On Early Islam Muslims discovered Greek thought hundreds of years before the Western Christians, yet it was the latter who ultimately assimilated it. Why did the reverse not happen? By tracing the major currents of medieval Islamic and Christian thought, this article, in part, proposes that the outcome had little to do with the virtues or vices of the tenets of either Islam or Christianity (they were both obstacles), but with older and deeper dispositions of mass belief. The Roman Christians (unlike the Byzantine Christians) lacked a significant spiritual-mystical dimension in the faith of their masses, unlike in the Islamic …
Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher A central concept which Escher captured is that of self-reference, which any believe lies near the heart of the enigma of consciousness � and the brain’s ability to process information in a way that no computer has yet mimicked successfully. The lithograph Drawing Hands and the woodcut Fish and Scales each captures this idea in a different way. In the former the self-reference is direct and conceptual; the hands draw themselves much the way that consciousness considers and constructs itself, mysteriously, with both self and self-reference inseparable and coequal. In Fish and Scales, on the …
During the evening of November 6, 2002, astronomers using the 1.2-meter reflector at Haleakala, Hawaii, discovered a 17th-magnitude comet as part of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program. Designated Comet NEAT (C/2002 V1), it brightened quickly through December, leading to a suggestion that at perihelion on February 18th, it could become quite bright (though largely swamped in the Sun’s glare). Currently estimated to be magnitude 6.8, the comet can be seen in the western sky after sunset, just below the Great Square of Pegasus. However, according to comet expert John Bortle, the future of Comet NEAT is unclear. During …
From: Shamar Rinpoche “Meditation in Theravada and Mahayana Traditions” Once you connect genuinely with meditation practice, you will develop a true passion for it and your practice will begin to mature. As long as you do not understand the essence of meditation, it hasn’t been properly experienced. Only when you experience the essence does it really get interesting. Concentration-Insight Meditation Meditation by concentration of the mind to remove the Five Hindrances is known as samatha , while the contemplation of physical body, feelings, mental functions and phenomena (dhamma) to develop Right Wisdom is called vipassana . The Vijja Dhammakaya approach …