the first decision along your path. Four of Wands (Completion): A chance to rest and rejoice, having successfully resolved a matter of great import. The initial success of a business venture or creative project. The blossoming of a friendship or romantic relationship. Conclusions drawn based on hard won experience. Spiritual, material, or emotional rewards for diligent effort. May suggest marriage, childbirth, or a victory celebration.

The card to the far left represents the first false path that may lead you astray. Libra: Refinement and sophistication, abundant in urbane charm. A gift for diplomacy and social interaction. A romantic, filled with idealism and love of peace. The ability to understand both sides of an argument.

The card in the middle represents the second decision along your path. Page of Coins: The essence of earth, such as a mountain: The surprising appearance of new prosperity and opportunities for advance in the physical world. One who delights in the pleasures of the body, material things, and nature. The embrace of hard work, realistic goals, and scholarly perseverance as a means to create solid achievement. Dependability, trust, and a studious nature. May portend a new job or promotion.

The card at the lower right represents the second false path that may lead you astray. Earth: The established order and pattern by which the world is defined. The substance of all things, stable and resolute, resting firmly on the foundations of reality. The basis of all transactions, and hence of all value. The medium of sensual experience.

The card at the top represents one possible mask of your true destination. Four of Swords (Truce), when reversed: Restlessness and mental disharmony. Deserting a struggle in progress. A temporary retreat from stress that turns into a permanent rout. A lack of vigilance that could lead to disaster.

Decided to look up the reversal of the 4 of swords for further info, and found this:

Seek advise from your higher self – pull back into solitude and consider the details of your situation calmly. Put your thoughts in order and determine your priorities – suspend action on all issues but “one”, ask your unconscious to work on this one issue and then sleep on it. Centering and meditation practices can help you create the objectivity required to see all sides of an issue and from this experience something useful and powerful will emerge. You will soon be back into action again – there will be good opportunities ahead. Always take the time to think things out carefully before you commit yourself to anything.

Those of you out there who read the tarot can make what you will of it.  For everyone else, we will have to wait over the next several months and see how this turns out…