Brazilian Integral Sangha

Shentong and Prasangika Madhyamaka

2007-05-03T10:43:00.000-03:00

The vision behind the teachings of my lama is Shentong. He says that, in fact, there's no difference between Shentong and Prasangika Madhyamaka, the insuperable wisdom. About this (equating Shentong to Yogacara) Dudjom Rinpoche says:

"The Madhyamaka of the Prasangika and the Svatantrika is the coarse, outer Madhyamaka. It should indeed be expressed by those who profess well-informed intelligence during debates with extremist outsiders, during the composition of great treatises, and while establishing texts which concern supreme reasoning. However, when the subtle, inner Madhyamaka is experientially cultivated, one should meditate on the nature of Yogacara-Madhyamaka."

Johan Galtung and Ela Gandhi at Big Picture TV

2006-09-26T08:47:00.000-03:00

Big Picture TV is an online media channel that streams free video clips of global leaders in sustainability. Browse a growing archive of internationally renowned names including scientists, environmentalists, politicians, journalists, academics and activists.

Johan Galtung is the founder and Director of Transcend, an organization promoting conflict resolution by non-violent means. Professor Galtung is considered a pioneer in peace studies. For over four decades he mediated conflicts in Israel and Palestine, China and Tibet, Peru, Sri Lanka and Burma amongst others. He is the author of the United Nations' manual for peace workers and he continues to advise UN agencies on peace issues. He is Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Hawaii and at other centres of learning.

Galtung’s List
Resolving Conflict – A Move Towards Regionalism
Resolving Conflict - Lessons Learned
Peace Journalism

Ela Gandhi is the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi. A world renowned human rights activist in her own right, she is a former member of South Africa's Parliament and is currently Editor of Satyagraha magazine. She is Secretary of the Gandhi Development Trust and is the sister of Arun Gandhi, President of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.

Gandhi – Lessons from a Legend
Religious Pluralism

Dharma Podcast

2006-06-19T09:25:00.000-03:00

Joining the podcasting wave, here is a nice site with some dharma talks.

Enjoy!

If I Die Young - Alberto Caeiro

2006-04-20T16:49:00.001-03:00

IF I DIE YOUNG,
Without ever publishing a book,
Without seeing how my poems look in print,
If someone wants to agitate for my cause,
I hope they do not agitate.
If it happens like that, it happens right.

Even if my poems are never printed,
They have their beauty in them, if they are beautiful.
But they can't be beautiful and stay unprinted,
Because the roots may be under the earth
But flowers bloom in the air free and easy to see.
It has to be that way. Nothing can prevent it.

If I die very young, hear this:
I was never anything but a kid playing.
I was a heathen like the sun and the water,
Of that universal religion wich only men doesn't have.
I was happy because I did not ask for anything at all,
Or tried to find anything,
And I didn't think there was any more explanation
Than that the word explanation having no meaning at all.

I didn't want anything but to be in the sun or in the rain -
In the sun when there was sun
And in the rain when it was raining
(And never the opposite),
Feel heat and cold and wind,
And going no farther than that.

One time I fell in love, I thought they would love me,
But I was not loved.
I was not loved for one main reason -
I did not have to be.

I consoled myself by going back to the sun and rain,
And sitting at the door of my hous again.
The fields are not as green for people in love
As for those who are not.
To feel is to be distracted.

Alberto Caeiro

God Is Dead: What Next?

2006-04-05T16:46:00.000-03:00

"We have abolished the real world: what world is left? The apparent world perhaps? ... But no! With the real world we have also abolished the apparent world!" - Nietzsche

"According to Nietzsche's view of Buddhism, the Buddha taught his contemporaries how to face up to the stark, cold, meaninglessness of existence, face up to the fact that in this universe human existence has no special place, and remain aloof, untroubled and cheerful." - Robert G. Morrison*

I bet my shoes that this "spiritual existencialism" added to some lighthearted sense of humor might save the world someday, just like Superman! Zaratustra would be humanly, too humanly happy! ;-)

*Robert G. Morrison (Dharmachari Sagaramati) is the author of Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities, Oxford University Press, 1997

Live With An Open Heart Even If It Hurts

2006-02-26T19:49:00.000-03:00

"Closing down in the midst of pain is a denial of a man’s true nature. A superior man is free in feeling and action, even amidst great pain and hurt. If necessary, a man should lie with a hurting heart rather than a closed one. He should learn to stay in the wound of pain and act with spontaneous skill and love even from that place.

