LS Re: Explain the Dynamic/Static split


Jonathan B. Marder (marder@agri.huji.ac.il)
Sun, 7 Jun 1998 17:21:05 +0100


Hello Squad,
Twenty years ago I read "The Tao of Physics" by Fritjof Capra. I didn't
remember much of it, but yesterday found an interesting passage. I quote
from the book:-
"The basic recurring theme in Hindu Mythology is the creation
"of the world by the self-sacrifice of God - 'sacrifice' in the
"original sense of 'making sacred' - whereby God becomes
"the world which, in the end becomes again God. This
"creative activity of the Divine is called *lila*, the play of God,
"and the world is seen as the stage of the divine play. Like
"most of Hindu mythology, the myth of lila has strong magical
"flavour. *Brahman* is the great magician who transforms
"himself into the world and he performs this feat with
"his 'magic creative power', which is the original meaning of
"*maya* in the *Rig Veda*. The word maya - one of the
"most important terms in Indian philosophy - has changed
"its meaning over the centuries. From the 'might', or 'power',
"of the divine actor and magician, it came to signify the
"psychological state of anybody under the spell of the magic
"play. As long as we confuse the myriad forms of the divine
"lila with reality, without perceiving the unity of Brahman
"underlying all these forms, we are under the spell of maya.
"
"Maya, therefore, does not mean that the world is an illusion,
"as is often wrongly stated. The illusion merely lies in our
"point of view, if we think that the shapes and structures,
"things and events, around us are realities of nature, instead
"of realizing that they are concepts of our measuring and
"categorizing minds. Maya is the illusion of taking these
"concepts for reality, of confusing the map with the territory.

There you have Capra's definition of the mystic (Brahman is supreme) and
logical positivist (maya is supreme).Pirsig really has introduced
something new with DQ (lila is supreme).

Jonathan B. Marder <MARDER@agri.huji.ac.il>
Department of Agricultural Botany, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Faculty of Agriculture, P.O.Box 12, Rehovot 76100, ISRAEL
Phone: +972 8 9481918 Fax: +972 8 9467763
Web page: http://www.agri.huji.ac.il/~marder

 



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu May 13 1999 - 16:43:21 CEST