I would say that psi should proceed from a strictly material scientific basis, with no psi a priori assumptions sullying the reading (or generating) of results. This means that I do not ‘reject’ in principle the notion of psi, but that I do insist upon a material basis for its study.
Tag: idealism
Mind Science
In the meantime, individuals can choose to progress human evolution by deciding to think beyond the current socially accepted limitations of perception. This may not be easy – as sometimes the powers that be will attempt to oppress any progress in a certain direction that might deprive a privileged minority of their power and influence. In reality, progression requires bravery, insight and resolve.
Hegel and the Yijing (I Ching)
Although I have not accessed a contemporary English translation of this extract, on the face of it, Hegel’s opinion of this ancient Chinese ‘wisdom’ text, seems to be both succinct and precise.
Nama-Rupa: The Mind-Body Essence of Buddhism
The Buddha explained that physical existence is ‘nama-rupa’, or ‘mind-body’. This analysis is found in the received Chain of Dependent Origination (specifically in the 4th link which is conditioned by consciousness [mind], and which in turn conditions the sixfold sense-base [body]).
X-Files Debunks Tibetan Myth
The Buddha rejected ‘idealism’ as being an expression of deluded thought, but the Theosophist Movement essentially interpreted Asian spiritual culture through a Judeo-Christian filter, and this was compounded by the work of DT Suzuki, who mistakenly presented in English translation, the Lankavatara Sutra as being an idealists charter, rather than the sophisticated analysis of the human mind existing and interacting in the physical world that it undoubtedly is.
On Seeing Behind the Eyelids – A Marxist Critique of Buddhism in the West
The Christian monastic tradition, as manifest through Western Christianity, has generally combined a stringent discipline with voluntary poverty and celibacy. The idealised image of the Buddhist monk, as it has entered the Western psyche, is one of a man who has abandoned what is here (real material life), for what is over there (imagined religious realms). Of course, as what is over there, by definition, is never here and now, its presence can never be empirically confirmed. The Buddhist rules followed by monastics and the laity take the place of Christian piety in the West, but are adhered to by most Westerners with a similar fanatic attitude that completely misses the point the rule is assumed to be designed to achieve. The physical practice of Buddhist meditation is of course the act of Christian prayer wrapped in saffron robes. Western converts meditate as if they are praying to a divine being, but with the added titillation that the divine being in question is their own imagined self-essence – or god removed from his heaven and relocated into their own head. Chanting mantras – the holy syllables of the East – replaces the singing of hymns and the chanting of monks, and sutra reading is bible study by other means. Just as god in heaven can never be logically verified, enlightenment in the head can not be seen in the environment or known to exist.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 