WWu777
18th March 2004, 11:33 PM
(http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/pathskep.html)
ZEN. . . AND THE ART OF DEBUNKERY
(C) 1993 by Daniel Drasin. All rights reserved.
May not be reproduced without permission. May be posted
electronically provided that it is transmitted unaltered, in its
entirety, and without charge. File begins and ends with ####, and
totals 27,251 bytes.
Commercial advertisement removed
---------------------------------------------------------
So you've had a close encounter with a UFO or its occupants. Or a
serious interest in the subject of extramundane life. Or a passion for
following clues that seem to point toward the existence of a greater
reality. Mention any of these things to most working scientists and
be prepared for anything from patronizing skepticism to merciless
ridicule. After all, science is supposed to be a purely hardnosed
enterprise with little patience for "expanded" notions of reality.
Right?
Wrong.
Like all systems of truth seeking, science, properly conducted,
has a profoundly expansive, spiritual impulse at its core. This "Zen"
in the heart of science is revealed when the practitioner sets aside
arbitrary beliefs and cultural preconceptions, and approaches the
nature of things with "beginner's mind." When this is done, reality
can speak freshly and freely, and can be heard more clearly.
Appropriate testing and objective validation can--indeed, *must*--
come later.
Seeing with humility, curiosity and fresh eyes was once the
main point of science. But today it is often a different story. As the
scientific enterprise has been bent toward exploitation,
institutionalization, hyperspecialization and new orthodoxy, it has
increasingly preoccupied itself with disconnected facts in a
spiritual, psychological, social and ecological vacuum. Virtually
gone from the scene is the philosopherscientist, to whom meaning
and context were once the very fabric of a multi-level universe.
Today's mainstream science tends, instead, to deny or disregard
entire domains of reality, and satisfies itself with reducing all of
life and consciousness to a dead physics.
Edited to comply with Forum copyright rules.
ZEN. . . AND THE ART OF DEBUNKERY
(C) 1993 by Daniel Drasin. All rights reserved.
May not be reproduced without permission. May be posted
electronically provided that it is transmitted unaltered, in its
entirety, and without charge. File begins and ends with ####, and
totals 27,251 bytes.
Commercial advertisement removed
---------------------------------------------------------
So you've had a close encounter with a UFO or its occupants. Or a
serious interest in the subject of extramundane life. Or a passion for
following clues that seem to point toward the existence of a greater
reality. Mention any of these things to most working scientists and
be prepared for anything from patronizing skepticism to merciless
ridicule. After all, science is supposed to be a purely hardnosed
enterprise with little patience for "expanded" notions of reality.
Right?
Wrong.
Like all systems of truth seeking, science, properly conducted,
has a profoundly expansive, spiritual impulse at its core. This "Zen"
in the heart of science is revealed when the practitioner sets aside
arbitrary beliefs and cultural preconceptions, and approaches the
nature of things with "beginner's mind." When this is done, reality
can speak freshly and freely, and can be heard more clearly.
Appropriate testing and objective validation can--indeed, *must*--
come later.
Seeing with humility, curiosity and fresh eyes was once the
main point of science. But today it is often a different story. As the
scientific enterprise has been bent toward exploitation,
institutionalization, hyperspecialization and new orthodoxy, it has
increasingly preoccupied itself with disconnected facts in a
spiritual, psychological, social and ecological vacuum. Virtually
gone from the scene is the philosopherscientist, to whom meaning
and context were once the very fabric of a multi-level universe.
Today's mainstream science tends, instead, to deny or disregard
entire domains of reality, and satisfies itself with reducing all of
life and consciousness to a dead physics.
Edited to comply with Forum copyright rules.