Scientist vs. Mystic with Sadhguru (video)

Sadhguru; Cosmology Today™; Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

 

Scientist versus Mystic: A Conversation about the Cosmos, Brain, and Reality with David Eagleman and Sadhgu4u

Dr. David Eagleman, 6, is an American neuroscientist and writer, serving as an adjunct associate professor at Stanford University in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He independently serves as the director of the Center for Science and Law and is known for his work on brain plasticity, time perception, synesthesia, and neurolaw.
 

I used to sit for days at a time.

Sadhguru ([Hindu Guru] Jaggi Vasudev, isha.sadhguru.org), 60, is an Indian yogi, mystic, and author. He founded the Isha Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers yoga programs around the world, including India, the United States, Great Britain, Lebanon, Singapore, Canada, Malaysia, Uganda, China, Nepal, and Australia.
 

The Isha Foundation is also involved in various social and community-development activities, which have resulted in it being granted special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. 

• Caption authors: Kuthan Ozdemir, Siva Krishna, NSujit Shrestha, Msntito7

Low Talk: How the ocean formed

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A 35-mile rift in the Ethiopian desert is giving scientists a rare look at an epic process. Potential hazard

The Buddha mentioned 32 kinds of low or unprofitable talk -- which are distracting in the quest towards enlightenment. Were they of benefit, the Buddha would not have made them impermissible for monastics or spoken of their harm for ordinary people.

These topics of idle conversation are not without function, but they are evidently of little benefit. The function they serve is social. They will therefore endure as fixture of society, not likely to be eliminated anytime soon. Wise people will limit their involvement in such discussions if peace of mind and success in meditation is their goal. While it may indeed be interesting even useful to know what the "talk around the water cooler" is, it is distracting in the quest towards concentration (samma-samadhi, "right concentration," defined as the first four jhanas) and enlightenment.

Famously, the Buddha once made an analogy between how much a buddha knows and how much a buddha makes known. He did so by picking up a small handful of leaves and contrasting it with the number of leaves remaining in the large forest he was standing in at the time.

How oceans are formed is an interesting thng to ponder. It does not, however, lend itself to liberation, knowledge and vision of nirvana, or even mundane (temporary) respite from Samsara in terms of rebirth in exalted worlds. It amounts to "animal talk" (tiracchāna-kathā, low or beastly talk, idle or empty chatter, babble, gossip) meditators and monastics are wise to avoid:

• "Talk about kings and robbers, ministers and armies, danger and war, eating and drinking, clothes and dwellings, garlands and scents, relations, [vehicles], villages and markets, towns and districts, women and heroes, street [gossip], [gossip] by the well, about those departed in days gone by, tittle-tattle, about the world and sea, about gain and loss (A.X.6). The commentaries add four bringing the total to 32 subjects: talk about sensuous enjoyment, self-mortification, eternity, and self-annihilation" (Buddhist Dictionary, Ven. Nyanatiloka).

Buddhist "Wrong Speech"

There are Ten Courses of Unwholesome Conduct in Buddhism. As this list makes clear, there are more items related to verbal misconduct than to any other category of behavior.

1. PHYSICAL: killing
2. stealing
3. sexual misconduct
4. VERBAL: lying
5. slander
6. harsh speech
7. empty chatter
8. MENTAL: covetousness
9. ill will
10. wrong views (A.N., X, 206)

"Empty chatter" (often mistranslated as "gossip") in particular involves the following:

ANIMAL TALK (BPS Buddhist Dictionary term: tiracchana-katha)

This is the name in the texts for the following: "Talk about kings and robbers, ministers and armies, danger and war, eating and drinking, clothes and dwellings, garlands and scents, relations, chariots, villages and markets, towns and districts, women and heroes, street talks, talks by the well, talk about those departed in days gone by, tittle-tattle, talks about [the origin of the] world and sea, about gain and loss" (A.X., 69 ff.).

In the commentaries four further kinds [of unprofitable speech] are enumerated, thus bringing the number to 32, as mostly counted, namely: talk about sensuous enjoyment, self-mortification, eternity, and self-annihilation.

Such talk distracts and often obsesses the mind to no advantage. While some of these things may be important from time to time for persons to know, it is certainly of no profit to meditators and spiritual seekers (such as conscientious monastics).