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Ugly Buddhist Woman
The Dalai Lama said, "Well, yes, a woman Could be the next Dalai Lama, but she'd have to be good looking." ugly.buddhist.woman@gmail.com
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Your Own Truth

Toward an Ambiguity Theory*

Truth is an abstract, Facts are Statements of Realities, realities, plural.

Any truthful enquiry is also an enquiry about the nature of truth.

Forget about "truth!" Truth is relative; truth can mean an accepted belief, and there IS no absolute truth.  But about facts, there can be no controversy, if they are gathered methodically, impartially, and without preconceived hypothesis or conclusion.
The late Senator Moynihan was both correct and incorrect when he said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts," because everyone is entitled to his own Set of facts, and everyone's Set of facts is a Subset of Truth.
This is easy.  It's simple to understand.  Take all the evidence, all the facts, all the personal facts and search for, rather than conclude, truth.  But you Cannot deny facts along the way to find a truth that is corroborated by witnesses, logic and scienctific proof.
Americans are absolutely addicted to the toys produced by technology, but adamantly opposed to science, math and logic.  Civilization is disintegrating and we are De-Vo. (1)(2)


Why I Don't Use the Scientific Method


The Scientific Method, as explained by Lynn Margulis, describes a process whereby I present hypotheses bolstered by supporting facts, bringing me to a statement of conclusion.  From there I publish widely and invite criticism.



"...science, which considers all of the evidence that can possibly be relevant, and builds a hypothesis based on the plethora, the total of evidence."  Lynn Margulis

If evidence is systematically destroyed, removed or omitted from the record, then that is another fact to be considered in the totality of evidence around an event.  While looking at what is there, looking for what is not there, but should be, and why it is missing.


If an event can't be replicated, hypotheses and conclusions cannot be proved.


My method is to come to no hypothesis, and no conclusions.  The aim is to gather and examine facts/evidence until all research has been exhausted.  Doing this, facts will cluster themselves around themes and patterns of meaning that can be compared with other themes and patterns of meaning.  In this case meaning is interpretation of the language of events. 


Who could possible conduct an inquiry like this?  I think it would take a combination of a four year old child, a detective, a philosopher, a scientist, an artist, a shrink and a Buddhist monk.  A shrink because human nature is to see what it wants or needs to see based on belief systems. (3)  A Buddhist monk because everything is in flux,  perception is relative, and all thoughts are equally empty.

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a world to produce a truth.

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see also:  The Beauty of Ambiguity Theory 
"This letter, if judged by the novelty and profundity of ideas it contains, is perhaps the most substantial piece of writing in the whole literature of mankind." Hermann Weyl, Symmetry, Princeton University Press, 1952
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Notes:
(1)   "It is clear now to everyone that the suicide of civilization is in progress. What yet remains of it is no longer safe. It is still standing, indeed, because it was not exposed to the destructive pressures which overwhelmed the rest, but, like the rest, it built upon rubble, and the next landslide will very likely carry it away."(Albert Schweitzer, The Decay and Restoration of Civilization, London, 1923)
This is just one quote, another one from 1921 (I'm looking for it,) says that without a positive philosophy as "Reverence For Life," civilization in the early years of the 20th Century is committing slow suicide.
(2)  "We are De-Vo"  80's Indie band Devo, "We are De-Vo" means we are de-evolving.
(3)  “The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it” Francis Bacon
“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And, because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how our failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.” R. D. Laing
“One must always tell what one sees. Above all, which is more difficult, one must always see what one sees.” Charles Péguy
"Gimme some truth."  John Lennon