Category Archives: Philosophy

This Year: Meditations on Aging

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Last year we met for lunch. One of the people there, who had just turned 70, was described as “a curmudgeon with a dry sense of humor” but someone who was generous to all and was the life of the party. Two weeks before our get together this year, I received a call from his former girlfriend, saying he had died unexpectedly from a heart aneurism. The memorial service was the day before our reunion. The next day an acquaintance in southern California called to say that his wife’s cancer, which had been in remission, suddenly returned and she had just died.

One of our friends was hiking in the Sierras last year so he couldn’t make it. In response to my e-mail this year, he wrote that he had a slight pain in the chest while in the Sierras followed by massive pain when he returned. He didn’t want to go to the hospital but his wife forced him. He ended up with quadruple heart bypass surgery. He nearly died but is now recovering.

Our reunion this year had considerably fewer people at it. Of the four men present, all in their sixties, two were now sporting canes, one was battling severe diabetes and overweight, and the last, a tennis player with newly reported osteoporosis on his hip was told by his doctor, “Just don’t fall.” The four women on the other hand seemed fine.

In the space of a year we men had gone from looking forward to the future to not having one or just trying to survive into it. What had happened to turn us from active guys into doddering old men, and how could only one year have done this?

Posted in Health, Philosophy | Tagged aging, heart aneurism, heart bypass surgery, osteoporosis, Sierras | 1 Reply

From Particles To People: Debunking Supernatural Claims

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Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll gave a brilliant, well spoken lecture at The Amaz!ng Meeting 2012, using science to explore the nature of the universe and humanity.

Carroll explained that the universe obeys natural laws that are most accurately described by quantum field theory. QFT says that there are three forces in nature that affect the macroscopic world: gravity, electromagnetism, and the nuclear force(s). Carroll also shows that other possible forces can be predicted using QFT’s equations. However, all of the possible predicted forces significant enough to affect the macroscopic domain have been shown to not exist.

QFT accounts for all forces on the macroscopic scale, therefore claims of additional forces that affect the macroscopic domain are false if we accept quantum field theory. So for example, someone claiming to be able to bend spoons using telekinetic forces would be incorrect, because all the macroscopic forces have already been accounted for – there can be no telekinetic force.

Sean Caroll’s full lecture at The Amaz!ng Meeting 2012 is provided by the James Randi Educational Foundation, and can be viewed below:

The Infinite Ocean

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Lately I’ve been reading . It is a collection of zen lessons from four zen masters who lived in turbulent periods in Chinese history. The lessons are translated and assembled by J.C. Cleary, a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University.

The first lesson I want to examine is The Infinite Ocean by Chinese Zen master Hengchuan (1222 – 1289). The lesson reads:

Hengchuan held up the staff and said, “The ocean of reality-nature has no shores. Mountains, rivers, and the great earth are waves on this ocean. Sun, moon, and stars are waves on this ocean. It flows into the nostrils of all the buddhas of past, present, and future. If all of you want to emerge [from your bubble of delusion and witness this ocean], go slowly and gently reawaken.”

In this lesson Hengchuan’s staff symbolizes the teaching function and salvific work of the Zen adepts. The ocean of reality-nature refers to the system of natural laws that constitute the natural order of the universe. This natural order is everywhere and everything. Hengchuan expounds on this by saying the mountains, rivers, earth, the sun, and the moon are all facets, or waves, of this single, underlying reality. All Buddhas are part of, and can correctly perceive, this true nature of reality. If you want to escape your bubble of delusion, or your misconceptions about the nature of reality which causes suffering, then you must reexamine the world freshly without the fallacious preconceptions that you have built up.

This nature of reality is the natural order of things all around us – not the categorizations, labels, biases, and feelings we have may have about it. Reality is the territory, and our perceptions are the map. If our map is incorrect we will be deluded about the territory. If one is able to correctly perceive the nature of the universe, then one will not be deluded into the wrong thinking and wrong action that causes suffering. If one can shed their preconceptions, reawaken, and examine the world for what it is with a fresh pair of eyes, then one can perceive the true nature of reality like the Buddhas perceive it.