#contemplative science

As the planet erupts in flames, most turn away from reality, distracted by shiny objects offering the illusion of comfort. Our house is on fire, much like a scene from the Lotus Sūtra, a transitional Buddhist text full of ecological parables. 

Invoking ecological analogy to illustrate the value of contemplative silence, the Buddha invites us to "know from the rivers" how to navigate the terrain of speech. 

“Know from the rivers in clefts & in crevices: 

Those in small channels flow noisily, 

The great flow silent. 

Whatever's not full makes noise. 

Whatever is full is quiet.”

“Whatever calamities there are, and whatever sorrows and fears come to the world, they are all the result of attachment to “self.” Why is that attachment mine?

Not having extinguished “self,” one is not able to extinguish sorrow; just as one who has not extinguished a fire is not able to extinguish the burning. 

It follows that for the sake of tranquilizing my own sorrow, and for the tranquilizing of the other’s sorrow, I give myself to others and I accept others like myself.”

— Śāntideva, Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra

"No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves." Such words from Silent Spring speak volumes. Anthropogenic climate change has befallen us. How do we rise from the ashes? 

“At the dawn of time, it was the Ancestral Beings – part human, part beast – who brought what was previously barren land to life. At the end of the Dreaming journeys, the Ancestral Being left aspects of themselves behind, transformed into part of the landscape.”  — The Gunditjmara People and G. Wettenhall

What can Australia’s Budj Bim volcano, which inspired the world’s oldest story and earliest form of aquaculture, teach us about contemplative science, environmental sustainability, and spirituality? 

Every tenth of October, the world briefly pauses to remember that mental health exists. Governments, corporations, and social media accounts alike wear the language of compassion, promising to “raise awareness”, to “end stigma”, or to “support wellness”. Yet behind these slogans lies a paradox: if the human mind is the foundation of all perception, creation, and civilisation, how is it possible…

To enter the terrain of thought without narrative is not merely to silence language, but to expose the preconditions of discursivity itself, the proto-intelligible strata that condition what can be experienced, known, or even suffered. MMQG This third movement in our unfolding exploration of MMQG for neurodivergent practice marks the decisive shift from the psycho-physiological and…

They say quantum computing will change everything. That by tapping into superposition and entanglement, we’ll compute across multiverses—solving problems with impossible speed, even generating physical objects through manipulation of nanoparticles. A replicator. A cup of Earl Grey, hot. But what if some of us are already doing this—not with machines, but with our hearts? What if consciousness…