Sunday, December 15, 2013

List of terms for the final (we'll go over the terms in class on Thursday)


Confucianism and its principles:

T'ien, chün-tzu, jen, zhong-yong and li. Find a detailed explanation of all these terms here.

Taoism and its principles:

Tao (the Way), YING YANG, Being/ Non-being, Cycles, Te and Wu-wei; all here.

Zen and its techniques:

Find a summary of Zen techniques here. See also koan.

Monday, December 9, 2013

a feminist kant

for those of you writing in favor of women's rights, take a look at this article written in the nytimes by carol hay, professor of philosophy at the university of massachusetts.
Because we have an obligation to prevent harms to our rational nature, and because oppression can harm our capacity to act rationally, we have an obligation to resist our own oppression. Despite what Kant himself might’ve thought, we know that women’s rational capacities are no different from men’s. Thus we can use Kantianism to explain why women are just as deserving of respect as men and why this respect is incompatible with sexist oppression.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

should animals be used for food?

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

if you have not done the remake do it before it's too late

if you didn't pass the 1st quizz, you need to makeup for it and it should be very soon. please contact me. you know who YOU ARE.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

post for comment (on the philosophy of Xunzi)

dear ones: feel free to comment on any of these themes as they show in the philosophy of Xunzi:

1- heaven
2- learning
3- the chün-tzu
4- how to govern
5- li (for Xunzi)
6- the danger of obsessions
7- the consequences of man's nature

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Mencius


For excerpts from the Book of Mencius: here.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

post for comments (sorry i'm posting a bit late)


on our first reading of the analects there was an interesting discussion on the chüng-tzu, jen (ren) and reverence (jing) particularly in the case of our treatment of the elderly.

what's on your mind? say it.


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Confucius the pedagogue


Confucius was born in the small feudal state of Lu (noted for its preservation of the traditions of ritual and music of the Chou civilization). 1- Confucius' ancestors were probably members of the aristocracy who had become virtual poverty-stricken commoners by the time of his birth. His father died when Confucius was only three years old. Instructed first by his mother, Confucius then distinguished himself as an indefatigable learner in his teens.  Continue reading.

Monday, November 4, 2013

let's start the discussion (post for comment)


by oneself evil is done; by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is left undone; by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself, no one can purify another.

finally we're reading from the dhammapada. there are several things right off the bat:

1- the insistence of the causal connection of evil & life. in the twin verses of 1:1."we become what we think."  then, 1:5: "hatred can never put an end to hatred". this is a novel way of looking at ethics. wrong actions carry moral (causal) consequences = you reap what you sow is not a metaphor, it's cause & effect! of course, 9:119: "the evil doers may be happy as long as he does not reap what he has sown, but when he does sorrow overcomes him." yeah, there's no way out of paticca samuppada.

2- the control of the mind: "hard is to train the mind, which goes where it likes..." 3: 35
the importance of self-governance of the mind. ..."those who can direct thoughts are freed from the bond of mara" (3:37).

and this one: "make your mind a fortress to conquer maya with the weapon of wisdom".

i doubt something this deep has been said with this simplicity.

the beautiful chapter 4, "on flowers". this stands out: "do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do, give it to what you do or fail to do" 4:50.

3- a central lesson in the dhammapada is that good is objective,  it can be perceived: "the fragrance of the good spread everywhere..." 4:54.  good is an essence.

4-  the importance of self-governance. the self is a refuge, not a place to waste. so, we must keep our house in order. these three are key:

"do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do." 4:50
"if you find no one to support you on the spiritual path, walk alone". 5:61
"a solid rock cannot be moved by the wind, the wise are not shaken by praise or blame." 6:81

(that doesn't mean we don't try to build our own sangha):

"make friends with those who are good and true, not with those that are bad ans false." 6:78

5-  we always come back to food (it's my fault). the point i was trying to make is that food is food, it's neutral = maya.

i'm the one liking or disliking. how come? it's the "I" (the ego) that likes or dislikes.

but isn't this still too much of the self as impediment to dharma? according to the dhammapada once the self is erased, what remains is the cosmic principle, i.e, THE ONE.

what is selflessness? nothing out of this world, just the right expansion to include all other living creatures. so yes, when it comes to taste the self can learn from the expansion of the self. that's why i brought the example of the person that cooks a not-so-tasty dish (but with lots of love) vs. the cook that is an ace and just did the food as mere routine.

which brings me to the prodigal son.

last minute addenda after tuesday's reading:

jose's suspicion of the idea of "detachment" (i.e., if one is detached how can one really truly interact with others and one's own projects?).
counter: it reminds us of arjuna's confusion just before fighting the battle in the bhagavad gita. life is filled with contradictions: are they real or apparent? he/she who knows is wise.

irvin's reservation towards buddhism as a form of social engineering.
counter: the buddhist as no problem biting the bullet. do you have anything against good engineering? par example: morals in homo sapiens, or democracy, or school learning.

repetition is part of the enlightenment recipe. moksha means something as simple as living in contentment. "what is enlightenment? asks the disciple. do the dishes, responds the master." or "the problem is not tweeter, the problem is what people do with it" (a 12 year old honor student from cologne, germany in der spiegel).

veronica's point about "fear."
fear is wired, but so is the ego. what to do about it? use it to your advantage (advantage means spiritual growth).

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

from automaton to robot to...


a very interesting article in the NYTimes on the evolution of robots. check the photo gallery ("electro," built by westinghouse and "sparko," its dog companion are part of the treat).

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Aurobindo

in closing Hinduism:

Vivekananda's aphorisms.

Quotes by Sri Ramakrishna.

