'Nuff said :)

Speaking of (Product) RED… I snapped this photo as I was passing by… Then pocket karma hit me instantly.

(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)

~Seven milion users online, two body~mind~hearts chatting as one...

When distance is dead yet long distance sucks… Equanimity is virtue.

(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)

Just finished watching this very cool film. It's called, I AM. It's a free movie. What makes this film especially cool, aside from its very meaningful message, is that it's also probably "the first major 'open source film' project in history" wherein everyone is invited to co-create the film. I'll look forward on how this film would evolve overtime.

In the meantime, go ahead and check it out. It's a very touching story of our collective Kosmic journey, from creation (or Big Bang if you don't dig Intelligent Design), to evolution, to awakening.

So keep an open mind while watching the film. Relax and breathe in the imagery. Allow yourself to drift into a meditative awareness...

And to all the Trekkies out there, I'm sure you'll dig this. It's like a prequel to Star Trek generations ;)

Thanks to Casey for the heads up!

~C (for Cosmic voyage)

(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)

I've been watching a lot of TEDTalks lately. Those talks are very cool. Check it out. But I want to pay particular attention to these talks by Pastor Rick Warren and Philosopher Daniel Dennett. I suggest that you watch the talks first before reading my own reaction so you can form your own analysis without my lame-ass babbling interfering with yours. Here are the videos. Sit back. Relax. Open up.

Rick Warren

Pastor Rick Warren is author of The Purpose-Driven Life, which has sold 30 million copies worldwide. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 21:46)
Watch Online     Download Audio     Download Video

Dan Dennett

Dan Dennett is a Tufts philosophy professor and cognitive scientist, most famous for his books, Consciousness Explained (1991) and Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995). In this talk, he responds to the presentation by Pastor Rick Warren, taking issue with claims in his book, The Purpose-Driven Life. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 25:29)
Watch Online     Download Audio     Download Video

INJUNCTION: Ok, now that you've seen the talks, I want you to come up with your own analysis of the these two brilliant worldviews. In your opinion, which worldview is better? Who won the “debate”? How can you best integrate these two brilliant worldviews? Ponder on these, then feel free to post your thoughts on the comment section of this blog or post them on your own blog and drop me a link.

Now allow me to do my own musing….

MY TWO CENTS: After watching these talks I thought to myself, Wow these two people are just freakin' brilliant! But howcome they don't seem to meet eye to eye?

Dennett was obviously talking from a highly advanced cognitive scientific point of view, while Warren was talking from a highly advanced spiritual point of view albeit with a Christian flavor. Dennett's arguments appeals to the exterior of reality (e.g. biology, physics, evolution etc.) while Warren's arguments appeals to interiority (e.g. meaning, purpose, creation etc.).

When I saw Dennett's video championing his own Atheism I had no problems agreeing with all the scientific reasoning that he's dishing out. When he criticized religion, he hit the bull's eye of its problem: lack of scientific evidence, lack of education, lack of exposure to other religions. Yeah! Go get 'em Dennett! From what I gather from Dennett's arguments, the solution to the problem of religion is “educating” everyone. Well, I definitely agree on the education part, because that is key. However, Dennett seems to ignore (or has forgotten) that people go though stages of moral development and reasoning. You can educate people as much as you can but their interpretation and beliefs will be shaped depending on what stage of reasoning they're at. So his proposal is like trying to teach three year old kids advanced calculus. But I think I understand what Dennett is getting at. In his ideal world, religious tolerance and scientific inquiry are championed. I'd love that too. Unfortunately, in the “real” world, organized religions hijack the development of the majority of the population preventing them from reaching the stage of reasoning that Dennett already occupies.

But here's the rub: Dennet's critique of religion is lacking because it's not fully qualified. He lumps all religions altogether, especially the levels of religious beliefs. Religious beliefs go through stages of moral reasoning too: pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional. So I wonder what stage of religion Dennett was attacking. I'll bet he's attacking the pre-conventional and conventional stages. If that's the case, then Dennett rocks! But then Dennett went on to critique Warren. Rightly so, because Warren had written some statements in his book which can be interpreted in  pre-conventional and conventional ways. But when I watched Pastor Warren's video, I noticed that he is coming from a post-conventional stage of religious belief. I haven't read Warren's book but from the way he speaks, I'll assume that the book was written with a post-conventional reasoning under the guise of Christianity – thus making it a bestseller since the majority of the population is Christian. The catch of course is, will the majority of the Christians who read the book interpret it using conventional, or post-conventional beer-goggles?

The bottomline: I'd give Dennett the points for a blow by blow critique on religion. He wins the scientific and exteriority arguments, but when it comes to interiority, meaning, and sense of purpose, Pastor Warren is the winner, hands down.

~C (for Cows are sacred)

P.S. All in all, it's cool to see those two brilliant perspectives at play. However, if I'll have it my way, I also want to see something that will “integrate” those two perspectives into a believable worldview. It would've have been cool to see Ken Wilber talking at TEDTalks along with Dennett and Warren. Actually, I think Ken should talk at these conferences rather than just talking to people who already agrees with him. I think it's high time to stop preaching only to the choir, but also preach and integrate the rest of the memes out there. Conferences like TEDTalks would also give Wilber more mainstream exposure and it would be good for I-I. Now I wonder, does Wilber get invited to these talks and he just declines, or Wilber still doesn't have the mainstream recognition (like Dennett) to be invited to these talks? If it's the former, then I'll say, “Ken, you're not very fluffy.”

(via Dropping Knowledge: Question Ads Gallery)

Watch people answering more questions like these on Dropping Knowledge. It's ON GOING as of this writing. Check it out.

(via Bijarts's Blog)

It's already hard enough to blog 100 days straight. Painting and blogging one's painting in 100 days is something else! Jeff Lohrius recently accomplished such a feat.

Check out all the paintings by backtracking from this blog.

(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)

“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are – if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.”

I just love watching all the Joseph Campbell videos on YouTube. Here are some more video segments from the The Power of Myth. They're all about God, life, death, sex, marriage, love, nonduality, impermanence, and following our bliss: Bliss 01, Bliss 02, Bliss 03.

Here's the video for Bliss 03.

May you all find your blissful rabbit holes!

~C (for Campbell still rocks!)

(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)

"Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: sat-chit-ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked."

Source: The Power of Myth, Page: 120

Speaking of the four Ls, by some weird serendipity I happen to bump into this classic Joseph Campbell interview. It's a video segment of The Power of Myth. In this video Joseph Campbell talked about Love, the Holy Grail, and God. It's a cool hyper-overview of Campbell's massive knowledge of mythology. Campbell's beer-goggles is a perfect example of DEPTH and SPAN. This video a must-see

I {heart} you all!

~C (for Campbell rocks!)

(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)

Gapple logo via: mp: ON TIES THAT BIND GOOGLE AND APPLE?

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 30 — When Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, was named to Apple Computer’s board this week, it did more than signal a potential alliance between powerful companies. It touched off a wave of speculation about the motives of the man behind the move: Apple’s co-founder, Steven P. Jobs.

“The old social networks in Silicon Valley run very deep,” noted AnnaLee Saxenian, a leading scholar of the industry and dean of the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. “And this reminds us that Silicon Valley has a common enemy to the north.”

She did not even need to name the enemy she had in mind: Microsoft, the leading rival to both Mr. Jobs and Mr. Schmidt through most of their careers. Now, with the Internet era remaking the competitive landscape, their prospects for outdueling Microsoft’s Windows empire may be better than ever.

Read more…