Every now and again, I find it useful to review logical principles that are central to rational discourse, yet often misunderstood or just botched in the heat of the moment. Here are two all-time favorites … 1. Correlation & Causation Just because two events are correlated doesn’t mean that there is a causal relationship that exists between the two. As pictured above, a hot sunny day may …
Practice Notes
Absolute Certainty & Perpetual Transformation
To begin this essay—the latest in a series exploring certainty—let’s recall some questions lingering from a previous post, having to do with the relationship between phenomenal appearances and Awareness, in terms of their certainty: * Is it actually necessary that appearances are less certain than the Awareness within which they arise and dissolve? Is there no scenario in which they are, say, …
[Read more...] about Absolute Certainty & Perpetual Transformation
Blissfully Unencumbered
This is the great mystery of human vision: Vivid pictures of the world appear before our mind’s eye, yet the brain’s visual system receives very little information from the world itself. Much of what we “see” we conjure in our heads. Understanding a bit about how human vision works provides a fascinating window onto the deeply conditioned nature of all perceptual processes: hearing, tasting, …
Ways of Knowing
In a previous post—Mercury Rising—we considered various measuring devices—used by scientists to record information about large, medium-sized and very small phenomena. One device briefly considered was the human body-mind itself. Now, let’s continue our exploration by taking a closer look at the human body-mind as a measuring apparatus. In particular, let’s address the question: what counts as …
Mercury Rising
In a previous post—Star Light, Star Bright—I posed the question: What is meant by “observation” in various physics paradigms, and how does this relate (if at all) to Awareness as the final, ultimate perceiver/observer? And, as we saw, what is meant by “an observer” differs quite dramatically, between Newtonian, special relativity, and quantum mechanical paradigms. And this is quite …
Practice Notes: Prodigal Children
The Parable of the Prodigal Son In the parable of the prodigal son—shared by Jesus with his disciples—a father has two sons. The older son stays close to home, being faithful to his familial duties and frugal with his funds. The younger son takes his inheritance and leaves town, wanders far and wide, and lives in a reckless, wasteful and extravagant way. Eventually—with his fortune squandered, …