Tag Archives: science

Thoughts

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Oakley Gordon

Ultimately, I no longer care about philosophy. I’m in love with life…and what I care about is learning how to be a better lover. (A thought that arose while I was writing the post “Remember to Wave your Warak’as“) To the scientist the Andean Cosmovision is a fantasy. In the Andean Cosmovision, the Aristotelean logic of the scientist is an illusion. (Don Americo Yabar, personal communication, close paraphrase). Don’t believe everything you think. (A bumper-sticker from www.NorthernSun.com). Our intellect was meant to be our guardian, not our prison guard. (Various … Continue reading →

Posted in Snippets | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Three Centers of Being (Part 1)

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Oakley Gordon

In the Andes they identify three centers of our being; the yachay, the munay, and the llankay. Each center is located in a different part of the body and each provides a different way of perceiving and understanding reality. The yachay is located in our head. It is our ability to think, in other words it is the intellect. In our culture, at least in my world of science and academia, logic is viewed as the epitome of thought. In the Andes, however, wisdom as a quality of thought is … Continue reading →

Posted in Andean Cosmovision, Ways of Knowing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lesson of the Mask

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Oakley Gordon
Sacred Dan Mask

Joseph Campbell, who in my view was the world’s greatest comparative mythologist, wrote a book about the role of masks in ancient ceremonies (The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology). He was interested in the experiences of people who participated in sacred rituals where a performer wore a mask which portrayed her or him as a deity. The people at the ceremony often knew the identity of the person wearing the mask, it may have been–for example–their uncle, so what did they believe about the person when he was wearing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Ways of Knowing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Andean Cosmovision: The Basics

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Oakley Gordon

One overriding factor to take into account when contemplating the Andean Cosmovision (view of the basic nature of the Cosmos) is that it is fundamentally different than that of Western* culture. This means that we can’t simply force their ideas into our own conceptual categories. The temptation to do so, however, is strong and rather automatic for we are accustomed to making sense of new things by relating them to what we already know. We in the West essentially have two ways of viewing the basic nature of reality; through … Continue reading →

Posted in Andean Cosmovision, Introduction, Ways of Knowing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why a Swan?

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Oakley Gordon

Our intellect is a very important part of our existence. It’s main task is to determine what is true and what is false. This is the context of both science and Western religion. While they differ in how they determine true from false they both take on this task. Let us consider a performance of the ballet Swan Lake. A ballerina appears on the stage dressed as a swan. This is not the appropriate context for the scientist to leap up and shout “Don’t be fooled, that is not really … Continue reading →

Posted in Ways of Knowing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment