Thread by @PageauMatthieu

When i use the term "rumination" i mean something very specific. "Ruminating" is the opposite of "Reasoning" in the sense that we reason from our first principles, by deduction. So reason is about thinking within the framework of our existing perspective. Deducting from axioms.

Rumination is what you do when you suspect that your first principles are either lacking or unclear to you. It's about reconnecting with reality (concrete facts and experience) and "letting facts express themselves". This is difficult because it takes time; it can't be forced.

So ruminating is about renewal and crowning your current principles. This is the meaning of Moses and the stone. He was supposed to "ask the stone for water" but instead he "hit it with his staff". The latter means that he attempted to force the stone to renew him.

His staff represents something like a "tree" (it's the branch of a tree). The tree expresses itself, as reason does. From a seed, it branches out logically and produces fruit.

But here Moses was supposed to ask the stone for water: this is a stumbling stone or "obstacle stone"

It's what i call in my book "trying to subsume time into space". When looking for renewal, you must "let the stone give you water" and not reason your way to it (force it)

This is basically what rumination is about (and more).

Sometimes use your staff, sometimes ask the stone.

This is one of the reasons materialistic science was separated from spirituality in our history. At one point, science focused entirely on "asking the stone" (experimentation) while religion focused on preserving its staff (at one point it even stopped trying to hit the stone).

When you "listen to the stone" too much you become a materialist and later a complete relativist. When you never listen to the stone you become dogmatic and then dry out. Then, once that happens, you usually end up going too far the other way and get flooded by too much water.