Being a metaphysics junky, forgive me for jumping in here. I can see the temptation to discuss metaphysics in this forum. I came here for different reasons, but not being a Zen practitioner, I thought metaphysics was close enough to Zen interests to be appropriate, if not key, and figured it was how I could participate.
I was wrong. If you want to know more about the difficulties encountered by current theories of the "mind-body" problem try this fine index of 2160 academic papers: http://consc.net/online.html There's been a lot of ideas with merit before the Cartesian daulistic approach. And there's been a lot of ideas since. Unfortunately, at least in the west, our heavily Christian/Puritan influence filters Cartesian dualism down to the masses as representing "religion/sciences' best guess". But the filtering sucks and is done more by conservative religious figures than scientists because they at least have all the answers while science is still hemming and hawing. Recall it took Scope's legal trial to teach the theory of evolution in public schools... For most, this Cartesian seperation of mind/body seems unhelpful if not plain wrong, and we struggle to show to ourselves that this way of thinking mind/body doesn't work. You are right, it doesn't. Very few educated people believe it (not trying to be a slam on the few that do, but at least a statistic on their numbers). I suggest you not take on ownership for this difficult question and bear the weight on your own shoulders before at least 'catching up' to all the effort that's been expended. The fact that there are 2160 papers chosen (Alex's book is strangely missing ;), indexed by subject, and not just 1 -- should give you some indication of the liklihood of you discovering the 'correct' paper, or there even being a 'correct' one in the bunch. This doesn't even count the other 90% of soft-science or new-age books you'll find at the store. But returning to my point, trying to approach Zen through metaphysics is an unfortunate predicament. Its a disheartening process like untying the xmas lights -- each time you thread the end through to undo the wire-crossing closest to the accesible end, you are tangling the knot MORE -- 'cause the string went into the box untangled, and the end didn't snake in and out through the wires over time. Rather, a less linear approach of shaking the string free of itself is more prudent (and less lights get broken too). Rod Scholl ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UwRTUD/UOnJAA/i1hLAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