Quotes by Sri Aurobindo Gose.

it's time for student assistants to help with the exam

this is the list of my student assistants, stated per class:

MFW 9am

Dahitza
Carlos
Beth
Shanorah

MWF 10am

Cindy
Arlene
Gaston
Jimmy
Melodie

TR 9:50am

Laura
Tashane
Ana
Marko

T 5:40pm class 

Andrea
Yeidy
Collin Collin

if you have a question and need to talk to any of them, they're supposed to help. if any question, post them here.

Friday, October 18, 2013

my answer to some of your in-class comments on the gita



kids: it may have seemed as if i dismissed some of your valid comments. frankly, we didn't have enough time: find my response here. 

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Analects (excerpts)



"The chun-tzu does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he follows Heaven. In seasons of danger, he follows Heaven."

The Master said, "The superior man does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything. He just follows what is right."

The Master said, "The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort. The superior man thinks of the rituals; the small man thinks of favors he may receive."

The Master said, "A man should say, I am not concerned that I have no place, I am concerned how I may fit in a place. I am not concerned that I am not known, I wish to be worthy to be known."

The Master said, "The mind of the superior man is concerned with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with profit."

The Master said, "When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a dubious character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves."

The Master said, "The cautious seldom err."

The Master said, "The superior man wishes to be slow in his speech and quick in his conduct."

The Master said, "Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have good neighbors."

The Master said, "The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous are long-lived." Now the man of virtue, wishing to be established himself, also establish others; wishing to be appreciated, he appreciates others. To be able to judge others by what is nigh in ourselves -this may be called the art of virtue." (Gong and Jing)

The Master said, "Never refused instruction to anyone." (jen)

The Master said, "I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to know, nor help out any one who is not interested to understand. "

The Master said, "When I walk along with two others, they will serve as my teachers. I will select their good qualities and follow them (their bad qualities and avoid them)."

The Master said, "Heaven produces the virtues that live in me." (anthropogenic principle of Tien)

The Master said, "Respectfulness, without the rules of propriety, becomes tiring; carefulness without the rules of propriety, becomes cold feet; boldness, without the rules of propriety, becomes insubordination; directness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness."

The Master said, "For any important point, learn it as if you are not yet in complete understanding, as if you may not ever get it."

The Master said, "Hold fidelity and sincerity as first principles. Have no friends not equal to yourself. When you have faults, let them go."

The Master said, "The wise are free from confusion; the virtuous from anxiety; and the courageous from fear."

Chung-kung asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, "When you go abroad, behave to all as if you were receiving a great guest; employ the people as if you were assisting at a great sacrifice. Do not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself."

Sze-ma Niu asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, "The man of perfect virtue is cautious and slow in his speech." (Zhong Yong)

Sze-ma Niu asked about the superior man. The Master said, "The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear. When one examines oneself and discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about? What is there to fear?" (Zhong Yong)

Chi K'ang asked Confucius about government. Confucius replied, "To govern means to rectify. If you lead on the people with rightness, who will dare not to be right?" Chi K'ang asked: "So, how do you punish the criminal for the good of the righteous?" Confucius replied, "In carrying on your government, why should you use punishment at all? The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it." (the idea of rectification of names or Pinyin).

The Master said, "Use the upright and move away from the crooked; in this way the crooked can be made to be upright." Tsze-kung asked about friendship. The Master said, "Patiently counsel your friend, and skillfully show him the way. If you find him impossible to change, stop. Do not disgrace him or yourself."

The Master said, "To lead ignorant people into war is to throw them away."

The Master said, "He who speaks without modesty will find very difficult to convey his point." 

The Master said, "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in actions."

Shu asked, "With what should I recompense kindness?" The Master said, "Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness."

Tsze-chang asked how a man should conduct himself, so as to be everywhere appreciated. The Master said, "Let his words be sincere and truthful and his actions honorable and careful. If his words be not sincere and truthful and his actions not honorable and careful he will not be appreciated anywhere."

The Master said, "If a man does not think about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand." ("distant," "near" are as pervasive as T'ien, not unlike the Hindu ONE).

The Master said, "He who requires much from himself and little from others, will never be the objects of resentment." (Zhong-Yong, the right balance between actions).

The Master said, "The superior man in everything considers righteousness to be essential. He acts according to the rules of Heaven. He acts in humility. He shows his sincerity."

The Master said, "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others." (the reciprocity implicit in the chun-tzu).

The Master said, "The superior man is dignified, but does not quarrel. He is sociable, never a partisan."

The Master said, "The superior man does not promote someone simply because of his good words, nor does he forgets good words because of anyone."

The Master said, "When the multitude hates a man, it is necessary to examine into the case. When the multitude likes a man, it is necessary to examine into the case."

The Master said, "To have faults and not to change them, this is really having faults." (rectification of names or pinyin, call a spade a spade).

The Master said, "When a man's knowledge is sufficient to him to attain, and his virtue not sufficient for him to hold, whatever he may have gained, he will lose again."

The Master said, "Virtue is more than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the path of virtue."

Teachings in "three," "four," "five," and "six"

Confucius said, "There are three friendships which are advantageous, and three which are injurious. Friendship with the upright; friendship with the sincere; and friendship with the persevering: these are advantageous. Friendship with the dubious; friendship with the two-faced, and friendship with the superficial: these are detrimental."

Confucius said, "There are three things men find enjoyment in which are advantageous, and three things they find enjoyment in which are injurious. To find enjoyment in the study of rituals; to find enjoyment in speaking the goodness of others; to find enjoyment in having worthy friends: these are advantageous. To find pleasure in extravagance; to find enjoyment in idleness; to find enjoyment just in excess: these are injurious."

Confucius said, "There are three errors to which the immature are liable. They may speak when they should not: this is called rashness. They may not speak when they should: this is called concealment. They may speak without observing Heaven: this is called blindness."

