[Buddha-l] Query about Francisco Varela

[Dan Lusthaus]

Thanks, Barnaby, for the explanation of Varela. But what, I wonder, is new
about this, that wasn't, for instance, already thoroughly studied,
documented and analyzed by Gestalt psychologists in the early 20th century
(Kohler, et al,, not the later Fritz Perls derivative), or Merleau-Ponty in
the early 1940s? They all used the blind spot as an example of our mental
constructions -- Merleau-Ponty carried it into such issues as phantom limbs
(someone who has lost a limb who, at least occasionally, feels it itch,
etc.).

Western Psychology of Perception -- a vast experimental and theoretical
literature -- has had much in common with Buddhism for over a century. It
should be a required course for anyone attempting to major in Buddhist
studies.

Dan Lusthaus