In this perilous decade of transition, for both Humans and Nature, an awakening mind must not underrate the evolutionary value of a wandering and occasionally fixating mind. A human mind cannot be creative if it doesn’t wander freely, and regularly; and must even hold onto hypotheses long enough to ignite the curiosity, and ultimately the research work, of many other minds.
The evolved human trait of discursive thinking is an equal term in Nagarjuna’s teaching of the inseparable Two Truths: Absolute Truth (direct before thought experience) and relative truth (conceptual). It is even, paradoxically, consistent with Dogen’s stern warning to those of us who waver in the practice of timeless and unworldly non-thinking: “Is it good to enjoy the fleeting world? The body is transient like dew on the grass and your life is swift like a flash of lightning.”
The paradox is that, now more than ever, there is not only the Great Matter of seeing before conceptualisation, but there is also this imminent and unprecedented matter of human-caused mass extinction of species, and whether our present understandings of Humans and Nature might or might not be conceptually clear enough to deal with it. We can say this matter is also ‘great’ in that it means the shifting of ALL our existentially dangerous evo-eco-technological paradigms — conceptual work that must be substantially done before the last of this present generation of discursive thinkers dies.
Yes, it might take a whole lifetime for some of us to clearly see what Nagarjuna called Absolute Truth, and this work is not to be neglected. But, working with his “relative truth”, working with technological and evo-ecological concepts, is now Absolutely critical for the understanding and restoration of Humans and Nature.
As the Natural world tips toward irreversible mass extinction (unimaginable in Buddha’s time, as was technological, and as a result societal, innovation) the Awakening of a human mind to its desperate brooding on Nagarjuna’s endlessly propagating conceptual truths, just means that these ‘second truths’ are now, fearlessly and painlessly, in the service of the First Truth. Not the other way around.
So… what does this mean in practice?
If you are curious to see how diligently (or not) I’ve tried to apply this Vital Relationship between Buddhism and the Scientific Mind to the second great matter (the Buddhist Great Matter of seeing through our illusions is still and always the First), then I encourage you to explore and, if you feel so inclined, to comment on, the rest of this website. Because this ‘second great matter’ I’m referring to here is, once again, our pressing need in these climactic times to fully and fearlessly understand the human condition in light of still-evolving concepts concerning Natural History.
