Tue, 29 Jul 2008
World Views
I seem to have gotten sucked into an argument of E-Sangha and this is the second installment, where I dish out my Po Mo Lite.
What I think we're seeing here is the clash between different world views. What a world view is is a little difficult to explain. The sociologist Gregory Bateson remarked that when he tried to explain the concept of world view to his students, the only ones who understood it were the Catholics and the Marxists. A world view the the framework within which consists not only of all your concepts, but also your rules for evaluating concepts as true or false, important and unimportant, good and bad. Here's an example. A professor was teaching anatomy to first year medical stuents at Johns Hopkins, who were disecting the cadever of a woman. The professor told the students the first thing they should do is cut off her breasts and throw them in the trash, because there was nothing interesting there. Well, obviously not to the professor!
World views are not open to proof or disproof in a simple and unambigous way, because the world views contain the rules and definitions that proofs are based on. Any proof offered with the world view fails because of circular logic. How do you determine what is science within the framework of science? The pot cannot hold itself. And a proof from without fails from subjectivity. If A finds B's world view invalid, and B finds A's invalid, how can we say who is correct, except from the standpoint of another world view C? But usually people are blind to their own world view, viewing it as truth and rationality, and the views of others as irrational.
All this is a long winded prelude to what I want to say. When I hear people contrast science, truth, and rationality with religion, emotion, and faith I hear the expression of a specific world view, one that seems to be popular at our current nexus of time and space. This is not the world view of science versus that of religion. Both concepts exist within the one world view and other world views do not draw the sharp distinction. Like all world views, it is neither true nor false, it's one way of looking at reality. Certainly within the world view facts can be established and statements proven or disproven But since there is no single self-sufficient ground for empirical proof and disproof in logic and philosophy, these are only relative to the world view. Understanding this is what I meant by having an open and fluid attitude versus a fixed and dogmatic one.
Usually people hearing this argument reply that science has given us the jet plane, computer, and atom bomb, as if this establishes the validity of their world view. Tibet had none of these, but had the Arya Dharma instead, and Tibetan lamas feel that they had the better of the bargain. Judgement may be passed on who was correct, but the judgement is relative. Edward Conze makes this point more eloquently in the first chapter of Buddhist Thought in India.
Mon, 28 Jul 2008
Fixed Ideas
This is cross-posted from an answer I gave to a sceptical guy on E-Sangha.
Fixed ideas can be a problem in Zen. It doesn't matter what the fixed ideas are about. It's the rigidity that's the problem. The sceptic and the new ager both will have problems with Zen. It's best to keep a fluid and open attitude. It's not that you're expected to believe anything beyond your experience. It's that you already carry ideas that go beyond experience, ideas that are so ingrained into your way of thinking, that they can't be pointed out to you. I'm not talking about sceptical ideas, but something much closer and personal. But I think you should practice holding all your beliefs loosely, because rigidity in one sphere will carry over into another. If you continue to practice, one day you will be surprised. How you deal with that surprise depends a lot upon your attitude. You can hold onto it very lightly or make a big deal out of it. The second choice will cause you a lot of needless problems.
Sat, 26 Jul 2008
Dzongkha Linux
There's a Bhutanese version of Linux available, Dzongkha Linux. If you head over there, you're greeted by a picture of Tux in a maroon monk's robe. Dzongkha is the Bhutanese name for their language. It looks like the Dzongkha word for Linux in Li.nag.so. At least, that's what's written above Tux's head. Dzongkha uses the Tibetan script. (Otherwise I would not be able to read it.) The word Dzong.kha means fortress in Tibetan. There's more about the language in the Wikipedia article. The article also mentions the controversy about the Dzongkha version of Windows:
In October 2005, an internal Microsoft proposal blocked the term "Dzongkha" from all company software and promotional material, substituting the term "Tibetan - Bhutan" instead. This was done at the request of the mainland Chinese government, who insisted the name "Dzongkha" implied an affiliation with the Dalai Lama, and hence, with Tibetan independentism.
I think the controversy stemmed from a confusion between the word Dzongkha and the name Tsong.Kha.pa, who was the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism that the Dalai Lama belongs to.
Fri, 25 Jul 2008
Frightful Fosamax
Fosamax is the most prescribed drug to prevent osteoporosis, mostly in elderly women. As with many allopathic medicines, it costs a lot, cures nothing, and causes problems worse than those it was meant to treat. As usual, lifestyle changes like proper diet and exercise, are the solution and provide side benefits instead of side effects.
Like other fast-tracked-to-Wall-Street drugs that are effectively "tested" on the first users, adverse reports about bisphosphonates came from patients and practitioners long before they came from the FDA or manufacturers.
