Hi Edgar, Simple question: if there are rules - how do we go beyond them?
Mike. ----- Original Message ---- From: Edgar Owen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, 15 October, 2008 8:03:44 Subject: Re: [Zen] Causality Bill, Maybe you say they are illusory, but you still follow and live according to the rules of causality 24/7 and have been all your life, except perhaps when sitting in zazen. Why is that if they aren't valid rules? You need to be careful in maintaining illusions aren't 'real'. Illusion is part and parcel of reality but should be recognized as illusion. Even when seen as illusion, it still doesn't disappear, only its seeming realness disappears. BTW, I'm a Goh player, not a chess man. Goh, to me, seems much more directly in tune with Tao, i.e., with the rules of fundamental causality. But I do have to ask you, if there is no causality how do you propose to checkmate my queen? Edgar But On Oct 14, 2008, at 5:15 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED] org> <[EMAIL PROTECTED] org> wrote: Edgar, You stated causality exists, and you confirmed that the relationship that causality defines is between events. This is a rational assertion. My questions were to show you that there is no rational defense of the concept of events, and in the absence of asynchronous events, and following your definition, there can be no causality. As far as I'm concerned this case is closed unless you can come up with a stronger rational definition of causality. You can of course, if you choose, quickly discard your lab coat of rationality and don your robes of zen. Presto change-o. An act of pure alchemy. That works. Or of course you can just opt out of the discussion. After all, who can compete with such powerful arguments as 'illusions aren't real but rules governing illusions (causality) are', or speculating that the other party is a 'successful businessman who has never been hit by a bus'. What more is there to say? For no reason...Bill! From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com] On Behalf Of Edgar Owen Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 7:42 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com;SPACETIMEandCONSCIO [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com Subject: Re: [Zen] Causality Hi Bill, Funny, I'm looking around me and don't seem to be snared in any illusory semantic traps. All there is is the morning light on the Autumn leaves! I think it's you who are snared in your own elaborate semantic net here but out of Bodhisattva compassion I'll descend reluctantly to the realm of illusion to help untangle you! :-) All the many questions you ask are answered simply by science and common sense which describe causality in the realm of material things, i.e. the rules that govern the manifestations of illusion. Who can say why they exist, all we know is that they do, and they govern the world of illusion. That just needs to be accepted. When we deal with that world we must follow its rules. Just because it is illusion doesn't mean it doesn't obey rules. As a successful businessman and a man who has gotten out of the way of oncoming buses for half a century, you have been living by those rules all your life and know them well. Impossible to deny them now. Zen accepts life in the realm of illusion. Though some minor illusions may vanish with enlightenment, the basic illusions of existence remain. The method of Zen in daily life is not to make all illusions vanish but to see and experience them as illusion and deal with them in accord with the causal rules which govern them but with the source of our action rooted directly in the Tao rather than in particular illusion forms such as desires or imaginary suffering. That is Zen in daily life. Deeper Zen with fewer illusions manifest in deepest meditation when all that remains is pure consciousness itself devoid of content in the eternally present moment. And finally there is the vanishing of all illusion at death, the Nirvana of nonbeing, when even consciousness and the present moment vanish. Edgar On Oct 14, 2008, at 7:00 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED] org> wrote: Edgar, Thanks. I was expecting (hoping) your answer would be 'events'. So now that you've fallen into my trap I'll proceed knocking off all your pawns, knights, castles, bishops, and finally your queen before I move on to checkmate. Please define 'event' for me, such as: Are there multiple events or only one? If there is only one event, how is any relationship possible? If there are multiple events, are these events synchronous, asynchronous or perhaps there are instances of each? Do events have duration? If not, then I assume all events are synchronous - all are happening at once - NOW! If so, how can there be any causality? If you claim events have no duration but are asynchronous, what separates them? If they do have duration and are asynchronous. .. Do all events have the same duration, or are some events longer than others? How can you determine when an event starts and ends? How do you know when one event ends and different event starts? If, as you claim, that some events are in a causal relationship with others... Are only some events in causal relationships, or do all events have causal relationships? If some events do not have causal relationships, how did they come into being if they were not an effect of a proceeding event? If all events have a causal relationship. ... Do they have causal relationships with only some other events, or all other events? If all events have a causal relationship with only some other events... Can they have a multiple causal relationship threads with multiple events, or only a single causal relationship thread with a single event? How do you determine if there is a causal relationship between events? (This is a BIG question.) Is there a causal relationship just because you notice it, or is it a real relationship that exists independent of you, the observer, and your self-interests, prejudices and predilections? If all events have a causal relationship with all other events (like Indra's Web, or the chaos theory 'a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil it part of the cause of a thunderstorm in China', or your references to 'ripples in the Tao'), how can you assign any particular event to have been the cause of any other event. In this case designating any preceding event as a cause is as good as another. In your example of the hitting-the- big-toe event causes the feeling-of-pain event, you left out a lot of intermediate events. Hitting the big toe crushes nerve endings, that causes an electrical impulse to go out over the nerve fibers, up to the nearest ganglia, then to the spinal cord, then to the brain itself which has to then translate the