Marsupial Monday

Submitted by MeanJoe07 on August 21st, 2023 at 11:13 AM

It's Marsupial Monday everyone.  The last Monday of OT season.  One of your final opportunities to discuss the most OT thing you can think of and/or show some Marsupial appreciation.  Also, feel free to  express how much of a scourge soulless gibbons like RGard are. 

DISCUSS

 

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PopeLando

August 21st, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^

You ever wonder if marsupial women flex on other animal women?

Like, “check out my skin, it has pockets!” And then they stick their hands in their pocket, just to make a point.

I bet they do.

Joined: 08/01/2015

MGoPoints: 68293

ChiBlueBoy

August 21st, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^

Has anyone else noted the parallels between entropy, as documented by Rudolf Clausius in 1850, and the idea of "anicca," as documented by Gautama Buddha more than 2000 years previously? If one were to replace the term "anicca" wherever found in the Pali Canon with the term "entropy," there would be no loss of consistency or meaning within the text.

This obviously raises the issue of information entropy and how that is accounted for in the Pali Canon, if at all. I propose that the inter-relation of avijja (delusion or ignorance) and anicca (particularly as described as part of the nidanas within paticcasamuppada (interdependence)), on the one hand, is the same as the relationship between information entropy and entropy more broadly on the other hand. That is, in each case the two are inter-related and ultimately interdependent, like two sheaves holding each other up (to use the Buddha's metaphor). As such, information entropy would be nothing other than a calculation of avijja.

I hardly need mention the impact that this would have in interpreting both information entropy and the idea that avijja (i.e., that avijja is anicca as reflected within the sankharas including consciousness and contact with phenomenon).

Thank you, Mean Joe, for providing a platform for me to raise this critical issue for the MGoBodhisattvas.

Joined: 10/11/2011

MGoPoints: 7844

MgoBlaze

August 21st, 2023 at 11:49 AM ^

Not exactly, but that's interesting.

The most substantial parallel that I've come across is that ennui seems to be a similar phenomenon to dukkha, the suffering referenced in the first noble truth, and our desire to avoid it influences decision-making. Anicca roughly translates to impermanence as far as I know, so entropy does indeed seem to mirror that concept in a way. The five skandhas deteriorate with time, without a doubt. The only constant is change, right?

Likewise, I think there are parallels between satori/enlightenment and the ego death that can be brought on with psychedelics. Namely that ego death/satori/enlightenment are the Default Mode Network "resetting" and gaining the ability to create and establish new life patterns. Obviously they're not the same exact thing with the same outcomes, but related.

Joined: 07/12/2020

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ChiBlueBoy

August 21st, 2023 at 12:05 PM ^

I would consider ennui to be a good example of viparinama-dukkha: frustration when the pleasant turns to unpleasant because causes and conditions change. In other words, suffering directly related to anicca--that things change. The desire (tanha--clinging) to avoid change does, indeed, lead to poor decision making and more suffering. I would say that "impermanence" is an attempt to translate a word with no clear parallel in English other than, I would argue, "entropy". And yes, the 5 skandhas and all things (other than nibbana) do deteriorate (i.e., are subject to entropy).

I think of psychedelics as like a kid being kidnapped, thrown in a trunk, and taken to Disney for the day, then thrown back in a trunk and taken home. He had a trip, and it was wild, but he has no way of knowing how he got there or how to return. Meditation and other practices, however, permit one to see the path and how to connect with those experiences without clinging to them.

Joined: 10/11/2011

MGoPoints: 7844

MadMonkey

August 21st, 2023 at 1:27 PM ^

Some marsupial trivia:  there appears to be significant disagreement about how many extant marsupial species there are on the planet.   These are some of the tallies:

  • 250  source:  Britannica
  • 200  source:  Britannica (yep, they disagree with themselves)
  • 330  source:  Australia Museum
  • 335  source:  University College of London
  • 334  source:  Trishansoz
  • 250  source:  Science Direct
  • 295  source:  San Diego Zoo
  • 340  source:  Quora

Also, it is widely believed that the Wombat is the most intelligent of the marsupials.  Sorry, Mean Joe.

Joined: 04/08/2010

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