pynchon agnostic? II

[Keith McMullen]

>>>I am by no means a disciplined metaphysician, so I'm hesitant to reply,
partly
because you seem like you're ready to pounce.<<<

I've been studying Advaita Hinduism for the past year, and they come at
these issues with a different conceptualization that most Westerners. It
turns everything on its head regarding how to conceptualize what we
perceive, how we perceive, who is perceiving, and the relationship between
the neurological mechanism and 'consciousness.' It's all quite fascinating
to me, and raises questions about what we take for granted, what seems like
good old obvious common sense from our conceptual framework. My interest was
catalyzed by a seminar I attended on Buddhism and psychotherapy. The
instructor kept holding up his Styrofoam cup and saying, "There is no
difference between this cup and a thought. The only reason you see a cup is
because we have all agreed that there is a cup." He further suggested that
almost all of what is presented in the West as Eastern thought is complete
hogwash, because the Eastern perspective is so fundamentally different than
how the West conceptualizes the nature of reality, that it is nearly
impossible for us to grasp it and vice versa. he concluded that any union of
Buddhism and Western psychology was impossible. Refunds were not offered.