Imagine failing at a major project, lying to your woman and getting caught, or overhearing her joke about your shortcomings in bed. How do you react with your body, breath and eyes? Notice if you react to a person or situation that hurts you by withdrawing, hiding or closing in on yourself. Notice if there are times when you find it difficult to look into someone’s eyes, or times you’re your chest and solar plexus become tense and contracted. These are signs of an unskillful reaction to hurt. Contracted and closed in on yourself, you are unable to act. You are trapped in your own self-protective tension, no longer a free man.

The superior man practices opening during these times of automatic closure. Open the front of your body so your chest and solar plexus are not tense. Sit or stand up straight and full, opening the front of your body, softening your chest and belly, wide and free. Breathe down through your chest and solar plexus, deep into your belly. Look directly into the eyes of whomever you are with, feeling your own pain as well as feeling the other person. Only when the front of your body is relaxed and opened, your breathe full and deep, and your gaze unguarded and directly connected with another person’s eyes, can your fullest intelligence manifest spontaneously in the situation. To act as a superior man, a samurai of relationship, you must feel the entire situation with your whole body. A closed body is unable to sense subtle cues and signals, and therefore unable to act with mastery in the situation."

From The Way of the Superior Man, by David Deida.

Feel the love generation!

2006-02-16T12:59:00.000-02:00

As a music addicted (and a world-jazz-rock-guitar-player-wannabe) I would have a lot to talk about music. And I was just thinking about posting something on it when I listened to a radio hit called "Love Generation" by Gary Pine and Bob Sinclar , whom I`ve never heard before.

So, here I am, forgetting for a while some of my heroes like Joe Pass, Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Dylan, Egberto Gismonti, Miles, etc, to wonder about this love generation thing! Well, well, well, the fact is that I just loved it!

I think there is something simply beautiful in this kind of music, something captivating and inspiring. Maybe because everybody still dreams in secret about better days to come, about some promised land full of beauty so far across the sea, that paradise we leave in some very distant past, just like Bob Marley used to sing a lot. Sometimes these simple songs seem to catch us like a trap for this "lost paradise neurosis". At that moment we could even close our eyes, smile beautifully, sing together and also eventually drop a little tear ;-)

Love Generation
Bob Sinclair/Gary Pine

Why must our children play in the streets
Broken hearts and faded dreams
Listen up to everyone that you meet
Don't you worry, it could be so sweet
Just look to the rainbow you will see,
The sun will shine till eternity
I've got so much love in my heart
No one can tear it apart

Feel the love generation
Come on, come on, come on
Feel the love generation
Don't worry about a thing, gonna be all right

It's all love you know, it's all love from I and I to everyone
Don't you worry, we got the love yeah
There's no need to cry yeah
Don't you worry, we got the love yeah
Gotta live that love, you know what I'm talking about
Don't get hooked up on what you see cause the greatest thing is spirituality
Share that love, share that love, share that hope, share them dreams

Feel the love generation
Come on, come on, come on
Feel the love generation
Don't worry about a thing, gonna be all right

"Have a good time in your life until we meet again!" ;-)

Don't Vacillate

2006-02-05T21:02:00.000-02:00

"You should not vacillate in your enthusiasm for practice. If you sometimes practice and sometimes do not, that will not give birth to certainty in the dharma. Therefore, don't think too much. Just concentrate one-pointedly on mind training."

Whichever of the Two Occurs, Be Patient

2006-02-01T10:40:00.000-02:00

"If you become utterly destitute and are suffering greatly, consider your previous karma. Without being resentful or depressed, take up all the sufferings and evil of others and work hard at ways to clear away evil actions and obscurations. If you find yourself very happy and comfortable, surrounded by great wealth and servants, don't succumb to carelessness or indifference. Use the wealth for virtuous projects, use your power constructively, and pray for all sentient beings to have the same comfort and happiness. In short, whichever occurs, happiness or suffering, be patient."

