andrea patriceDec 23, 2022

I’ve been wondering why I’ve been so focused on #Buddhism lately- after all, it’s not a new thing in my life. But I think that, after seeing just how much what I’m finding out about the world due to my wide reading (from physics to ecology to music) of the last 2 years mirrors Buddhist insights, I’ve realised that becoming more serious about my practice is absolutely necessary to develop further— both as a theorist/philosopher and as a person generally.

#philosophy @philosophy 🧵
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Show threadandrea patriceDec 23, 2022

At heart, the fundamental problem of #philosophy that I’m examining is *how to get things done*— as a human, living in this world.

I’m looking at what is similar about intentional human action from the micro & highly individual scale— how do I (a physically disabled person with #ADHD) develop a new habit?— to the macro scale— how does humanity create a liveable and sustainable future for itself? Fundamentally, at the level of basic reality, that’s the same process. #Buddhism agrees. 2/

Show threadandrea patriceDec 23, 2022

The world I live in is a world of scale, where everything is relative to everything else. Even what we consider to be unassailable truth or fact is simply only true because we share the basic reference frame in which it is true with a wide set of others, whether that’s other humans, other animals, all life on Earth, or literally everything else in the universe. There’s *always* a reference frame- you can’t measure (or detect, or decide) unless you have a scale to work from.

#philosophy 3/

Show threadandrea patriceDec 23, 2022
“There’s always a reference frame”- If you follow that line of thinking to its logical conclusion, you basically end up in the territory of #Buddhism- in a world where something can be both true and false, depending on your reference frame- the scale at which the chaotic frenzy that is the universe is resolved into something ordered and cognisable. 4/
Show threadandrea patriceDec 23, 2022
The problem for us, human beings in a multiscalar world, is that we are only evolutionary adapted for a limited range of scales in which we easily can detect patterns and cognise them as objects. But we now live with problems that cross so many scalar boundaries in space and time that we literally can’t resolve them- we can’t see their full extent. They don’t exist in our shared perception like physical objects or mathematical objects, so we can’t agree on what they are or how to handle them.
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Show threadandrea patriceDec 23, 2022
The #Buddha’s great insight, 2500 years ago, was that by developing our ability to quiet our object-creating minds almost completely by unifying it in concentration, we could directly experience our most basic reference frame- the one we share with everything else that exists in the universe over both space & time, resulting in the realisation that the universe is completely continuous with no separation except the ones our usual reference frames impose in order to detect smaller scale patterns.
Show threadandrea patriceDec 23, 2022
Once you realise the universe is a continuity- not by merely believing it - but directly *experiencing* it for yourself through that highly refined level of mental control - your usual reference frame changes, & the values that drive everything we do, which are based on the reference frame, the scale at which we perceive the world, change too. And when you are aware of these fundamental values & you have the ability to focus unwaveringly on a goal, truly intentional action becomes possible.
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Show threadandrea patriceDec 23, 2022
As living beings, chaotic agents of change in the universe, the energy we use to make things happen (which at the most basic level involves feeding the feedback loop which enables our continued existence) is our very lifeblood. The Buddha found out how to use this energy to perceive that we can no more be separated from anything else in the universe than you can pluck a single mitochondria from within the matrix of a living body while leaving everything else undisturbed. He changed the scale.
Show threadandrea patrice

So, you see, that’s why I’ve become more serious about #Buddhism as of late. The Buddha’s intensely honed focus and flexibility of mind, which allowed him to perceive a profound truth about reality which, if enough of us grasped it, would basically end the violence we heap on ourselves, on others and on the world we live in, is highly relevant to my queries- How does intentional human action happen? And how can we shape it to values that accord with the nature of reality itself?

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Dec 23, 2022 at 11:31amWeb
Show threadAnna FDec 23, 2022
@annedraya thank you for sharing, this is really fascinating. In trying to understand the climate crisis, I keep seeing signposts towards Buddhism. It’s something I want to learn more about.
Show threadRobert M. KellyDec 24, 2022
@annedraya Thanks for putting time into a thoughtful thread. I question #3, though: you say "what we consider to be truth is only true because we share a frame - you can’t measure (or detect, or decide) unless you have a scale to work from." TBH I'm not knowledgeable at all about Buddhism. But this sounds like an argument for the relativity of truth. But, as far as I know, we believe things because they are true. Things are not true because we believe them. Would you agree?