Bisphosphonate patients have documented excruciating pain from Fosamax since 2001 and GlaxoSmithKline's Boniva since 2006 on askapatient.com, many calling the drugs "poison" and saying they were forced into wheelchairs.
But only in March did the FDA alert health care professionals to the "severe, sometimes incapacitating, musculoskeletal pain" that bisphosphonate drugs could cause in their patients and caution them to consider whether musculoskeletal pain "might be caused by the drug" rather than the bone condition.
Tue, 22 Jul 2008
Jonang Site
I found an intersting site dedicated to preserving the Jonang tradition. The Jonang tradition is centered on the practice of the Kalachakra Tantra and the Shentong ("other emptiness") interpretation of Buddhist philosophy. On their library page there's a translation of a famous text by the Third Karmapa on the nature of awareness.
Sun, 20 Jul 2008
Small Scene
We've had several new people show up for our Sunday sit lately at the Bodhicitta Foundation. Two guys showed up today and a woman last week. Usually they find us through our web site. We don't have much to offer besides our usual puja practice. This Sunday was Manjushri. There's no resident teacher to give talks. We have to make do with visits from Lama Gursam or the monks at TMC. I'm sure there are a lot of other small groups in our position.I was asked to give a brief explanation of puja practice. My explanation could have been better, so I'll work on it and post it here.
The Ja Ling Center is another small group here in Baltimore. The difference is that they have resident teachers. One of the members put a video of the ceremony in honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's birthday on the web, which you can view if you want to get an idea f what their group is like. I hope to put a few videos of our group on the web as well.
Sat, 19 Jul 2008
Red Meat Worries
It's been a while since I've posted anything on health related issues, but this was too interesting not to mention. Scientists have discovered a small but important difference between man and other primates. We lack the ability to process an a sugar that is present in red meat that other primates can process. The sugar is called Neu5Gc. There's a suspicion that this inability is the cause of degenerative illnesses such as arthritis, heart disease, and cancer.
Prof Varki found that Neu5Gc was foreign to humans, even though we carry a very similar version of the same molecule - which may be one reason why animal-to-human organ and tissue transplants do not work well.
But in recent years, he has come to believe that the implications of this molecular difference are much wider. He has built up a range of evidence that potentially links Neu5Gc, a so-called sialic acid, to chronic disease.
This is because the animal version is absorbed by humans as a result of eating red meat and milk products, and there is evidence that the body views it as an invader.
Eating these foods could trigger inflammation and, over the long term, heart disease, certain cancers and auto-immune illnesses. Prof Varki stresses, however, that "we have not proven any link to disease, just suggested that it is something to explore".
Thu, 17 Jul 2008
Pee Prank
I've changed my Internet Server Provider (ISP) and that's kept me pretty busy over the past week. I also changed my networking setup. I'm now using powerline ethernet adapters, which transmit information ove the apartment wiring. That solves a problem I had with the wireless sometimes dropping out. I still have my wireless adapter on the network, for when I bring my laptop home. While I was going through my correspondence and cleaning it up, I stumbled on this story Michael Bilingsley told about Trungpa Rinpoche. I thought I should preserve it for the sake of any future researcher into Rinpoche's bathroom behavior.
I had been so traumatized by my own father that I could never pee in front of anyone... which in turn made it extremely difficult for me in the crowded single-sex toilet plus two urinal bathroom at Tail of the Tiger. My bed in the sewing room was right at the bottom of the stairs from the bathroom, so I'd wait sometimes two hours for all the activity up there to die out before betting I could get a chance alone at the urinal - whereupon nine times out of ten, Rinpoche would pop out of his room (even if it was 1 a.m.) and slide in next to me at the other urinal... humming some little ditty and grinning from ear-to-ear. I'd totally freeze up and just stand there doing nothing and feeling foolish until he left. It happened practically every time.
Students of homeopathy will know that inability to pee in front of others is a keynote of Natrum Muriaticm.
Sun, 13 Jul 2008
Golden Chains
There's a Buddhist saying that goes "chains of gold bind you as tightly as chains of iron." The usual sense of the saying is that noble, uplifting thoughts bind you samsara just as much as negative thoughts because all conceptual thought is delusion, and being bound by delusion is samsara. But I'm using it in a different sense. I can't go on vacation right now, because I'm too busy at work to take time off. I missed most of the Karmapa's visit, most of the Spring Retreat at TMC, the ten day retreat at KTD, and the Dalai Lama's teaching at Lehigh. I probably won't be able to take vacation until August or Spetember. I'm not so much interested in attending teachings as I am in doing retreat. I'm going to be doing a week long retreat in November at TMC and there's a chance that Lama Gursam will do a Phowa retreat when he visits Baltimore in September.Until then, I can only go on vacation vicarioisly. Hun Lye is leading another tour two India and Tibet and he's blogging about the tour, as is one of his students. So far they've visited Delhi and Ladakh and met Chetsang Rinpoche and the young incarnation of Bakula Rinpoche.