From The Great Path of Awakening: An Easily Accessible Introduction for Ordinary People by Jamgon Kongtrul, translated by Ken McLeod. Copyright 1993 by Ken McLeod. Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.

More...

David Deida - The Way of the Superior Man

2006-01-15T22:41:00.000-02:00

"Most men make the error of thinking that one day it will be done. They think, “If I can work enough, then one day I could rest.” Or, “One day my woman will understand something and then she will stop complain- ing.” Or, “I’m only doing this now so that one day I can do what I really want with my life.” The masculine error is to think that eventually things will be different in some fundamental way. They won’t. It never ends. As long as life continues, the creative challenge is to tussle, play, and make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift."

--David Deida

Zaadz

2005-12-21T22:35:00.000-02:00

Let's see what us wilberian assholes can do... I've created my Zaadz profile.

The Dalai Lama at Stanford

2005-11-23T13:24:00.000-02:00

The Dalai Lama has visited the Stanford University on last November 4 and 5. The notable events he was involved included a talk on meditation, a conversation on nonviolent conflict resolution and an academic conference. The videos of his talks are online in the live webcast arquive available in the site.

I watched the videos, and it was the first time I saw the Dalai Lama talking. I must say that his kind ways actually impressed me very positively. His humorous mood, his simplicity on serious matters, attention to details, his ability to communicate with simpathy and honesty, all that turned me into a new fan of His Holiness.

That seems to be the kind of posture urgently needed in our relations in the world.

See by yourself. ;)

My Integral Transformative Practice

2005-11-12T22:15:00.000-02:00

Now they're calling it Integral Life Practice. Here is what I've managed to do so far:

Body (gross-physical): weight lifting (1h30, 4 times a week), protein and carb based diet.
Body (subtle-emotional-sexual-pranic): none. I think good sex counts, right? ;-)
Mind: reading, writing and moderating on-line discussion groups about Ken Wilber and related subjects.
Soul: none.
Spirit: buddhist meditation (20 minutes everyday) oriented by Lama Padma Samten, who focus on the Heart Sutra, Nagarjuna's Prasangika Madhyamaka and on the inseparability of emptiness and luminosity.
Community: None, except that I'm helping a buddhist center with their website, and also transcripting audio teachings for them.
Nature: None.
Arts: I play the drums everyday.

That's it. You see that my main focus right now is at the lowest level: physical body. It's 1h30 to weight lifting and only 20 minutes to formal meditation. Now, that's highly spiritual, huh?

Nagarjuna's Verses of the Center

2005-11-11T15:38:00.000-02:00

Here's a fine document with the Nagarjuna's classic Mulamadhyamakakarika translated from the tibetan text by Stephen Batchelor.

"Mulamadhyamakakarika, or Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, is a key text by Nagarjuna, one of the most important Buddhist philosophers. It now stands at the centre of modern philosophical analysis of the Madhyamaka philosophy, which is rapidly proliferating to match the rich and varied commentarial tradition that the text has accumulated over the centuries since its composition (most likely in the 2nd century)."

You can find some more info about the text at Wikipedia.

The Great Synthesis of Pietro Ubaldi

2005-11-01T13:08:00.000-02:00

Pietro Ubaldi, who did consider himself a christian thinker, has authored 24 books about his insights on philosophy, ethics, religion, society, evolution, sciences and many more related topics. His most significant publication is The Great Synthesis, first edited in 1937. This book can without doubt come to show us instigating perceptions on life and maybe even touch some cherished paradigms with its beautiful and sofisticated argument. "It is admirable the force of the language and the vastness of the subjects covered there", said Einstein.