impulse into a feeling of pain. And even this doesn't include all the countless events involved in each and every electron changing polarity all the way up the nervous system to provide the electrical impulse at the brain. Are all of these events a chain of causal events? And if so can't you keep going down farther and farther until you VIRTUALLY have an infinite number of events in this casual chain? (...assuming as you do that the universe and reality is made up of quanta) And if you do why can't you just view these as REALLY an infinite number events which means they are not a chain of events at all, but one single eternal 'event'. (...assuming as I do that the universe and reality is actually analog). Okay, those are my moves. By my calculations you still have your queen left, but it's seriously on the run. It's your turn now...Bill! From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com] On Behalf Of Edgar Owen Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 8:32 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com; SPACETIMEandCONSCIO [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com Subject: Re: [Zen] Causality Bill, I'm in general agreement close enough to continue. I agree with you that in some sense both the hammer smashing your toe and the pain in your toe are illusions, but my point is that they are consistently related. One follows inevitably upon the other in all normal circumstances. That's causality. It's the rules that govern the realm of illusion, the realm of forms. Because something is ultimately illusory doesn't mean it follows no rules and is totally random and arbitrary. Quite obviously the daily world of illusion follows the rules of common sense and science as they describe particular causes and effects (though not scientist's views of ultimate reality of course where Zen is correct). The 'things' that stand in causal relationships are particular form patterns abstracted or discriminated from the whole flow of process or Tao. It is particular form patterns which do in fact tend to occur in repeating causal sequences and that facilitate effective volition in the world of forms. (By that I mean that organisms discriminate forms whose causal patterns they can understand so as to be able to function successfully in the world of forms. E.g. If a hammer hits my toe I feel pain, therefore I don't hit my toe with a hammer.) Those 'things' are normally referred to as 'events' of course. Edgar On Oct 13, 2008, at 8:28 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED] org> wrote: Edgar, Thanks for your response, although it's far from satisfying for me. I could go on with this discussion from the exchanges below, but I think we've started in the middle and both have a lot of assumptions that we may not fully share. If we're going to have a discussion on causality, and I hope we are, I'd like to get a clarification from you before we start: Causality to me is a term for the concept of cause and effect. I believe cause and effect is illusory and you are stating that it is not. You say the our concept of cause and effect is a reflection of a mechanism of cause and effect that exists in what you've referred to as the real physical world. Causality presumably describes a specific type of relationship. A relationship implies that there are at least two 'things' to relate. - Do you agree with the above three sentences? If not, how would you define causality? - If you do agree, or agree close enough to continue, what would you call these 'things' that allegedly have a cause and effect relationship? ...Bill! From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com] On Behalf Of Edgar Owen Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 7:25 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com Subject: Re: [Zen] consciousness Hi Bill, Great questions. Take a hammer and whack your toe. I guarantee it will hurt like hell. Causality is proven. QED. Doesn't matter whether you have satori or not. The point is that the world of forms, of illusion, does obey consistent rules, causality among them. Just because the physical world is illusion in an ultimate sense and merely empty forms doesn't mean that it doesn't operate according to consistent rules. The fact that the hammer hurts both my and your toe means that the rules are shared to some extent, that we have similar, but certainly not identical, cognitive constructs of the physical world. Therefore we can assume that the physical world may in fact exist independent of both of our existences though we can never experience that directly. Yes, the cognitive constructs of consciousness are what illusion is, just another name for the same thing from a different perspective. Yes, our concept of causality is a construct of our consciousness, but it is our consciousness' approximation of actual physical laws of the physical universe, at least that is where the consistency of the cognitively constructed world in my mind leads me. When I drop that I just experience without the causal thought net overlay. That is Zen. Confusing and contradictory certainly and thus the Zen adage that, 'Illusion, when seen as illusion, is reality.' EDgar On Oct 12, 2008, at 10:07 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED] org> <[EMAIL PROTECTED] org> wrote: Edgar, In your post below you stated: >Causality though does exist and provides the rules which make >our conscious perspectives and material world view cognitive >constructs consistent. Thus causality does govern what happens >in the world of forms. Why are you so certain that causality does exist and operates according to some kind of rules? What kind of rules could those be? Universal rules? You stated our concept of the material world, the world of forms, is observer dependent and 'simply a cognitive construct of our consciousness' . What is the difference between 'cognitive construct of our consciousness' and illusion? In either case, if our concept of the material world is a construct of our consciousness, why wouldn't you believe our concept of causality is also only construct of our consciousness; and the supposed rules which in fact are the defining factors of causality (along with the concept of time) are, if not completely observer dependent, at best species and perhaps even socially/culturally dependent, and ultimately illusory? This is closer to what I believe...Bill! From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com] On Behalf Of Edgar Owen Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 8:53 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com;SPACETIMEandCONSCIO [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com Subject: Re: [Zen] consciousness Anthony, Not quite. What I'm saying is that consciousness and the material world