It's the 400th anniversary
of Descartes' Dreams on this date—
Wrote my first pantoum about it
and in a poem "Mango's Mystery".

France 331: Descartes (issued June 10, 1937)

Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell (1937)

Baillet's La vie de Descartes (1691)

Baillet's Descartes Bio in English (1693)

Read about Descartes in Eric Temple Bell's Men of Mathematics (1937) at Cornell University (circa 1966). So intrigued about his dreams that inspired his discoveries in mathematics and philosophy, that I went to Cornell Olin Library to read Baillet's Life of Monsieur Descartes in English translation (1693). At Foothill Writers' Conference, wrote my first pantoum on Descartes Dreams in "An Enlightened Story" (7-8-2006). Recounted Descartes Dreams in poem "The Mango's Mystery" (6-17-2000), recalling a maiden giving Descartes a melon when Cathy gave me a mango. Photo Sources: France 331 Descartes stamp (frenchphilately.com); Men of Mathematics (amazon.com); Baillet's La vie de Monsieur Descartes (remue.net); 1693 English Translation (books.google.com)

Now, I've forgottten this occasion of a spiritual mentor who appeared in my dreams to teach me like he did Princess Elisabeth & Queen Christina. René Descartes (1596-1650) by Franz Hals Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, Age 12 (1618-1680) Queen Christina of Sweden as a Child (1626-1689) René Descartes Passions of the Soul (published 1649) It's heartily that some remembered the 400th anniversary of Descartes Dream on November 10, 1619. Professor Michael LeBuffe from University of Otago recalled this date, wondering about Descartes' idea whether our life is but a dream. Grand Valley State University (Allendale, Michigan) met (10-4-2019) for "400 Years Since Descartes' Three Dreams: A Panel Discussion on Knowledge, Nature, and Modernity". At age 23, Queen Christina invitee Descartes to Stockholm (1649-1650) to teach her philosophy and geometry. Wrote a poem on this "Royalty Spirituality" (2-11-2016). At age 25, Princess Elisabeth corresponded with Descartes (1643-1650), and solved the theorems sent to her. Found nice portrait of Princess Elisabeth at age 12, showing a bird resting on her left hand in wisdom mudra pose (1980 WPI class; Einstein). Since birds symbolize the soul (book), it's interesting that Descartes referred to the pineal gland as seat of the rational soul in his last book Passions of the Soul (1649) based on his correspondences with Princess Elisabeth, and dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden; (see "Platonic Lambda Sonnet"). Photo Sources: René Descartes (wikimedia.org); Princess Elisabeth (wikimedia.org); Queen Christina (commons.wikimedia.org); Passions of the Soul (commons.wikimedia.org

Copy of these dreams in Leibniz's handwriting at the Hanover Library— 1st Dream: Whirlwind sweeps him to town square where a maiden gives him a melon. Germany 962 Gottfried Leibniz (issued 8-24-1966) University of Hanover or Leibniz Universität Hannover containing 50,000 Leibniz manuscripts Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German mathematician and natural philosopher. He was a co-discoverer of calculus (1675) with Sir Isaac Newton. He adopted the binary system of 0 & 1 based on the ancient Chinese I Ching hexagrams, & invented a calculating machine (1671). Descartes' original document of his Dreams (1619) is lost. However there's a copy of it in Leibniz's handwriting in the Hanover Library. In the first dream, Descartes was swept by a whirlwind, and couldn't reach his Jesuit College, La Flèche, for refuge. He was hurled to the town square where a maiden hands him an exotic melon (if his college represents knowledge, then the melon symbolizes wisdom). Photo Sources: Germany 962 (colnect.com); University of Hanover (en.wikipedia.org)

