Rivers of Change

"We need to learn to see our physical form as a river.  Our body is not a static thing─it changes all the time.  It is very important to see our physical form as something impermanent, as a river that is constantly changing.  Every cell in our body is a drop of water in that river.  Birth and death are happening continuously, in every moment of our daily lives.  We must live every moment with death and life present at the same time.  Both death and life are happening at every instant in the river of our physical body.  We should train ourselves in this vision of impermanence." 
-  Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here, 2001, p. 27

In many ways Changes, cycles of birth and death, being a living-moving-acting being ... is what creates endurance, persistence, homeostasis, staying alive.  When Change stops, then we die.  Impermanence is indicative of being alive, existing, being real. 

Process Philosophy

Tick-Tock Tractatus by Mike Garofalo

Time Research

Tao Te Ching Chapter 42 Dao De Jing

 Dao De Jing by Laozi, Chapter 42

Transformations of the Tao, Reason's Modifications,  Avoid Violence, Unnatural Death, One Produces Many, Harmony, Creativity  道化 

"The Dao produced One; One produced Two;
Two produced Three; Three produced All things.
All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonised by the Breath of Vacancy.
What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue, to be as carriages without naves; and yet these are the designations which kings and princes use for themselves.
So it is that some things are increased by being diminished, and others are diminished by being increased.
What other men (thus) teach, I also teach.
The violent and strong do not die their natural death.
I will make this the basis of my teaching."
-   Translated by James Legge, 1891, Chapter 42

"The Way gave birth to unity,
Unity gave birth to duality,
Duality gave birth to trinity,
Trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures.
The myriad creatures bear yin on their backs and embrace yang in their bosoms.
They neutralize these vapors
and thereby achieve harmony.
That which all under heaven hate most
Is to be orphaned, destitute, and hapless.
Yet kings and dukes call themselves thus.
Things may be diminished by being increased, increased by being diminished.
Therefore,
That which people teach,
After deliberation, I also teach people.
Therefore,
"The tyrant does not die a natural death."
I take this as my mentor."
-   Translated by Victor Mair, Chapter 42

"Dao sprouted as one.
One sprouted into two.
Two sprouted into three.
Three sprouted into all the living things in the universe.
All living things suffer through darkness and embrace the light.
In the middle, life's energy finds a way to act from the harmony of both.
A person's stance might be to really hate being "alone, isolated and One Without Grain".
Yet the nobility choose to call themselves by that title.
A living thing may be damaged by increase; or may profit by decrease.
Therefore, if a person realizes that their attitude can teach others,
In the evening they will consider and discuss things, teaching each other.
Therefore those who are aggressive and violent will die incomplete.
I'll take these lessons as though they came from my father."
-   Translated by Nina Correa, 2005, Chapter 42

"Dao engenders one. (Tai-chi)
One engenders two. (Yin and Yang)
Two engenders three. (combinations of Yin and Yang)
Three engenders everything.
Everything carries Yin and embraces Yang.
The mixing of Yin and Yang becomes an entity.
People dislike words like orphaned, widowed and unworthy.
Nevertheless, the lords use these terms as their titles.
An affair may finally turn out well despite a very bad start.
Conversely, it could turn out badly with a good start.
That is what I have learnt: nothing is certain in life.
I will use this to teach others.
However, I will still use
"Those who resort to violence will die by violence" as my principal teaching."
-  Translated by Han Hiong Tan, Chapter 42  

"The way begets the one
The one begets the two
The two beget the three
The three beget the myriad beings
The myriad beings carry the shadow and embrace the light
Mixing the breaths with harmonious action
People have their reasons to truly dislike being
“Orphaned & friendless, without worth”
Yet sovereign & duke take (these) as titles
Since beings may sometimes lose something, and yet benefit
May sometimes gain something, and yet be diminished
What someone else has taught
I too come to teach:
Those who are forceful & hostile
do not meet their (natural) ends
I will regard (this) as a premise of the teaching."
-   Translated by Bradford Hatcher, 2005, Chapter 42  