are identical. Consciousness is observer dependent perspectives on the material world from the POV of particular observers and events. Each of these consciousnesses is all that exists for the particular observer (all is consciousness only). Our concept of a material world is simply a cognitive construct of our consciousness, however that construct seems consistent and sharable thus we may assume it has an independent existence beyond our particular consciousness though we of course can never actually confirm that because we can never step outside of consciousness. Not easy to explain or perhaps understand. To address your questions: Replace Karma with causality. Karma has moral implications that are unsubstantiated. Causality though does exist and provides the rules which make our conscious perspectives and material world view cognitive constructs consistent. Thus causality does govern what happens in the world of forms. As to when we die, the answer is that when you die your consciousness stops and your body decays (my perspective) . On the other hand I can never experience death since death is the end of experience. Hope that helps, Edgar On Oct 11, 2008, at 11:00 PM, Anthony Wu wrote: Edgar, Thank you. You seem to say that the world is nothing but universal consciousness. Material objects and all kinds of living beings are just manifestations (contents) of the universal consciousness. Maybe I am wrong, but that is an interesting philosophical discussion. Whether or not it is relevant to zen, I would like to know the practical aspects of your theory: - Does karma work in the universal consciousness, or whatever you call it? - When we die, do we just merge into the universe and lose our individual entities? Regards, Anthony --- On Sun, 12/10/08, Edgar Owen <[EMAIL PROTECTED] net> wrote: From: Edgar Owen <[EMAIL PROTECTED] net> Subject: Re: [Zen] consciousness To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com Date: Sunday, 12 October, 2008, 7:46 AM Anthony, Well not quite. Personal consciousness is associated with material beings and disappears with the dissolution of the material form. However if you read my paper http://EdgarLOwen. com/HardProblem. pdf you will see that my view is that everything, that is the entire material world, is in fact the same experiential 'stuff' of consciousness that is the same 'stuff' of human consciousness just in a different form particular to the material it is associated with. I.e. a human has human type contents in this consciousness stuff and a molecule has molecule type contents of it. That's probably not very clearly stated but the idea is that the interaction of all matter with other matter amounts to matter's experience of matter which is what the causal process of reality that continually flows through the present moment with clock time is. That same flow is experienced as human consciousness by humans, and mouse consciousness by mice as the details, the contents of consciousness, depend on the different biological and cognitive structures of mice and men while the phenomenon of consciousness itself as opposed to its details is common to both mice and men, and in fact everything in the universe. So the contents of consciousness will be different for each being and the contents are the forms that arise in consciousness itself which are illusion. Whereas consciousness itself, that in which the contents of consciousness arise is the same for everything in the universe. It is simply the physical reality of the present moment. So tuning into the pure consciousness itself, devoid of its contents, is Zen, or satori since the content forms which are the veils of illusion are no longer present and do not distract from consciousness itself. But of course the contents do persist in the material world and so the trick is to continually recognize these contents for what they are, contents of pure consciousness, ripples or disturbances in the field of consciousness itself, so that one doesn't get entangled in the individual forms but always sees them as contents of the underlying pure consciousness itself. The forms themselves have no real substance since they are just ripples or disturbances in what would be the perfect stillness of consciousness itself devoid of any forms or ripples. Hope that makes it a little clearer. As to the OBE, I really haven't felt I had to explain it. It was just something that happened. In my view it is a fundamental mistake to think consciousness is located or centered in the physical body, since everything we see and experience is actually happening in our own head and the idea of an individual 'self' is just a cognitive construct, so that cognitive construct can subjectively locate its concept of observer anywhere it wants, at least temporarily. In that view 'our' consciousness continually pervades everything that we experience to its furtherest boundaries. Since all that is experienced is consciousness, consciousness must then be antecedent to the division between self and not self. Remember the furtherest boundaries of the horizon are simply our retinas inside our eyes, and the whole world exists in the nigredo of our brains (the black obsidian crystal ball which we wish to turn into a perfectly clear crystal ball brain - unconsciousness into consciousness) , but of course that means our eyes are the sky and our consciousness in our brains pervades the entire universe. Thus the Zen adage: "Awaken the mind, while dwelling nowhere." Which means wake up and recognize that consciousness is not centered anywhere but everywhere and transcends the distinction between self and world. Edgar On Oct 11, 2008, at 5:58 PM, Anthony Wu wrote: Hi Edgar, I keep an open mind. In your view, does consciousness just disappear, when we die? You seemed to say you had an OBE in Japan. How do you explain that based on science. Regards, Anthony --- On Sun, 12/10/08, Edgar Owen <edgarowen@ att. net> wrote: From: Edgar Owen <[EMAIL PROTECTED] net> Subject: Re: [Zen] consciousness To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ps.com Date: Sunday, 12 October, 2008, 3:23 AM Thanks Margie, Your comments or questions would be welcome. Much appreciated, Edgar On Oct 11, 2008, at 9:55 AM, roloro1557 wrote: Hi Edgar- I am still reading HardProblem - I'm on page 10. So far it is wonderful! :-) Margie (roloro1557) ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- FROM: Over the hills and far away... . . Don't be an observer of life. Be life. T'ao Shan OldWomansZenChronic les.blogspot. com ____________ _________ _________ _________ _ Get your preferred Email name! Now you can @ymail.com and @rocketmail. .com. ____________ _________ _________ _________ _ Yahoo! Toolbar is now powered with Search Assist. 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