Here's a little excerpt from the chapter titled "Psychism and Biological Decay":

"The past never dies; it always rises again indestructible. All spiritual conquests remain in the world as a real and active force, as a basis for new impulses, as an eternal witness and measuring index of the evolution accomplished. In this wise, age in the individual will not be decadence if man learns to live again by continually being reborn in spirit. Fatigue and old age are normal moments in the metabolism of life, where biological maturation reveals itself without any wearing and substantial dynamic deterioration.
Only thus is it possible to understand the phenomenon by means of which life produces consciousness; our having explained the mechanism for instinct formation and experience stratification had not been enough. Biological decay takes an integral part in the evolutional phenomenon, and exists as a condition for the psychism’s genetic process. Just as dynamic evolution imposes a process of energy decay, so biological evolution implies a downgrading process in the phenomenon of life. In these phenomena, the same principle actuates exhausting the original impulse, a decrease in the kinetic qualities of the sensitive potential of forms occurs. In this sense, the evolutional process means a progressively downgrading potentiality. The profound reason for these phenomena lies in the nature of the evolutional transformism. The same progressive kinetic waning from phase energy to life, as from that of life to spirit, is nothing more than a constant and substantial characteristic of the evolutional phenomenon. This is because evolution, reduced to its fundamental substance, is movement, that is, a process of kinetic decentralization, a kinetic principle expanding from center to periphery, an actuation through which an impulse becomes exhausted, offspring of preceding and involutionally inverted impulses that had been kinetically concentrated and dynamically condensed, offspring of the Substance’s potential concentration, to which now counterpoises an inverse ascensional process." - Pietro Ubaldi | The Great Synthesis.

The entire book can be downloaded here.
See the (italian) official site here.

Meister Eckhart: God abides in the creatures

2005-10-20T14:55:00.000-02:00

Two passages from Eckhart, Die deutschen Werke, ed. J. Quint,Stuttgart-Berlin 1936- (translated by Ellopos):

"All creatures are a pure nothing. I don't say they are insignificant or a something: they are absolute nothing. Whatever hasn't essence does not exist. No creature has essence, because the essence of all is in the presence of God. If God withdrew from the creatures for just one moment, they would disappear to nothing." (Speech 4, DW I, pp. 69-70).

"All creatures are words of God. What my mouth says and reveals about God, the same is becoming by the existence of a stone, and man understands the work better than words." (Speech 53, DW II, p. 535)

Gandhi's Talisman

2005-10-14T16:51:00.000-03:00

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away." - M.K Gandhi

[This is one of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948. - Source: Mahatma Gandhi (Last Phase, Vol. II - 1958, P. 65)]

See more quotations by M.K Gandhi here.

AudioDharma

2005-10-10T13:05:00.000-03:00

"This site is an archive of Dharma talks given by Gil Fronsdal and various guest speakers at the Insight Meditation Center since 2000. Each talk illuminates aspects of the Buddha's teachings. (...)

The links will take you to talks by individual speakers, or you may search for talks on a particular topic. (...)

These talks are freely available for download or to listen to in streaming audio. (...)"

The agnostic Buddhism of Stephen Batchelor

2005-10-10T12:39:00.000-03:00

Here is a nice article about Stephen Batchelor and his aproach to buddhism.

"The current study examines the agnostic Buddhism of contemporary scholar and practitioner Stephen Batchelor. The main question under examination is whether the essence of Buddhism is undermined when interpreted through Batchelor’s agnostic and “belief-free” lens. In an attempt to answer this question, Batchelor’s main philosophical texts – Alone With Others, The Faith to Doubt, and Buddhism Without Beliefs – are analysed, as are three critiques of his work written by Bhikkhu Punnadhammo, Bhikkhu Bodhi, and Sangharakshita. It is concluded that while Batchelor is discarding many of the conventional trappings of Buddhism, he is not placing its integrity at risk."

Some talks by Batchelor can be found at audiodharma.

