A Poem by Hyatt Carter In the beginning, once upon a void,A pulse, first quantum throb, felt and enjoyed: From the many random emerges one,In dipolar rhythm where before was none;One after another now, pulsing free—A social process of self-creativity. If, in nature, consciousness be the crown,Experience, at least, goes all the way down.In people,… Continue reading Process and Presence
Month: June 2023
God and the World
Hyatt Carter To discuss how God and the world interact, in Whitehead’s view, it may be helpful to first say a few words about creativity. Creativity is so fundamental an idea in process thought that there are said to be two ultimates: God and creativity. Process denies the idea that only God is creative, or… Continue reading God and the World
The Lowdown from Highup
One of the cleverest religious jokes I’ve ever heard: “Rabbi,” cried the little Jew, “a terrible thing has happened. My son wants to marry a Gentile girl.” “Your son!” replied the Rabbi. “Look at me and my son. Here I am, the leader of the community. Everyone looks up to me as an example, and… Continue reading The Lowdown from Highup
Laughter and the Zen Koan
In the koan collection called Hekiganroku, Case 70 presents a koan called “Kuei Shan Attends on Pai Chang.” There are four sentences in this koan, each sentence followed by a jakugo, or a penetratingly sagacious Zen comment. One thing I find interesting is the first three Chinese characters of the first jakugo: 阿呵呵, meaning Ah-ha-ha!… Continue reading Laughter and the Zen Koan
Assaying Fibonacci’s Golden Section
The title of this musing is the same title I gave to one of the first essays I wrote as a freshmen at Park College. It already shows a penchant for playing with words, for you can, if you are lucky enough to have made a strike, go to an assayer’s office and have your… Continue reading Assaying Fibonacci’s Golden Section
Bā-beatitude of a Smile
Early one morning in a quiet place,God beheld the babe’s smiling face.So enchanted was God by the smile,God paused and tarried there a while. Within the smile God basksAnd bababeling asks,“Just who are you?” “Not one, not two,”Bababbling the babe replies. “Are you girl, are you boy?” “I am both, I am joy.”“Who’s more happy, you or… Continue reading Bā-beatitude of a Smile
The Theorist and the Experimentalist
What is the heart, or core, of science that makes it so powerful? With such dazzling feats as putting men on the moon, science, rather than religion, seems to be the realm where modern miracles routinely take place. One thing that clearly empowers science is its method. The work of science is done by two… Continue reading The Theorist and the Experimentalist
Ken Wilber’s Mandalic Model of Reality
This is an introduction to one of Ken Wilber’s most versatile ideas: his model of what he calls the Four Quadrants. As a formal structure, the four quadrants display a striking resemblance to a mandala. Wilber also speaks of his philosophy as “weaving a mandala of the many faces of Spirit.” My approach, therefore, will… Continue reading Ken Wilber’s Mandalic Model of Reality
Evolution of the Word in Paul and the Four Gospels
A foundational teaching of the New Testament is that God has declared that Jesus is the Son of God, thus affirming, on the highest authority, his divine nature. At what point in time, or during which event in the life of Jesus, is the declaration made? It turns out that there are four answers to… Continue reading Evolution of the Word in Paul and the Four Gospels
Preface to “Process and Reality”
By Alfred North Whitehead These lectures are based upon a recurrence to that phase of philosophic thought which began with Descartes and ended with Hume. The philosophic scheme which they endeavor to explain is termed the “Philosophy of Organism.” There is no doctrine put forward which cannot cite in its defense some explicit statement of… Continue reading Preface to “Process and Reality”