Trying to summarize: The drawing of a distinction is a formative act.  Drawing a distinction FORMS the space, constellates the infinitely possible unknown into spaces which are shaped by the particular WAY in which the distinction is drawn.  The resulting spaces can not help but take the complementary shape of the distinction that defines them. The drawing of...

So then to begin in the middle I have many questions:     What constitutes an observer? How do we think about what an observer is/does? Is it as simply complex as the recursive: “An observer creates distinctions; distinctions create observers.”?     What is a distinction? In order for it to occur, does it require...

Earth --> Day-waking (i.e. 'normal' adult) consciousness  Water --> Imaginative consciousness  Air ----> Inspirational consciousness  Fire ---> Intuitive consciousness   Earth --> Thinking 'about' - object-oriented  Water --> Thinking 'with' - process oriented  Air ----> Thinking 'between' - polarity-oriented, (Brad exemplifies this very well)  Fire ----> Thinking 'as' - whole-oriented   Further, considering that all thinking...

A friend of mine said: "... Concerning self-correction, can we say that the system corrects itself toward a state of homeostasis (feedback----correction----goal) OR toward maintaining the integrity of the closed system? Is it o.k. to look at this in terms of homeostasis?   Reason why I'm asking is that I've been looking at the socialization behavior...

<insert context here - not me: YOU> ...but did we/they take off and burn the restraints of our minds?  Did they/we realize that we cannot 'heal' the 'patients' when we don't know that the patients are ourselves?  That the demons aren't simply 'out there' to be feared, nor are they 'in here' to be repressed...

Ross Ashby says: No system adapts to the changing: it can adapt only to what is constant. (http://www.rossashby.info/aphorisms.html)  

Ross Ashby says: That homo has a brain no more entitles him to assume he knows how he thinks than possession of a liver entitles him to assume that he knows how he metabolises. (http://www.rossashby.info/aphorisms.html)

Knowing is action Knowledge is the corpse of action

Is it possible for a system to be both hierarchical AND innately mysterious? Is it possible for self-embedded reciprocity within such a system to lead towards a breaking out of the self same system while still being a part of it on another level? Can NON-understanding be a "part" of ANY system,...

I have this feeling that appeals to functional equivalence (or even similarity) are somehow, well, disrespectful, or at least intrinsically misleading.  Functional appeals 'work' because they abstract very specific relations from an otherwise fully real and completely embedded situation, and show how regardless of how those relations come about, if they do, then for the purposes of...

To the question:"Is there any art or skill than can not be done with a Zen mindfulness?" I answered:"No.  Even the skill of not being Zenly mindful can be done with Zen mindfulness." DRAT! Foiled again!