Let's take this from the general to the specific.
"For me, traditional cultures and their models and practices ("Traditional")
have a number of potentially useful hypotheses about how nature and the mind
work"
Can you give maybe three useful hypotheses that really are useful from
traditional cultures, preferably that do not require belief in the hypothesis?
For example the shamanic traditions from Native American cultures are all very
well and good, but they don't make me think that I am getting a message from
the Earth every time I see a hawk or a deer. That stuff only works if you
believe in the premise of the model.
In addition, the traditional models from places like India are worthless to me
when I look at the culture and situations of the people there in India. In
other words, if you have this "rich" culture and the place is in the shape
India is in, what good is it?
From: "seerd...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2014 6:19 PM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Prarabdha vs Sanchita Karma and Spiritual
Liberation (was Greatest Guru)
Sal: "..the ability to gain knowledge of the external world by NOT looking at
it and coming up with explanatory ideas for inner visions that explain reality
would be a bitter blow to everyone toiling in laboratories to come up with
fundamental physical ideas"
For me, traditional cultures and their models and practices ("Traditional")
have a number of potentially useful hypotheses about how nature and the mind
work -- developed on an observational basis refined over 1000's of years (in
some cases), identifying what appears to work and that which does not in a
particular area of investigation whereby the ineffective were presumably
discarded and the promising and more effective practices refined and tweaked.
Perhaps more akin to the trial and error of engineering new products compared
to double blind placebo studies. Examining such well-honed hypotheses from
Traditional cultures, in my view, does not insult anyone pursuing research in
physics, neuroscience or any field in which traditional cultures may have
pondered and toiled for many generations.
What science has revealed is astonishing, and accelerating. Yet, at the same
time, what it admittedly does not know is also breathtaking startling. As far
as neuroscience ("NS") has progressed in the past 10-15 years, and as powerful
and subtle as neuroimaging technologies have become -- as well as the
computational power for crunching data as well as running complex simulations,
NS still does not have, for example, a clear model and understanding where
memories are . There have been great advances in understanding types of
memories, memory formation, retrieval, neurosynaptic basis of learning and
recall, how unstable some memories can be, etc. And while significant progress
has been made, the role and mechanics of memory in so as to effectively be
applied to enhance higher levels of peak performance such as increasing working
memory and enhancing quick and efficient recall of encoded memory, maintaining
memory with aging and disease, coping with deep disabling memories combatting
addictive, compulsive, obsessive, non-productive behaviors, etc. is quite
limited.
Yet Traditional cultures possibly have a quite a bit of insight on and models
of memory mechanisms -- as well as practices to enhance the positive aspects
and nullify the negative attributes of memory mechanisms. My prior discussion
of the traditional view of resolving sanchita karma as a requisite for
spiritual liberation has a corresponding Traditional model of memory --
samskaras (deep impressions) and vasanas (clusters of such) in .a deep level of
individuality in Traditional parlance the karana sharira (causal body). I am
deeply interested in what modern science can reveal regarding such (that is
rejecting it a viable hypothesis, finding some correlates of it, or fleshing
out details of it, etc). However, it may be many years (to never) before
science is able to adequately explore such. Evidence of absence is not absence
of evidence.
OTOH, a lot of Traditional knowledge about mind and memory at more tangible
levels than karana sharira are being currently researched in many NS labs --
including Traditional herbs, various forms of meditation, etc. And research on
and positive effects of Trans-Cranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is
growing rapidly (I was in a recent experiment at a university and the results
appeared surprisingly effective). Parallels to tDCS research and models and
Traditional energy pathways, marmas, nadis etc may be a ripe and tangible path
in inquiry.
To me, the possible options are to ignore anything science has not yet
developed a well established theory and large set of supporting experimental
(which leaves out a large part of life), or explore. Traditional models that
for me have some explanatory power -- along with any corresponding practices
that a long-term cross-generational research record indicates may have some
promise in addressing contemporary problems and concerns. In the areas of
memory for example, I do not believe that I am not insulting anyone in
neuroscience labs by doing so. From what I can see, at least some are
vigorously exploring such themselves -- alongside their careers in science.
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