A Post by Philosopher Evan Thompson, please take a look

Aim: Building a bridge between mind science and Husserl’s genetic/generative phenomenology of intersubjectivity Two central ideas: (i) Self and other. - ppt download: Subchapters: A) Intentionality and Open Intersubjectivity (pp ) B) The Phenomenological Concept of Empathy (pp ) C) Affective and Sensorimotor Coupling (pp ) D) Imaginary Transposition (pp ) E) Mutual Self and Other Understanding (pp ) F) Moral Perception (p. 401f.) G) Enculturation (pp )

Ongoing Experiment (with recurring editing): A New Cosmology Inquiry (or something like inquiry)

This experiment-exercise (EE) may bring on some rather strange and unexpected consequences. It may render your life, as you now conceive of it, to be done. It is entirely possible, if the EE takes root, there will come a transition to a cosmological event that puts an end to seeing meaning as meaning of. All will become clear. However, I invite you to look at this flim and enjoy its meaning(s) as a precursor of sorts, albeit a most enjoyable one, that may serve as an introduction to the need for communication and hence the movement of life itself. The short film is entitled Bahkyt  

https://vimeo.com/howelove/318





The most accurate description of this set of posts--within the overarching theme of the One--is best thought of, initially, as a thought-experiment. As elaborations accrue to each of the movements of thoughts spoken here (through an editing and refining process) it will become evident that this post takes on a more radical appearance and, hopefully, disappearance. This will be made clear if time allows us its hoped for dispensation. Let us pray. 

The following, despite appearances, is intended for use in treating disease. As such, it may be considered medicinal in intent. The disease this medicine has been fabricated to treat is the disease of misplaced ontological loyalties and the substitution of ontology for phenomenology* in the study of Eastern meditation practices and expected outcomes.

If you are following along with me, then you too may take off in any direction you wish while attempting to remain loyal to the stated situation that there is only One. (We shall capitalize the "O" whenever we are discussing this One.)

Despite its immediate logical shortcomings, which are readily apparent, continue on your own to play along thinking "I am that One and only" and imagine what that would be like. 

Our inquiry begins with a question. What if there was only one? Our first impulse would be to ask, "One what?" Well, that question cannot be legitimately asked because there is nothing else but One and to ask "One what?" would imply that there exists a knower and a known. To ask the question is overstepping the limits of our knowledge at this point in time because there is only One. (Part of our exercise, if you are in the game, is making an effort to stay with this apparently impossible rule that we always remember that there is only One. I know, I know, but hang in there, please.) Now, imagine we, each one of us, is this One. Put yourself in its place and imagine, if you will, what it would be like. You would be all, only, and One without a second. But how would you know this? How would such knowledge be possible in this our story or experiment? So, what would be the necessary conditions for such knowing?

First, it requires that we somehow split ourselves in two. So, let us imagine that our division into two would not be an ontological division, or a division of our selves, whatever that would mean, into two--one the knower and one the known. (Akin to Aristotle's Unmoved Mover.) We do not yet know what is but we are irresistibly drawn to consider what is so we know, forgetting the limitations placed upon us in this experiment. Some of our immediately arisen questions and judgments about this exercise must be put aside for now until we get it, the point of the exercise.  

Now, let us say that the One that I am is recognized as such by thought. Thought, therefore, provides a second which only reflects that One itself, for there is nothing else. (At this point, we begin to sound a lot like Descartes 2nd Meditation, but wait.) In our experiment, this One is each One of us, unknown by any others because there is only Me as the One. So, there is an incestuous relationship between Me and the thought that pretends and is pretentious enough to believe it is knowing itself. Let's say the conceptual or fabricated me is the second me the thought of me. So, there is still only Me, One without a second, with the realization that I am also this second me when I pretend that I am knowing me. Me is merely a reflection of Me as the One. For now, let's let this experiment sink in. Meditate on it. Use it as an exercise in imagination. Allow it to take on the ontological sense of really being that One. Find its limitations and contradictions but continue to pretend for the sake of fulfilling the requirements of the exercise. You are playing along, as they say.

(𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘯. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳.)

                                       II.

So far we have what you may regard as a rather crude entry into an experiment that has yet to demonstrate, on an experiential level of both understanding and feeling that we are the One, the only existent. The One becomes aware of this because it has the capacity to know with its thought, something this One has always had the capacity to do but starts to do because we are only now engaging this One in our experiment. I know the going is rough but hang in there. Hopefully, the experiment will demonstrate--on more than one level--its raison d'être as we proceed and we take some time to consider, toss around in thought, and see what appears in both feelings and thoughts. 