Confucius said, "There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth, when he is still physically able, he guards against lust. When he is strong and the physical powers are full of vigor, he guards against pettifoggery. When he is old, and his powers are decaying, he guards against greediness."

Confucius said, "There are three things of which the superior man stands in awe. He stands in awe of the order of Heaven. He stands in awe of wise men. He stands in awe of the words of sages. "The mean man does not know the order of Heaven, and consequently does not stand in awe of them. He is disrespectful to wise men. He makes fun of the words of sages."

Tsze-chang asked Confucius about perfect virtue. Confucius said, "To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue." He asked what they were, and was told, "Self-governance, generosity of soul, sincerity, nobleness, and kindness. If you are vigilant, you will not be treated with disrespect. If you are generous, you will win all. If you are sincere, people will repose trust in you. If you are noble, you will accomplish much. If you are kind, this will enable you to enjoy and provide services for others.

The Master said, "Yu, have you heard the six words to which are attached six becloudings?" Yu replied, "I have not." "Sit down, and I will tell them to you. "There is the love of being benevolent without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to a foolishness. There is the love of knowing without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to waste of your mind. There is the love of being sincere without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to a disregard of consequences. There is the love of straightforwardness without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to rudeness. There is the love of boldness without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to insubordination. There is the love of firmness without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to extravagance. None will succeed."

Tsze-chang asked, "What are meant by the four bad things?" The Master said, "To put the people to death without having instructed them; this is called cruelty. To require from them, suddenly, the full tale of work, without having given them warning; this is called oppression. To issue orders as if without urgency, at first, and, when the time comes, to insist on them with severity; this is called injustice. And, generally, in the giving pay or rewards to men, to do it in a stingy way; this is called acting like a party official."

Monday, October 14, 2013

fight this battle!


ok, so in our last reading of the gita we got a number of good questions. frankly the reading invites them. krishna is telling arjuna to fight the battle, kill his own (enemies are in this picture not even relevant) the reason he has to kill is that this is his duty (his milieu)  and this is the argument,  the wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead (...) these experiences are fleeting, they come and go ( 2, 11) one can imagine arjuna, who is not one to go without responding "yeah, but this is me, krishna, not a prototype." the impermanent has no reality, reality lies in the eternal. hmm, yeah, deep, but i feel my stomach twisting right now, isn't that real?).

gita's points worth revising:

fight this battle! (2, 18). what battle? this one is kind of easy: our life is our battle. i like the hegelian angle of struggle. there's no postponing it.

when you mind has overcome the confusion of duality (2, 52). this is the duck-rabbit of confusion. which side should i look at when confronting a problem? it depends. you call the shots. just don't fall for believing neither IS regardless of contexts! 

self satisfaction is the inveterate enemy of the wise (3, 39). am i allowed some satisfaction? satisfaction is important, but as it turns out, we're never satisfied.

let the atman rule the ego (3, 43). but how do i know it's the atman talking and not my own bad faith or a brainwashed idea of me?  being in the path is already knowing a little bit. the more one walks the more one knows. again, it's trial and error.

better to succeed in your own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another (3, 35). someone made the point you cannot realize someone's path, you have to make your own. we're all brahman but the path is individual. ah, but what about this one: 

at some point we got to the discussion of universal moral values. who is to say what's right? then the suggestion was that if each value is relative, there is little to talk about. "treat others as you'd like to be treated" is a better principle than "treat others as you feel they deserve given your whim" the former stipulates a sort of symmetry that points at balance, the second doesn't. but then, the relativist can say, yeah, but even your golden rule can be practiced by a none other than a masochist/sadist pair! then what? well, either you rule out masochists and sadists or you include them as a lesser of evils. better to have an imperfect balance than have none.

from this one, we talked about the idea of duty and whether it's better to have it instilled as behavior or to find it oneself. and i think it's not mutually exclusive. for example, aristotle's idea of arete (virtue) implies a degree of early "training," very close to yoga's idea of yama/niyama.

the idea of sacrifice is deep. we've been over the economy of yajna: you habitually you give to receive (where is the renunciation when you get something anyway?) well, some people get a sense of duty (dharma) and do it for its own sake independent of the fruits of the action (karma-phala).

one cannot escape the economy; even renouncing it gets you back with a desire. well, yes, but if one learns the economy and the paradox of balance, one is in a better position to renounce. that is to say, you know you're not really renouncing or, you know this particular act made you better at self-control. and this is important.  

same with moksha: salvation cannot get rid of its possibility of doom. if salvation was an apriori (karma) guaranteed process we wouldn't need the path of betterment (dharma). again, time plays the devil. time is the factor of surprise, the black swan. order or chaos? all paths lead to me (4,11)

gita's chapters 1-4 is like a cold shower for the mind.

death is inevitable for the living, birth is inevitable for the dead. (2, 27) what? samsara! time is a unpredictable wheel and we're caught in it. no fighting that anymore brings a sense of peace. 

what do you say?

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

final paper, 2nd step, follow my suggestions [for all classes due by the end of next week]



1- now that you've located your topic, it's time to find your "counter," i.e., the "argument against," which is so important in a philosophical discussion.

for example, for those of you exploring women equality, there is this "traditionalist" argument, which is a cultural argument about the role of women in traditional patriarchal societies. this discussion belongs in a topic called: gender role i.e., the traditional man/woman differentiation of roles, with men being in a more favorable social position: this is known as patriarchy.

you have to find which kind of argument you'd like to pursue. again, i think that the narrower your argument is, the better.

2- look for better sources. to do this you have to read different sources and sort out the good from the not-so-good. remember, sources are important.

