It was a pleasure to have you in my class!

 

Dear ones, it was a pleasure to share these weeks together. You can always stay in touch here (and become a friend too!). 

Merry Christmas!

Koans by Dogen Zenji

Koan: A puzzling, often paradoxical statement or story, used in Zen Buddhism as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining spiritual awakening.

_____

The true person is
Not anyone in particular
But
Like the limitless deep blue sky,
It is everywhere, and everyone in the world.

***
In the stream,
Rushing past
To the dusty world,
My fleeting form

Casts no reflection.

****
Because the mind is free --Listening to the rain
Dripping from the eaves,
The drops become
One with me.

****
"Mind itself is buddha" -- difficult to practice, but easy to explain;
"No mind, no buddha" -- difficult to explain, but easy to practice.

****
I won't even stopat the valley's brook
for fear that
my shadow
may flow into the world.

****
Midnight,
No waves,
no wind, the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.

****
Water birds
going and coming
their traces disappear
but they never forget their path.

****
The World? Moonlit
Drops shaken
From the crane’s bill

****
To study the buddha way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.

****
What is the old buddha mind?" The master answered, "Fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles."

****
What is the old buddha mind?"
The master answered, "The world collapses in ruins."
The monk asked, "Why does the world collapse in ruins?"
The master answered, "Better without my body."

****
Following the Buddha Way really means following yourself.

****
Make no use of incense or bowing or chanting or ceremonies or scriptures.

****
Remembering is time, forgetting is time.
Black lines of scripture are time,
Great and small doubts are time,
Hungry ghosts and naked demons are time.

Wu-wei (update)

How is it possible to acquire something that supposedly comes without effort? 

Tao is obvious, right in our face (Nature does not have to insist...) but this obviousness is precisely the reason we miss it. One must learn to read its subtle language. To observe the cyclic phenomena we must empty our minds of old baggage.

Let's observe poertically! Wu-wei is a form of universal poetry that is acted through virtue (... to produce but not possess, to care but not to control, to lead but not to subjugate.

When our observation becomes efortless, wu-wei happens. Remember, wu-wei is not passive, but active. We choose the world. 

Tao is "what is": the rule of the universe.

Verse #7:

The universe is deathless,

Is deathless because, having no finite self,

It stays infinite.

A sound man by not advancing himself

Stays the further ahead of himself,

By not confining himself to himself

Sustains himself outside himself:

By never being an end in himself

He endlessly becomes himself.

#22

To yield is to [be preserved whole.

To be bent is to become straight.

To be empty is to be full.

To be worn out is to be renewed.

To have little is to possess.

To have plenty is to be perplexed.

Therefore the sage embraces the ONE.

TR, 9:50am

T 5:40pm

MWF, 11am

MWF, 9am

Gratitude is a virtue: It works! (LAST POST)

Although an ungrateful heart is not an offence in itself, still a name for ingratitude is regarded as baser, more odious and more detestable than a name for injustice.—Samuel Pufendorf (On the Duty of Man and Citizen According to Natural Law, p.66).

For the purpose of our discussion of Chapter 5, Section 4, I'd like to start a discussion about virtues. These days no virtue is more appropriate than gratitude.*

It turns that intentions are important for Seneca. According to Seneca the intentions of both the givers and the receivers of benefits are of the utmost importance in understanding gratitude. Good consequences devoid of good intentions do not create a debt of gratitude. There are two different aspects to take into consideration: If the intention of a giver is not to help another individual, but to bind the receiver or to make that person feel bad, then a benefit has not been given, and gratitude is not required. Similarly, a debt of gratitude has not been fulfilled if the receiver of the benefit does not truly feel thanks to the giver but responds to the benefit merely out of a sense of duty or guilt or anger. That is to say, rules join together providers and receivers of benefits, and these are the foundation on which gratitude rests.

For how else do we live in security if it is not that we help each other through an exchange of good offices? It is only through the interchange of benefits that life becomes in some measure equipped and fortified against sudden disasters. Take us singly, and what are we?

Thomas Hobbes, the author of Leviathan, proposes a argument with a political twist. From a Hobbesian position, gratitude is a necessary condition in society to assure us that self-interested people will be willing to act in disinterested ways for the benefit of others and for society in general. To use a slightly different terminology, gratitude (which Hobbes considered the fourth law of nature) helps to overcome problems of collective action when people do things that do not directly benefit themselves. Gratitude is thus less a result of the relationship between two people than it is a general social condition (or social virtue) that promotes general sociability in society as a whole.

In the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, understands along a number of different dimensions. As a liberal economist, Smith thought that self-interest was more of a reliable foundation than beneficence and gratitutde for securing the basic economic needs of a society. Yet, he understood the importance of benevolence and gratitude. As Smith showed in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1790/1982), gratitude plays a vital role in making the world we live in a better place. Smith's analysis provided a secular account of gratitude that freed itself from many of the theological and hierarchical assumptions of medieval thought. Gratitude is a human phenomenon that binds people together in society.

I found this article in The New York Times. It approaches gratitude from the psychological point of view:

(...) it has recently become the favorite feast of psychologists studying the consequences of giving thanks. Cultivating an “attitude of gratitude” has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety and depression, higher long-term satisfaction with life and kinder behavior toward others, including romantic partners. A new study shows that feeling grateful makes people less likely to turn aggressive when provoked, which helps explain why so many brothers-in-law survive.

The point is made that gratitude is not indebtedness:

Sure, you may feel obliged to return a favor, but that’s not gratitude, at least not the way psychologists define it. Indebtedness is more of a negative feeling and doesn’t yield the same benefits as gratitude, which inclines you to be nice to anyone, not just a benefactor.

 Also: 

“Gratitude is more than just feeling good,” says Nathan DeWall, who led the study at Kentucky. “It helps people become less aggressive by enhancing their empathy. “It’s an equal-opportunity emotion. Anyone can experience it and benefit from it, even the most crotchety uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table.”

What are your thoughts on the subject?
___________________

*For this post, I'm borrowing ideas from the essay "Gratitude in the History of Ideas" by Edward J. Harpham, published in The Psychology of Gratitude, Robert A. Emmons, Michael E. Mccullough, Eds. (Oxford University Press, 2004).

do your work & step back (post for comment)

Thomas Bayrle, Maxwell Kaffee, Oil on canvas (1967).

