Posts 1

In Chronological Order
Selected Posts: 1999-2014

• ‘Water By The River’
  ‘For forty yearsI’ve been selling waterBy the river-bank, Ho, Ho!My labors have been wholly without merit’ Harada Daiun Sogaku[1861-1971]
• An Unquiet Desperation: ‘It Takes A Fool’
  I had been around. And I had slid. From an amused bemusement, past simple bewilderment, beyond all sophisticated skepticism to a lurching unquiet desperation. A… Continue reading An Unquiet Desperation: ‘It Takes A Fool’
• The Folly Of Inquiry
  How does one inquire into ‘Two-ness’ when the very claim: ‘Two-ness’ mounts on the distinction of ‘Two’ [‘Two; Not-Two’]. How does one talk about the… Continue reading The Folly Of Inquiry
• Ourobouros: The Expression: Tát
  The sarcophagus of Tutankhamun [1,300 BCE]. Note the coiled snake at the center trying, but failing to swallow its tail. Ourobouros [Classical Greek; literally: ‘Tail-Eater’],… Continue reading Ourobouros: The Expression: Tát
• The ‘Self-Eating Expression’: 1,500 BCE To 1950 CE
  The Self-Eating Expression is the universal phrasing for the intuition of Not-Two in the vocabulary of the speaker. It is a summary-term put-forth by pioneering… Continue reading The ‘Self-Eating Expression’: 1,500 BCE To 1950 CE
• Heisenberg: ‘The Traditional Requirement Of Science’
  ‘Although the Theory of Relativity makes the greatest demands on the ability of abstract thought, still it permits the traditional requirement of Science, as it… Continue reading Heisenberg: ‘The Traditional Requirement Of Science’
• The First And Fundamental Presumption Of Inquiry
  And the first and fundamental presumption of Formal Inquiry is the accepted convention, the unstated conviction, of the presence of an inquiring Subject ‘Independent’ [hence… Continue reading The First And Fundamental Presumption Of Inquiry
• Equus Asinus: The Doctor of Philosophy
  In the best known lines from Plato’s Phaedrus: ‘But I [Socrates] have no leisure for them [other inquiries] at all. And the reason, my friend,… Continue reading Equus Asinus: The Doctor of Philosophy
• The ‘First Principles’ List
  Methods of Inquiry that have immediate credibility to the modern-ear begin with the early Greek philosophers. Inquiry must begin, they said, with the assertion of… Continue reading The ‘First Principles’ List
• The Redoubtable Mr. Holmes
  ‘How often have I said to you [Watson], that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth’. Arthur Conan-Doyle:… Continue reading The Redoubtable Mr. Holmes
• The Axioms Of Sight And The Virgin Twins
  Step into your bathroom. Turn on the lights. Wipe mirror with a damp cloth. Look. Do you see your eye? Of Course you do. But… Continue reading The Axioms Of Sight And The Virgin Twins
• Inward-Turn: The Beam In My Eye
  Honest Inquiry begins inwards, backwards. The assumed Subject had to be clearly identified, the Inquirer’s Platform laid bare, prior to any investigation on an Object… Continue reading Inward-Turn: The Beam In My Eye
• ‘Who Is It That See’s?’
  ‘Look cuttingly: Who is it that looks? When you thoroughly penetrate this, the clarity stands out as lacquer black as a coal goose standing in… Continue reading ‘Who Is It That See’s?’
• Nothing And Everything
  The Mathematician Pappus records Archimedes [287-212 BCE]: ‘Give me a place to stand and [with a lever] I shall move the Earth’. You don’t need to move… Continue reading Nothing And Everything
• Yājñavalkya’s Algorithm
  Shiva-Naṭarāja, Chennai Museum, India Brahman is the central Dharmic posit. So what is Brahman? From the Brihadäranyaka Upaniṣad [2;3;6]: ‘Now, therefore, the description of Brahman: ‘Not… Continue reading Yājñavalkya’s Algorithm
• Not-Two: The ‘No Abiding Place’
  ‘Method’ wrote Immanuel Kant, is ‘Procedure according to Principle’. In the ‘Diamond-Cutter’ Sūtra [See front page] Yājñavalkya’s Algorithm was given a practical turn with the Sūtra‘s central directive: ‘A… Continue reading Not-Two: The ‘No Abiding Place’
• ‘Burning The Sūtras’: The Central Metaphor of Buddhism
  The Buddha didn’t think much of ascetics, god-men or philosophers. And he preferred concrete metaphors to abstract terms like the ‘Self-Eating Expression’. And so it… Continue reading ‘Burning The Sūtras’: The Central Metaphor of Buddhism
• The Loop In Myth: Vishnu’s Dream
  Mystery and enigma unveil more readily in the fluid feminine of Myth than in the linear logic of argument and sermon. A Story of Creation… Continue reading The Loop In Myth: Vishnu’s Dream
• The Loop In Folk-Tale and Legend: Or How To Count To Ten
  Ten learned men were holding hands crossing a turbulent river. Once on the other shore, they decided to count themselves to make sure all had… Continue reading The Loop In Folk-Tale and Legend: Or How To Count To Ten
• The Loop In Religion: ‘Does God Exist?’