3- if you are making claims, you should support it with facts. for example, if you say that lack of social opportunities is a cause of poverty, you should be prepared to back it up with data. to do that you should consult .org websites, newspaper & magazine articles, etc. these sources must be cited in your paper.

so, for the next assignment i'd like to have a page with an introduction stating your research topic plus the counterargument you will argue against. this is the time to incorporate my suggestions.

the assignment should look like this [whatever your topic is]. if you have problems stating your point, then try to reproduce verbatim whatever is in red below. it should look like this...

Phi 2010  Research Paper, 2nd Assignment
Doe, John
MWF 9am

"Making a case for better food from the better treatment of animals"

In this paper I will try to prove that animals being raised in factory farms in America deserve a better treatment. My argument is twofold, first, I will try to show the public and environmental health risks associated with unregulated factory farming, while stressing that animal cruelty is ethically wrong (this is just an example).

I will argue against a counter, which defends the idea of "intensive production as a way to cope with food prices and adequate nutrition for an increasing and poorer population."

My point will be that in spite of this reality, we as developed nation are posed with the challenge of providing food that is good, healthy and meet the ethical and ecological standards of the new century.

Bibliography: (expanded)

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

hard determinism ^ compatibilism

frontal lobe.

what exactly is determinism.

is matias reyes's case not proof for determinism 

compatibilism "man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills"// schopenhauer.

harry frankfurt's compatibilism

the boson particle explained


an interesting conference by dr. John Ellis explaining the higgs boson.

better yet, 9 year old tanishq abraham explains it (i want to adopt tanishq immediately!)

Do we feel nothingness?


Let's explore this idea of "nothingness" a bit, since it's such an important notion for the philosophy of the East.

First, Physics! A region of space is called a vacuum if it does not contain any matter, though it can contain physical fields. This is more a sort of ideal concept. It is practically impossible to construct a region of space that contains no matter or fields, since gravity cannot be blocked and all objects at a non-zero temperature radiate electromagnetically. But even if such a region existed, it could still not be referred to as "nothing", since it has properties and a measurable existence as part of the quantum-mechanical vacuum.

So, it seems we're dealing conceptual, possibilities!

For instance, Shunyata (emptiness), unlike "nothingness", is considered to be a state of mind in some forms of Buddhism (see Nirvana, mu, 无 and Bodhi). Achieving 'nothing' as a state of mind in this tradition allows one to be totally focused on a thought or activity at a level of intensity that they would not be able to achieve if they were consciously thinking. A classic example of this is an archer attempting to erase his mind and clear his thoughts in order to better focus on his shot.

In modern logic, the term "nothing" does not function as a noun, as there is no object that it refers to. However, there are dissenters that claim that our understanding of the world rests essentially on noticing absences and lacks as well as presences.

nobel prize for physics goes to...


the higgs boson, peter higgs and francois englert.

in the photo above higgs looks a bit old, but he used to be your age,


by the way, there's a center of theoretical physics just devoted to higgs' work @ the university of edinbugh.

do you know anything about the higgs boson particle?

Monday, October 7, 2013

Patanjali Sutra (complete)

Chapter 1 (On contemplations)


1.1. Now, instruction in Union.
1.2. Union is restraining the thought-streams natural to the mind.
1.3. Then the seer dwells in his own nature.
1.4. Otherwise he is of the same form as the thought-streams.
1.5. The thought-streams are five-fold, painful and not painful.
1.6. Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, fancy, sleep and memory.
1.7. Right knowledge is inference, tradition and genuine cognition.
1.8. Wrong knowledge is false, illusory, erroneous beliefs or notions.
1.9. Fancy is following after word-knowledge empty of substance.
1.10. Deep sleep is the modification of the mind which has for its substratum nothingness.
1.11. Memory is not allowing mental impressions to escape.
1.12. These thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment.
1.13. Practice is the effort to secure steadiness.
1.14. This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without interruption over a long period of time.
1.15. Desirelessness towards the seen and the unseen gives the consciousness of mastery.
1.16. This is signified by an indifference to the three attributes, due to knowledge of the Indweller. 1.17. Cognitive meditation is accompanied by reasoning, discrimination, bliss and the sense of 'I am.'
1.18. There is another meditation which is attained by the practice of alert mental suspension until only subtle impressions remain.
1.19. For those beings who are formless and for those beings who are merged in unitive consciousness, the world is the cause.
1.20. For others, clarity is preceded by faith, energy, memory and equal-minded contemplation.
1.21. Equal-minded contemplation is nearest to those whose desire is most ardent.
1.22. There is further distinction on account of the mild, moderate or intense means employed.
1.23. Or by surrender to God.
1.24. God is a particular yet universal in-dweller, untouched by afflictions, actions, impressions and their results.
1.25. In God, the seed of omniscience is unsurpassed.
1.26. Not being conditioned by time, God is the teacher of even the ancients.
1.27. God's voice is Om.
1.28. The repetition of Om should be made with an understanding of its meaning.
1.29. From that is gained introspection and also the disappearance of obstacles.
1.30. Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles.
1.31. Pain, despair, nervousness, and disordered inspiration and expiration are co-existent with these obstacles.
1.32. For the prevention of the obstacles, one truth should be practiced constantly.
1.33. By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure.
1.34. Optionally, mental equanimity may be gained by the even expulsion and retention of energy.
1.35. Or activity of the higher senses causes mental steadiness. 
1.36. Or the state of sorrowless Light.
1.37. Or the mind taking as an object of concentration those who are freed of compulsion.
1.38. Or depending on the knowledge of dreams and sleep.
1.39. Or by meditation as desired.
1.40. The mastery of one in Union extends from the finest atomic particle to the greatest infinity.
 1.41. When the agitations of the mind are under control, the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented. knower, act of knowing, or what is known.
1.42. The argumentative condition is the confused mixing of the word, its right meaning, and knowledge.
1.43. When the memory is purified and the mind shines forth as the object alone, it is called non-argumentative.
1.44. In this way the meditative and the ultra-meditative having the subtle for their objects are also described.
1.45. The province of the subtle terminates with pure matter that has no pattern or distinguishing mark.
1.46. These constitute seeded contemplations.
1.47. On attaining the purity of the ultra-meditative state there is the pure flow of spiritual consciousness.
1.48. Therein is the faculty of supreme wisdom.
1.49. The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars.
1.50. The habitual pattern of thought stands in the way of other impressions.
1.51. With the suppression of even that through the suspension of all modifications of the mind, contemplation without seed is attained.