"The Tao gives birth to the One.
The One gives birth to two.
Two gives birth to three.
And three gives birth to the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things have their backs in the shadow
while they embrace the light.
Harmony is achieved by blending
the breaths of these two forces.
People dislike the words "alone," "helpless," "worthless,"
yet this is how Princes describe them selves.
So it is that sometimes a thing is increased
by being diminished and
diminished by being increased.
What others teach I also teach:
"A violent person will not die a natural death."
I shall make this the basis of my teaching."
-   Translated by Tolbert McCarroll, 1982, Chapter 42  

"The principle is not a thing. Call it zero.
The principle in action is the unity of creation. This unity is a single whole. Call it one.
Creation consists of pairs of opposites or polarities. Call these polarities two.
These polarities become creative when they interact. Their interaction is the third element. Call it three.
For example, a man and a woman are two. Their interaction, or intercourse, the third element makes babies. That is creative. That is how all creativity occurs.
The wise leader knows about pairs of opposites and their interactions. The leader knows how to be creative.
In order to lead, the leader learns to follow. In order to prosper, the leader learns to live simply. In both cases, it is the interaction that is creative.
Leading without following is sterile. Trying to become rich by accumulating more and more is a full-time career and not free at all.
Being one-sided always produces unexpected and paradoxical results. Being well-defended will not protect you; it will diminish your life and eventually kill you.
Exceptions to these examples of traditional wisdom are very hard to find."
-   Translated by John Heider, 1985, Chapter 42  



"Tao gives birth to One,
One gives birth to Two,
The Two gives birth to Three,
The Three gives birth to all universal things.
All universal things shoulder the Yin and embrace the Yang.
The Yin and Yang mingle and mix with each other to beget the harmony.
People distain the orphaned, widowed and worthless,
Yet they are the name by which rulers called themselves.
Therefore all things may increase when diminished,
And they may diminish when increased.
What people teach is "get rid of weakness and become strong,"
But what I teach is "get rid of the strong to become weak.
The violent and forceful do not die a natural death,"
I will begin my teaching just from this saying."
-  Translated by He Xuezhi, Chapter 42

"El Tao da origen al uno,
el uno da origen al dos,
el dos da origen al tres,
el tres da origen a los diez mil seres.
Los diez mil seres cargan yin en sus espaldas
y cargan yang en los brazos,
uniendo el aliento vital para alcanzar la armonía.

Lo que la gente detesta es:
ser huérfano, viudo, ímprobo ;
sin embargo los reyes y los príncipes se llaman a sí mismos así.
Por lo tanto las cosas ya decrecen para acrecentar,
ya acrecientan para decrecer.

Lo que la gente enseña
yo lo enseño también:
“Los violentos y salvajes no llegan a una muerte natural”.
Yo sostengo esto como padre de mi enseñanza."
-  Translated by Álex Ferrara, 2003, Capítulo 42 

"When the Principle has emitted its virtue, the latter begins to evolve according to two alternating modalities.
This evolution produces (or condenses) the median air (tenuous matter).
From tenuous matter, under the influence of the two modalities yin and yang, all sentient beings are produced.
Coming out from the yin (from strength) they pass to the yang (to the act), through the influence of the two modalities on matter.
What men dislike is being alone, unique, incapable, (in obscurity and abasement), and yet emperors and princes are designated by these terms, (which imply humility without debasement).
Beings diminish themselves by wanting to augment themselves, and they are augmented through diminishing themselves."
-   Translated by Derek Bryce, 1999, Chapter 42  

  
"Nature first begets one thing.
The one thing begets another.
The two produce a third.
In this way, all things are begotten.
Why? Because all things are impregnated by two alternating tendencies, the tendency towards completion and the tendency towards initiation, which acting together, complement each other.
Most men dislike to be considered of no account, lowly, unworthy.
Yet intelligent leaders call themselves thus.
For people are admired for their humility and despised for their pride.
There are many other ways of illustrating what I am teaching: "Extremists reach untimely ends."
This saying may be taken as a good example."
-   Translated by Archie J. Bahm, Chapter 42   

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes over 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage includes a Google Translate option menu for reading the entire webpage in many other languages.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching [246 CE Wang Bi version] includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms (concordance) for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, links, research leads, translator sources, and other resources for that Chapter.  

     A Top Tier online free resource for English and Spanish readers, researchers, Daoist devotees, scholars, students, fans and fellow travelers on the Way. 

Chapter 42, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

Process Philosophy

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Because all things are impregnated by two alternating tendencies, the tendency towards completion and the tendency towards initiation, which acting together, complement each other.

