joedirt said:
Just read an interesting Essay from Dec 2012 in the Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research. It pertains to parts of the discussion so I figured I'd post it to see what others think.
This is a PDF and the link will automatically download. just an fyi
Peace
Thanks for the link! Hey, I can't seem to find the "like" button on this forum. So, how come we don't have one, like Facebook or Mycotopia does? I like a lot of what I read on this site (while conversely, some of it makes want to pull my hair out).
And I wholly agree with you,
olympus mon, Deepak does more to discredit the cause for a unification between the scientific community and the spiritual community, than he does to help to conjoin them. Still, I feel his heart is in the right place, even if his brain is undergoing some deep angst, that leaves him unable to behave sanely in public.
I believe it is imperative that he be seen for who he is, with due compassion. He is a medical doctor with a seeming, passion for the esoteric. He is neither a quantum physicist nor an advanced spiritual adept in terms of detachment or equanimity, so his generalizations do little to clear away any dichotomy, causing nothing but friction with such alternate perspectives. He is an entertainer, I suppose, and I could personally do just fine without his act (or his literary efforts). Life is too short for kindergarten metaphysics that have little to no effect in cultivating a peaceful, centered state of mind. :!:
An objective look into "Vedic Sciences", as they were called 3000+ year ago, does shed some interesting light upon some of the parallels with contemporary quantum physics. Hey, I said the V-word & the S-word in one phrase and lightning didn't actually strike me dead! Knowledge itself, be it a procedurally-deduced hypothesis or a Gnostic epiphany, covers an incredible expanse of potential understanding, both quantifiable and mystical... and we have just scratched the very surface of what is existent, both outside and inside of ourselves.
Seen through the proper perceptual lens, the Indian Upanishads and Advaitan Vedanta touch upon many ideas whereby we might collectively reach some reasonable consensus betwixt the scientific model of the universe, as we know it and the religious model, which we instinctively intuit. As does a deep study of Chinese Taoism, when viewed from a sympathetic angle. After all, Lao Tzu implied such quantum dynamics, which we can now observe in String Theory, over 2500 years ago. Though his method at arriving at this profound observation differed dramatically and was not the product of a technologically induced procedure. (Not to go all Deepak Chopra on y'all.)
But that debate was a circus act gone badly awry. The fellows in suits n' ties wouldn't release their cherished and frankly, adolescent dismissal, of the Jude-Christian-Islamic God of yore. To his credit, Deepak was attempting to shift humanity's focus on the outdated and rather primitive idea of anthropomorphic deification, towards something more cosmic and immanently interrelated with everything else, within the paradox of existence/non-existence. His gigantic ego just kept getting in his own way. Not very "spiritual". :thumb_dow
This is the 21st century and IMO, any progressive concept God or any belief system about an Omnipotent Being, itself immanently inherent within everything, ought to be understood as universal. Something greater than the individual parts of the whole of it's all-encompassing, field of singularity in being. Certainly not the older model of the Divine Intelligence. I ask if this is because ONLY the older model can be so easily negated and dismissed, by the typical left-brained arguments, those proposed by logicians and procedural pragmatists?
So, as contemporary earth entities, we are behooved to look beyond a large percentage of antiquated ideas and/or contexts of theology. My God is the essence of consciousness and awareness. It belongs to everyone and everything, as it
IS everyone and everything. It is both what is seen and procedurally quantifiable within these material realms... and simultaneously, not anything that can possibly be labeled as "a thing" or even an infinite number or group of things, all combined together. It has a wee bit of
THE VOID within it's limitless nature.
This idea of what is Sacred or Holy, by necessity, ought to be contemplated upon as wholly interconnected with all that exists (and even that which remains eternally unknowable to our limited degree of awareness).
And while I am certainly uneducated in quantum physics, which may well be one of the understatements of the century... I feel that whatever that
no-thing was, which originally initiated quantum fluctuations, it still is initiating them now... and we are also
IT. To me, this is what is Divine. Is not the old God dead to free thinkers? I assumed this was common knowledge. Although honestly, I missed the funeral, so I am just going by eye witness accounts of the event.
Paradoxically, we are apparently some direct or indirect expression of this
"no-thing", however made manifest as
"a thing", for some reason that cannot be fully grasped by our consciousness as long as we are still an isolated thing observing other things.
I believe that this is the unseen essence and interlocking unity between the isolated aspect of the One. A multidimensional, energetic synonym of sorts. An inter-meshing, existential Grid, each aspect refracting to one another in some kind of seamless symmetry.
My apologies, everyone, as I am prone to digression.
Sigh... silly Deepak blew his chance at steering the discussion into a mature conversation about said interrelationships, by polarizing himself so foolishly. That, and it's quite transparent that he is a poor debater, with even worst manners than a dubious ruffian, found loitering on any inner city street corner. I suspect he practices a non-transformative methodology of meditation?
I also agree with both of you, reason and intuition are not totally separate aspects of human cognition, they are two sides of the same spinning coin. Perhaps when we find the right balance, we will step into the next paradigm in human consciousness? I am betting on it... win lose or draw. Blackjack anyone? :twisted:
