2013 « The Ramblings of An Eternal Student of Life

Sunday, June 16, 2013

◊ The 21st Century: Is Our Constitution Really Up for It?

History ... Politics ...

I am not a Constitutional scholar like President Obama, but I did take a class in Constitutional Law while in law school (many years ago), and I mostly stayed awake in my high school and college American history classes when the Founding Fathers were discussed. Plus I’ve read a few things here and there about early American history, so I have a general sense of what the theory is behind the way that our government is shaped.

In a nutshell, the Founding Fathers liked the established local and state governments, and were quite worried about adding a third layer on top of this. But they knew that a federal government was needed, so they tried to design a system with “checks and balances”, as to avoid the bad, tyrannical things that an un-checked national leadership could do. Democracy was a key feature of this new federal system, as to maintain the buy-in of the common man (and yes, for the Founding Fathers it indeed was man, not woman; and white man, no Native Americans or slaves from Africa or elsewhere).

And yet, the common man could only have so much input. The Founders clearly did NOT want anything approaching pure democracy. They clearly felt that » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:30 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Friday, June 14, 2013

◊ Zen, Enlightenment and Bugs — A Haiku

Zen ...

At the zendo the other day, our sensei gave a talk about enlightenment. He made the point that many people are attracted to Zen because they want and hope to achieve “enlightenment”, as a big whoop, a quasi-orgasmic experience of spiritual realization. Then he went on to say that “it’s not like that”; you can’t achieve enlightenment by work and study. It’s not like getting in shape to do a triathlon or bench-press 300 pounds. Enlightenment is more of a “surprise me” thing. It will happen, or not, in its own way, at its own time.

Our sensei took many of his thoughts from a book by Korean Zen teacher Zeung San, called “Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake”. I pretty much agreed with our local teacher (I don’t always, read on) and with the title that Seung San chose for his book. I take a rather Calvinistic approach to Zen. I.e., that Enlightenment is more a matter of “pre-destination”, or something other than “good works”. From the Buddhist perspective, “pre-destination” might be roughly equivalent to “karma” and the “momentum” of past lives. I would go even further than that. Taking a page from St. Paul, I would proclaim » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:40 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, June 9, 2013

◊ God, the Higgs Particle, and ‘Oops-Leon’

Religion ... Science ... Society ...

Yesterday I talked about the axion, a prime candidate for the particle that finally explains and solves the “dark matter problem” in modern cosmology. I’d like to add one more good thing about axions: no one would dare call them a “God particle”, as with the Higgs. Nonetheless, they will explain a bigger component of God’s creation than the Higgs does (i.e., all of dark matter, versus mass in a small portion of both regular and dark matter).

The whole “God particle” debacle goes back to a book published in 1993 by two atheists, physicist Leon Lederman and his ghost-writer Dick Teresi (The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question). In this book, Lederman says that he called the yet-undiscovered Higgs the “God Particle” because it would be crucial to understanding the structure of matter, and because it somehow reminded him of the Book of Genesis. The latter reasoning sounds very poetic, but a recent discussion between NPR reporters and Mr. Teresi seems to indicate that the motivation was more a matter of capturing the imagination of a publisher regarding all the money they could make on this book, given the snappy, attention-getting title.

So, the “God” that these intellectual atheists appeared to have had in mind was the God of Money. Why am I not surprised?

Another reason not to take the “God Particle” moniker for the Higgs very seriously » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 2:07 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, June 8, 2013

◊ Axions, the next big little thing

Science ...

Last year, the world of particle physics received some well-deserved public attention after several teams of physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson. If you recall, the Higgs particle confirms that there is an energy field responsible for giving mass to certain types of sub-atomic particles. Higgs is a bit misunderstood in public circles; under the popular interpretation, you are tempted to curse the damned Higgs field as you step off the scale whenever trying to lose a few pounds. Mass (like food calories) is a very dense form of energy, and gravity gives its attention to all forms of energy; given the energy density of mass, gravity gives a LOT more attention to massive things. More attention than some of us might like, especially after a few big meals and some sinful deserts . . .