The ten thousand things have their backs in the shadow while they embrace the light.  Harmony is achieved by blending the breaths of these two forces.

Everything carries Yin and embraces Yang.  The mixing of Yin and Yang becomes an entity.

All living things suffer through darkness and embrace the light.  In the middle, life's energy finds a way to act from the harmony of both.

And abstraction bears all the world;  Each thing in the world bears feeling and doing, And, imbued with mind, harmony with the Way.

For example, a man and a woman are two. Their interaction, or intercourse, the third element makes babies. That is creative. That is how all creativity occurs.

All things are wrapped by yin and contain yang, and their pulsing ch'is marry.

All beings shun the principle of Inertia, They hold to the principle of Life.  They are brought into deep harmony by the Breath of the Deep. 

The ten-thousand things take refuge in yin but harbor yang,  Infusing ch’i in order to act in harmony.

All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonised by the Breath of Vacancy.

All things pass from Obscurity to Manifestation, inspired harmoniously by
 the Breath of the Void.

Reflections on Biology

 I read the fascinating book "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" (2010) by Richard Dawkins.  Scientific reasoning, fact finding, predictive powers, logic, confirmed theories, the scientific community, documentation, research, analysis, pure and applied science, testing ... are subjects that always attract my keen attention.  I have read a number of books by Professor Dawkins - a first rate thinker and writer.  He is also an influential contemporary atheist, and I share is views on religion.  

The human body is over 60% water. 

The typical adult human body consists of about 60 trillion cells (6x10^13). 

There are about 60 trillion atoms in a human cell.

Inside the nucleus of each cell are the DNA genetic
codes that govern growth, structure, and reproduction.
As these DNA strands are modified or reshuffled
during millions of reproductive cycles then variations occur over time.

The earthly timeline is measured in hundreds of thousands
of millions of years for these variations to occur
and some to survive and multiply.

Fascinating!
Amazing!
Complex!

Thinking like Alfred North Whitehead

 Some Principles of Alfred North Whitehead's Thinking

1. Question the assumptions of your community, your society, your religion, your science, your educational institutions, especially those that are rarely mentioned.
2. Question the dominant media, asking who controls it and what they want you to think.
3. Recognize that a serious answer to any important question brings into view lots of other questions.
4. When people appeal to mystery, consider that it may be mystification.  Push critical thought as far as you can.
5.  Recognize that the wider range of influences on an event or person that you consider, the better you understand that event or person.
6.  Recognize that the broader you consideration of the context and of the likely consequences of your action, the better chance that you will make the right choice.
7.  Realize that all your ideas and values are influenced by your particular situation, but refuse to conclude that for this reason they can be dismissed as merely "relative."
8.  Recognize that there may be no actions that are completely harmless, but do not let that prevent you for acting decisively.
9.  Understand that compassion is the most basic aspect of our experience, and seek to liberate and extend your compassion to all with which you come in contact.
10. Deepen you commitments to your own immediate communities, but always remember that other communities make similar demands on their members.  Let you ultimate commitment be all-inclusive."
-  By John B. Cobb, Jr., What would Whitehead Think?   

Process Philosophy

How to Live a Good Life: Advice From Wise Persons

Alfred North Whitehead

New Ways of Explaining Perceptions

What counts as "a perception" or "perceptions?"
These authors argue for an expanded notion of perceptions grounded in our lived human experiences in temporal body-mind frameworks.  

I am studying the following three books:

Reenchantment Without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion. By David Ray Griffin. Cornell University Press, 2000, 440 pages. 

The Mind of Charles Hartshorne: A Critical Examination. By Donald Wayne Viney and George W. Shields. Process Century Press, 2020, 584 pages. 

Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality, 1927. Gifford Lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh during the Session 1927-1928.  Published in 1929. Corrected Edition (1978) by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne. New York, Free Press, 1978. Index (pp.355-387), editor's notes (pp.391-413), paperbound, 413 pages. VSCL: I own both the paperback copy and the eBook Kindle copy.

Process Philosophy   My hypertext notebook on the subject.  