The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.- Tao Te Ching

atRifF

i'd like to talk about this void of tao calling what fullness?

imagine an event before us, which appears incomplete. it's out of joint. and what isn't?

i take thomas bayrle Maxwell Kaffee (above) as a metaphor for the nausea that implacably pursues roquentin in La Nausée, the paradox of one-and-the-many that we find again in kenyan artist ingrid mwuangi's If:

The Tao gives birth to One.
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things. (vers. 42)¹

Ingrid Mwuangi, If, digital c-prints mounted on aluminum (2001).

The Tao is like a well:

used but never used up.

It is like the eternal void:

filled with infinite possibilities. (vers. 4)

according to the tao te ching, our will to fix things can paradoxically take us into unexpected detours. when to let just things be?

If you don't realize the source,
you stumble in confusion and sorrow.
When you realize where you come from,
you naturally become tolerant,
disinterested, amused,  (vers. 16)

we generally don't see our will as being impeded by anything other than our desire to act (a point we should heed from hard determinists). yet, in the big realm of overall causation, we're not alone. our will is "differential," one amongst hundreds of millions of other intersecting wills. seldom we stop to ponder our volitions as an infinitesimal fraction of an overall sum of (unknown) wills in the here and now, plus the already existing chain/reactions which our time/space.

how to see one's will vis-a-vis this higher order of will/differentials? what's the relative limit between one's doing and one doing too much? and viceversa, how much of our lives simply end up -unknowingly- "happening" to us?
 

ray bradbury, A Sound of Thunder, edition of collier's magazine (june 1952).

just as in bradbury's A Sound of Thunder,² imagine how much of our planet's future is -and is not- in our hands right now.

The Tao is like a bellows:

it is empty yet infinitely capable.

The more you use it, the more it produces;

the more you talk of it, the less you understand. ( vers. 5)

on the positive side, think of serendipity in science, randomness in quantum mechanics and aleatoricism in music. ³

Marco Fusinato, Mass Black Implosion, ink on archival facsimile of score (2007).

on the negative side, think of Black Swans, popper's historicist fallacy and uneventful events. which brings us back to the mismatch of essence/appearance. of course, the question that we need to answer is how can we tell the difference?

Look, and it can't be seen.

Listen, and it can't be heard.

Reach, and it can't be grasped. (vers. 14)

the answer to the problem is not that simple, because there is no single unequivocal course of action. it's at this point that jazz can help. when musicians improvise, they are also part of a center of energy given by the whole ensemble. if one sees it synchronically (as if you could make a slice in the music sequence) the musicians seem to solo, if one sees it diachronically, it plays as a perfectly fit sequence. the success of the solo depends precisely of this give-and-take between part and whole and vice-versa. this is known as "groove," the sort of tao of jazz.⁴ 

as in jazz, taoism is perspectival, i.e., there can be different solutions to a given problem. this doesn't mean that all solutions are the same. just as there are good and bad improvisations, there are good and bad solutions to a given problem (in its uniqueness, tao is plural).

tao has multiple interpretations. why? think of this question: is the Big Dipper made by nature? Philosopher nelson goodman thinks not: a constellation is a "version," i.e., a construction that picks some stars from others. the same with "star," which is a version that "picks" (configures) stars from other celestial bodies.⁵

Lecia Dole-Recio, Untitled, paper, vellum, tape and gouache (2003).

goodman explains:

Truth of statements,rightness of descriptions, representations, exemplifications, expressions,... is primarily a matter of fit, fit to what is referred to in one way, or other renderings, or modes and manners of organization.⁶

in our quest/struggle with reality, we keep building construction upon construction (human endeavor in science, politics and the arts, reflects this dynamic). what comes first in Ochoa's Collapsed? hint: the concrete wall is the future event of the aggregate of rock, sand and water. you see the cause, then you see the effect, but never at once. art does the trick! 

Ruben Ochoa, Collapsed, Concrete, steel, burlap, wood, dirt (2009).

at some point we discussed the apparent riddle of the Tao Te Ching, which brings forth the idea "speaking/not speaking" in zen, which we'll go into detail pretty soon. the Chuang Tzu helps: "if tao is made clear (by words), it is not tao. if words are argumentative, they do not reach the point."

yeah, every now and then we just have to let go and shut up. at that point one really but briefly understands the value of letting words flush down the word/sewer.

Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity. (vers 56)

  
tao listens to silence. composer & buddhist john cage puts is beautifully: "every something is an echo of nothing."

let's pay attention to tao's subtle groove:  

If you want to become whole,
let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight,
let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.
If you want to be reborn,
let yourself die.
If you want to be given everything,
give everything up. (vers 22)

in our reading tuesday, we commented an important and often glossed over element in taoism: humor. Let's come back to it. chuang tzu counsels: "the general idea is to show the happy excursion, the enjoyment in the way of inaction and self-enjoyment." (Chuang Tzu, A Happy Excursion)

no one fits this metaphor better than a child. we must try to bring back our lost innocence and sense of wonderment. there is something to be said for a child's natural ability to take in the world without any prejudice.

Brian Chippendale, Ninja and Maggot Series, (2006).

unfortunately, growing up means repressing this ability so that the adult becomes an entrenchment of hardened stereotypes. meanwhile, our ability for enjoyment gets regimented and instrumentalized.