But actually, you shouldn’t really blame the Higgs field if you’re not ready yet to go on The Biggest Loser. Most of the mass energy in the atoms and molecules that make up the world that we live in comes not from the Higgs field, but from the attractive “strong” forces between the quarks within the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus. The Higgs-derived mass is just a small fraction of the mass of most atoms.

Nonetheless, the discovery of the Higgs field and particle was very important to physicists, as it solved a variety of problems and contradictions within the Standard Particle Model » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 3:28 pm No Comments Yet / Leave a Comment

Thursday, June 6, 2013

◊ Zen and Real Life: Flowers In The Dark?

Photo ... Zen ...

Here is the Buddha altar in my local zendo on a typical day. It could be 9 am or 9 pm, a bright sunny morning or a dark stary evening outside. At a Zen altar, the darkness always prevails. We bring flowers to honor the Buddha and his teachings, and to follow his teachings we sit for many hours with eyes closed in the silent darkness before this altar.

We call it “zazen”, which is a form of group meditation practice. In many ways it is a beautiful experience, one which I try to participate in at least once every week. Our “teachers” continually extol the virtues of zazen to us. And most of what they say makes sense to me.

But still . . . at some point, their focus on zazen makes Zen sound a bit like a one-trick pony. That one trick is to sit in the darkness in silence. Once again, I myself find much benefit in sitting in the silent darkness. But this is not where life is lived. A teaching that focuses the meaning of life around zazen makes just as much sense as placing these flowers » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:25 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Monday, June 3, 2013

◊ All of Me and My Junk

Personal Reflections ...

In my last blog entry, I talked about the fact that we live our daily lives with a generally hazy and limited memory of what went on in our past. We think we know our histories and could tell our story at most any time, but actually, we’ve already forgotten quite a bit of it, perhaps most of it. Obviously this gets worse as you get older. What also gets worse with age, for me anyway, is the instinct to be a junk hoarder. I’m one of those people who have a hard time throwing old stuff out, even when its no longer useful. And this is largely because I know that my past life is fading away, and I’m trying to hold on to it by piling up as many keepsakes and reminders of what my life was like say 10 or 25 years ago. In effect, I’m trying to curate a museum collection dedicated to the life and times of yours truly.

It’s interesting how different people have different philosophies on this. Some people like to sweep the decks and throw out anything that is no longer immediately useful. They like to live light, with no excess baggage, no sentimental (or possibly painful) reminders of what once concerned them in their comings and goings. Maybe they keep a small scrapbook, a few pictures, an important letter or two, a college and high-school yearbook, but otherwise, everything must go. Others hoard all sorts of broken contraptions that once were part of their daily life, old clothes that are ripped or out of fashion, papers from work places that they left 15 years ago, childhood toys, etc. Some experts say that it is a public health issue!

I’m a bit on the “hoarder” side, having saved much junk that I hardly ever look at but don’t want to get rid of (and have trouble finding room to store). There is some argument that an old checking statement or pay stub may someday be needed, or » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 12:20 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

◊ All of Me

Philosophy ... Science ...

To have a healthy adult brain and mind is an incredible experience; something we shouldn’t just take for granted. In addition to our thinking and reasoning abilities and our vast memory of procedures and facts (e.g., how to place a subordinate clause in a sentence, or what your mother’s birthday is), we have a wide assortment of sensory and story-based memories of past experiences, going all the way back to childhood. (There is a physical limit on how far back we can remember, roughly around age 3, due to the early-childhood development of the hippocampus component of our brain, i.e. the “memory maker”). Our life, and the way that our present experiences fit in with our memories, seem like an incredibly rich story, one that hopefully makes sense to us. We think that we know who we were and what we were like back when we were children, back when we were teenagers then young adults, all the way through to our present age, be it 30, 45, 70, etc.

I certainly did think this for many years and decades. But the older I get (having just completed my 6th decade), the more I realize that I’ve probably forgotten much more about me and my life than I presently remember. Sometimes it’s the experience of coming across a picture or a letter I may have taken or written many years ago, that now seems unfamiliar; or talking with someone who was with me many years ago and remembers an incident that I totally forgot about. Often the memories do come back given a clue; but sometimes they don’t. And even when they do, they are often inaccurate or mixed up with other memory incidents. Studies on the reliability of courtroom testimony from witnesses who try with all honesty to describe a past incident are not very encouraging regarding the power of our “steel-trap memories”.