  ‘Does God Exist?’, the indispensable question of every Thinking Man and Woman. The question is premature and presumptuous. The proper question, prior, proximate, more modest… Continue reading The Loop In Religion: ‘Does God Exist?’
• ‘The Most Important Unresolved Question Of All Time’
  ‘From the first Nothing is!’ declared Hui-neng, the pioneering 6th Chinese Patriarch of C’han-Zen. Now, 1,300 years after Hui-neng, a new and widely- publicized survey… Continue reading ‘The Most Important Unresolved Question Of All Time’
• The Age Of Information: The Binary Code
  Wisdom may be inexpressible. The ‘Formless’, unnameable. But Information is eminently expressible. In fact, expressibility is what makes it ‘Information’. This, they say, is the Age of… Continue reading The Age Of Information: The Binary Code
• The Oldest Injunction In Language
  ‘Know Thyself’: Gnothi Seauton. In the Sanskrit: Atmanam Viddhi. You can find variants of it in every literate culture. The oldest, most ubiquitous injunction in Language. Self-Inquiry is… Continue reading The Oldest Injunction In Language
• The Loop In Language: The Definition of Definition
  Formal Inquiry begins with Definition. It is the center bolt of Rational Discourse. And the line limiting fraudulent bombast. ‘Definition’ derives from the Latin: De… Continue reading The Loop In Language: The Definition of Definition
• The Loop In Logic: ‘Socrates is Mortal’
  Logic, as the ancient Philosophers before Aristotle knew and warned, begins in Ontology. If your ontological assumptions aren’t transparent and verified, the Logic will sooner… Continue reading The Loop In Logic: ‘Socrates is Mortal’
• The Loop In Science: The Copernican Center
  Science, Modern Man’s most embraceable Religion, began with a verifiable claim on planetary self-displacement. Where we stand is not the true center. The Observer is not… Continue reading The Loop In Science: The Copernican Center
• ‘And Lo! It Is Our Own’
  ‘Something unknown is doing we don’t know what. We have found that where Science has progressed the farthest, the Mind has but regained from Nature that… Continue reading ‘And Lo! It Is Our Own’
• Brahman
  Brahman, from the root ‘Brh‘: ‘To Uphold, Support’, is the central Dharmic posit. ‘Brahman is that and only that of which the Upaniṣads speak’ begins the celebrated… Continue reading Brahman
• Brahman: The Loop
  The traditional method to arrive at Brahman is to begin with a Mahāvākyam [‘Summary Affirmation’]. It is an approach to the terminus, a pedagogic convenience,… Continue reading Brahman: The Loop
• The Idea Of ‘Infinity’
  The idea of ‘Infinity’ has long attracted the mathematically adventurous. And the philosophically credulous. Have you ever had the compelling desire to fly faster than… Continue reading The Idea Of ‘Infinity’
• Nirvāṇa
  The word Nirvāṇa in its proper definition has nothing at all to do with any empyrean ecstasy, cosmic peace or any of that later rubbish… Continue reading Nirvāṇa
• The Dawn of the Gods
  Aurora, the Roman ‘Goddess of the Dawn’Guercino, 1621 CE, Ludovisi, Rome The Rig Vedic Ushas, ‘Goddess of the Dawn’, parallel to the Latin Aurora and the… Continue reading The Dawn of the Gods
• The Loop: What Is ‘Self’?
  ‘This is the entire essence of life: Who are you? What are you?’ wrote Leo Tolstoy [I’ve tried to finish: ‘War and Peace’. Twice.] You… Continue reading The Loop: What Is ‘Self’?
• ‘In-dividuus’: How Fine Can You Cut The Cheese?
  Cut once; get two. A pair is the first and minimal unit of division, the elemental DNA, the fundamental building block of every Man-Made Model.… Continue reading ‘In-dividuus’: How Fine Can You Cut The Cheese?