"having fun" -as we usually use the word nowadays- carries this sense of being entertained, which in our post-capitalist society is exactly the opposite of true fun, the equivalent of forfeiting our curiosity by domesticating ourselves into vacuous, purposeless compliance.

against this disposition we must present tao's flexible, contrarian, comical, side:

 Teruhiko Yumura This is Ja, for Flamingo Studio

tao's flexibility avoids the pitfalls of intellectual constipation:
 

Proud beyond measure,

you come to your knees:

Do enough without vieing,

Be living, not dying.

now the fool comes back. he's been with us this semester. chuang tzu says: a man who knows he is a fool is not a great fool. how close this is to this. as you'll see, the fool becomes an distinguished character in zen.

i'd like to warn you however, of unproblematically going for enjoyment, not only because, to begin with, the capitalist imperative "enjoy yourself" can castrate the true feeling we seek, but because, as sarah kay points out, enjoyment can be a double-edge sword: "enjoy-meant," and the meaning displaces being.⁸ said differently, the desire ends up killing the feeling. i think this is what philosopher simon critchley has in mind when he cites a telling passage from beckett's Watt:

The bitter the hollow and -haw, haw!- the mirthless. The bitter laugh laughs at that which is not good, it is the ethics laugh. The hollow laugh laughs at that which is not true, it is the intellectual laugh. Not good! Not true! Well, well. But the mirthless laugh is the dianoetic laugh, down the snout - haw!- so. It is the laugh of laughs, the risus purus, the laugh laughing at the laugh, the beholding, the saluting of the highest joke, in a word the laugh that laughs -silence please- at that which is unhappy. ⁹

it is risus purus that may work as a therapy to demystify the negative attitudes of our political comedy: anal-retentiveness, social hostility, impetuous rage and self-importance.
________________
¹ taken from Tao Te Ching, translated by s. mitchell.  ² in his short story A Sound of Thunder, ray bradbury imagines the impact of the so-called butterfly effect:

Maybe Time can't be changed by us. Or maybe it can be changed only in little subtle ways. A dead mouse here makes an insect imbalance there, a population disproportion later, a bad harvest further on, a depression, mass starvation, and finally, a change in social temperament in far-flung countries. Something much more subtle, like that. Perhaps only a soft breath, a whisper, a hair, pollen on the air, such a slight, slight change that unless you looked close you wouldn't see it. Who knows? Who really can say he knows? We don’t know. We’re guessing. But until we do know for certain whether our messing around in Time can make a big roar or a little rustle in history, we’re being careful.

³ serendipity is the finding of something valuable without its being specifically sought. in general, activities and skills that can function in parallel may interact in unplanned and unforeseen ways. professor Jeffrey McKee argues that some of the most important forces of human evolution (the roles of which have been largely neglected) are chance, coincidence, and chaos. according to McKee one cannot understand how humans evolved without taking these three factors into account. see, The riddled chain: Chance, coincidence, and chaos in human evolution (Rutgers University Press, 2000). ⁴"when jazz is really grooving -whether it's a solo pianist, a quartet, or a big band -there is indeed an unmistakable feeling of buoyancy and lift (...) relaxed intensity is the key." Johnny King, What Jazz Is: An Insider's Guide to Understanding and Listening to Jazz (Walker: 1997) p. 24. ⁵ Hilary Putnam, Renewing Philosophy, (Cambridge, 1992), p. 115. ⁶Nelson Goodman, Ways of Worldmaking, (Hackett Publishing, 1978).  ⁷ See, Youru Wang, Linguistic Strategies in Daoist Chuang-Tzu and Zen Buddhism: The Other Way of Speaking (Routledge, 2003), p. 98.  ⁸Sarah Kay, Zizek: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge, 2003), p. 162. Simon Critchley, Infinitely Demanding, (Verso, 2007), p. 82

The mystery according to Ge Hong

Illustration by Pomme Chan

The Mystery is the first ancestor of the Spontaneous, the root of the many diversities.
Unfathomable and murky in its depths, it is also called imperceivable;
stretching far into the distance, it is also called wonderful;
so high that it covers the nine empyreans,
so wide that it encompasses the eight cardinal points;
shining beyond the sun and the moon,
speedy beyond the rapid light;
it both suddenly shines forth and disappears like a shadow.
it both surges up in a whirlwind and streaks away like a comet;
it is both stirred up by deep eddies and like a clear deep pool,
it is both flaky and at the same time misty, rising up in clouds;
it takes on form and gender, and it exists [you];
it returns to darkness and solitude, and it is no more [wu];
it plunges beyond, into the great darkness, and buries itself deep;
it rises above the stars and floats on high;
neither metal nor stone can equal its hardness,
and the moist dew cannot attain its softness.
Square without set-square, round without compasses,
it comes and no one sees it,
 it leaves and no one follows it;
through it, the sky is high and the earth low,
through it, the clouds rush by and the rain falls.
It carries within it the embryo of the Original One,
it forms and shapes the two Principles (Yin and Yang);
it exhales and absorbs the great Genesis,
it inspires and transforms the multitude of species,
it makes the constellations go round,
it shaped the primordial Darkness,
it guides the wonderful mainspring of the universe,
it exhales the four seasons,
it encloses the void and silence in darkness,
it frees and parcels out natural abundance,
it makes the heavy fall and the light rise up,
it makes the rivers Ho and Wei flow.
If one adds to it, it does not increase.
if one takes away from it, it does not grow less.
If something is given to it, it is not increased in glory.
If something is taken from it, it does not suffer.
Where the Mystery is present, joy is infinite;
where the Mystery has departed, efficacy is exhausted and the spirit disappears.

Be brutal, be macho, be obedient, be relentless

What shape are you?

Via Gilbert Garbiso, this site with designs for different philosophical schools. Who are you? 

Pangu transforms his body

At Miami Bourbaki

The Analects

Excerpts of the Analects here.

T, 5:40pm

MWF, 9am

MWF, 11am

TR, 9:50am

Is waterboarding torture?

During the last republican debate, the topic of torture came up. Ron Paul and John Huntsman were clear that waterboarding constitutes torture. On the other hand, though they claim to be against torture, these candidates call waterboarding an "enhanced technique".

This is an United Nations Convention definition of torture:

 ...any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions. --UN Convention Against Torture

If so, isn't "enhanced" just an euphemism for torture?

Wouldn't it be better for Cain, Bachmann, Gingrich, etc to just admit they are in favor of torture?

What's your opinion?

I'm closing this post Monday, November 21 at 11 pm.

Why is ethics important?

During the last republican debate the issue of torture came up. Are you in favor of the US government using torture as a policy of obtaining intelligence? I'll post soon on this.

the chicken soup dilemma

a chef & lover of philosophy invites a group of 4 philosophers over to try his chicken soup:

A is an absolutist
S is a subjectivst
R is a relativist
K is a skeptic

being quizzed about, they all counter affirmatively:

a great soup this is!

how could these four contrasting individuals agree?

because a statement by itself cannot constitute a criteria for a philosophical position.

Robots!!!

Why is ASIMO ground braking?

