I will keep this one short. I had the opportunity to observe a mating pair of Turquoise-browed Motmots foraging together yesterday in a defoliated Tropical-Dry forest aside Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. It was incredible, and may be the most ornate and beautiful bird I’ve ever seen. The Vermillion flycatcher that I saw in Oaxaca back in January was a close second. Anyways, as I continued again on my way after being spellbound by these magnificent birds for awhile, I had the thought that my ability to even see those birds for what they are has been shaped largely by my meditation practice. When I watch them I’m not fixated on the particulars——an organic blending occurs if I’m in a clear state of mind, where boundaries blur and everything takes on a higher resolution than everyday appearances. Meditation erodes the very constructs that the scientist works so diligently to build within his or her own mind, and takes to be sacred. If one goes down the scientific path with their career (and I’m particularly referring to a career in the biological sciences) and they do not simultaneously practice meditation, I feel that they are at risk of only being able to perceive the world through a lens that others have created and polished over the centuries. The meditator on the other hand is able to forever keep ajar the gates of awe which science, when unchecked, can clamp shut. The career scientist looks at the world from the perspective of an adult within his science, whereas the scientifically informed meditator maintains the ability to look at the world from the perspective of an infant within the universe——a universe far greater than understanding can ever truly penetrate——free of paradigm. That is at least the hope. The sciences can give so much to us, but we must never forget that they can also take away. With the correct practice, however, I believe we can keep the best from both methods of inquiry.