Being skeptic on science

2005-09-21T10:24:00.000-03:00

"(...) if I am right, what they meant by a science, was the total principal industry of a social group, whose whole lives, or many years of them, are consecrated to inquiries to which they are so devoted as to be drawn to every person who is pursuing similar inquiries, and these inquiries conducted according to the best methods so far found out, to which they were trained and for the prosecution of which every [one] of them possessed special advantages, their different inquiries being so nearly of the same nature that they thoroughly understood one another’s difficulties and merits, and could after a brief preparation have generally each one have taken up and carried on the other’s work, although probably not with quite his success.
It follows that the limits of a science are those of a social group (...)"

- Charles S. Peirce

See more at The Commens Dictionary of Peirce's Terms

Buddha's Microscope

2005-09-20T13:31:00.000-03:00

"Just as Galileo refined and used the telescope to examine celestial phenomena and van Leeuwenhoek refined and used the microscope to examine minute organisms, so did Buddha refine and use focused, balanced attention as the instrument for examining mental phenomena." - Alan Wallace

Galileo and van Leeuwenhoek may were not totally right in all the matters related to investigation of science and truth (if there is such thing). Maybe Buddha wasn't right too. Their hypothesis and assumptions are equally there to be verified, tested and used in its particular ways. But, supposing that they were total or partially mistaken, this fact itself doesn't mean they are meritless or less authentic. Their intentions seems to be actually genuine, and I'm convinced that it would be enough for the turn. As said the Amen: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!*

What do you think? ;)

[*In Revelation 3:14, Jesus calls himself, "the Amen, the faithful and true witness."]

"...live the details of your life."

2005-09-19T11:22:00.000-03:00

"Know eternity. Do whatever it takes. And from this depth of being, live the details of your life."

--From The Way of the Superior Man, a book by David Deida.

A Tribute to Francisco Varela

2005-09-08T09:23:00.000-03:00

It's a fine site with great content: talks on audio and video about autopoiesis, enaction, cognition, neurosciences, neurophenomenology, consciousness, practice, and stuff like that.

See more about Francisco Varela and also about the other conferences in the Complexity Digest Virtual Conference Network.

Wilber on past lives

2005-09-02T11:04:00.000-03:00

Here is an excerpt from DEATH, REBIRTH AND MEDITATION.

"Of course, the fact that many people believe something does not make it true. And it is very difficult to support the idea of reincarnation by appealing to "evidence" in the form of alleged past-life memories, cause in most cases these can be shown to be only a revival of subconscious memory trace from this life.

Yet this problem is not as serious as it might at first appear, because the doctrine of reincarnation, as used by the great mystical traditions, is a very specific notion: It does not mean that the mind travels through successive lives and therefore that under special conditions -- for example, hypnosis -- the mind can recall all of its past lives. On the contrary, it is the soul, not the mind, that transmigrates. Hence, the fact that reincarnation cannot be proven by appeal to memories of past lives is exactly what we should expect: Specific memories, ideas, knowledge, and so on, belong to the mind and do not generally transmigrate. All of that is usually left behind, with the body, at death. (Perhaps a few specific memories can sneak through every now and then, as the cases recorded by Professor Ian Stevenson and others suggest, but these would be the exception rather than the rule.) What transmigrates is the soul, and the soul is not a set of memories or ideas or beliefs.

Rather, according to most branches of the perennial philosophy, the soul has two basic defining characteristics: First, it is the repository of it's "virtue" (or lack thereof) -- that is, of one's karma, both good and bad; second, it is one's "strength" of awareness, or one's capacity to "witness" the phenomenal world without attachment or aversion. This second capacity is also known as "wisdom." The accumulation of these two -- virtue and wisdom -- constitutes the soul, which is the only thing that transmigrates. So, when people claim to be "remembering" a past life -- where they lived, what they did for a living, and so on -- they are probably not, according to any major religion or branch of the perennial philosophy, remembering any actual past lives. Only Buddhas (or tulkus), it is said, can usually remember past lives -- the major exception to the rule. Even the Dalai Lama has said he cannot remember his past lives, which should perhaps serve as a reminder to those who think they can."

WILBER, Ken (1990) "Death, Rebirth and Meditation". In: The Collected Works of Ken Wilber, Vol 4.