Process Worldview: Twenty Key Ideas

Twenty Key Ideas in the Process Worldview

By Jay McDaniel 

Open Horizons

Process Philosophy

Twenty Key Ideas in the Process Worldview

"1. Process: The universe is an ongoing process of development and change, never quite the same at any two moments. Every entity in the universe is best understood as a process of becoming that emerges through its interactions with others. The beings of the world are becomings.

2. Interconnectedness: The universe as a whole is a seamless web of interconnected events, none of which can be completely separated from the others. Everything is connected to everything else and contained in everything else. As Buddhists put it, the universe is a network of inter-being.

3. Continuous Creativity: The universe exhibits a continuous creativity on the basis of which new events come into existence over time which did not exist beforehand. This continuous creativity is the ultimate reality of the universe. Everywhere we look we see it. Even God is an expression of Creativity.

4. Nature as Alive: The natural world has value in itself and all living beings are worthy of respect and care. Rocks and trees, hills and rivers are not simply facts in the world; they are also acts of self-realization. The whole of nature is alive with value. We humans dwell within, not apart from, the Ten Thousand Things. We, too, have value.

5. Compassion and Justice: Humans find their fulfillment in living in harmony with the earth and compassionately with each other. The ethical life lies in living with respect and care for other people and the larger community of life. Justice is fidelity to the bonds of relationship. A just society is also a free and peaceful society. It is creative, compassionate, participatory, ecologically wise, and spiritually satisfying - with no one left behind.

6. Novelty: Humans find their fulfillment in being open to new ideas, insights, and experiences that may have no parallel in the past. Even as we learn from the past, we must be open to the future. God is present in the world, among other ways, through novel possibilities. Human happiness is found, not only in wisdom and compassion, but also in creativity.

7. Thinking and Feeling: The human mind is not limited to reasoning but also includes feeling, intuiting, imagining; all of these activities can work together toward understanding. Even reasoning is a form of feeling: that is, feeling the presence of ideas and responding to them. There are many forms of wisdom: mathematical, spatial, verbal, kinesthetic, empathic, logical, and spiritual.

8. Relational Selfhood: Human beings are not skin-encapsulated egos cut off from the world by the boundaries of the skin, but persons-in-community whose interactions with others are partly definitive of their own internal existence. We depend for our existence on friends, family, and mentors; on food and clothing and shelter; on cultural traditions and the natural world. The communitarians are right: there is no "self" apart from connections with others. The individualists are right, too. Each person is unique, deserving of respect and care. Other animals deserve respect and care, too.

9. Complementary Thinking: The process way leans toward both-and thinking, not either-or thinking. The rational life consists not only of identifying facts and appealing to evidence, but taking apparent conflicting ideas and showing how they can be woven into wholes, with each side contributing to the other. In Whitehead’s thought these wholes are called contrasts. To be "reasonable" is to be empirical but also imaginative: exploring new ideas and seeing how they might fit together, complementing one another.

10. Theory and Practice: Theory affects practice and practice affects theory; a dichotomy between the two is false. What people do affects how they think and how they think affects what they do. Learning can occur from body to mind: that is, by doing things; and not simply from mind to body.

11. The Primacy of Persuasion over Coercion: There are two kinds of power – coercive power and persuasive power – and the latter is to be preferred over the former. Coercive power is the power of force and violence; persuasive power is the power of invitation and moral example.

12. Relational Power: This is the power that is experienced when people dwell in mutually enhancing relations, such that both are “empowered” through their relations with one another. In international relations, this would be the kind of empowerment that occurs when governments enter into trade relations that are mutually beneficial and serve the wider society; in parenting, this would be the power that parents and children enjoy when, even amid a hierarchical relationship, there is respect on both sides and the relationship strengthens parents and children.

13. The Primacy of Particularity: There is a difference between abstract ideas that are abstracted from concrete events in the world, and the events themselves. The fallacy of misplaced concreteness lies in confusing the abstractions with the concrete events and focusing more on the abstract than the particular.

14. Experience in the Mode of Causal Efficacy: Human experience is not restricted to acting on things or actively interpreting a passive world. It begins by a conscious and unconscious receiving of events into life and being causally affected or influenced by what is received. This occurs through the mediation of the body but can also occur through a reception of the moods and feelings of other people (and animals).