• ‘I Am My Body’: The Oak Ridge Atomic Research Center
  Perhaps one of the strongest convictions of this, our strange Age, is: ‘I am my Body’. The excerpt below is from the findings of Dr.… Continue reading ‘I Am My Body’: The Oak Ridge Atomic Research Center
• Behind Your Heart And Beneath Your Ribs
  Is there a Little Fellow behind your nose and between your ears? A Teddy Bear behind your heart and beneath your ribs? A Viewing Voyeur… Continue reading Behind Your Heart And Beneath Your Ribs
• Passport: ‘Not Just For Vegans’
  ‘This is the entire essence of life: Who are you? What are you?’ wrote Leo Tolstoy [I’ve tried to finish: ‘War and Peace’. Twice.] This… Continue reading Passport: ‘Not Just For Vegans’
• Where Is Not-Two?
  The Israeli Bombing of Civilian Lebanon: 1982
• Meta-Trio: The Epicenter Of The Self-Loop
  The Meta-Trio: Thought, Mind and Consciousness. ‘Meta’, from the Greek, originally meant ‘Beyond’ as in Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics’. Lately though it is a prefix assigned to… Continue reading Meta-Trio: The Epicenter Of The Self-Loop
• The Loop: What Is A ‘Thought’, Professor?
  Do you know what a ‘Thought’ is? I don’t. [But then, nor do Universities which do a fine trade in refining it.] The problem is… Continue reading The Loop: What Is A ‘Thought’, Professor?
• Think!
  There is nothing I understand less than this thing called ‘Thought’. Yet nothing is more real to me than this which I understand the least.… Continue reading Think!
• René Descartes:’Cogito ergo sum’
  The moon-landing was faked in Utah. Cream Doughnuts widen arteries. My mother really loves me. Perhaps, perhaps not. But I don’t have these insidious doubts… Continue reading René Descartes:’Cogito ergo sum’
• Ahankára: ‘Sum, ergo cogito, sentio’
  Here is the remarkable Horace Hayman Wilson [1786-1860], first European translator of the Rig Veda and the first occupant of the Boden chair for Sanskrit… Continue reading Ahankára: ‘Sum, ergo cogito, sentio’
• The Loop: What Is A ‘Thought’, Dr. Kant?
  Immanuel Kant whose roots go back directly to Aristotle, defined the domain of Academic Philosophy for over two centuries. ‘Thought’ proffered Immanuel Kant ‘is cognition… Continue reading The Loop: What Is A ‘Thought’, Dr. Kant?
• What Is A ‘Thought’, Socrates?
  When Thaetetus asks Socrates to describe ‘ Thinking’, Socrates replies: ‘As a discourse that the mind carries on with itself about any subject it is… Continue reading What Is A ‘Thought’, Socrates?
• What Is ‘Orangeness’?
  What is the ‘Orangeness’ in an Orange? What is common between a sliced and a peeled Orange? A ripe and a rotten Orange? A nibbled… Continue reading What Is ‘Orangeness’?
• Ludwig Wittgenstein: ‘The Vehicle Of Thought’
  Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: ‘When I think in Language there are not meanings going through my mind in addition to the verbal expressions: the language is itself… Continue reading Ludwig Wittgenstein: ‘The Vehicle Of Thought’
• Where Is Not-Two?
  You are in the white toyota in the back of the middle rowand desperately need to pee.
• The Loop: Man And Mind
  Homer’s Odyssey begins with the word ‘Man’ [Andra, from the Attic-Greek Aner, as in the English Anthropo]. ‘Man’ [as in the Sanskrit Manush, Manas] is: ‘That which has Mind’. How is ‘Man’ different… Continue reading The Loop: Man And Mind
• Relief
  Everytime I feel dispirited about the future of this creature called ‘Man’, I reach for this learned quote: ‘One aspect that sharply differentiates Man from… Continue reading Relief
• What Is A ‘Model’?
  What happens if you skip out on investigating the first presumption of Inquiry and proceed with the Inquiry? The word ‘Model’ is etymologically related to… Continue reading What Is A ‘Model’?
• What Is An ‘Explanation’?
  ‘Explanation’ is from the Latin Ex-planationem: ‘to make plain, to flatten [planus]. Everyone wants one, feels obliged to ask for one and acts deprived if denied… Continue reading What Is An ‘Explanation’?
• ‘Queerer Than We Can Suppose…’
  ‘My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose’. A vital distinction.

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