Please recall that each of us is this One, the topic under observation. The One has come to know that it is (assume we/it knows what exists means) and now we must simply accept that we are the One and only. Think and feel this narrative. It should sound something like, "I am the only One, there is no one, no thing other than me." 

All of the above, in all senses of the term has occurred in and as time. Time is the movement of the One's experience which so far has been only that "I am," and that "I am the only One." Or, we might opt for "I am the One and only, One without a second." How do we know we are one without a second? Well, again breaking rules of logic for the sake of this experiment, I know this because there is not yet any conception of near or far in which something might exist; nor is there any other thought but that "I am" or "I am the One and only"--or something to that effect. Just imagine what that would be like. 

Now, if you have played along, here is a next step. "I am One alone, without a second, and there is no one else but me." Feel this; allow this to sink in. Do you feel the horror? What is? Is there anything at all like me? Is this it? Just me? All alone? Only me? 

Did you feel it? I did mention horror, did I not? If you are willing to indulge the idea of one alone without a second, you may feel horror if you have a past, present, and future in the mix. Imagine being all alone, deeply imagine it. If you can feel horror or fright or something beyond loneliness, you are doing this correctly--or at least doing it along the appropriate lines of this exercise. We may even feel the urge to flee from the aloneness and flee fast very fast. What is it about being alone, now? Even imagining this, if you really give this a test, the horror or some degree of it will be felt.  

The 𝙊𝙣𝙚 and Only Pain

All of us, from the bottom up, ants to divine beings, are facing their own death. This one realization, if truly embedded in our feeling level, is enough to bring on oceans of tears--and yet, we sometimes act with unnecessary cruelty toward each other. This one realization is enough to bring on oceans of blood-tears. It is no wonder tears and tear are of a kind. 

(Certainly needs editing) Subjectivity, Consciousness, Awareness, and the Mirror

Here is a story about a mirror and how we may see life occurring.

It's like a mirror tain, what is put before it, it reflects. In our case, as human beings, our structural configurations dictate some of what goes into the mirror. Structure, along with the accumulated acts of body, speech, and mind--or so we have come to believe--flesh out the images that are placed before the mirror. The mirror then dutifully reflects back what is not only the expected but the novel as well. The novel may be seen as the prevailing conditions of present concerns, anticipations, circumstances, e.g., intention (as desire), lighting, mirror dust, etc., all due to accumulation. This is what we might call, in keeping with the Indian philosophical traditions, karma (action). Past actions plus prevailing conditions--we may draw a fine line between the two--constitute the image. So, the past and present conditions enter the mirror and become a self plus incarnate and meaning-laden circumstances.

The mirror is indifferent to all presentations. The processing of image production is fundamentally important to the intentional concerns only, manifesting as selves who live and die. This body of anonymous intentions driven from beneath us as desire to fill the mirror has no perceivable bottom, no perceivable beginning (an-adi for Sanskritists). Even to ask why life occurs is a question the source of which is on the side of history, i.e., the actions, not the mirror. We find ourselves on the receiving end of the reflection. We are the receiving end of the reflection. What goes in comes out as experience, or more correctly, experiencing. The concern-content has little to do with the mirror, although nothing incarnates, nothing lives, without it. It's a trick, a scam that manifests all the whos, whats, whys, wheres, and hows that history has given each one of us in the movement of living. Yes, it is always and fundamentally each one of us. We believe and live what the mirror reflects. We call this conscious living in meaningful circumstances.

We must, however, realize that we consciously receive and live much less than what goes in, in both human personal terms; it would be quite different for whales and so-called extraterrestrials, individual and species-specific. We are limited to the surface while the depths of history configure in silent and sentient emptiness (shunyata). Our senses of self, circumstances (the lived world) are a reduction of karma to the manageable limits of our historically imposed images. However, we can, with some effort and help, overcome some of the limitations. (This is a discussion, always, for another time.)

Now, as for our mirrors, yes they must be plural despite their common function considered by many to constitute a singularity. Mirrors are often relegated to becoming terms such as consciousness, divinity, sentience, and all sorts of images and estimations. In any case, it is unknowable, futile, and at times, dangerous to characterize with certainty. Oddly enough, the word certain is related to the word crisis--and, as history will testify, certainty has given rise to many. Our mirror only gives us what is put into it. We get nothing from it but life itself, and life is also what we put into it. What's to say? Not much at all. Keeping silent recognition and appreciation, like the mirror itself, allowing it to be present as much as possible, helps us navigate the many realities history lives to become. The mirror mocks it all but provides it nonetheless. Accommodating it is an essential ingredient for the minimization of life's challenges. Call that an epoché or bracketing ala Husserl's phenomenology or just plain meditation.       