Here are the specs:

1. Height: 130 centimeters (4 feet 3 inches)
2. Weight: 48 kilograms (106 pounds), decreased 6 kg from previous model
3. Degrees of freedom: 57 DOF total, increase of 23 DOF from previous model
4. Running speed: 9 km/h (5.6 mph), compared to 6 km/h for previous model

High level balancing: ASIMO was capable of balancing itself, but the new version can survive a significantly more aggressive push by quickly taking a stabilizing step forward or backward, just like a human would. All this additional agility also enables ASIMO to walk over uneven surfaces without any trouble.

New hands: ASIMO's hands are dexterous enough (with independent finger control) to perform sign language (the hand gesture above doesn't mean ASIMO likes heavy metal -- it's Japanese sign language for "I love you"). By combining tactile and visual sensors, ASIMO can recognize objects and handle them appropriately, such as taking caps off of bottles and pouring liquid into paper cups without crushing them.

Sensor integration: The new ASIMO can integrate information from multiple sensors and estimate how its surrounding environment is changing. For example, it can combine both short and long range sensor data to better track and predict the motion of multiple humans, and it uses visual and auditory input to perform voice recognition in noisy and crowded environments.

Improved autonomy: ASIMO is now able to use sensor inputs, intelligent prediction, and past experience to autonomously determine what it should do without direct operator intervention. The goal here is to let ASIMO work alongside puny humans without needing continuous supervision, and ASIMO is able to walk around without bumping into anyone, politely stepping aside if it classifies you as a collision risk.

By the way, ASIMO comes in several colors! 

M,W,F, 9am

M,W,F, 11am

T, 5:40pm

T,R 9:50am

Wealth gap. Do you care? What can be done?

This article in the Huffington Post analyses the wealth gap between younger and older Americans, which has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt:

The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt. Households headed by someone under age 35 had their median net worth reduced by 27 percent in 2009 as a result of unsecured liabilities, mostly a combination of credit card debt and student loans. No other age group had anywhere near that level of unsecured liability acting as a drag on net worth; the next closest was the 35-44 age group, at 10 percent.

Keep in mind  that wealth is different than income. A storehouse of resources, wealth is what families own. It means a command over financial resources that when combined with income can produce the opportunity to secure the “good life” in whatever form is needed— education, business, training, justice, health, comfort, and so on. In this sense wealth is a special form of money not usually used to purchase milk and shoes or other life necessities. More often it is used to create opportunities, secure a desired stature and standard of living, or pass class status along to one's children. It is obvious that the positions of two families with the same income but widely different wealth assets are not identical, and it is time for us to take this into account in public policy.

What are the causes? Some primary causes contributing to the creation and persistence of wealth inequality include:

1- Financial Resources, 2- Money Allocation, 3- Higher rate of savings and hence asset accumulation by the wealthy, 4- Higher net rate of return to assets owned by the rich (the wealthy may have special knowledge, and the level of fees and other charges on their savings will be less than those with small investments), 5- Lower credit costs and credit constraints for the wealthy. 6- Access to credit at lower rates enhaces the level of profits and scope of investment opportunities, 7- Inflation.

For both the wealthy and not-wealthy, the process of accumulation or debt is cyclical. The rich use their money to earn larger returns and the poor have no savings with which to produce returns or eliminate debt. Unlike income, both facets are generational. Wealthy families pass down their assets allowing future generations to develop even more wealth. The poor, on the other hand, “are less able to leave inheritances to their children leaving the latter with little or no wealth on which to build…This is another reason why wealth inequality is so important- its accumulation has direct implications for economic inequality among the children of today’s families."

Corresponding to financial resources, the wealthy strategically organize their money so that it will produce profit. Affluent people are more likely to allocate their money to financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and other investments which hold the possibility of capital appreciation. Those who are not wealthy are more likely to have their money in savings accounts and home ownership. This difference comprises the largest reason for the continuation of wealth inequality in America: the rich are accumulating more assets while the middle and working classes are just getting by.

Now, let's take a look at some ideas (some better, some worse), which explore possible solutions:

1- The so-called "family net," i.e, helping a family not to fall into poverty is a good investment and it is the government's responsibility. 2- John Rawls's idea that social and economic inequalities can benefit the least advantaged of society if we create the right distribution, i.e., the rich should pay more taxes than the poor (you see how politically contentious this idea has become). 3- We are not that poor because there are poorer in the world. 4- Marx's motto: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." 5- Protect the poor with a minimum standard of living, not out of charity, but to protect the better-of-the-poor. 6- The well-to-do take care of the poor voluntarily. What economists call "market-distributive justice."

So where do we stand right now?

Wealth inequality is increasing within all age groups. Among the younger-age households, those living in debt have grown the fastest while the share of households with net worth of at least $250,000 edged up slightly to 2 percent. Among the older-age households, the share of households worth at least $250,000 rose to 20 percent from 8 percent in 1984; those living in debt were largely unchanged at 8 percent.

So, what is your idea?

I'm closing this post next Monday, Nov. 14 at 11 pm.  

How are you doing in my class?

There are ways to know how you're doing in my class. You could go by the average from our two tests so far: (q means quizz, mt = midterm). If you add "A" for good attendance and non-tardiness and "P" for posts and you have the following:

Cq---Dmt = C- & A+P  = C+
Cq---Cmt = C & A+P = B-
Cq---Bmt = C+ or B- & A+P = B

Two B's is a B+
Bq---Amt = B+ & A+P = A-
Aq---Bmt = B+ & same as above

Add to this attendance, tardiness ratio, participation and blog posts. You know how you are attendance-wise because I always bring up the subject (some of you have been dropped and reinstated). I've said that having more than 3 unjustified absences may have an impact on your final grade.

To the oft-asked question "can I get an A in this course?" I always say, "You can."

Protect your brains!

Contrary to previous theories of addiction, Dr. Nora Volkow claims that the sensitivity of the reward centers in the brains of addicts is significantly decreased. Here are some current myths shattered by her research.

1. Marijuana is not addictive
2. Prescription medications are always safe
3. You can control your addiction

The Guerilla Radio Show: Bringing Philosophy to the Masses

The Guerilla Radio Show is a pretty cool project. It's committed waging war against idiocy and bringing philosophy to the masses.

Here is an example of their programming: What is sex?

