Psychedelic Enlightenment aka Balls

You see, this is how I have to spend my Sunday morning...defending my honor. Making sure Chinese democracy never happens. Can you feel me peeps?

That didn't come off natural did it? And that's the thing--the truth is, I have been meaning to raise the level of discourse beyond bouncy balls and bouncy Kimochi on PK for quite some time, but my uber-respect for the Sparkles-meister has prevented my doing so. I felt pre-emptively bad about making him look pretty bad.

I'm over it now.

So, to answer some questions(read: accusations) that have been raised:

1. The name change was due to my having joined another team (egads!) on Blogger. One in which, believe it or not, I am actually regarded as a professional and a leader of the young. Therefore I had to temporarily switch from the cryptic Idealjetsam to the dyspeptic Mr. T so that the High School youth of East Harlem would not learn about my shadow life shadowing a fantasy-football type nerdboy. But don't worry, once the semester is over, the I-man is back.

2. I am a grad student, so I have been unable to write. Not because the heavy workload is prohibitively time-consuming, but because I read absoutely nothing of interest to anyone outside the field of Education. Semioticians kick sand in my face (actually, it's New York so it's more like gutter dust, but you get the point) taunting, "Eco can so kick Freire's ass." Which shows what happens when you are more concerned with symbology than reality--anyone with a bit of common sense knows even a scruffy Italian academe can't take out a corpse. Please.

3. I strongly endorse the transformation of this blog into a Kimochi-only zone. I stand by this. I feel no one will stand against me, only with me. Show me the love, my people!! (That was unnatural too, weren't it? Balls.)

Anyway...

Starved for ideas and feeling the Peter Parker heat, this is what I have come up with: Let's see how the readers of PK do with the exact same post I have posed as a recent homework assignment to my high school students in East Harlem. We'll label it a litmus test, as I feel my future contributions to PK will basically be threefold: 1) Literary discussions on people like Murakami (which will be civil) and Doofsteoofski (which will be slightly, just slightly, derisive). 2) Kimochi. 3) Highbrow snooty stuff phrased as questions to you, the non-existent PK readership, in order to shake you out of your complacency and bake you into a higher level of discussancy. Get your hands on the ball.

That all being said, here's what the kids at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics are dealing with this week:

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During the European Enlightenment, the philosopher Rene Descartes taught that the world could be divided between the physical,observable world we can see and study and the mental world which was separate and different. This was a new way of knowing at that time. This idea is expressed by Descartes's Latin statement: 'Es cogito ergo sum.'; I think, therefore, I am. My mind observes that I exist.

However, more than 2000 years before Descartes was born, the Indian philosopher Siddartha Gautama, taught a new way of knowing too: that true Enlightenment comes when we realize that there is no difference or separation at all between our minds and the physical world. He also taught that trying to understand the "two" things separately is the illusion that causes all suffering in the world. This idea is expressed in the Sanskrit statement:'Tat tvam asi.'; This is that. There is no difference between my mind(this) and the physical world(that).

Which "new" way of knowing do you think makes more sense? Descartes's which says there is a difference between the mind and the world, or Siddhartha Gautama's which says they are one? Why? Which one do you think has more in common with cutting edge scientific theories in 2006?

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And there it is boys and girls. Where do you stand? Do you have an opinion? Do you care to opine? Do you have any idea whatever what I am on about here? If so: Discuss.

Three more things though:

1. This not a conversion attempt. No fruity "Hare, Hare" here, here. It's all about making sure that everyone's opinion and thoughts receive fair hearing. And hopefully you aren't hard of hearing.

2. For those who want to read up first, just wiki or google: Descartes, Buddhism, Quantum Theory, Planck, Chaos Theory, The Grand Unified Theory and Buzzer Beaters. Stuff like that.

3. For the proles who found this website via some ESPN connection, think of it like this: Is there a distance between you and the ball? Or are you and the ball one? Can you really get on the ball? Or are you already on it? In it? Around it? It?

(FYI: The Buddha endorses and applauds the use of the new, karma-friendly synthetic ball.)

Finally, however, for those punters who just can't be bothered...

Idealjetsam Kimochi

Miss Lin Zhi Ling. Expect to see her around.