15. Concern for the Vulnerable: Humans are gathered together in a web of felt connections, such that they share in one another’s sufferings and are responsible to one another. Humans can share feelings and be affected by one another’s feelings in a spirit of mutual sympathy. The measure of a society does not lie in questions of appearance, affluence, and marketable achievement, but in how it treats those whom Jesus called "the least of these" -- the neglected, the powerless, the marginalized, the otherwise forgotten.

16. Evil: “Evil” is a name for debilitating suffering from which humans and other living beings suffer, and also for the missed potential from which they suffer. Evil is powerful and real; it is not merely the absence of good. “Harm” is a name for activities, undertaken by human beings, which inflict such suffering on others and themselves, and which cut off their potential. Evil can be structural as well as personal. Systems -- not simply people -- can be conduits for harm.

17. Education as a Lifelong Process: Human life is itself a journey from birth (and perhaps before) to death (and perhaps after) and the journey is itself a process of character development over time. Formal education in the classroom is a context to facilitate the process, but the process continues throughout a lifetime. Education requires romance, precision, and generalization. Learning is best when people want to learn.

18. Religion and Science: Religion and Science are both human activities, evolving over time, which can be attuned to the depths of reality. Science focuses on forms of energy which are subject to replicable experiments and which can be rendered into mathematical terms; religion begins with awe at the beauty of the universe, awakens to the interconnections of things, and helps people discover the norms which are part of the very make-up of the universe itself.

19. God: The universe unfolds within a larger life – a love supreme – who is continuously present within each actuality as a lure toward wholeness relevant to the situation at hand. In human life we experience this reality as an inner calling toward wisdom, compassion, and creativity. Whenever we see these three realities in human life we see the presence of this love, thus named or not. This love is the Soul of the universe and we are small but included in its life not unlike the way in which embryos dwell within a womb, or fish swim within an ocean, or stars travel throught the sky. This Soul can be addressed in many ways, and one of the most important words for addressing the Soul is "God." The stars and galaxies are the body of God and any forms of life which exist on other planets are enfolded in the life of God, as is life on earth. God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. As God beckons human beings toward wisdom, compassion, and creativity, God does not know the outcome of the beckoning in advance, because the future does not exist to be known. But God is steadfast in love; a friend to the friendless; and a source of inner peace. God can be conceived as "father" or "mother" or "lover" or "friend." God is love.

20. Faith: Faith is not intellectual assent to creeds or doctrines but rather trust in divine love. To trust in love is to trust in the availability of fresh possibilities relative to each situation; to trust that love is ultimately more powerful than violence; to trust that even the galaxies and planets are drawn by a loving presence; and to trust that, no matter what happens, all things are somehow gathered into a wider beauty. This beauty is the Adventure of the Universe as One."  

Summer Activities: Reading, Gardening, Celebrations, Travel

Every month, I browse, fast read, or read ten to twenty books, and carefully read or study two or three books on the following subjects: the history of ideas, intellectual history, zeitgeist studies, philosophy of history, biographies.  

Intellectual History - My hypertext notebook

This month, for example: 

Whitehead, Alfred North.  Science and the Modern World, 1926.  

Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, 4 Volumes.  Philip P. Wiener, Editor in Chief.  New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968, 1973.  For example, Volume 1: 677 pages, Contains: Abstraction in the Formation of Concepts to Design Argument.  An outstanding resource for under $70.00 for the four volume paperback set.  VSCL. 

 

I am retired, so I am like a college student again.  I use libraries and bookstores to acquire new and used  titles, and reread books books in my home library.  I read articles on the Internet and this counts for six books.  

Currently, I am reading books and articles related to the history of thinking about time, processes, the meaning of the future, process theology, ecology, feelings of duration, Whitehead, Hartshorn, Cobb.

Process Philosophy

Getting ready for Summer Solstice Celebrations, and busy with gardening at home.  Our California weather permitted vegetable gardening all year, with "summer veggies" from May to October.  The Solstice (June 21st) is one kind of a "Mid-Summer" celebration of maximum Sun during the day, fertility, productivity of agriculture, gratitude for blessings from the Earth, exuberance, zest ...

Our Summer 2021 travel adventures include a trip to cabins and boating on Silver Lake, Fourth of July fun, a wedding in Spokane, river boat trips, Olympic National Park (Forks, La Push), and mid-summer visits to the Pacific Coast.  Canada is still closed due to pandemic flu rules, so our trip to British Columbia (300 miles north) will wait till later.  