Buddhism (review for quiz this Thursday)

Find the notes for Buddhism for our quiz on Thursday here.

As usual, I'll ask you to complete the definitions for the basic terms as stated in this review.

Update: comments for my posts

Dear friends: Let's address the comments for my posts once again. These are posts for comments. They are mandatory. Comment should have 100 words, be informative and show a level consistent with the engagement we have with the class. The post is open for 7 days and I'll close them after that. Comments are part of the final grade. Please, from here on, post your comments in proper fashion.
Thanks.

Occupy Miami (young activists talk)

Alicia Cruz


Pedro Santana

Quasi memory

I have an accurate quasi-memory of a past experience if
(1) I seem to remember having an experience,
(2) someone did have this experience,
and (3) my apparent memory is causally dependent, in the right kind
of way, on that past experience.

Personal Identity Lectures at Yale (on personal identity)

Discussion of personal identity, by Shelly Kagan at Yale (Body Theory). Watch it!

What matters in personal identity?

What is Occupy Miami all about?

What is Occupy Miami all about? Pedro Santana, a young member of the movement, speaks.

What do you think?

The Dhammapada

D I: 1-20

1. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.
2. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.
3. "He abused me, he struck me, he overpowered me, he robbed me." Those who harbor such thoughts do not still their hatred.
4. "He abused me, he struck me, he overpowered me, he robbed me." Those who do not harbor such thoughts still their hatred.
5. Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.
6. There are those who do not realize that one day we all must die. But those who do realize this settle their quarrels.
7. Just as a storm throws down a weak tree, so does Mara overpower the man who lives for the pursuit of pleasures, who is uncontrolled in his senses, immoderate in eating, indolent, and dissipated.
8. Just as a storm cannot prevail against a rocky mountain, so Mara can never overpower the man who lives meditating on the impurities, who is controlled in his senses, moderate in eating, and filled with faith and earnest effort. 
9. Whoever being depraved, devoid of self-control and truthfulness, should don the monk's yellow robe, he surely is not worthy of the robe.
10. But whoever is purged of depravity, well-established in virtues and filled with self-control and truthfulness, he indeed is worthy of the yellow robe.
11. Those who mistake the unessential to be essential and the essential to be unessential, dwelling in wrong thoughts, never arrive at the essential.
12. Those who know the essential to be essential and the unessential to be unessential, dwelling in right thoughts, do arrive at the essential.
13. Just as rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, so passion penetrates an undeveloped mind.
14. Just as rain does not break through a well-thatched house, so passion never penetrates a well-developed mind.
15. The evil-doer grieves here and hereafter; he grieves in both the worlds. He laments and is afflicted, recollecting his own impure deeds.
16. The doer of good rejoices here and hereafter; he rejoices in both the worlds. He rejoices and exults, recollecting his own pure deeds.
17. The evil-doer suffers here and hereafter; he suffers in both the worlds. The thought, "Evil have I done," torments him, and he suffers even more when gone to realms of woe.
18. The doer of good delights here and hereafter; he delights in both the worlds. The thought, "Good have I done," delights him, and he delights even more when gone to realms of bliss.
19. Much though he recites the sacred texts, but acts not accordingly, that heedless man is like a cowherd who only counts the cows of others — he does not partake of the blessings of the holy life.
20. Little though he recites the sacred texts, but puts the Teaching into practice, forsaking lust, hatred, and delusion, with true wisdom and emancipated mind, clinging to nothing of this or any other world — he indeed partakes of the blessings of a holy life.
_____________
D II: 21-32

21. Mindfulness is the path to the Deathless. Carelessness is the path to death. The mindful die not. The careless are as if dead already. 
22. Clearly understanding this excellence of mindfulness, the wise exult therein and enjoy the resort of the Noble Ones. 
23. The wise ones, ever meditative and steadfastly persevering, alone experience Nibbana, the incomparable freedom from bondage.
24. Ever grows the glory of him who is energetic, mindful and pure in conduct, discerning and self-controlled, righteous and mindful.
25. By effort and mindfulness, discipline and self-mastery, let the wise one make for himself an island which no flood can overwhelm.
26. The foolish and ignorant indulge in carelessness, but the wise one keeps his mindfulness as his best treasure.
27. Do not give way to carelessness. Do not indulge in sensual pleasures. Only the mindful and meditative attain great happiness.
28. Just as one upon the summit of a mountain beholds the landscape, even so when the wise man casts away carelessness by mindfulness and ascends the high tower of wisdom, this sorrowless sage beholds the sorrowing and foolish multitude.
29. Mindful among the careless, wide-awake among the somnolent, the wise man advances like a swift horse leaving behind a weak jade.
30. By Mindfulness did Indra become the overlord of the gods. Mindfulness is ever praised, and carelessness ever despised.
31. The monk who delights in carelessness and looks with fear advances like fire, burning all fetters, small and large.
32. The monk who delights in mindfulness and looks with fear at mindlessness will not fall. He is close to Nibbana.
_____________
D III: 33-43

33. Just as a fletcher straightens an arrow shaft, even so the discerning man straightens his mind — so fickle and unsteady, so difficult to guard.
34. As a fish when pulled out of water and cast on land throbs and quivers, even so is this mind agitated. Hence should one abandon the realm of Mara.
35. Wonderful, indeed, it is to subdue the mind, so difficult to subdue, ever swift, and seizing whatever it desires. A tamed mind brings happiness.
36. Let the discerning man guard the mind, so difficult to detect and extremely subtle, seizing whatever it desires. A guarded mind brings happiness.
37. Dwelling in the cave (of the heart), the mind, without form, wanders far and alone. Those who subdue this mind are liberated from the bonds of Mara.
38. Wisdom never becomes perfect in one whose mind is not steadfast, who knows not the Good Teaching and whose faith wavers.
39. There is no fear for an awakened one, whose mind is not sodden (by lust) nor afflicted (by hate), and who has gone beyond both merit and demerit. 
40. Realizing that this body is as fragile as a clay pot, and fortifying this mind like a well-fortified city, fight out Mara with the sword of wisdom. Then, guarding the conquest, remain unattached.
41. Before long, alas! this body will lie upon the earth, unheeded and lifeless, like a useless log.
42. Whatever harm an enemy may do to an enemy, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind inflicts on oneself a greater harm.
43. Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good than one's own well-directed mind.
_______________
D IV: 44-59  Flowers