Chapter 2 (On spiritual discipline)

2.1. Austerity, the study of sacred texts, and the dedication of action to God constitute the discipline of Mystic Union.
2.2. This discipline is practised for the purpose of acquiring fixity of mind on the Lord, free from all impurities and agitations, or on One's Own Reality, and for attenuating the afflictions.
2.3. The five afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and the desire to cling to life.
2.4. Ignorance is the breeding place for all the others whether they are dormant or attenuated, partially overcome or fully operative.
2.5. Ignorance is taking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, evil for good and non-self as self.
2.6. Egoism is the identification of the power that knows with the instruments of knowing.
2.7. Attachment is that magnetic pattern which clusters in pleasure and pulls one towards such experience.
2.8. Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience.
2.9. Flowing by its own energy, established even in the wise and in the foolish, is the unending desire for life.
2.10. These patterns when subtle may be removed by developing their contraries.
2.11. These active afflictions are to be destroyed by meditation.
2.12. The impressions of works have their roots in afflictions and arise as experience in the present and the future births.
2.13. When the root exists, its fruition is birth, life and experience.
2.14. They have pleasure or pain as their fruit, according as their cause be virtue or vice.
2.15. All is misery to the wise because of the pains of change, anxiety, and purificatory acts.
2.16. The grief which has not yet come may be avoided.
2.17. The cause of the avoidable is the superimposition of the external world onto the unseen world. 2.18. The experienced world consists of the elements and the senses in play. It is of the nature of cognition, activity and rest, and is for the purpose of experience and realization.
2.19. The stages of the attributes effecting the experienced world are the specialized and the unspecialized, the differentiated and the undifferentiated.
 2.20. The indweller is pure consciousness only, which though pure, sees through the mind and is identified by ego as being only the mind.
 2.21. The very existence of the seen is for the sake of the seer.
 2.22. Although Creation is discerned as not real for the one who has achieved the goal, it is yet real in that Creation remains the common experience to others.
 2.23. The association of the seer with Creation is for the distinct recognition of the objective world, as well as for the recognition of the distinct nature of the seer.
 2.24. The cause of the association is ignorance.
 2.25. Liberation of the seer is the result of the dissociation of the seer and the seen, with the disappearance of ignorance.
 2.26. The continuous practice of discrimination is the means of attaining liberation.
 2.27. Steady wisdom manifests in seven stages.
 2.28. On the destruction of impurity by the sustained practice of the limbs of Union, the light of knowledge reveals the faculty of discrimination.
 2.29. The eight limbs of Union are self-restraint in actions, fixed observance, posture, regulation of energy, mind-control in sense engagements, concentration, meditation, and realization. 
2.30. Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts.
2.31. These five willing abstentions are not limited by rank, place, time or circumstance and constitute the Great Vow.
 2.32. The fixed observances are cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study and persevering devotion to God.
 2.33. When improper thoughts disturb the mind, there should be constant pondering over the opposites.
 2.34. Improper thoughts and emotions such as those of violence- whether done, caused to be done, or even approved of- indeed, any thought originating in desire, anger or delusion, whether mild medium or intense- do all result in endless pain and misery. Overcome such distractions by pondering on the opposites.
 2.35. When one is confirmed in non-violence, hostility ceases in his presence.
 2.36. When one is firmly established in speaking truth, the fruits of action become subservient to him.
 2.37 All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty.
 2.38 When one is confirmed in celibacy, spiritual vigor is gained.
 2.39 When one is confirmed in non-possessiveness, the knowledge of the why and how of existence is attained.
 2.40 From purity follows a withdrawal from enchantment over one's own body as well as a cessation of desire for physical contact with others.
 2.41 As a result of contentment there is purity of mind, one-pointedness, control of the senses, and fitness for the vision of the self.
 2.42 Supreme happiness is gained via contentment.
 2.43 Through sanctification and the removal of impurities, there arise special powers in the body and senses.
2.44 By study comes communion with the Lord in the Form most admired.
2.45 Realization is experienced by making the Lord the motive of all actions.
2.46 The posture should be steady and comfortable.
2.47 In effortless relaxation, dwell mentally on the Endless with utter attention.
2.48 From that there is no disturbance from the dualities.
2.49 When that exists, control of incoming and outgoing energies is next.
2.50. It may be external, internal, or midway, regulated by time, place, or number, and of brief or long duration.
2.51. Energy-control which goes beyond the sphere of external and internal is the fourth level- the vital.
2.52. In this way, that which covers the light is destroyed.
2.53. Thus the mind becomes fit for concentration.
2.54. When the mind maintains awareness, yet does not mingle with the senses, nor the senses with sense impressions, then self-awareness blossoms.
2.55. In this way comes mastery over the senses.