Now we have a very basic understanding of the mirror metaphor. There are more subtleties that will be fleshed out as we proceed on this methodos, or way. What goes into the mirror--if you like, call the mirror consciousness or awareness--is both historical and structural. History here means actions of body, speech, and mind that have been constituted by a vast and incomprehensible network of causes that were, at one time or another, embodied in a human form, a universal form. (We will address this universality below.)     




   

Empathy as the Foundation of Compassion

I recommend this slide show very highly. Please pay close attention to the constitution of self/other as an embodied process. This is the key to self-other means of compassionate reduction of suffering. 




EMPATHY AND COMPASSION A Neurophenomenological Approach Evan Thompson.

On the Dangers of Translation

One of the most important texts of Mahayana Buddhism is the Bodhipathapradipam ("Path to Awakening") by Dipamkara Shrijnana Atisha, commonly referred to simply as Atisha (982-1054). In this text, a path to awakening is laid out in a wonderful format which, in my view, promotes a path of empathy. Here are two examples of a possible translation of verse 5 from this text. A well-known translator and long-time practitioner has translated this magnificent text for us--and has done a great service for doing so. 

Here I include his translation first and my corrected rendering of the same verse with a twist. I hope you appreciate the intent of this modification. It has great bearing on how one views and practices Buddhism. I have simply eliminated his interpolated material and kept the rest. His translation may serve, as I see it, to obscure the intent of the verse. It is based on presuppositions, that are axiomatic in our Western philosophical tradition. In fact, I find his interpolation to reflect a Cartesianism that hides in the background serving--in far too many instances of translated, taught, and practiced aspects of Buddhist and non-Buddhist Indian (as well as Chinese) traditions--to reinforce the underlying beliefs that keep human possibilities framed and locked inside of a noose of deleterious limitations as evidenced today in far too many problems from pollution to insane inclinations toward war. 

See if you agree. Husserl would have objected to his translation (interpolation) on the basis of his view of empathy within phenomenological intersubjectivity. 


5) Anyone who fully wishes to eliminate completely
All the sufferings of others
As (he or she would) the sufferings included
in his or her own mental continuum
Is someone of supreme motivation.

Anyone who fully wishes to eliminate completely
All the sufferings of others
As the sufferings included
in his or her own experience continuum
Is someone of supreme motivation.


I sincerely hope you find this challenging, interesting, and helpful. Buddhism needs your help. 

                                                        --Gene Kelly 14 February 2019

Use of the Words 𝙇𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 and 𝘿𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙧𝙚

Experience may be viewed as a sentient, breath-driven, incarnate, vectorial, and recursive impulse of conditioned intentions accompanied by a multiplicity of self-senses and responses that simultaneously manifest as their ephemeral and complementary meaning-laden circumstances fulfilling or obstructing those intentional impulses.
We may legitimately speak of this momentum as living and those intentional impulses as desires. This may be interpreted as the intentional desire-driven momentum of past acts incarnating as a vector: Experience, in use here, is the pregnant present expecting the perfect child of fulfillment in the ardently anticipated future—the only future that may be said to incarnate sentience. This present is not graspable, attainable, nor fulfilling. It is soaked with disappointment, patent or latent, from its roots, arousing vectorial maturity, i.e., anticipation, aiming toward inevitable failure. It is marked by difficulty, a lack of inherent essence of all its phenomena, and ephemerality. Phenomena arise and simultaneously dissolve according to the intentional drives marred by the lack of fulfillment of their expectations.
--Gene Kelly, 12/2018
“...desire is the primal seed of experience,….”
--Rg Veda 10.129.4

Our time is up. Let's be serious about our lives for others. What others are to you is what you are to them. Please be kind. Compassion is the wisdom-filled wish for the well being of all others. 

In constituting ourselves we constitute others; in the constitution others, we constitute ourselves. Be kind and practice it to the end. Our salvation consists in the realization that all otherness--despite the inculcation, sanctification, legitimization, and legislation of the belief in an independently existing reality--is, in fact, granted its very being and sentience through our life as lived.