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2013-11-30
The quotes below discuss reasons for the entrenched culture of denial within physics (as well and philosophy and science in general) regarding the consequences that quantum mechanics has for naive realism (AKA classical objectivism).
"After more than 50 years (now over 80 years) of unquestionable success as a theory, questions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics continue to plague both physicists and philosophers. It is argued here that discussions about the meaning of quantum mechanics remain stymied as a result of the failure of physicists to formulate a cognitive paradigm adequate to their theory. The conventional interpretations which they offer can be seen as inadequate in one of two ways — implicitly, they retain one or the other of the two basic tenets of classical physics, the objectivity or the knowability of nature. This, it is argued, can be viewed as a form of cognitive repression of knowledge acquired, but not yet assimilated. A psychological explanation for the persistence of classical beliefs is proposed...
Piaget has invited the comparison between the historical development of scientific thought and the cognitive development of the child. Both, it is suggested, proceed through the emergence of discrete stages of structural organization, each stage brings with it new possibilities of conceptual integration, and concurrently, the possibility of a verbal articulation of the new level of organization perceived. Prior to the establishment of a new conceptual structure, knowledge already present in nonverbal forms (in e.g., sensorimotor rather than representation schemes) finds no avenue of expression, and, to the extent that it jars with the earlier established structures, demands cognitive repression. Piaget [1] tells us that an action schema which "cannot be integrated into the system of conscious concepts is eliminated... (and) repressed from conscious territory before it has penetrated there in any conceptualized form." Caught in a transition between stages, the child, when pressed to articulate perceptions requiring cognitive structures which are not yet available, displays confusion, denial and avoidance - a disequilibrium strikingly reminiscent of the mechanism of affective repression." (Cognitive repression in contemporary physics, Evelyn Fox Keller, http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.11911)
"There exists a cognitive repression of the interpretation problem by the majority of physicists. For that majority the questions concerning the meaning of quantum mechanics are answered once and for all by the Copenhagen interpretation, and all further inquiry is rejected as a sign that the inquirer does not understand the topic. Further questions are called "only philosophical" and thus not befitting a physicist. But if one inquires in depth what the Copenhagen interpretation says one gets a variety of different answers. According to Fox-Keller this, too, is a sign for evasion, whereby what is evaded is the necessity of a new cognitive structure which differs radically from the existing one. Fox-Keller calls the old structure classical objectivism. To her, the confusion concerning the interpretation of quantum mechanics exists, thus, in the attempt to retain one or more components of the classical position. While this may be as it is; I suggest that the search for interpretations different from the Copenhagen interpretation very often is motivated by trying to evade its radical consequences, that is, an act of cognitive repression on the part of the proposers." (On the Interpretation and Philosophical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics, Anton Zeilinger, http://typo3physik.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/zeilinger/philosoph.pdf)
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2010-12-28
Some quotes from Advaita Vedanta:
“Truth must be discovered, but there is no formula for its
discovery. You must set out on the uncharted sea, and the uncharted
sea is yourself. You must set out to discover yourself…” (J
Krishnamurti)
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"No person from outside can make you free... No one holds the
Key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one has the authority to hold
that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the
purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the
Kingdom of Eternity..." (J. Krishnamurti)
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“That which is the subtle essence, in it is the self of all that
exists. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou ... art it.”
(Chandogya Upanishad 4:10:1-3)
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2010-11-08
I empathise with the difficulty that people have in grasping the
mystic perspective. For those with an empiricist perspective these
issues are usually perplexing and seemingly inside-out and
back-to-front. I will briefly describe an approach to the mystic
perspective that some have found useful.
Consider an AI mind within a VR simulation. If this mind had an
empirical perspective it would seem to it that it had inner
cognitive phenomena and that it lived within an external physical
universe. However in a deeper sense these are just perceptual
illusions and the actual reality is a single unified information
process that is imperceptible, universal, non-local, timeless,
all-pervading, etc. Realising this fact leads to a mystic
perspective. More >
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2010-07-16
“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste
not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.” (Alexander Pope)
Quotes from Chapter 13 “The Yoga of the Division of the Cosmos
into Body and Soul” from the Bhagavad Gita. More >
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 2010-07-13
From a response to a Facebook
conversation about the issue of
action, inaction, non-action, ego, doer, doership, etc.
I just opened the Bhagavad Gita at random and it opened at chapter
3, "Karma Yoga: The Way of Action". The entire book is
relevant to this issue however I will quote extensively from just
this chapter because synchronicity is suggesting that it may be
particularly relevant.
First some background. Arjuna is a prince of a great kingdom that
has disintegrated into two warring factions. Krishna, the avatar of
the Supreme Godhead is serving as Arjuna's charioteer. A great war
has arisen and Arjuna is called upon to lead an army to fight his
kinsmen, his brothers, his teachers and those who he loves and
respects.