Chapter 3 (On divine powers)


3.1. One-pointedness is steadfastness of the mind.
3.2. Unbroken continuation of that mental ability is meditation.
3.3. That same meditation when there is only consciousness of the object of meditation and not of the mind is realization.
3.4. The three appearing together are self-control.
3.5. By mastery comes wisdom.
3.6. The application of mastery is by stages.
3.7. The three are more efficacious than the restraints.
3.8. Even that is external to the seedless realization.
3.9. The significant aspect is the union of the mind with the moment of absorption, when the outgoing thought disappears and the absorptive experience appears.
3.10. From sublimation of this union comes the peaceful flow of unbroken unitive cognition.
3.11. The contemplative transformation of this is equal-mindedness, witnessing the rise and destruction of distraction as well as one-pointedness itself.
3.12. The mind becomes one-pointed when the subsiding and rising thought-waves are exactly similar.
3.13. In this state, it passes beyond the changes of inherent characteristics, properties and the conditional modifications of object or sensory recognition.
3.14. The object is that which preserves the latent characteristic, the rising characteristic or the yet-to-be-named characteristic that establishes one entity as specific.
3.15. The succession of these changes in that entity is the cause of its modification.
3.16. By self-control over these three-fold changes (of property, character and condition), knowledge of the past and the future arises.
3.17. The sound of a word, the idea behind the word, and the object the idea signfies are often taken as being one thing and may be mistaken for one another. By self-control over their distinctions, understanding of all languages of all creatures arises.
3.18. By self-control on the perception of mental impressions, knowledge of previous lives arises. 3.19. By self-control on any mark of a body, the wisdom of the mind activating that body arises.
3.20. By self-control on the form of a body, by suspending perceptibility and separating effulgence therefrom, there arises invisibility and inaudibilty.
3.21. Action is of two kinds, dormant and fruitful. By self-control on such action, one portends the time of death.
3.22. By performing self-control on friendliness, the strength to great joy arises.
3.23. By self-control over any kind of strength, such as that of the elephant, that very strength arises. 3.24. By self-control on the primal activator comes knowledge of the hidden, the subtle, and the distant.
3.25. By self-control on the Sun comes knowledge of spatial specificities.
3.26. By self-control on the Moon comes knowledge of the heavens.
3.27. By self-control on the Polestar arises knowledge of orbits.
3.28. By self-control on the navel arises knowledge of the constitution of the body. 
3.29. By self-control on the pit of the throat one subdues hunger and thirst.
3.30. By self-control on the tube within the chest one acquires absolute steadiness.
3.31. By self-control on the light in the head one envisions perfected beings.
3.32. There is knowledge of everything from intuition.
3.33. Self-control on the heart brings knowledge of the mental entity.
3.34. Experience arises due to the inability of discerning the attributes of vitality from the in-dweller, even though they are indeed distinct from one another. Self-control brings true knowledge of the in-dweller by itself.
3.35. This spontaneous enlightenment results in intuitional perception of hearing, touching, seeing and smelling.
3.36. To the outward turned mind, the sensory organs are perfections, but are obstacles to realization. 3.37. When the bonds of the mind caused by action have been loosened, one may enter the body of another by knowledge of how the nerve-currents function.
3.38. By self-control of the nerve-currents utilizing the life-breath, one may levitate, walk on water, swamps, thorns, or the like.
3.39. By self-control over the maintenance of breath, one may radiate light.
3.40. By self-control on the relation of the ear to the ether one gains distant hearing.
3.41. By self-control over the relation of the body to the ether, and maintaining at the same time the thought of the lightness of cotton, one is able to pass through space.
3.42. By self-control on the mind when it is separated from the body- the state known as the Great Transcorporeal- all coverings are removed from the Light.
3.43. Mastery over the elements arises when their gross and subtle forms,as well as their essential characteristics, and the inherent attributes and experiences they produce, is examined in self-control. 3.44. Thereby one may become as tiny as an atom as well as having many other abilities, such as perfection of the body, and non-resistence to duty.
3.45. Perfection of the body consists in beauty, grace, strength and adamantine hardness.
3.46. By self-control on the changes that the sense-organs endure when contacting objects, and on the power of the sense of identity, and of the influence of the attributes, and the experience all these produce- one masters the senses.
3.47. From that come swiftness of mind, independence of perception, and mastery over primoridal matter.
3.48. To one who recognizes the distinctive relation between vitality and in-dweller comes omnipotence and omniscience.
3.49. Even for the destruction of the seed of bondage by desirelessness there comes absolute independence.
3.50. When invited by invisible beings one should be neither flattered nor satisfied, for there is yet a possibility of ignorance rising up.
3.51. By self-control over single moments and their succession there is wisdom born of discrimination.
3.52. From that there is recognition of two similars when that difference cannot be distinguished by class, characteristic or position.
3.53. Intuition, which is the entire discriminative knowledge, relates to all objects at all times, and is without succession.
3.54. Liberation is attained when there is equal purity between vitality and the in-dweller.

Chapter 4 (On realizations)