44. Who shall overcome this earth, this realm of Yama and this sphere of men and gods? Who shall bring to perfection the well-taught path of wisdom as an expert garland-maker would his floral design?
45. A striver-on-the path shall overcome this earth, this realm of Yama and this sphere of men and gods. The striver-on-the-path shall bring to perfection the well-taught path of wisdom, as an expert garland-maker would his floral design. 
46. Realizing that this body is like froth, penetrating its mirage-like nature, and plucking out Mara's flower-tipped arrows of sensuality, go beyond sight of the King of Death!
47. As a mighty flood sweeps away the sleeping village, so death carries away the person of distracted mind who only plucks the flowers (of pleasure).
48. The Destroyer brings under his sway the person of distracted mind who, insatiate in sense desires, only plucks the flowers (of pleasure).
49. As a bee gathers honey from the flower without injuring its color or fragrance, even so the sage goes on his alms-round in the village. 
50. Let none find fault with others; let none see the omissions and commissions of others. But let one see one's own acts, done and undone.
51. Like a beautiful flower full of color but without fragrance, even so, fruitless are the fair words of one who does not practice them.
52. Like a beautiful flower full of color and also fragrant, even so, fruitful are the fair words of one who practices them.
53. As from a great heap of flowers many garlands can be made, even so should many good deeds be done by one born a mortal.
54. Not the sweet smell of flowers, not even the fragrance of sandal, or jasmine blows against the wind. but the fragrance of the virtuous blows against the wind. Truly the virtuous man pervades all directions with the fragrance of his virtue. 
55. Of all the fragrances — sandal, blue lotus and jasmine — the fragrance of virtue is the sweetest.
56. Faint is the fragrance of sandal, but excellent is the fragrance of the virtuous, wafting even amongst the gods.
57. Mara never finds the path of the truly virtuous, who abide in mindfulness and are freed by perfect knowledge.
58. Upon a heap of rubbish in the road-side ditch blooms a lotus, fragrant and pleasing.
59. Even so, on the rubbish heap of blinded mortals the disciple of the Supremely Enlightened One shines resplendent in wisdom.

For extra credit! For this post on Occupy Miami: You are to visit the camping ground at Government Center and ask questions to inform your answer

MWF, 9am

MWF, 11am

TR, 9:50am

Leave your comment here.

T, 5:40pm

We've dwelt in the wrong place for too long

The above illustration, which is getting wide circulation in market-oriented blogs is posted by a John Hinderaker. Each arrow points to a distinctive well-known brand product. The illustration has the pedagogic aim of exhibiting the protesters' bad faith, which consists of wearing products made by the corporations they criticize. Hinderaker relishes the following platitude:

I've always wondered: where do people who don't like corporations work? Do they seriously want to turn the clock back by centuries –it would take some research to figure to how many– to a world in which the only forms of business organization are sole proprietorships and partnerships? And who do they think designs, manufactures and distributes the products they use? Elves? 

Hinderaker confounds "work," an essential productive human activity with "wage-labor," an economic category, as if the former was a sufficient condition of the latter. A more perverse conclusion of his argument is that since we're all consumers, we are forced to accept -even justify- corporative excess as a blessing. We should fall on our knees & thank Gap for the opportunity to purchase a pair of jeans at fair market price!

Additionally, we should be grateful for Gap's being-there, as it were, for as long it exists people will hold jobs. Is Hinderaker referring to those in the production-line in China or Indonesia, making $7 for a 12-hour day, or America's retail, where being a manager earns you $7.50 an hour without commission? In Hinderaker's bureaucratic paradise, people hold jobs not because they are competent at doing something. Rather, work becomes an undeserved gift bestowed on individuals by a corporate superstructure.  

Hinderaker's corporate genuflection is not surprising, but he distorts the real aim of this movement, which is not to denounce corporations for just being corporations, which is vapid, but to denounce corporate excess, i.e., unethical corporate-friendly legislation, unfair corporate tax breaks, irresponsible corporate deregulation and its dramatic aftermath: lack of opportunities, unemployment, the crumbling of American manufacturing and organized labor, urban blight, etc, etc.

(Hypothetically speaking, I don't have to thank Gap for the jeans I paid for, nor wearing Gap jeans renders me impotent to denounce Gap's unethical corporate practices).

 Occupying what?

To "occupy" may show a group's determination to seize possession of, and/or maintain control over a place. This is not done by force. It's a right enacted by the force of consensus. To put it simply: There is the real, public space where protesters camp (Zucotti Park, Miami's Government Center, etc), and there is an ideal space of freedom. One needs the other. "To camp" in the physical space happens because one already dwells in this ideal space. "To occupy" is to do both. Occupy Wall Street or Occupy Miami protesters redefine the rules of dwelling:

1- They now dwell "outside" for the sake of all of us. 2- Their place takes over -and opposes- Wall Street's "center." 3-  Their "occupation" makes for a primal event. What is it?

Wall Street is the "center" of the 1% that rules the remaining 99%. This brutal gap exposes financial capitalism's unfairness. Acting as a gate of capital flowmation into the periphery, Wall Street's inflowence erodes region, place and borders. It downgrades political space by reducing local government control and packaging whatever is left of the public sector as commercial venture. No wonder Occupy Miami has camped outside Miami's Government Center, an emblem of a democracy hijacked by the opportunistic strategies of capital.

Yeah. we've dwelt in the wrong place for too long!

I'm closing this post Sunday 23 @ 11pm.

Female genital cutting is ebbing

This is a welcome piece of news. Only after 92 million women have been infibulated.

The movement to end genital cutting is spreading in Senegal at a quickening pace through the very ties of family and ethnicity that used to entrench it. And a practice once seen as an immutable part of a girl’s life in many ethnic groups and African nations is ebbing, though rarely at the pace or with the organized drive found in Senegal. The change is happening without the billions of dollars that have poured into other global health priorities throughout the developing world in recent years.

Notes on Buddhism

Julie Mehretu, Black City, 2006.