Pulling Onions by Mike Garofalo

Diversity and Unity

"For the Eastern mystic, all things and events perceived by the senses are interrelated, connected and are but different aspects or manifestations of the same ultimate reality.  Our tendency to divide the perceived world into individual and separate things and to experience ourselves as isolated egos in this world is seen as an illusion which comes from our measuring and categorizing mentally.  It is called avidya, or ignorance, in Buddhist philosophy and is seen as the sate of a disturbed mind which has to be overcome.

'When the mind is disturbed, the multiplicity of things is produced, but when the mind is quieted, the multiplicity of things disappears.'

Although the various schools of Eastern mysticism differ in many details, they all emphasize the basic unity of the universe which is the central feature of their teachings.  The highest aim for their followers - whether they are Hindus, Buddhists or Taoists - is to become aware of the unity and mutual interdependence of all things, to transcend the notion of an isolated individual self and to identify themselves with the ultimate reality.  The emergence of this awareness - known as 'enlightenment'- is not only an intellectual act but is an experience which involves the whole person and is religious in its ultimate nature.  For this reason, most Eastern philosophies are essentially religious philosophies."

-  Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, 25th Anniversary Edition, p. 24  


   In my experience, life is rightly characterized as diverse, complicated, varied, rich in multiplicity, saturated with the 'ten thousand things.'  Personally, I find little need to seek or to find or to have the "experience of unity."  This state of "unification," when actualized, is in most cases rather fleeting.  It may be profound, but no more so that the beauty of complexity and the fascinating reality of diversity.  I do not find the experience of the multiplicity of things distressing, disturbing, or disheartening.  

Just because all of the eggs today are in one basket does not make the colored basket more real or more interesting or more valuable than the eggs.  

Ignoring the facticity of the complexity of the natural and mental realms seems to me a more serious ignorance, not very sensible, and ultimately unwise.  I long ago gave up on any quest for "enlightenment" (in Hindu or Buddhist terms) and prefer the ordinary state of mind grounded in a world that is not simple, not one, not unified, complex, and rich in details.  To claim that our normal experience of complexity and variety is an "illusion" or "ignorance (avidya) seems to me a form of incorrect judgment.  

No doubt, trying to simplify one's life has its benefits, reducing sensory overload can reduce stress, and not becoming overly infatuated with novelty can be helpful; but, pushing on this strange path towards the "enlightenment" or "realization" of a pure and uncluttered "Unity" can produce its own distressing and disturbing predicaments for a person.  

Many philosophers, ancient and modern, have made a sharp distinction between appearances and Reality, the many and the One, the phenomena and the Noumena, and multiplicity and Unity.  For me, it is muddled thinking to call all of our experiences "just fleeting illusions" and fabricate a true realm of being outside of our personal and social and practical experiences.  Indeed, we can't "see" in any ordinary sense of "see," the cells, molecules, atoms, and the subatomic particles that constitute the objects of our macro-cosmic world; but, this in no way means the multiplicity of objects in our ordinary environment are in any way "illusions."  The meaning of "objects" is much more complicated, varied in linguistic usage, and functional in many practical contexts.  Again, complexity is closer to the truth.  

"I, who make no other profession, find in myself such infinite depth and variety, that what I have learned bears no other fruit than to make me realize how much I still have to learn.  To my weakness, so often perceived, I owe my inclination to coolness in my opinions and any hatred for that aggressiveness and quarrelsome arrogance that believes and trust wholly in itself, a mortal enemy of discipline and truth."
- Michel de Montaigne, "Of Experience," 1588

Our selves are, to Montaigne, "wavelike and varying" - ondoyant et divers. 


Complexity and Diversity 

Nature Mysticism:  Resources, Quotes, Notes

Gardening and Mysticism

Green Way Research Subject Index


My later reading of authors in the Organism Process School of Philosophy have influenced my current opinions about complexity/diversity and unity/wholes/systems.  Our lived subjective-objective experiences are diversity exemplified.    

The Future Does Not Exist?

   "Whitehead's Process and Reality is a very tough book, so as a graduate student thirty years ago, I took a break and walked over to Lake Michigan, trying to understand what "process" was all about.  The weather was gray and the lake, choppy.  "What is the alternative?" I asked myself.  What if the world were not in process?  Would Lake Michigan somehow be sitting there waveless in the future, waiting for waves to break on it?  Suddenly, the world jolted, as if it had been ajar and unexpectedly dropped into place with a snap.

