May 23
A short selection from Essay Ten in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice. Look again at that dot … every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there—on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam … In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come …
May 21
The second section of Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice begins. PART II —Darwin and the Tree of Life … as a result of competition two similar species scarcely ever occupy similar niches —Georgii Frantsevich Gause [1] I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, …
May 17
A short selection from Essay Eight in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice. [YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS ON A FIRST READING OF THE TWO BUDDHAS SEQUENCE] Primordial Awareness [the Way] is perfect and all-pervading. How could it be dependent upon practice and realization? The movement of Reality does not need us to give …
May 16
A short selection from Essay Seven in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice. [YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS ON A FIRST READING OF THE TWO BUDDHAS SEQUENCE] Personally, I (as a thinking mind) prefer the reflecting pool simile given in Two Buddhas, Part-5 over the other more discrete conceptions of consciousness listed there; for …
May 14
A short selection from Essay Six in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice. (So let’s step beyond our inner nerd now, and follow our Buddhas.) “What is the Way?” Ordinary mind is the Way. “Should I turn toward it or not?” If you turn toward it you turn away from it. “How can I know the …
May 10
A short selection from Essay Five in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice. (The sequel to the “prequel” in Part Four.) [YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS ON A FIRST READING OF THE TWO BUDDHAS SEQUENCE] Now let us suppose that … a being, who can see the individual molecules, opens and closes the hole, …
May 04
A short selection from Essay Four from Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice, the physical prequel for my metaphysical ramblings on Humans and Nature (the Two Buddhas). Our Platonic heritage prompts us to view means and medians as the hard ‘realities,’ and the variation that permits their calculation as a set of transient and imperfect …
May 03
A short selection from Essay Three in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice. [YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS ON A FIRST READING OF THE TWO BUDDHAS SEQUENCE] However a phenotype develops, however genetic algorithms conspire with environment to produce, maintain, and alter an organism over its lifetime, or perhaps even pass on some of …
May 02
A short selection from Essay Two in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice. Organisms consist of germ cells that transmit heritable information and somatic cells that carry out ordinary functions. Germ cells are not altered by environment, learning, or the morphological changes of a lifetime. This information is lost after each generation. —Weismann’s germ plasm …
Apr 25
The first section of Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice begins. PART I —Trouble with GAIA Gaia … 1 (also Gaea …) Gk Myth the Earth personified as a goddess, daughter of Chaos. She was born the mother and wife of Uranus (Heaven); their offspring included the Titans and the Cyclops. 2 the earth viewed as a …