4.1. Psychic powers arise by birth, drugs, incantations, purificatory acts or concentrated insight.
4.2. Transformation into another state is by the directed flow of creative nature.
4.3. Creative nature is not moved into action by any incidental cause, but by the removal of obstacles, as in the case of a farmer clearing his field of stones for irrigation.
4.4. Created minds arise from egoism alone.
4.5. There being difference of interest, one mind is the director of many minds.
4.6. Of these, the mind born of concentrated insight is free from the impressions.
4.7. The impressions of unitive cognition are neither good nor bad. In the case of the others, there are three kinds of impressions.
4.8. From them proceed the development of the tendencies which bring about the fruition of actions.
4.9. Because of the magnetic qualities of habitual mental patterns and memory, a relationship of cause and effect clings even though there may be a change of embodiment by class, space and time.
4.10. The desire to live is eternal, and the thought-clusters prompting a sense of identity are beginningless.
4.11. Being held together by cause and effect, substratum and object- the tendencies themselves disappear on the dissolution of these bases.
4.12. The past and the future exist in the object itself as form and expression, there being difference in the conditions of the properties.
4.13. Whether manifested or unmanifested they are of the nature of the attributes.
4.14. Things assume reality because of the unity maintained within that modification.
4.15. Even though the external object is the same, there is a difference of cognition in regard to the object because of the difference in mentality.
4.16. And if an object known only to a single mind were not cognized by that mind, would it then exist?
4.17. An object is known or not known by the mind, depending on whether or not the mind is colored by the object.
4.18. The mutations of awareness are always known on account of the changelessness of its Lord, the indweller.
4.19. Nor is the mind self-luminous, as it can be known.
4.20. It is not possible for the mind to be both the perceived and the perceiver simultaneously.
4.21. In the case of cognition of one mind by another, we would have to assume cognition of cognition, and there would be confusion of memories.
4.22. Consciousness appears to the mind itself as intellect when in that form in which it does not pass from place to place.
4.23. The mind is said to perceive when it reflects both the indweller (the knower) and the objects of perception (the known).
4.24. Though variegated by innumerable tendencies, the mind acts not for itself but for another, for the mind is of compound substance.
4.25. For one who sees the distinction, there is no further confusing of the mind with the self.
4.26 Then the awareness begins to discriminate, and gravitates towards liberation.
4.27. Distractions arise from habitual thought patterns when practice is intermittent.
4.28. The removal of the habitual thought patterns is similar to that of the afflictions already described.
4.29. To one who remains undistracted in even the highest intellection there comes the equal minded realization known as The Cloud of Virtue. This is a result of discriminative discernment.
4.30. From this there follows freedom from cause and effect and afflictions.
4.31. The infinity of knowledge available to such a mind freed of all obscuration and property makes the universe of sensory perception seem small.
4.32. Then the sequence of change in the three attributes comes to an end, for they have fulfilled their function.
4.33. The sequence of mutation occurs in every second, yet is comprehensible only at the end of a series.
4.34. When the attributes cease mutative association with awareness, they resolve into dormancy in Nature, and the indweller shines forth as pure consciousness. This is absolute freedom.
:::::::
4:48: To him who recognizes the distinction between consciousness and pure-objective-existence comes supremacy over all states of being ans omniscience.
4:50 When the deities invite, there should be no attachment and no smile of satisfaction, contact with the undesirable still possible. 

Thursday, October 3, 2013

do you keep up with your brain? (a good idea for a change in major)


we've been discussing the importance of the study of the brain.

1- neuroinformatics: with this model: 
a) the development of tools and databases for management and sharing of neuroscience data at all levels of analysis 
b) the development of tools for analyzing and modeling neuroscience data, 
c) the development of computational models of the nervous system and neural processes.

2- computational neuroscience (for those of you with an interest in CS), this is a future mother of a science combining the diverse fields of neurosciencecognitive science, and psychology with electrical engineeringcomputer sciencemathematics, physics. wow!

3- if you are interested in the medical angle of the neural sciences, there's neurology, which specializes in the disorders of the nervous system.


do you think watson passes the turing test?



isn't watson smart? 

here an opinion on watson's success by inventor & futurist, ray kurzweil.  

robots amongst us (for those of you who think robots cannot reboot themselves)


don't miss wired's latest issue robots are already replacing us (enough to drive heideggerian technophobics up the wall).

this is not in the future. they're already here!

therapist,
artist,
waiter,
musician,
cop,
comedian,
personal trainer,
waiter,
nurse,
teacher,

except "human." but who cares, when you can have cheap, available and politically risk-free, programmed labor?

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Yoga as pris de conscience

 Elizabeth Magill, Lower Lough, 2006.

(This post should go along our reading of the Patanjali Sutras). There are a few things I want to come back to. Keep in mind that Yoga is a methodology, a HOW TO manual for spirituality. This is not a set of formulas to find apriori reasons. It's more knowing-as-doing, doing-as-feeling.

To find out about Yoga's validity one has to try it.

There are two ways of looking at this: You don't accept a whole model but take some of its parts, or you reinterpret the parts. Let me address some of these concepts as I see them:

 Elizabeth Magill, Parlous Land, 2006.

1. Reincarnation is repetition. Is repetition the same throughout? The idea is that (R)eality is a ground of reverberating difference. Repetition is not the same but rather a renewal of the different. We never wake up to the same morning!

2. Purification is pris de conscience! (i.e., taking charge). As in quantum physics where the observation alters the result of the experiment, purification takes one's disturbing one's -ongoing- movie. 

 Jeff Wall, After Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, 1999.

We live at a par of our own unfolding. As the movie plays, there is a possibility to see it -AS IF- we were outside it. This position of "being-outside" as "being-inside" means that you can always -even if arduously-- interact with "yourself." There are parts of the movie you don't like and you try to "change" them as the movie plays. This is what the yogis call niyama.

We have two options: (a) like so many people, we just let the movie play (doing nothing, sometimes we're too "absorbed" by our own role in the movie) or (b) we choose to possibly change aspects of our own story as it unfolds.  

3. Attachment is as difficult as it is obvious. We are always amidst a rajasic vortex of forces. We're matter, only in a high state of complexity. And matter craves matter. Yet, MIND being an emergent property of matter, can sort-of -and briefly- detach itself from matter. This is the difference between sattvas and tamas.

Elizabeth Magill, Oncoming, 2006. 

4. Attainments. Now comes the big one: What is samadhi? Liberation, riding with the wind. Finding oneself (being-one-with- ______). Of course, that is too general to make sense. What's key here is that finding oneself presents us with a goal. Pursuing the goal is a way to do it. The journey!

