--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <jflanegi@> wrote: > > > > Direct perception and innocence are the keys here. Not > > intepretation or conclusion or imposition. Just as > > images of the universe from the Hubble space telescope > > are the result of innocence and direct perception, so > > is it possible to have such descriptions of our inner > > universe. And just as the Hubble had to be launched > > into space in order to produce its images free from the > > distortions of earth's atmosphere, so must we travel > > deeply into inner space to have direct and profound > > experiences, beyond a sense of silence, or a moment of > > peace, to the direct and unvarnished universe within, > > as vast and infinite as anything seen through Hubble. > > Your choice of metaphor is interesting, Jim. > Do you remember the *history* of the Hubble > telescope. It was delivered into orbit with > astigmatism, its main mirror suffering from > spherical aberration such that its perceptions > of the universe were useless. It took a service > mission to correct the problem so that the photos > it took had anything whatsoever to do with reality. > > You speak of "traveling into inner space" to have > "unvarnished" experiences, free of "intepretation > or conclusion or imposition." Do you feel that your > experiences are of this variety? > > To come back to a simple point, the importance of > which you still have not gotten, when you declared > that Buddha believed that "God is love," was that > an "unvarnished" experience, free of "intepretation > or conclusion or imposition," or could it possibly > be a limited self imposing its belief in God upon > someone whose whole philosophy of life was founded > upon not acknowledging the *existence* of such a God? > > I'm suggesting that your mirror is as abnormal as > any other, and that its reflections of the universe > are as distorted as anyone else's. Can you accept > that, in...dare I use the term...humility, or do you > hold that your perceptions reflect some kind of > "truth?" Just curious...
A demonstration of just how illusory our perceptions can be: http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html?gray or http://tinyurl.com/2rsnow
