Joe, I agree with you about all this.
I too was educated in and used rationality intensely in my profession - computers/data analysis. It's very useful for making a living. Modern Western education is primarily about memorization and secondarily about rationality. Zen is about experience. ...Bill! --- In [email protected], "Joe" <desert_woodworker@...> wrote: > > Bill!, > > It's my training in Philosophy and formal logic talking. > > A concept may be rational -- in every sense -- even if no empirical proof or > demonstration is yet available for it. > > For example: "String Theory" in modern Physics may be a rational theory and > "strings" may be a rational concept, even if experiments to demonstrate the > existence of strings have not been devised, or have thus far shown negative > results. Those Physicists working on "strings" think they are being UTTERLY > rational and that their science is rational, even if, perhaps, they've been > wasting their time for the last 35 years in the development of the theory, or > find, finally, that it is un-testable. > > Of course I know where you're coming from with regard to Zen practice and to > our lived experience, especially in regard to realization. I hope I'm coming > from there too! ;-) > > But my Philosophical training sometime asserts myself and wants to see the > world adhere to technical understanding and use of Philosophical technical > terms. ;-) > > I know it's "unreasonable" of me. But, hey, my education was very expensive > and pretty painful! ;-) > > Just wait until somebody tells me that I or somebody has "a VALID point": > drives me up the wall! ;-) > > Strong practice, now, > > --Joe > > --- In [email protected], "Bill!" <BillSmart@> wrote: > > > > Joe, > > > > Right, sort of. > > > > To be a 'rationalist' is to be someone who depends on rationality which is > > clearly illusory. > > > > As someone who practices zen which is based entirely on experience I would > > hope I would be an 'experientialist' - or a 'realist'. > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