We must not forget Patanjali's caveat about samadhi which is a point he shares with Nietzsche's own idea of rapture: ... the path to one's own heaven always leads through the voluptuousness of one's own hell.

This is why Patanjali is so careful about attachments. If the voyage into the horizon of the infinite fills us with a "thrill," this is because something is glimpsed in samadhi which is in excess of the human, something that is "too much." A voyage into the eye of the maelstrom: Nobody can do it for you.

5. Dhyana invites a unique question: Why not thinking about non-thinking?

Monday, September 30, 2013

pink slime in your food


you like pink slime?
a filler produced by treating finely ground beef scraps with ammonia hydroxide to kill pathogens. Beef Products Inc. last week temporarily suspended production at three plants because of consumer concerns. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said March 28 that the product, referred to in the industry as lean, finely textured beef, is safe to eat.
who uses that? McDonalds! 

check the Jamie Oliver's video (scroll down to watch it).

kareem abdul-jabaar's philosophy


pretty good philosophical advice for all young guys. 

Friday, September 27, 2013

thank me for losing paradise (post for comment)

Two excesses: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.- Pascal, Pensées.

The title of my post has a rebellious Adam saying those very words to his wife Eve after a long day or labor in the field, outside the Garden of Eden. He realizes that Paradise, at the price of ignorance, was not worth having. If the story is plausible, Adam is the first Yogi.
I get the impression that you think these ideas we're discussing are "utopic." Yet, there is no imperative here to bring back a paradise to earth. Why? Because reality is a duck-rabbit proposition. Tough, deceiving, at times sublime, inevitable, i.e., paradoxical? What Yoga seeks is a method for personal development and community enlightenment. A yogi understands that he cannot build a "world" of like-minded yogis, just as we cannot impose a paradise of like-minded proletarians. Paradise is another form of self-induced Alzheimer!

Thus, this closing of 3rd Section of the Sutras:
When the presiding-deities invite, there should be no attachment and no smile of satisfaction, contact with undesirable being again possible (III, 50).
Via ahimsa, Yoga is amenable to deep ecology and the plight for justice and equality, provided by asteya for all of sentient beings. of course we must include non-human animals. it makes perfect sense!
Let’s get into the enstasis part. We are trying to give the Sutras a different spin: Yama is now a techné aimed at perfecting the self. "Reincarnation" becomes a metaphor for the never ending process of identity renewal. Meditation means seeking worthwhile thoughts as a mean to achieve niyama, which depends of yamaAsana is comportment, a way of paying attention to my body (yes, the body IS important) while simultaneously being aware of other bodies, something not unlike the idea of an athlete in the West (a healthy body + a clean mind built through the discipline of the sport). I surmise that athletes have an x-tra sense of peoples’ bodies that neophytes simply lack (it'd be nice to have LeBron defending this point).
With dharana and dhyana we engage in a discussion about the form vs. content of meditation. When it comes to dharana, yoga practice exhibits a perplexing degree of fetishism. It seems that for the mind to get deeper into itself it needs to transcend itself (by purging itself). And so, dharana is an anteroom to dhyana.
Homelessness: Because of the very structure of pakriti and purusha, we are ontologically homeless. This idea resonates in Freudian psychoanalytic theory (Spaltung), where the Self is divided, and in Existentialism, where Being = Nothingness.
Why can one not be God? -asks the disciple.
You are, -says the master. -But you have to find out by yourself.-- Swami Vivekananda.
Coming back to Martin example of the moon being reflected on the lake. Some level of aesthetic abeyance can make one agree with the Romantic poet contemplating Nature's beauty and thinking “I could very well die now,” (which obviously doesn’t happen in all lakes at all times). This lucky teeny mini-samadhi is sudden, ephemeral, accidental and unregulated (Yoga aims at regulating these samadhis). Yet, it makes us aware that we’re capable of achieving high-quality awareness (the idea being that one can bring it forth through discipline and effort). Does it make sense to investigate this further?

Let's bring the point home. One may feel materially lucky for having and enjoying what lots of people in this world can only dream of having (i.e., driving a car, eating a nice meal, going to school and having these cool conversations about philosophy, etc), so that one may feel responsible for that demand of the invisible other(“invisible” in the sense that we avoid their gaze and pass them in silence). It makes me think of the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas: In his book Totality and Infinity, he talks about “le rapport sans rapport,” (a demand that sometimes is quite heavy to bear and may go unanswered). Not unlike Jesus’s imperative on the Sermon of the Mount: “You shall love your enemy”. Now, what’s that?
Michaelangelo Pistoletto, Venus of the Rags, (1974).
Some of you may be thinking that all this Yoga stuff is a sham. And I could never prove to you it’s not. What I can do is plead with Pascal: you will lose nothing by trying it
(I'm closing this post next Wednesday at 11pm)

Thursday, September 26, 2013

problematizing anthropocentrism

we are humans. we think like humans. but that doesn't mean we shouldn't problematize our thinking as. the problem is not thinking as humans, that's what we are. rather the problem is to be blind to subterranean ideologies. the "centric" in anthropocentric is the exclusiveness of the "human" species, being the top of the ladder, being the best evolved, etc, etc.

what is the negotiation between human & non-human?

1- from the outside: in jainism (or yoga) all is ONE. you don't see the ant as non-human but as ONE.
2- from the inside: anthropomorphic intentionality (an empathy business), whereby I see the ant as me-being-an-ant.

so, anthropomorphism can actually help de-centering. on the other hand it's naive to suppose we can actually become centered-less (this thought doesn't come from anthropocentrism), it comes from a critical stance to blind-spot values.

blind spots are actually closet "moments" where we pretend to ourselves be outside it.