John,
Thanks for your comments.
And for the invitation, though I won't be there then - to have a glass (or
two) with you.
There are very few people in this world whose corners of their mouths pull
in the same direction as mine at the whiff of SEPTIC semantics whilst they
know and nod in near-enough unison with my gnostically grounded noodles. %-]
Perhaps you are one of them. :-)
>> I have no idea why Ken is so intense about all this.
I certainly have a few EPTly bundled ones - but they are of little or no
consequence
outside my own head. :-\
> Stuff humanity,
For that you and I need help from at least a couple of extraterrestrial
cadres of taxidermists.
> Risen Apes are not that precious to be that concerned about.
Whether Risen Apes or Fallen Angels, I largely agree. ;-)
> if you're up that way I'll meet you at the Victory Hotel and
> we'll see who can kill the most brain cells.
> At my age with this bloody
> eyesight its not like I need those little buggers anymore.
Don't be selfish -- consider *they* might need you!. :-)
>> And ...
>> Yes, there was a recent report on identifying "religious regions" in the
> brain. So what? One can find motor regions, does that make movement an
> illusion?
No. It makes movement very slighly less of a mindless mirage.
> And there is that fascinating work of Michael Persinger re magnets
> and religious experience. And a study last year found that people who see
> visions to show differential activation of the temporal lobe area (can't
> remember where precisely but think it was right side at least). I agree
with
> you that religion is very much an instinctual type of impulse, thus I have
> encountered far too many individuals who adopt a religious attitude to
> science.
I can rather clearly if not remember the sequence (though not the exact
chronology) of different (but of course related) religious and other inner
experiences and feelings in my own childhood and teenage years and how these
led to a certain distinct improvement of psychoemotional (and psychosomatic)
well-being.
> As if it will provide all the answers we need, as if it is the only
> way to establishing truth, the Holy Grail of human cognition, and the
> persistent tendency of scientists to attack religion is reminiscent of how
> religions like to attack each other.
Having been rather observant of and able to remember and later make sense of
key/important states or events in my own mind I can confirm and safely
extrapolate the finding reported in New Scientist recently (if I rembember
right) that was titled "Mindsight could exlain sixth sense".
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994638
That is to say, in my mid twenties, I ended up with a vague and frustrating
feeling that I somehow knew, but could not even begin to describe, how
things were; Eventually I set out to try to fill this feeling with
brain-factual meaning partly because I suddenly got promted by discovering
to my self-embarrassment that I knew nothing about how my own brain worked.
> I dislike religions except for those
> that engage in self mockery. Eg. Zen, but that most who get into Zen get
so
> bloody serious ... . "Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the
> seriousness of a child at play." (Heraclitus).
>> "Before you study Zen, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers;
while
> you are studying Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no
> longer rivers; but once you have had enlightenment, mountains are once
again
> mountains and rivers again rivers."
>> Same crazy dude.
>>> "... the religious impulse rests on an instinctive basis and is therefore
a
> specifically human function. You can take away a man's gods, but only to
> give him others in return.
"The sum of one's vices is constant" (so one must think carefully before one
stops smoking) - saying learnt via from my grandmother.
<snip>
>> If there is anything Zen strongly emphasizes it is the attainment of
> freedom; that is, freedom from all unnatural encumbrances. Meditation is
> something artificially put on; it does not belong to the natural activity
of
> the mind.
>> Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, page 41
>> Zen wants to have one's mind free and unobstructed; even the idea of
oneness
> or allness is a stumbling-block and a strangling snare which threatens the
> original freedom of the spirit.
That is an insight of mine too! - You just made me feel I even less unique
than I already have discovered I am. ;-<
>> We're so lucky to live in this country!
You are not wrong!
My best wishes,
P