"Dark Star"
By Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia
Dark star crashes,
Pouring its light into ashes.
Reason tatters,
The forces tear loose from the axis.
Searchlight casting for faults in the clouds of delusion.
Shall we go, you and I,
While we can,
Through the transitive nightfall
Of Diamonds
Roger “Mystic” Jackson and Joel “Pulsar” Weisberg debate the meaning of the Grateful Dead song “Dark Star.”
Joel
says, “This is clearly about the birth of a pulsar in a supernova.”
Roger says, “This is clearly about the
transcendence of rationality in mystical experience.”
Roger Jackson is Carleton's John W. Nason Professor of Asian Studies and Religion and the Director of Asian Studies
Roger R. Jackson (Wesleyan, BA; Wisconsin, MA, PhD), 1983-84, 1989-, teaches the religions of South Asia and Tibet. His special interests include Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and ritual; Buddhist religious poetry; religion and society in Sri Lanka; the study of mysticism; and contemporary Buddhist thought. He is author of Is Enlightenment Possible? (1993) and Tantric Treasures (2004), co-author of The Wheel of Time: Kalachakra in Context (1985), editor of The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems (2009), co-editor of Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre (1996), Buddhist Theology (1999), and Mahamudra and the Bka'brgyud Tradition (2011), and has published many articles and reviews. He is a past editor of the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, and is currently co-editor of the Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies.
Joel is a radio astronomer who studies pulsars, gravity waves, and the interstellar medium at the Arecibo, Green Bank, and Very Large Array radio telescopes. He also has strong interests in science policy, and frequently teaches in the Environmental and Technology Studies Program.
Roger R. Jackson (Wesleyan, BA; Wisconsin, MA, PhD), 1983-84, 1989-, teaches the religions of South Asia and Tibet. His special interests include Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and ritual; Buddhist religious poetry; religion and society in Sri Lanka; the study of mysticism; and contemporary Buddhist thought. He is author of Is Enlightenment Possible? (1993) and Tantric Treasures (2004), co-author of The Wheel of Time: Kalachakra in Context (1985), editor of The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems (2009), co-editor of Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre (1996), Buddhist Theology (1999), and Mahamudra and the Bka'brgyud Tradition (2011), and has published many articles and reviews. He is a past editor of the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, and is currently co-editor of the Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies.
Joel Weisberg is Carleton's Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of Physics and Astronomy and the Natural Sciences
Joel is a radio astronomer who studies pulsars, gravity waves, and the interstellar medium at the Arecibo, Green Bank, and Very Large Array radio telescopes. He also has strong interests in science policy, and frequently teaches in the Environmental and Technology Studies Program.