So, a whole lot from our past, a big portion of our lives, are very blurry or are now completely inaccessible. In some ways this is good; » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 5:08 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, May 25, 2013

◊ Obama and the (Book of) Judges

Politics ... Religion ...

I recently read something about the Book of Judges in the Old Testament, including the story of the judge and prophetess Deborah. The feisty Deborah (wife of Lappidoth, meaning “wife of fire”) partnered up with a fellow from Kedesh named Barak, so as to defeat the forces of Canaan that were holding the Israelites in submission (Judges ch. 4-5). Barak became the military tactical commander, and Deborah was more or less his boss, the lady who mapped out the overall strategy. They had a good run together and managed to defeat the forces of Sisera, the Canaanite commander; but not without the help of a Kenite woman named Jael, who finally did Sisera in by giving him shelter after his army was routed and then forcing a peg into his brain while he was sleeping. Ah yes, the Old Testament — a real action film!

Barak, whose name meant “lightening”, seemed to be a fairly competent battle commander (so long as the Lord was there to throw Sisera’s iron chariot squadron into a panic, Judges 4:15). But he was denied the ultimate glory of dispatching Sisera, and he also came across as a bit wimpy up front, as he told Deborah that he would only go into battle if she tagged along (Judges 4:8). Hard to say if Barak would have shown any lightening on the battlefield without Deborah, Jael and the Lord on his side.

So, is Barack Obama’s first name related to the Biblical general from Kedesh? Given the way that Obama came on the national scene in 2007 » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:02 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, May 19, 2013

◊ A City in Flora-land

Photo ...

I was out on a hike in Harriman State Park not long ago, trying out a new camera (a GE X500), looking for scenic overviews and majestic shots along lakes and mountain tops. It was a sunny spring day, and I found enough grand vistas to keep the shutter busy (well . . . as grand as it gets in lower New York State). However, I also decided to grab a shot of this little rock-side patch of moss, grass, leafy plants and a few tiny flowers amidst the decaying leaves from last autumn. In the middle of a verdant forest, scenes like this don’t immediately grab one’s attention. But they are interesting little “cities” in and of themselves, cities of the local ecology, places where certain conditions and random events come together such that an interdependent knot of different life-forms find a spot to flourish together. Not all that unlike our own human cities, such as Boston, Brussels, Buenos Aires or Bangkok. Each of these human cities has its own distinct flavor, just as this little city of flora in the forest does.

So, keep that in mind the next time you are in the great outdoors. You may be walking past a wonderful and interesting little city with its own life and history and reason for being. Another good reason in life to stop and smell the flora.

◊ posted by Jim G @ 3:00 pm Read Comments (3) / Leave a Comment

Friday, May 17, 2013

◊ Dr. Crandall and The 4 Things That Happen Before A Civilization Collapses

Society ...

I was perusing some news articles on the web the other day, when I saw a link for a health article entitled “Four Things You’ll Feel Right Before A Heart Attack”. OK, I’m now 60, so I have to take stuff like this seriously, especially since my father died of heart disease (I’ve outlived him by 10 years so far, knock on wood). Thus, I clicked on the link.

This takes you to a short article on the Newsmax site that talks a bit about the dangers of heart disease, and then sings the praises of a cardiologist named Dr. Chauncey Crandall. But nothing about those 4 things. You have to click a video link box to learn about that. The box has a time slider indicating this to be a 3 minute and 15 second film. OK, sounds reasonable – 3 minutes to learn about 4 signs of a heart attack. But once you click the link, there’s a bit of a switch – the first of many. The page changes to a different video, this one 34 minutes in length.

The longer video starts to play, with a worded narration by Dr. Crandall himself. Five minutes pass, then 8 and 10, and the four things remain a mystery. You learn that having heart disease is » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:51 pm Read Comments (69) / Leave a Comment

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