Hi
Rod:
Steven
Tainer and I are delighted that you volunteered to take part in this
experiment, which is as novel for us as it is for you.
In
science, the main research tool is a working hypothesis, which you
formulate
and then critically investigate. Neither a fixed belief nor a totally
unstructured attitude, a working hypothesis gives you something to work
with,
while inviting you to think differently.
The
working hypothesis I suggest we investigate is: there are no intrinsic
limits
to knowing. Each apparent limit is only a limit within a certain
context. The
context in turn is the result of taking a particular stance, a
particular focus.
So even the most strongly felt limit is just one part of a set of three
tightly
interwoven elements: {limit, context, focus}. A limit only feels
insurmountable
to the extent that we turn our gaze away from both content and focus.
In
traditional contemplative approaches, a master guides a student through
a
decades-long path. The student concentrates full-time on various
activities,
forms of meditation or yoga, perhaps also martial arts and more work
related
practices. We don't have the time to do even a fraction of those
traditional
practices. Also, traditional instructions for those practices may no
longer
speak to us. This is why Steven Tainer, for example, is designing new
types of
abbreviated curricula for lay people, with instructions adapted to our
culture
and background.
I
have been thinking about using the scientific notion of a working
hypothesis as
a third option, besides a traditional full-time curriculum and modern
shortened
versions for lay people. What triggered me was what I read in
historical
accounts of sages upon reaching a really deep insight: ``how amazing,
that this
has always been staring me in the face, but I never recognized it!''
Even
though they spent half their life on an arduous path of practice to
reach a
distant and lofty goal, they finally realized that the goal was already
there,
in the very place they started. I'd like to take their word for it, but
as a
working hypothesis: there is nothing to do, just see, REALLY SEE what
is
already here.
Let
us take what we can learn from systematic scientific ways of research,
to
investigate the no-limits working hypothesis that I introduced above.
There is
no need to engage in anything to do with spirituality or religion of
any kind;
to the extent that those approaches actually reflect the structure of
reality,
we may naturally cross paths with their ways of exploring. My starting
point is
the way of knowing of science, and while contemplation has acted for me
as a
trigger to formulate my working hypothesis, I'm happy to drop that
trigger, at
least for now.
In
this email I've tried to set the stage, so it got a bit lengthy.
From
now on, I'll try to keep my contributions shorter. Looking forward to
your
response,
Piet