Application Sessions: Science and PlayAsBeing
Table of contents
No headersTen theme sessions on topics of Science and Play as Being
2012.07.16 07:00 - Theme Session 2: Developing More of a Connection Between Science and PaB
2012.07.19 19:00 – “We Are The Experiment!”
Portion of a July 20th email from Pema to the group:
Here are a few footnotes:
1) you can view our exploration as a possible extension of current
scientific forms of research, in the same scientific spirit, beyond
the traditional focus on objects, to include the subject.
1a) Note that the concept of "objectivity" that scientists like to use
is misleading: scientists at best can be intersubjective. It is
impossible for anyone, scientists included, to be truly objective
independent of cultural and physical and verbal, etc, limitations.
Similarly, while studying the subject, we can equally well try to
be intersubjective, by comparing notes. In science, peer review
has been the best approach yet found to make intersubjectivity work
as the best approximation to the unreachable goal of objectivity.
1b) Note that our experiments are not precisely replicable, but neither
are scientific experiments: quantum mechanics, for example, can at
best aim at statistically averaged confirmation. Our challenge is
to find aspects of our experiments that can be meaningfully shared
and compared. In PaB, we can form our own community of peers,
inspiring each other while also keeping each other honest and
critical, in constructive ways.
2) you can also view our exploration as an attempt to find new forms
for spirituality or contemplation, borrowing from the past, but
adapting to the world we live in.
2a) When Buddhism was imported into China, it took up elements of
Taoism and thus produced Ch'an (or Zen in Japanese). That was
about fifteen centuries ago. In the last century and a bit,
various Asian traditions have been imported into our Western
cultural sphere, from yoga and tai chi to mediative and
contemplative techniques. They may well take up elements from
science, especially the scientific attitude of openness, peer
review, egalitarianism, and postponing judgment by relying on the
testing of hypotheses instead.
2b) If PaB can facilitate such forms of fusion, while respecting both
the older traditions and the spirit of modern science, that would
be wonderful. PaB may in fact turn into a modern-day Zen, as the
product of an encounter of profound but differently structured
bodies of knowledge. Time will tell. These fusion processes
typically take a few generations, at least, but that's okay; there
is no hurry. Anything profound necessarily takes time to grow.
3) finally, you can view our exploration as a way to study the nature
of reality, which is my prefered way of summarizing it. And given
the fact that both modern science and contemplative traditions have
so much to offer already, it would be strange not to borrow from
both of them, while also keeping a fresh "beginner's mind" attitude.