On the eve of the battle, in the midst of the two armies, Arjuna
breaks down. "O Krishna, when I see these people, my kinsmen
assembled here, eager for battle, my limbs sag, my mouth feels
parched, my body quakes, and my hairs stand on end... I am unable to
stand still and my mind is in a whirl. I see adverse omens, and do
not forsee any good from killing my own kinsmen in battle... These I
would not wish to kill though they may have risen to kill us. Even to
obtain the kingdom of the three worlds (outer, inner & inner
most); far less for the sake of the earth...."
Krishna's first reply is "O Arjuna, from where does this
disgraceful conduct come into your mind in this hour of peril? It is
unknown to the Aryas (awakened ones), does not lead to heaven, and
brings one disrepute."
Krishna goes on to explain the entire nature of reality, the
cosmic process and its projection upon the earthly plane, the fact
that none there on the battle field are actually alive to begin with
so they cannot be killed, that one must fulfil one's dharma and enact
one's innermost law, which is the law of the cosmos. Anything else is
futile and ruinous. More >
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2010-07-10
"The main purpose of
jnana meditation is to withdraw the mind and emotions from perceiving
life and oneself in a deluded way so that one may behold and live in
attunement with Reality, or Spirit."
- http://bit.ly/b5zsLX
Gnana "advocates that the real, experiential knowledge
of the Brahman/Atman identity is sufficient to get enlightened, and
that as far as spiritual seekers are ready to sacrifice everything to
obtain this supreme wisdom, they need neither rituals nor meditation
as spiritual exercise."
- comment on Shankaracharya
http://www.creativity.co.uk/creativity/guhen/shankara.htm)
"the
Jiva or the empirical self becomes one with Brahman when it gets
knowledge of Brahman. When knowledge dawns in it through annihilation
of Avidya [ignorance], it is freed from its individuality and
finitude and realises its essential Satchidananda nature. It merges
itself in the ocean of bliss. The river of life joins the ocean of
existence."
- comment on Shankaracharya
http://www.shankaracharya.org/advaita_philosophy.php
"The
seeker is he who is in search of himself. Give up all questions
except one: "Who am I?" After all, the only fact that you
are sure of is that you are. The "I am" is certain. The "I
am this" is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality.
To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you
are not. Discover all that you are not - body, feelings, thoughts,
time, space, this or that, nothing concrete or abstract, which you
perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are
not what you perceive. The clearer you understand that on the level
of mind you can be described in negative terms only [not this, not
that], the quicker you will come to the end of your search and
realize that you are the limitless being."
- Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj, I am That, http://bit.ly/bvBQYR
[full text pdf]
"Questioner: How long will it take me to
get free of the mind?
Maharaj: It may take a thousand years,
but really no time is required. All you need is to be in dead
earnest. Here the will is the deed. If you are sincere, you have it.
After all, it is a matter of attitude. Nothing stops you from being a
gnani here and now, except fear. You are afraid of being impersonal,
of impersonal being. It is all quite simple. Turn away from your
desires and fears and from the thoughts they create and you are at
once in your natural state."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I am
That, http://bit.ly/bvBQYR
[full text pdf]
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2010-07-10
"The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In
reality, there is no such thing. Feelings, thoughts and actions race
before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain
and creating an illusion of continuity. A reflection of the watcher
in the mind creates the sense of 'I' and the person acquires an
apparently independent existence.
In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying
himself with the 'I' and the 'mine'. The teacher tells the watcher:
you are not this, there is nothing of yours in this, except the
little point of "I am", which is the bridge between the
watcher and his dream. "I am this, I am that" is dream,
while pure "I am" has the stamp of reality on it.
- Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj, I am That http://bit.ly/bvBQYR
[full text pdf]
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"So long as people do not understand the true nature of the
objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They
imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become
attached to them and are nourished by their habit energy. Because of
this system of mentation, mind and what belongs to it is
discriminated and is thought of as real; this leads to the assertion
of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on
functioning."
- Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY
[full text pdf]
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"When the television set is burned or destroyed, will the
people in the movie feel the pain and die? You have no form, no
shape..."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Seeds of Consciousness
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"What is it that had birth? Whom do you call a human being?
If, instead of seeking explanations for birth, death and after-death,
the question is raised as to who and how you are now, these questions
will not arise...
The body is born again and again. We wrongly identify ourselves
with the body, and hence imagine we are reincarnated constantly. No.
We must identify ourselves with the true Self. The realised one
enjoys unbroken consciousness, never broken by birth or death - how
can he die? Only those who think 'I am the body' talk of
reincarnation. To those who know 'I am the Self' there is no rebirth.
