I've followed the work of Bernardo Kastrup—in particular his critiques of materialism—on and off for several years now, and have greatly appreciated it. So was delighted (if a bit surprised) to hear that he was pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy. Here Mr. Kastrup defends his Ph.D dissertation titled Analytic Idealism: A consciousness-only ontology—during which he provides a succinct overview of his …
Nonduality
A Grin Without A Cat
The following excerpt is drawn from Ajahn Brahm's Kindfulness, the chapter titled "A Grin without a Cat." ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ In Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Alice is startled to see the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a nearby tree and grinning from ear to ear. Like all the strange creatures in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat has the eloquence of a politician. Not only does the …
Light & Mirror
Krishna saw his own self — as the Infinite — In the throng of lovely gopis. They experienced in Krishna, O wonder, Their own self — but as the Absolute. And when, in play, he stole their veils, He wished to see himself in Truth's naked ray. Âtmâ and Mâyâ: light and mirror. God is Love and He loves His image. ~ Frithjof Schuon Playful Reflection In searching for an online version …
Return Of The Geese
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. ~ William Blake Returning to writing from a previous time can be an interesting exercise, and tends to clearly highlight which essays, poems, etc. have an evergreen quality—some kind of value that does not diminish with the passing of time—and which ones, not so much. Here's a piece that, imo, falls …
As If
Wave-Particle In a fascinating article—Does The Universe Exist If We're Not Looking?—that's based upon an interview with (the late) physicist John Wheeler, I learned something new about the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment, which is that it originally was a thought experiment involving a pair of distant galaxies and an even-more-distant quasar. It was only later that a table-top version …
Practice Notes: The Causal Potency of Wisdom vs. Ignorance
Dueling Hypotheses Let’s consider two hypotheses—both of which pertain to the relationship between (1) the subtle, internal and generally private realm of thoughts/feelings, and (2) perceptions of a presumably shared “external world.” Taken individually, each of these hypotheses makes sense to me: my inclination is to agree with them both. Yet when they’re placed side by side, they seem to …
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