The central point of Wilber-5

2005-08-30T18:24:00.000-03:00

"In other words, there is no real space that is not always already a space-arising-as-a-perspective; therefore we cannot say that occasions (or holons or beings) come into existence and then see each other, because the "seeing each other" and the "existence" cannot be asserted apart from one another. To say that the quadrants arise simultaneously is to say that ontological dimensions and epistemological perspectives are one and the same thing, which is why we often call them dimension-perspectives.

This does not mean "to be is to be perceived," for that implies there is being per se that can be perceived; nor is this to say that perception creates being, for that implies that perception itself exists apart from something perceived. This is rather to say that being and knowing are the same event within the set of perspectives arising as the event. The idea that being and knowing (or existing and prehending) are somehow different things arises only because we shift from one perspective-occasion to the other without realizing what we are doing. There is simply no perception that is not also a perspective, and therefore no appearance of being that exists other than as a phenomenal perspective. (If you are starting to get the sense that the phenomenal or manifest world is an infinite hall of mirrors, that is indeed the suggestion. Samsara is built of perspectives, not perceptions.)" —Ken Wilber

Alberto Caeiro

2005-08-24T08:27:00.000-03:00

Fernando Pessoa, assigning as Alberto Caeiro, makes a kind of "philosophic poetry" that remains a pure and naked vision of reality, a non-sick looking on nature, things, people and happenings. Some say he is an anti-philosophical type, an anti-romantic, anti-methaphysical, even anti-poet! He has been called a materialist too, a pagan or the "paganism itself".

There are some interesting similarities between that singular knowledge and Wittgenstein's thinkings on some matters, and, as strange as it can possibly look, the poems sometimes sounds like the zen and the prajna experience.

I'm with the folks who think Caeiro simply "is".
(As things, for him, simply "are")

My glance is clear like a sunflower

My glance is clear like a sunflower.
I use to walk on the roads,
Looking to my right and to my left,
And, sometimes, looking behind me...
And what I see at each moment
Is something I'd never seen before,
And I can do it pretty well...
I know how to feel the essential wonder
That a child feels if, on being born,
it could note that it really has been born...
I feel that I am being born on each moment
for the eternal newness of the World...

I believe in the World as in a daisy
Because I see it. But I don't think about it
Because thinking is not to understand...

The World was not made for us to think about it
(To think is to be eye-sick)
But for us to look at and to be in tune with it...

I have no philosophy: I have senses...
If I speak of Nature, it's not because I know what it is,
But because I love it, and that's why I love it,
Because the lover never knows what he loves,
Neither why he loves, nor what love is...
Loving is the eternal innocence,
And the only innocence is not to think...

- Alberto Caeiro
[from "The keeper of Sheep"]

Translation by Fábio
[I've done my best!;)]

Reality and Illusion

2005-08-18T19:12:00.000-03:00

In his most recent writings (available on-line), Ken Wilber really shows his brightness. Take this idea, for example: "everything is real in its own worldspace". This puts and end to the old philosophical problem about reality and illusion. It's Nagarjuna approach coming again. Better yet, this deconstructs the original question. To say that everything is an illusion is to say that everything is real.

Lama Padma Samten says there is no reality, just beings who experience reality. No reality, just a sense of reality. Ken Wilber, in his Integral Post-Metaphysics, explains that there are infinite worlds enacted by infinite beings in this crazy hall of mirrors... Have you seen Waking Life?

Pragmatism

2005-08-08T12:17:00.000-03:00

Alan Wallace seems to have certain sympathy to James's pragmatism, as he show it in some talks and articles.
Well, I like it too ;) And I would make this little single link to The Commens Dictionary of Peirce's Terms, and rescue a bit of pragmatism's roots:

"According to that logical doctrine which the present writer first formulated in 1873 and named Pragmatism, the true meaning of any product of the intellect lies in whatever unitary determination it would impart to practical conduct under any and every conceivable circumstance, supposing such conduct to be guided by reflexion carried to an ultimate limit."

