I witnessed my first total solar eclipse from the shore of Lake Champlain this week. Was it just another predictable event in the sky? Or does it signify things to come? (audio track below)
I had a friendly debate one night with a friend who's a mathematician. He was arguing that everything could ultimately be understood, that science just hasn't figured it all out yet but we're on our way. I asked him, "Isn't it true that every scientific answer opens up multiple new questions?" He agreed that yes, that was definitely true. So I asked, "Well, if questions multiply faster than answers do, how could we ever reach some kind of ultimate answer?" His arguments were the epitome of how logic, if it's applied rigidly, becomes illogical (just as you pointed out how rigid rationality turns irrational).
Happily, he left that night saying he needed to reconsider some things.
I'm a great believer in logic and I don't believe it should ever be abandoned, just as illogic should never be embraced. But that's different from claiming that logic can account for everything, or that it's all we need for a fulfilling life, or that it's somehow a higher principle than, say, love (which to me is the highest). Logic is an essential tool in figuring out what makes sense, but there are things that are beyond logic that we need to grasp, and that requires tuning into other aspects of our awareness and of our capacity to understand. And that realm often goes beyond what can be captured in words or in a logical formula. It doesn't contradict logic -- it isn't illogical -- but rather is beyond it.
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men." This is a quote from Albert Einstein, taken from the internet but actually genuine, surprisingly enough, extracted from a 1930 essay entitled "What I Believe". See also The New Quotable Einstein, p 199, where it appears in a slightly different form. I specify all this because the great physicist has had more ridiculous and/or implausible quotes fathered on him than probably any other man. With that said, I feel the quote echoes very beautifully and succinctly the spirit of Madhava's post, which is beautiful in itself.
Indeed brother. To quote my friend Charles “Hope resides in the unknown”. Monday was my son’s birthday and my first day at a new job. Also it was a new moon. Alignment leads to flow leads to healing. 🙏❤️
Thank you for these inspiring thoughts. I am also of the opinion that this celestial event is more than what it appears to the naked eye. We will have to be open, listen to what may come.
Brilliantly and beautifully written! Thanks for making me feel that I was there with you in spirit. Did you take the picture?
I agree with you that 9/11 was an inside job. The tell was the foreign journalist saying that #7 had collapsed 20 minutes before it did. But then it came down in its own footprint even though it wasn’t hit by a plane. Not much wreckage at the pentagon and for some reason the FBI gathered up all camera footage that would have shown the truth. I can’t believe anyone still buys the official story.
Well said! I watched some video footage of people seeing totality. What struck me was the child like wonder and awe and excitement in everyones voice as they witnessed it. "For over three minutes it seemed I and the thousands around me were magically transported to a galaxy far, far away." I teared up watching the video footage.. not because of the what I was seeing in the sky, but the childlike joy and wonder shared by the people. A feeling that seems deeply missing in our society today... and deeply missing in the rationalists who believe they have the whole world figured out. Still, those who gawk and laugh at those who believe in mysteries not yet explain tend to be the most miserable people. Why can't they let themselves feel? I'm not sure. But I hope they let it in again. One doesn't have to suddenly become unhinged or lost to feel a sense of wonder about the world.
Very enjoyable read, thank you. I have been very unlucky with astronomical events despite a father who made it interesting. I was 11 in 1991 for the total eclipse on the Big Island, but we were frustrated by cloud cover despite a perfect location. I do remember the birds roosting as if it was nighttime and the flowers closed too. But didn’t get to see the corona. Thanks to your essay I am reminded to appreciate the wonder elsewhere: spring comes every year despite the shitty weather and we have ducklings and tulips again. 🦆 🌷
Everything is created by my mind, and is ruled by my mind.
When I speak or act with impure thoughts, suffering[1] follows me
As the wheel of the cart follows the hoof of the ox."
When I witnessed seven minutes of totality in July, 1991, at the tip of Baja, Mexico, I also experienced a profound revelation of intelligent design. The great physicist-turned mystic philosopher David Bohm, author of Wholeness and the Implicate Order, reasoned that since reality is one thing, the way we approach it effects not only the way we see it, but the way it is. I bet if you try that , starting with your own body, you'll notice it is true. Looking forward to hear you sing: "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
I read Nightfall last summer by Asimov. I recommend it those that want to mull about eclipses a bit more. in the book a planet has 7 suns so it never is dark. But once in every 10K years or they are all eclipsed. Well hell breaks lose as the humans on that planet aren't used to it. Its a great read and eerily hits on Graham Hancock's counter narrative of lost civilization's as well. Great read that pits religion against science as well.
Many of us who witnessed the WTC coming down could see that something was very wrong with the collapse and lack of appropriate rubble pile and damage to nearby structures. I highly suggest the study by Dr. Judy Woods (structural engineering) on the WTC collapse. Her work deals strictly with observable facts, she does not put forward a conspiracy of likely characters. Inadequate seismic signatures, odd damage patterns, odd burn characteristics and more, are the study contents that point to the use of DEW to destroy the buildings.
What puzzles me personally, is why the next target for observable use of this technology was so petty in comparison: in Maui. Much of the same characteristics - including the toasted vehicles were visible in the Maui “brush fire.” Of course the local fold were standing in the way of turning the area into a ‘smart city’ for elite development. Just a little coincidence there.
Some 30+ years ago a marianist brother gave a 20 min talk about the divine miraculousness of the thumb at my boy's highschool junior retreat. I'll never forget it. Less wonderment now, yet clearly obvious to me, the eclipse is same "on earth as it is in heaven..." His will.