... l'homme n'est pas ce qu'il est, il est ce qu'il n'est pas.-- Jean Paul Sartre

Buddhism is a spiritual movement founded by Siddharta Gautama in India in the 6th century BC and became the first multi cultural spiritual tradition in the higher civilization of the Eurasian world. Buddhism lasted in India for some 1500 years, until it disappeared from India as that country became progressively dominated by Islam. Buddhism moved then to Ceylon, China (first century AD), Korea (fourth century AD), and Japan (sixth century AD); eastward into Burma, Thailand (third century AD), Cambodia (fourth century AD), Indonesia (third century AD) and the other countries of southeastern Asia with the exception of the Philippines. It became the dominant spiritual movement in Tibet (eight century AD), and Mongolia (thirteen century AD).

The teaching of Buddha was handed down to succeeding generations in the form of a threefold refuge: the Buddha, the teaching and the community. These are three aspects of the Buddha reality. 1- The teaching itself is a form of Buddha presence. The teaching is supreme insofar as it is in virtue of the teaching that a person is guided to experience the saving illumination concerning the nature of sorrow and the way to release from sorrow. 2- The community has a certain priority since it carries and sustain the entire Buddhist tradition. 3- The doctrine would have had no inner development or preservation or propagation except through the community. Yet supreme over everything is the Buddha reality.

The Message
Buddha's teaching was transmitted orally to his disciples. It consists of the theory, the path and the sangha. The core of the theory is the concept of human suffering and the possibility of emancipation. Individuality implies limitation, desire causes suffering since what is desired is transitory, changing and perishing.

Reality
Reality is composed of dharmas (components) or a succession of microseconds of existence. Buddha departed from the teachings of must Hinduism by not having a precise eschatology (a theory of final things). Life is a stream, a river, of manifestations and extinctions. There's nothing permanent and thereby no fixed self.

Karma
Buddhists accept the notion of karma, however, this presented a problem with their notion of no-self. How could one prove that one can reincarnate with a no self, i.e. with no permanent subject? Some scholars have considered this to be unsolvable. The relations between existences has been compared to the analogy of fire, which maintains itself unchanged in appearance and yet is very different in every moment. A sort of ever changing identity.

The Four Noble Truths
There are four noble truths. 1-The truth of sorrow, 2-the truth that sorrow originates within us from the craving of pleasure, 3-the truth that this craving can be eliminated and 4-the truth that a methodical path must be followed to obtain this goal. Otherwise human beings would remain indefinitely in samsara.

The Eightfold Path
Hence Buddha formulated the law of dependent origination or paticca-samuppada) whereby one condition arises out of another, which in turn arises out of prior conditions. Given the awareness of this law, the question arises as to how one may escape the continually renewed cycle of births, suffering and death. There must be a purification that leads to overcoming this process. Such a liberating purification is effected by following the Noble Eightfold Path constituted by 1-the right views, 2-the right aspiration, 3-the right speech, 4-the right conduct, 5-the right livelihood, 6-the right effort, 7-the right mindfulness and 8-the right meditational attainment. This implies the rejection of the infallibility of accepted scripture: No teaching should be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise.
Anicca: All things that come to be have an end.
Dukkha: Nothing which comes to be is ultimately satisfying.
Anattā: Nothing in the realm of experience can really be said to be "I" or "mine". Nibbāna (Sanskrit: Nirvāna: It is possible for sentient beings to realize a dimension of awareness which is totally unconstructed and peaceful, and end all suffering due to the mind's interaction with the conditioned world.

Nirvana
The aim is to be rid of the delusion of the ego, freeing oneself from the fetters of this mundane world. One who succeeds has achieved enlightenment. The term is nirvana translated as dying out
But nirvana is not extinction. And Buddha repudiated this. Buddhists search for salvation, not annihilation. Although nirvana is often presented as negative, it can be seen as the ultimate goal for salvation in Buddhism.

Sangha
Sangha refers to the assembly of believers. There are two meanings, the monastic Sangha of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns and the assembly of all beings possessing some degree of realization.

Philosophy club meeting today @ 1pm @ room 1659

Statement relased by Wall Street Protesters

To thing or not to thing

Check this post on Miami Bourbaki. Forgive the philosophy jargon, which in this case is sort of necessary, I'd like to share my argument with you. Heidegger is an important 20th-century philosopher who constructed a philosophy known as Existentialism, whose protagonist is Dasein (a German word for "man," "human"). Heidegger was interested in Dasein, but also in (b)eings: things. Harman takes Heidegger's philosophy, deconstruct it to make it work for the thing. In doing so, Harman destroys many of Heidegger's Dasein's appurtenances in order to build his own metaphysics which he calls tool-being (check my 3-point manifesto regulating metaphysics at the beginning of the post).

My disagreement with Harman is that after all is said and done Dasein (not the thing) is still in charge. One cannot pretend to theorize for the thing "as if" the thing is theorizing for itself. Harman will not admit to that and sugar-coats the moment of discovery as transcendence. There is nothing wrong with using transcendence, only that Harman cannot have his cake and eat it too. Anyway... thanks for the reading and good luck.

To thing or not to thing

Check this post on Miami Bourbaki. Forgive the philosophy jargon, which in this case is sort of necessary, I'd like to share my argument with you. Heidegger is an important 20th-century philosopher who constructed a philosophy known as Existentialism, whose protagonist is Dasein (a German word for "man," "human"). Heidegger was interested in Dasein, but also in (b)eings: things. Harman takes Heidegger's philosophy and tries to make it work for the thing. In doing so, Harman destroys many of Heidegger's Dasein's appurtenances in order to build his own metaphysics which he calls tool-being (check my 3-point manifesto regulating metaphysics at the beginning of the post).

My disagreement with Harman is that after all is said and done, Dasein's is still in charge. One cannot pretend to theorize for the thing as if it is theorizing for itself. Harman will not admit to that and sugar-coats the moment of discovery as transcendence. There is nothing wrong with using transcendence, only that Harman cannot have his cake and eat it too. Anyway... thanks for the reading and good luck.

About emergent properties...

As ants in a colony.

Birds coordinating flight maneuvers over Gretna, Scotland.


This smart girl offers a pretty cool explanation on nature patterns of complexity (keep in mind this emergence is less complex than what we find in consciousness).