"In particular, he [Nicholas St. John Green] often urged the importance of applying Bain's definition of belief, as "that upon which a man is prepared to act." From this definition, pragmatism is scarce more than a corollary; so that I am disposed to think of him as the grandfather of pragmatism." ('Pragmatism', CP 5.12, 1907)

- Charles S. Peirce

Juan Ramón Jimenez

2005-08-05T12:45:00.000-03:00

"The land leads us by the land
but you, sea,
leads us by the sky"
—Juan Ramón Jimenez

1956 Nobel Laureate in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity."

[Picture and translation by Fábio ;)]

Dreams and Bardos

2005-07-29T18:21:00.000-03:00

Ken Wilber, following the buddhist teachings and the advaita vedanta tradition, says that there's a surprising relation between the 3 states (waking, dreaming and deep sleep) and the 3 after-death bardos. Here he talks about the subtle state (sambhogakaya):

"This is why, for example, if, during one's lifetime, one practices meditation and learns to enter the dream state with awareness (lucid dreaming), it is said that one can then control to some degree one's actual bardo course of rebirth, because to master one is to master the other: they are essentially the same realms."
—KEN WILBER

Alan Wallace on Science and Religion

2005-07-22T03:13:00.001-03:00

Alan Wallace, in the excerpt below, resembles Ken Wilber's approach when he claims for the scientific legitimacy of spiritual phenomena. In order to fully understand Wallace's arguments, let us remember the most recent language theory presented by Wilber:

"It's all Greek to me"--that is the key to solidarity and hermeneutic validity. Unless you stand in some sort of solidarity with the person who is speaking to you, you will never understand a word said. Take language itself. If you are inside or within the horizons of the Greek language, you can see some of the worlds enacted by that linguistic intersubjectivity (i.e., the shared linguistic signifiers will have some sort of shared signifieds: the syntax will have a semantic [see Excerpt E, subheading "Integral Semiotics"]). Otherwise, all you can see is the syntax (or exterior signs), not the semantic (or interior meanings), and thus those enacted worlds, which cannot be seen empirically, will not be seen interpretively, either. I will not be able to see Blanche Dubois in the sensorimotor world, but I won't be able to see or understand her in my interior world, either. It's all Greek to me."

—KEN WILBER

Wilber and Wallace have finally met here. Isn't Wallace "the Wilber of Buddhism"?

"The language of mathematicians is untranslatable into any other language, and the same is true of the language of contemplatives. Although one mathematical system may be translated into the equations of another system, none can be translated into the experiences or concepts of the general lay public. The same is true of contemplative writings. In some cases one contemplative system may translate well into the language of another, but a sophisticated contemplative theory can never be adequately translated into the language of common, everyday experiences and ideas. The only way one can truly understand mathematics is by practicing it, not just reading about it; and the same is true of contemplation. The chief difference between mathematical and contemplative discourse is that non-contemplatives can easily draw the conclusion that they are thoroughly fathoming contemplative writings, when in fact they are reducing such accounts to their own, more prosaic experiences and ideas. Here is one more case of an illusion of knowledge, for the contemplatives are using ordinary language in extraordinary ways, and only an experienced contemplative knows the referents of the words and phrases used in contemplative writings. Non-contemplatives reduce those ideas to experiences that are familiar to them, but in so doing, they give themselves the false impression that they have fathomed what the contemplatives were writing about.

Steven Katz, a contemporary scholar of comparative mysticism, for example, insists that experienced contemplatives are in no better a position to evaluate their experiences than are non-contemplatives (1983: 5). This notion is just as implausible as the idea that a non-mathematician could evaluate the relation between Heisenberg's matrix equations and Schrödinger's wave equation describing quantum mechanical phenomena. But the misconception that one can evaluate contemplative truth-claims solely on the basis on reading books about mysticism is widespread both among scholars and the lay public. Edward O. Wilson, for example, falls into this trap when he suggests that all mystical experiences are basically the same, and that they have all yielded no insights whatsoever into the nature of reality (1998: 260 & 46). Scientists and scholars who try to evaluate one or more contemplative system without acquiring any contemplative experience of their own are thus confined to the echo chambers of their own preconceptions."

—ALAN WALLACE