I had a friendly debate one night with a friend who's a mathematician. He was arguing that everything could ultimately be understood, that science just hasn't figured it all out yet but we're on our way. I asked him, "Isn't it true that every scientific answer opens up multiple new questions?" He agreed that yes, that was definitely true. So I asked, "Well, if questions multiply faster than answers do, how could we ever reach some kind of ultimate answer?" His arguments were the epitome of how logic, if it's applied rigidly, becomes illogical (just as you pointed out how rigid rationality turns irrational).
Happily, he left that night saying he needed to reconsider some things.
I'm a great believer in logic and I don't believe it should ever be abandoned, just as illogic should never be embraced. But that's different from claiming that logic can account for everything, or that it's all we need for a fulfilling life, or that it's somehow a higher principle than, say, love (which to me is the highest). Logic is an essential tool in figuring out what makes sense, but there are things that are beyond logic that we need to grasp, and that requires tuning into other aspects of our awareness and of our capacity to understand. And that realm often goes beyond what can be captured in words or in a logical formula. It doesn't contradict logic -- it isn't illogical -- but rather is beyond it.
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men." This is a quote from Albert Einstein, taken from the internet but actually genuine, surprisingly enough, extracted from a 1930 essay entitled "What I Believe". See also The New Quotable Einstein, p 199, where it appears in a slightly different form. I specify all this because the great physicist has had more ridiculous and/or implausible quotes fathered on him than probably any other man. With that said, I feel the quote echoes very beautifully and succinctly the spirit of Madhava's post, which is beautiful in itself.
Indeed brother. To quote my friend Charles “Hope resides in the unknown”. Monday was my son’s birthday and my first day at a new job. Also it was a new moon. Alignment leads to flow leads to healing. 🙏❤️
Thank you for these inspiring thoughts. I am also of the opinion that this celestial event is more than what it appears to the naked eye. We will have to be open, listen to what may come.
Brilliantly and beautifully written! Thanks for making me feel that I was there with you in spirit. Did you take the picture?
I agree with you that 9/11 was an inside job. The tell was the foreign journalist saying that #7 had collapsed 20 minutes before it did. But then it came down in its own footprint even though it wasn’t hit by a plane. Not much wreckage at the pentagon and for some reason the FBI gathered up all camera footage that would have shown the truth. I can’t believe anyone still buys the official story.
Well said! I watched some video footage of people seeing totality. What struck me was the child like wonder and awe and excitement in everyones voice as they witnessed it. "For over three minutes it seemed I and the thousands around me were magically transported to a galaxy far, far away." I teared up watching the video footage.. not because of the what I was seeing in the sky, but the childlike joy and wonder shared by the people. A feeling that seems deeply missing in our society today... and deeply missing in the rationalists who believe they have the whole world figured out. Still, those who gawk and laugh at those who believe in mysteries not yet explain tend to be the most miserable people. Why can't they let themselves feel? I'm not sure. But I hope they let it in again. One doesn't have to suddenly become unhinged or lost to feel a sense of wonder about the world.
Very enjoyable read, thank you. I have been very unlucky with astronomical events despite a father who made it interesting. I was 11 in 1991 for the total eclipse on the Big Island, but we were frustrated by cloud cover despite a perfect location. I do remember the birds roosting as if it was nighttime and the flowers closed too. But didn’t get to see the corona. Thanks to your essay I am reminded to appreciate the wonder elsewhere: spring comes every year despite the shitty weather and we have ducklings and tulips again. 🦆 🌷
57 year old body? Too old? WTF?
Verse 1:1 Dhammapada:
"The mind is the basis for everything.
Everything is created by my mind, and is ruled by my mind.
When I speak or act with impure thoughts, suffering[1] follows me
As the wheel of the cart follows the hoof of the ox."
When I witnessed seven minutes of totality in July, 1991, at the tip of Baja, Mexico, I also experienced a profound revelation of intelligent design. The great physicist-turned mystic philosopher David Bohm, author of Wholeness and the Implicate Order, reasoned that since reality is one thing, the way we approach it effects not only the way we see it, but the way it is. I bet if you try that , starting with your own body, you'll notice it is true. Looking forward to hear you sing: "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
Great post...TY
I read Nightfall last summer by Asimov. I recommend it those that want to mull about eclipses a bit more. in the book a planet has 7 suns so it never is dark. But once in every 10K years or they are all eclipsed. Well hell breaks lose as the humans on that planet aren't used to it. Its a great read and eerily hits on Graham Hancock's counter narrative of lost civilization's as well. Great read that pits religion against science as well.
Many of us who witnessed the WTC coming down could see that something was very wrong with the collapse and lack of appropriate rubble pile and damage to nearby structures. I highly suggest the study by Dr. Judy Woods (structural engineering) on the WTC collapse. Her work deals strictly with observable facts, she does not put forward a conspiracy of likely characters. Inadequate seismic signatures, odd damage patterns, odd burn characteristics and more, are the study contents that point to the use of DEW to destroy the buildings.
https://www.amazon.com/Towers-Evidence-Directed-Free-energy-Technology/dp/0615412564
What puzzles me personally, is why the next target for observable use of this technology was so petty in comparison: in Maui. Much of the same characteristics - including the toasted vehicles were visible in the Maui “brush fire.” Of course the local fold were standing in the way of turning the area into a ‘smart city’ for elite development. Just a little coincidence there.
Some 30+ years ago a marianist brother gave a 20 min talk about the divine miraculousness of the thumb at my boy's highschool junior retreat. I'll never forget it. Less wonderment now, yet clearly obvious to me, the eclipse is same "on earth as it is in heaven..." His will.
Einstein once said something like, "When I was young, was concerned with questions of "What:. I am no longer interested in "What" as much as "Why" .
How long did it take you to get home? I was up in Newport VT and it took 10 hours of driving to get back to southern NH.
Apocalypto Eclipse Scene https://youtu.be/9ULxjgF58dM