      The future does not exist.  There is no future Lake Michigan waiting for water to fill it or waves to lap at its shores.  The future does not exist, the future is not actual.  I looked at the world around me with wide amazed eyes.  My eyes did not exist in the future.  The sidewalk did not exist in the future.  The foot that I was going to set down on the sidewalk in a moment did not exist yet.  Only the foot in the present existed.  I practically skipped home, watching the sidewalk and my feet (and my watching itself) become.  At Morry's Deli, I looked in the window (becoming) and watched the pastrami becoming, and the people becoming.

      When I returned to my third-floor apartment, I looked down into the yard next door and had a sense of vertigo.  Time is like falling, I thought.  We are always on the verge of falling forward into nothingness; but, in each moment the world becomes anew, and the creative advance continues.

     How could I explain this to my wife?"

 -  C. Robert Mesle, Process-Relational Philosophy, 2008, p.5

  

Awe, Wonder, Befuddlement

Process Philosophy

Spirituality, Gardening, Time

"I am the dust in the sunlight, I am the ball of the sun . . .
I am the mist of morning, the breath of evening . . . .
I am the spark in the stone, the gleam of gold in the metal . . . .
The rose and the nightingale drunk with its fragrance.
I am the chain of being, the circle of the spheres,
The scale of creation, the rise and the fall.
I am what is and is not . . .
I am the soul in all."
- Rumi

"I think this is what hooks one to gardening:
it is the closest one can come to being present at creation."

-  Phyllis Theroux

Process Philosophy

Process Philosophy   A hypertext notebook by Michael Garofalo including quotes, bibliography, links, notes, research, and related information.  

My summer reading list includes books on process philosophy by Nicholas Rescher, Alfred North Whitehead, Robert Mesle, Hank Keeton, and Elizabeth Kraus.  

"Philosophers who appeal to process rather than substance include Heraclitus, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Martin Heidegger, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, Alfred North Whitehead, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Thomas Nail, Alfred Korzybski, R. G. Collingwood, Alan Watts, Robert M. Pirsig, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Charles Hartshorne, Arran Gare, Nicholas Rescher, Colin Wilson, Tim Ingold, Bruno Latour, and Gilles Deleuze. In physics, Ilya Prigogine distinguishes between the "physics of being" and the "physics of becoming". Process philosophy covers not just scientific intuitions and experiences, but can be used as a conceptual bridge to facilitate discussions among religion, philosophy, and science."  -  Process Philosophy - Wikipedia     

Process Philosophy - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Whitehead, Alfred North  (1861-1947)

Wikipedia     Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  

Whitehead, Alfred North.  Science and the Modern World.  1926, 218 pages.  Kindle Version, VSCL . 

Whitehead, Alfred North.  Process and Reality.  Gifford Lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh during the Session 1927-1928.  Published in 1929.  Free Press, 1979, 413 pages.  VSCL. 

Whitehead:  Keeton, Hank.  Dao De Jing: A Process Perspective.  By Yu Fu and Hank Keeton.  Susanna Mennicke, Designer.  Seeing Tao Pub., 2019, 296 pages.  VSCL. 

Whitehead:  Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead.  By C. Robert Mesle.  TFP, 2008, 136 pages.  VSCL. 

Whitehead:  Process Philosophy: A Survey of Basic Issues.  By Nicholas Rescher.  University of Pittsburgh, 2000, 152 pages. 

Whitehead: Emptiness and Becoming: Integhrating Madhyamika Buddhism and Process Philosophy.  By Peter Paul Kakol.  D. K. Printworld, 2009, 432 pages. 

Whitehead:  Process Metaphysics: An Introduction to Process Philosophy.  By Nicholas Rescher.  SUNY, 1996, 240 pages. 
 

Whitehead:  Process Philosophy and Political Liberalism: Rawls, Whitehead, Hartshorne.  By Daniel A. Dombrowski.  Edinburgh University Press, 2019, 224 pages. 

Whitehead:  The Metaphysics of Experience: A Companion to Whitehead's Process and Reality.  By Elizabeth Kraus.  Fordham University Press, 2018, 256 pages.  Kindle, VSCL.