2nd Dream: Thunderclap wakes him up while light flakes dance around the room. 3rd Dream: Pythagoras opens secret book inspiring Descartes to new discoveries Descartes 2nd Dream: Light Flakes in Room (Opening of Crown Chakra) Descartes 3rd Dream: Pythagoras with Book (in Raphael's School of Athens) Analytical Geometry (1637) invented by René Descartes blending Geometry with Algebra In his second dream, a thunderclap wakes Descartes up. He sees sparks of scintillating light flying around in his room (an illuminating experience of the 7th crown chakra, Buddha's thousand-petal lotus). In his third dream, he sees a giant book with the verse of Ausonius, "Quod vitae sectabor iter" (What path shall I take in life?). An old man appears and quotes the verse "Est et non" (Yes and no). He interprets the old man as Pythagoras with his pair of opposites. Photo Sources: Light Flakes (bsnscb.com); Pythagoras (visionlearning.com); Analytical Geometry (encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com); of analytical geometry and Cartesian philosophy— so overwhelmed by these miracles that he made a pilgrimage from Venice to thank the Virgin of Loreto. Discourse on the Method by René Descartes (1637) Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) Basilica della Santa Casa Marian pilgrimage in Loreto Lady of Loreto Statue Descartes visited in 1624 Descartes felt that he had a supernatural dream and vowed he would make a pilgrimage from Venice to Notre Dame de Lorette. He fulfilled this vow five years later (1624) traveling by foot (186 miles) to honor the Virgin Mary. From Baillet's biography on Descartes (1691): "Descartes was in Venice in 1624 to watch feast of Ascension on May 16, 1624. and made pilgrimage to Loreto for the Virgin's blessings. Photo Sources: Discourse on the Method (commons.wikimedia.org); Meditations on First Philosophy (commons.wikimedia.org); Basilica della Santa Casa di Loreto (commons.wikimedia.org); Lady of Loreta Statue (pinterest.com/) Reading Fung Yu-Lan's Chinese Philosophy on Seng-chao's Wu (Nirvana) that "nothing can be said and one must remain silent"— that I wrote on the bottom of page 248— Fung Yu-Lan's 1948 A Short History of Chinese Philosophy Fung Yu-Lan (1895-1990) (Photo: Who's Who in China 3rd Ed., Shanghai, 1925) Seng-Chao (384-414) Chinese Buddhist Monk and Philosopher Chao Lun: Treatises of Seng-Chao (1968) By Walter Liebenthal Fung Yu-Lan's A History of Chinese Philosophy (1934) in two volumes became an instant classic. His A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (1948) was the copy I was reading. On page xii of the 2nd Edition of Chao Lun (1968), Libebential writes "With much good luck I found an ideal reader and corrector of my English in Mr Terence J. S. Gray. Let his selfless labour be acknowledged here with sincere thanks." Terence Gray aka Wei Wu Wei (1895-1988), was an enlightened Irish sage who experienced cosmic consciousness like Seng-Chao. Photo Sources: Fung Yu-Lan's 1948 book (wisdomportal.com); Fung Yu-Lan (commons.wikimedia.org); Seng Chao (bhoffert.faculty.noctrl.edu); Chao Lun: The Treatises of Seng-Chao (lulu.com); 8:20 AM— Nov. 10, 1969— 350 years after Dream of Descartes (Nov. 10, 1619) I was enlightened by the above lines on the mystery of Buddha's silence. Page 248 of Fung Yu-Lan's with comments on Seng-chao Buddha under the Bodhi Tree Experiencing Nirvana in Silence On page 248 of Fung Yu-Lan's A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, I'm reading Seng Chao's Yu (Being) and Wu (Non-being) and the higher sense truth— "This he does in an essay titled "On Prajna Not Being Knowledge". Prajna is described by Seng-chao as Sage-knowledge, but, he says, this Sage-knowledge is really not knowledge. For knowledge of a thing consists in selecting a quality of that thing and taking that quality as the object of knowledge. But Sage-knowledge consists in knowing about what is called Wu (Non-being), and this Wu is to be one with it. This state of identification with Wu is called Nirvana. Nirvana and Prajna are two aspects of one and the same state of affairs. As Nirvana is not something to be known, so Prajna is knowledge which is not knowledge (Chao Lun, ch. 3). Hence, on the third level of truth, nothing can be said and one must remain silent." After reading the above paragraph, highlighting sentences with a yellow marker, I wrote at the bottom of page 248 of understanding the mystery of Buddha's silence on the 350th anniversary (Nov. 10, 1969) of Descartes Dream on Nov. 10, 1619. (Read Dr. Ravi P. Bhatia's "Thoughts on Silence" 5-23-2016) Photo Sources: Page 248 Commentary (wisdomportal.com); Buddha under Bodhi Tree (transcend.org) Was working on my doctoral research at Cornell Labs on "Calorimetry of Helix-Coil Transition of Poly-L-Lysine" and have not released the acid yet— Helix-Coil Transition of Poly-L-Lysine Biopolymers 10, 657-680 (1971) of my 1970 Cornell Ph.D. Thesis Adiabatic Calorimeter (similar to one used in my experiment) Did my doctoral research on macromolecules with Professor H.A. Scheraga at Cornell's Department of Chemistry (1963-1970). Used an adiabatic calorimeter to measure the helix-coil transition of Poly-L-Lysine. At pH=11, the polymer is helical, at pH=7, it is random coil. The breaking of a small vial of HCl within the calorimeter induces the transition in the Poly-L-Lysine solution. Photo Sources: Helix-Coil Transition (pubs.acs.org); Biopolymers paper of Ph.D. Thesis (onlinelibrary.wiley.com); Adiabatic Calorimeter (researchgate.net) Without inducing any chemical reaction, the calorimeter baseline jumped— recording my mental leap at that moment of spiritual awakening! Upsurge in Baseline of Chart Paper without Inducing any Chemical Reaction Buddha's Flower Sermon when he was silent Buddha with Lotus Flower given to Mahakasyapa It takes about an half-hour for the calorimeter to equilibrate with a steady baseline before inducing a chemical reaction. However, without pressing the red button to break the HCL vial, triggering a reaction, the baseline took an upsurge or leap at the moment of my awakening to the meaning of Buddha's silence as expounded by Seng Chao. I kept the chart paper with notes in the margin on that Nov. 10, 1969 date, but don't know where it is right now. The graph shown is the closest facsimile of what happened that day. I'm still surprised that the calorimeter recorded my mental leap at that moment. In honor of the 400th anniversary of Descartes Dreams, that inspired my own awakening 50 years ago, I'm ending these notes with Buddha's "Flower Sermon" where he did not speak and remained silent. Mahakasyapa smiled, and Buddha gave the flower to him. This event is called the "Silent Transmission of the Lamp". Reflecting on Descartes Dreams and his teachings, I'm smiling at the sages who came to my life sharing so much wisdom, compassion, and blessings. Photo Sources: Baseline Upsurge in Chart Paper (realclimate.org); Buddha's Flower Sermon (thebuddhadhamma.wordpress.com); Buddha with Lotus Flower (tienvnguyen.net); — Peter Y. Chou     Mountain View, 12-3-2019 | Top | Poem "November 10, 1619" | Poems 2019 | Poems 2018 | Poems 2017 | Poems 2016 | Poems 2015 | | Poems 2014 | Poems 2013 | Poems 2012 | Poems 2011 | Haikus 2019 | Haikus 2018 | Haikus 2017 | Haikus 2016 | | Haikus 2015 | Haikus 2014 | Haikus 2013 | Haikus 2012 | Walks 2019 | News | CPITS | Books | A-Z Portals | Home | © Peter Y. Chou, Wisdom Portal P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039 email: (12-3-2019)