Wed, 09 Jul 2008
Shaolin Temple
I was poking about on the Internet and found thof the web site of the USA Shaolin Temple. The temple was founded by Shifu Shi Yan Ming, who calls himself "the most handsome Shifu in the world." Who knows? He may be right, depending on you notion of beauty. He also says, "Train harder!" Which is a sentiment I can agree with. Shifu defected from the Shaolin travelling group during its first tour of America and set up shop as a lineage holder of the Shaolin tradition. He teaches innocuous sentiments dressed up as Buddhist wisdom. I suppose he provides an entry into Eastern thought for young men who would otherwise never encounter it, so I can't be too harsh on him.
Tue, 08 Jul 2008
Mean Streets
So Sunday night was Tibetan class and it started late because our teacher was feeling unwell and overslept. Dave and I were standing on Fayette Street watching the street life of Baltimore. A crowd was gathered in front of the convenience store down the street. A police car stopped and the two officers tied to wrestle on one the men into submission. He escaped their hold and ran off. It seems he had been selling drugs and afterwards the crowd dispersed. Someone joked he must not have had a warrant on him, because he didn't run that fast.
It looks like the Tibetan class is down to just Dave and I, and our instructor Jigme Lodro Rinpoche. (That's 'Jigs.med bLos.gros in Wylie transcription, or Fearless Intellect in English.) I learned something about his past. He was recognized as the reincarnation of a Mongolian lama at Wu Tai Shan at the age of a few months. He escaped to India, went back to Tibet to bring his wife out, was caught by the Chinese, and thrown into prison for seven months. After he got out of prison he and his wife escaped to India. He was employed by the Tibetan Government In Exile writing and editing various works. He seems to be very bright, though that is obscured somewhat because his English is only fair. Anyway, Rinpoche, Geshe, and Dave will be attending the Dalai Lama's seminar next week at Lehigh, so no class. They'll all be staying in the same small hotel room, which should make for some interesting stories.
Sun, 06 Jul 2008
Repair Guy
I hope everyone had a good holiday. At least, those of you here in the United States, where it was a holiday. I spent my weekend making fixes to my web sites. Yes, sad, nut true. Having a web site is like having a dog. It must be fed, walked, and occasionally de-wormed. I only mention it because I fixed a long standing bug with search and permalinks on this site. So get ready for my geeky explanation.
All my code is written in Perl and it interfaces to the web using Cgi.pm, the standard module for doing this stuff in Perl. One thing my scripts need to do is get their own url (the address you type into a browser window.) The function that gets this information is broken on my Web hosting service for some unknown reason. So I had to write my own. It fetches some of the environment varbles that are passed to the script and parses the information it need out of them. I assume Cgi.pm does the same thing, but the environment variables it uses are configured in some non-standard way on my system. So everything should be working now.
Fri, 04 Jul 2008
The Elevator Speech
Sometimes when people find out that I'm a Buddhist, they ask me what Buddhism is all about. I've fumbled this several times in the past, so I've tried to come up with the elevator speech — a short explanation that I can rattle off in an elevator. I suppose in some sense, the Four Noble Truths would be the best answer. But "suffering and the end of suffering" just seems too heavy for our pleasure drenched and pleasure obsessed culture. So here is my latest elevator speech: "There are two parts to our experience. The first is what's actually there and the second is our feelings and thoughts about it. Usually we confuse the two, which causes us problems. Buddhism shows us how we can recognize the difference by watching our minds. Once we can recognize the difference, a lot of things that were problems aren't any more." So that's my explanation of Buddhism in less than a hundred words.
Drupon Thinley Nyingpo gave a two day teaching on a short Mahamudra text from the Drikung tradition. I only was there for the second day, but you may find some value in my notes. Here's an excerpt.
There is no need to rely on anything else at all than resting the mind. It is called the white panacea, after a medicine that would cure all diseases. If you know this remedy, however gross your afflictive emotions are, your realization will be that much stronger. It is like Angulimala, who instantly saw the truth when it was explained by the Buddha. It's difficult to overcome conceptual mind and tranform our thoughts into wisdom, because we have a constant chain of them. But in an instance of strong emotion, it is easier to recognize our minds and transform it. A moment of anger is unvirtuous if not transformed into wisdom, but it is easier to transform that emotion. Phagmodrupa was teaching a student and making him angry. When he got very angry, he said, now rest in that, and in that way was able to bring him to realization. Just as manure helps the crops grow, so afflictions can bring forth wisdom. The essential point of practice is to sustain Mahamudra within whatever arises without contrivance.