Reincarnations only exist so long as there is ignorance. There is
no incarnation, either now, before or hereafter. This is the truth."
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
Again for emphasis...
"There is no incarnation, either now, before or hereafter.
This is the truth"
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“Greatest assumption in human history: The existence of a
personal identity. 99,99% of our global communications refer to a you
and a me, but no one actually ever found an 'I' to exist anywhere!
All our thoughts, emotions and words refer to something no one has
ever been able to confirm to even exist. HA HA HA!! It's hilarious!!
:D
And it's very very sad at the same
time! The single cause of our current state as a species. We're all
like sheep, following the herd, assuming what everybody else has also
been taught to assume. Time to wake up my friends.” (Bentinho
Massaro) ... More >
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2010-07-09
Quote from the Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY
"So long as people do not understand the true nature of the
objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They
imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become
attached to them and are nourished by their habit energy. Because of
this system of mentation, mind and what belongs to it is
discriminated and is thought of as real; this leads to the assertion
of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on
functioning. Depending upon and attaching itself to the dualistic
habit of mind, they accept the views of the philosophers founded upon
these erroneous distinctions, of being and non-being, existence and
non-existence, and there evolves what we call false-imaginations...
False-imaginations rise from the consideration of appearances;
things are discriminated as to form, signs and shape; as to having
colour, warmth, humidity, mobility or rigidity. False-imagination
consists of becoming attached to these appearances and their names...
The five sense functions and their discriminating and thinking
function have their risings and complete ending from moment to
moment... By setting up names and forms greed is multiplied and thus
the mind goes on mutually conditioning and being conditioned. By
becoming attached to names and forms, not realising that they have no
more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error arises,
false-imagination as to pleasure and pain arises, and the way to
emancipation is blocked...
By the cessation of the mind-system as a whole is meant, the
cessation of discrimination, the clearing away of the various
attachments, and, therefore, the clearing away of the defilements of
habit-energy in the face of Universal Mind which have been
accumulating since beginningless time by reason of these
discriminations, attachments, erroneous reasonings, and following
acts... Getting rid of the discriminating mortal-mind is Nirvana.
But the cessation of the discriminating-mind cannot take place
until there has been a “turning about” in the deepest seat of
consciousness. The mental habit of looking outward by the
discriminating-mind upon an external objective world must be given
up, and a new habit of realising Truth within the intuitive-mind by
becoming one with the Truth itself must be established.... With the
ending of pleasure and pain, of conflicting ideas, of the disturbing
interests of egoism, a state of tranquilisation will be attained in
which the truths of emancipation will be fully understood..."
(Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY
)
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 2009-09-01
Simulacrum: Something that replaces reality with its representation, which is not a territory, a referential being, or a substance. Simulation is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. It is not imitation, nor duplication. It is substituting the signs of the real for the real. The simulacrum's function lies in the derealization of the whole surrounding world of everyday reality.
Paraphrased from Definition: Simulacrum.
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2009-08-28
Extracts from two different Satsangs...
We are nothing. You have no reason to exist. As a matter of fact,
you do not exist. (Laughter) You have never really existed. It is all
a cosmic joke. There is no reason for you to be alive and to be here.
This may sound like an insult – it is! (More laughter) But it is
the truth and the truth hurts.
You may think you are important, that you have come to earth to
accomplish great deeds, or to get enlightened. That is not true. The
enlightenment is already here and it doesn't need you. You are not
wanted by anything or by anybody. (Laughter) You are a complete
failure. (Loud laughter)
In truth you do not exist. The illusion of your existence makes
you think that you are important, that you are somebody. That is why
we talk about being nobody so much; there is no body.
(It's All a Cosmic
Joke, Robert Adams) More >
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 2009-08-28
Below are extracts from the Lankavatara
Sutra that are related to naïve realism, information theoretic metaphysics and self-realisation.
All that is seen in the world is devoid of effort and action
because all things in the world are like a dream, or like an image
miraculously projected. This is not comprehended by philosophers and
the ignorant, but those who thus see things, see them truthfully.
Those who see things otherwise walk in discrimination, they cling to
dualism. The world as seen by discrimination is like seeing ones own
image reflected in a mirror, or ones shadow, or the moon reflected in
water, or an echo heard in a valley.
People grasping their own shadows of discrimination become
attached to this thing and that thing and failing to abandon dualism
they go on forever discriminating and thus never attain tranquillity.
By tranquillity is meant Oneness, and Oneness gives birth to the
highest Samadhi which is gained by entering into the realm of Noble
Wisdom that is realisable only within ones inmost consciousness... More >
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2009-01-09
Following is a collection of quotes from leading
thinkers that variously point towards an emerging paradigm that
challenges many of our deepest assumptions about what is real and
what is reality. More >
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