The Political Tradition
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 2 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Evidence Bases in Religion, Science and Politics,’ explores the creation of political tradition, based upon second-person evidence. It follows on from The Religious Tradition. The Political Tradition Pyramid There’s also a hierarchical structure tied to second-person evidence—evidence communicated to second parties, as when I share my opinion with you, and you reciprocate: this is the political tradition pyramid, thus: Religion pertains to ‘I’ Science pertains to ‘They’ Politics pertains to ‘You’ Politics revolves around the organization of society, dictating its course and wielding two key elements: decision-making and power: ‘Politics (from Greek: politika, ‘affairs of the cities’) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.’[1] (My emphasis) Similar to how religious traditions stem from individual expressions of faith, political traditions are forged from the interplay of opinions and power dynamics among its members. As second person evidence ‘comes in,’ manifesting as political opinion and also wielded power over others, a distinct political landscape emerges, where legislative authority (not always legitimate) gravitates towards one party, or even an individual, thus shaping a specific political reality. The quality and harmony of the society it serves, along with the direction it takes, hinge upon the breadth, harmony, and calibre of the social and political discourse. Different political traditions can be envisioned along a spectrum: on one end lie open, collaborative, and inclusive empowering systems, such as free democracies, while on the opposite end reside restrictive, polarized, and manipulative power-centric traditions, exemplified by dictatorships and totalitarian regimes. I’ve termed the core aspect of the political hierarchy ‘opinion,’ as my focus rests on the higher end of the spectrum. While opinion pervades this structure, its influence diminishes as we descend through the hierarchy. Initially subject to manipulation, as some argue is prevalent in today’s Western mainstream media, individual opinion gradually yields to power. In an ideal spiritual community—one founded on wisdom and compassion—there exists no necessity for one individual to wield power over another. Rather, all interactions are guided by mutual respect, consultation, and awareness. This epitomizes the ethos embraced by members of the Triratna Buddhist Order upon ordination: each member commits to engaging with others through the ‘love mode,’ rejecting the ‘power mode.’ For instance, should any member resort to legal action against another, they would be deemed to have forsaken the principles of consensus and consultation, consequently forfeiting their status within the order. Of...
The Religious Tradition
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Evidence Bases in Religion, Science and Politics,’ and explores how a Wisdom or Religious tradition comes about. It follows on from The Scientific Tradition. The Wisdom tradition But what about a Wisdom tradition such as Buddhism? Here the authors [of The Embodied Mind] draw upon the philosophical tradition of Phenomenology, in particular the work of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The Greek word logos traditionally means ‘word, thought, principle, or speech’ and has been used among both philosophers and theologians, and the word phenomenon—which because it comes from the Greek phainomenon, from the verb phainesthai, meaning “to appear, become visible”—means ‘appearance’ and so the word Phenomenology can be glossed; ‘what you can say about the phenomena of experience / what appears to be in the world, (by implication) if you set aside speculative theories, for instance theories about whether you and the world exist, whether there are “real objects” out there.’ Martin Heidegger’s’ answer was ‘you appear in the world as if thrown here’ and the appropriate response to your existential situation was ‘care;’ you should look after yourselves and your world (Heidegger has a critique of technological excess that is very pertinent today). Phenomenology ‘pushes us back onto our experience’, and the authors call this experience ‘first-person experience’ or ‘first-person evidence;’ because it is only accessible to a first person (to an ‘I;’ to oneself). This is relevant today: Critical Race Theory and proponents of Woke assume that all white people are racist. Obviously, it is possible to tell whether someone is racist from their words and actions, but beyond that, such a realization can only come from self-knowledge and awareness: in other words, from a first-person perspective. The only person who can truly know for certain whether they are racist is the person themselves: as they are the sole person with access to their inner world. And what they do with that knowledge is their business: this is how conscience works. In Buddhism, for true confession to take place, the practitioner must see their failing for themselves; any person hearing a confession is only witness to an inner process. Confession therefore is a ‘first-person to first-person’ matter, just as a preceptor witnesses a Buddhist ordinand’s effective going for refuge to the Three Jewels. Varela [co-author of The Embodied Mind] went on the create a new field; Neurophenomenology, bringing together neuroscience—including the scientific study of brainwaves of meditating monks—with first-person reports of meditative experience. I explored these ideas in a Shabda[1] article entitled ‘Consciousness and...
The Scientific Tradition
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 1 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Evidence Bases in Religion, Science and Politics,’ in which I explore how the scientific tradition functions. This excerpt follows on from Secular Religion. The Embodied Mind Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s establishment of the Naropa Institute and the subsequent collaboration with Francisco Varela in exploring cognitive science–and aided by the Dalai Lama’s long-standing interest in science–led to the publication of the influential book ‘The Embodied Mind.’ This work laid the theoretical foundation for the ongoing dialogue between Buddhism and Science. The Scientific Tradition Pyramid Varela, along with Evan Thompson and Eleanor Rosch, posited a central insight regarding the distinct forms of evidence employed by Science and Wisdom traditions. Science relies on ‘third-person evidence’ or objective evidence, progressing through experimentation, validation by the scientific community, and the establishment of scientific truth. The reason why such evidence is termed “third person” is that once an experiment is completed, various third parties—we might call them ‘The They’—need to replicate the experiment and corroborate its results. By amassing corroborated third-person scientific evidence, endorsed by the scientific community, a definitive scientific veracity is established, graphically represented by the depicted pyramid. The ascending progression along the pyramid symbolizes the incremental consolidation of scientific truths, indicating a growing and substantiated body of knowledge within the scientific domain. A hierarchy in Science However, not all science maintains the same level of objectivity, and a spectrum exists from high-certainty Evidence-based Science to low-certainty Pseudoscience. The evaluative criterion for any scientific discipline lies in its capacity to generate tangible and advantageous outcomes in the world, typically manifested in technological advancements. In contrast, pseudoscience may be aptly characterized as a subjective tradition, although it can sometimes yield benefits that elude precise quantification. The chapter goes on to explore the Religious...
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