How can a contemplative reach the same conclusions as a practitioner?
Created | Updated Sep 18, 2005
How can a contemplative reach the same conclusions as a practitioner?
One of the great mysteries of philosophy and science, as well as the martial arts, which, believe it or not, involves both philosophy and science, is the ability of the contemplative thinker to foresee things that the practical scientist will not be able to prove for centuries or decades.
It is also one of the great mysteries how a monk who sits
contemplating the patterns of bat guano
on a cave wall for thirty years can reach the same conclusions
as a sensei who has been getting the crap beat out of him
and vice versa for thirty years.
Now, we are told, by people who believe that they should
know these things and we should listen, that some things
cannot be understood unless you actually experience them
and them who are the experienced, no matter how stupid their
reflections and observations about said experience, take
precedence over anyone who imagines that they understand
the experience based on knowledge, logic or extrapolation.
This kind of attitude, of course, avoids the fact that the
government, industry, and the film people constantly ignore
the truly experienced in favor of the imaginative.
If the truly experienced, no matter how stupid, actually had
any say about anything, then a lot of historical mistakes
would not be repeated and the truly imaginative would
have room to create new and exciting mistakes.
Kaiser Von Wilhelm once said, "Read biographies! Nobody has
enough time in their life to make all those mistakes themselves!
If they were stupid enough to do it and silly enough to write
about it, then you should be smart enough to learn from it. And
if they are lying, then the result is probably a more entertaining
story than what really happened."
Or something like that. I was half asleep at the time because
the Reisling was very good that year.