In 1890, William James published The Principles of Psychology and made famous the metaphor of a stream to describe the seamless nature of conscious experience. James was intrigued by this quality of mind but questioned it, and wondered whether consciousness only seems “… continuous to itself by an illusion analogous to that of the zoetrope?” Similarly, Buddhist philosophers recognize the continuity of mind to be like a river, but interrogate the illusion of an immutable “self.”
According to the Consequence (prāsaṅgika) school of thought, mind and all things are empty (śūnyata) with respect to any intrinsically identifiable reality—because they are relative. Buddhologist Robert A. F. Thurman refers to this as Nagarjuna’s “Royal Reason of Relativity,” and in this panel session will present an essay on how Buddhist nondualism offers an innovative way of approaching the “explanatory gap” in consciousness studies.
Panelists will include Piet Hut (astrophysics & physics), W. Teed Rockwell (philosophy), and Gary Tubb (Indic philosophy). The moderator for this discussion will be Paul Gailey (physics).ༀ
Panelist Essays & Presentations:
• Robert Thurman’s target essay.
• Teed Rockwell’s response essay.
• A transcription of Gary Tubb’s presentation.
Web:
• Paul Gailey’s “Is a Holistic Science Possible?”
• Nonduality in India & Tibetan Thought
• Denma Locho Rinpoche on the Two Truths
• Berzin’s“The Validity & Accuracy of Cognition of the Two Truths”
• Teed Rockwell’s Neither Brain Nor Ghost
• Garfield & Priest’s, “Nagarjuna and the Limits of Thought.”
source: Philosophy East and West, January 1, 2003.
via: 
HighBeam™ Research
COPYRIGHT 2003 University of Hawaii Press
Blogs:
MysWizard,“Nondualism”
※ And please visit the Mind & Reality website for details on the Symposium and audio webcast.