Philosophy Club update

Many of you have come to me inquiring for the club. Celia, the club's president tells me that the Philosophy Club will meet on room #1659, Mondays from 1-2pm, until the end of the semester. For more information, please, click here. You can also leave questions or suggestions here.

ººforking¬ ¬pathsºº

Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept, (1960).

In emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness; No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind; No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: No mind-consciousness element; There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment and non-attainment.-- Paramita Hridaya Sutra

Alfredo Triff

 In Buddhist philosophy there are no wholes: only parts. Similarly, there is no progression to an actuality. The Buddhist moment does not progress toward realization.

Tom Friedman, Big Bang, (Glitter and mixed media on paper, 2008).

It harks back to Nagarjuna's doctrine of Sunyata, a crucial concept in Buddhist philosophy. Imagine a universe of correlations, whereby everything is connected. Whatever is at any moment of space-time, consists of conditions or relationships, and these, too, are dependently co-originated:  

"The 'originating dependently' we call 'emptiness.' " "Emptiness is dependent co-origination."

Sunyata does not mean absolute lack, but rather a positive meaning of being, the ultimate source of all reality. Lama Govinda interprets the principle:

"śūnyatā is not a negative property, but a state of freedom from impediments and limitations, a state of spontaneous receptivity, in which we open ourselves to the all-inclusive reality of a higher dimension. Far from being the expression of a nihilistic philosophy which denies all reality, it is the logical consequence of the anātman doctrine of non-substantiality. Śūnyatā is the emptiness of all conceptual designations and at the same time the recognition of a higher, incommensurable and indefinable reality, which can be experienced only in the state of perfect enlightenment."*

What does it mean to say that reality is ultimately and intimately relational? Sunyata is the reverse of Pratitya Samutpada, the Buddhist law of dependent co-origination. There is no self-subsisting, isolated phenomena. Reality is relation(ship), always in flux, always becoming.

Ghada Amer, Anne, (Acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas, 2004).

Reality is always digested, interpreted, quantified, apprehended. The common sense, everyday perception of things is one amongst many other constructions or versions of the world. What happens is that we "normally" understand the world as made up of distinct, self-subsisting substances, and hence we are able to put things in rational order according to various rules or laws. So, while Sunyata -negatively- means that nothing has a sufficient basis of its being in itself, Pratitya Samutpada means -positively- that one event is dependent on others.

One concept is implied in the statement of the other. Substance, for example would be dependent only on itself, thus excluding both Sunyata as well as Pratitya Samutpada. Therefore, Buddhism doesn't recognize recognizes substance.

The distinction comes from a passage in the catuṣkoṭi of the Mādhyamikas:
a- It is not the case that x is ϕ.
b- It is not the case that x is not-ϕ.
c- It is not the case that x is both ϕ and not-ϕ.
d- It is not the case that x is neither ϕ nor not-ϕ

It seems very complicated, but one can see it as twotruths: Are you warp-yarn or weft- yarn?

 Kaisa Puhakka charts the stylized reification process as such:

"We are typically not aware of ourselves as taking something (P) as real. Rather, its reality 'takes us,' or already has us in its spell as soon as we become aware of its identity (P). Furthermore, it's impossible to take something (P) to be real without, at least momentarily, ignoring or denying that which it is not (not-P). Thus the act of taking something as 'real' necessarily involves some degree of unconsciousness or lack of awareness. This is true even in the simple act of perception when we see a figure that we become aware of as 'something.' In Gestalt psychology, for each figure perceived, there is a background of which we remain relatively unaware. Now, extend this dynamic to text-analysis or speech acts. In hermeneutics, for every text we understand there is a context we miss. With every figure noticed or reality affirmed, there is, inevitably, unawareness. Is this how a spell works?"**

French philosopher Alain Badiou presents his ontology surprisingly close to Buddhism. For Badiou, 1- Being has no latent structure of its own. 2- Being's multiplicity is irreducible to any totality. 3- Ontology is a theory of the void, which is why "the infinite" is a void. It cannot be reduced to a unity. To think of Being means to posit oneself as as "warp" or "waft" (or both?).

Between uncontrolled chaos and absolute disorder:  

Julie Mehretu, Dispersion (Ink and acrylic on canvas, 2002).

What drives this "thirst" for being? Let's see it this way: An entity is reproduced through a replication of its states. Each moment comprising a state of the entity. A complete entity can only be the result of an imaginative reconstruction over a series of states. Sculptor Schramm presents it as in-between of place and no/place: 

Felix Schramm, Misfit (2005-06) @ SFMoMA

The sequence of the replications is linked together in the mind through the rapid succession of similar moments. This gives the continuity of experience and the appearance of persistence. In Martin Oppel's Untitled, the gravity-defying totem-like sculpture becomes a cipher for legion (one in the many).  

Martin Oppel, Untitled (Strata Fiction C, 2008).

Satkari Mookerjee writes that the arrow in its flight "is not one but many arrows successively appearing in the horizon, which give rise to the illusion of a persistent entity owing to continuity of similar entities." 

At this point, Jorge Luis Borges can lend us a hand:

"The Garden of Forking Paths is an enormous riddle, or parable, whose theme is time; this recondite cause prohibits its mention. To omit a word always, to resort to inept metaphors and obvious periphrases, is perhaps the most emphatic way of stressing it. That is the tortuous method preferred, in each of the meanderings of his indefatigable novel, by the oblique Ts'ui Pên. I have compared hundreds of manuscripts, I have corrected the errors that the negligence of the copyists has introduced, I have guessed the plan of this chaos, I have re-established -I believe I have re-established- the primordial organization, I have translated the entire work: it is clear to me that not once does he employ the word 'time.' The explanation is obvious: The Garden of Forking Paths is an incomplete, but not false, image of the universe as Ts'ui Pên conceived it. In contrast to Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not believe in a uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times. This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. We do not exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist, and not I; in others I, and not you; in others, both of us. In the present one, which a favorable fate has granted me, you have arrived at my house; in another, while crossing the garden, you found me dead; in still another, I utter these same words, but I am a mistake, a ghost."

_______
*Lama Anagarika Govinda, Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness, pp. 10-11.** Kaisa Puhakka, Puhakka, Kaisa (2003). "Awakening from the Spell of Reality: Lessons from Nāgārjuna' within," in Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings (State University of New York Press, 2003), p. 134, 145.