August 27, 2007

Conditions of Life

He who understands the conditions of Life does not strive after what is of no use to life; and he who understands the conditions of Destiny does not strive after what is beyond the reach of knowledge. In nourishing the body it is necessary to have beforehand the things (appropriate to its support); but there are cases where there is a superabundance of such things, and yet the body is not nourished'. In order to have life it is necessary that it do not have left the body; but there are cases when the body has not been left by it, and yet the life has perished
----The Texts of Taoism: The Full Understanding of Life

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August 6, 2007

To be fond of learning is near to wisdom

The Master said, 'To be fond of learning is near to wisdom; to practise with vigour is near to benevolence; to know to be ashamed is near to fortitude. He who knows these three things, knows how to cultivate his own character. Knowing how to cultivate his own character, he knows how to govern other men. Knowing how to govern other men, he knows how to govern the kingdom with its states and families.
--BOOK XXVIII. KUNG YUNG

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June 25, 2007

Quote: D. T. Suzuki

Not to be bound by rules, but to be creating one's own rules--this is the kind of life which Zen is trying to have us live." - D. T. Suzuki

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June 11, 2007

Gate gate paragate

Today I saw the words "Gate gate paragate" write some where.

When I go home a looked them up. Apparently they are the beginning of mantra that goes:
Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha

It means: go, go, go beyond, go completely beyond to complete enlightenment.

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February 17, 2007

Having ultimate power

DevIn and I where having a philosophical discussion about the relationship between wealth and power. We ended up coming up with a completely subjective question:

Would having ultimate power mean that you have responsibility to no one? Or would you have responsibility to everyone?

If you believe that the latter is true would you use your power to hand off the responsibility to someone else or perhaps many other people?

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February 13, 2007

Love and Union

It is the day before Valentines Day. So here are some words about love and union:

Love teaches that no man owns his wife, that no woman owns her husband, that in nowise can the marriage bond be construed into ownership. Love makes obedience lighter than liberty. Individual habits, individual tastes, and individual desires are recognized, and respected. "I will" and "You must" are not in love's vocabulary. The one act symbolizing union and affection, giving expression to creative life, by love's enactment, is born of desires that are mutual and participated in with equal pleasure.
Source: Karezza, Ethics of Marriage, by Alice B. Stockham

I remember jack telling me something very much like this before he moved.

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December 18, 2006

Zen Word of seasons

In spring hundreds of flowers, In summer, refreshing breeze. In autumn, harvest moon, In winter, snowflakes accompany you. If useless things do not hand in your mind, Every season is a good season.
Source: Zen Poems (http://www.sacred-texts.com)

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June 7, 2006

The Passage of Time

Men are in error when they lament the flight of time, accusing it of being too swift, and not perceiving that it is sufficient as it passes; but good memory, with which nature has endowed us, causes things long past to seem present.
-- The Da Vinci Notebooks

Da Vinci wants us to realize that human memory makes us masters of the passage of time.

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April 26, 2006

Philosophy: body and soul.

The soul can never be corrupted with the corruption of the body, but is in the body as it were the air which causes the sound of the organ, where when a pipe bursts, the wind would cease to have any good effect.
-- The Da Vinci Notebooks

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February 27, 2006

Wise words of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (ED) #2

Ed, has not had any suffering yet.
Perhaps I might have, but I don't remember at all.
If you ask why, it's because I only do things that look fun...
And even with boring things, I find something a little fun in them and get excited.
But if it's still boring, I go to sleep.
When I'm asleep, it's fun rolling around dreaming.
The end.
-- Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, (Cowboy Beebop Session XX Mish-Mash Blues)

I try to live my life by this simple philosophy. It keeps life enjoyable.

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February 26, 2006

Wise words of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (ED) #1

There is a 27th episode of Cowboy Beebop that not many people know about. It is a series recap with some final lessons from the main charters of the show. Quite frankly it is my favorite episode. It can be found on any P2P tracker just look up "Cowboy Beebop Session XX Mish-Mash Blues." Just do not be expecting any new story line.

In the narration ED says something profound in her free spirited way:

This is Ed.
Space is very vast.
Ed is traveling to find the truth of space.
The network sea is so spacious, that there are lots of fish.
...
When I think there is truth and look for it, I can't find it...
But when I don't think there is a true, I can't find it either.
I can't get a hold of what I want, but I did get a hold of what I need.

-- Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, (Cowboy Beebop Session XX Mish-Mash Blues)

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February 20, 2006

Philosophy Monday 2/20

Which is more intimately precious: fame or life? Which is more valuable: life or treasure? Which gives the most trouble: gain or loss? One naturally seeks the things he most prizes; for that reason we should be careful to prize the right things, because grasping and hoarding invite waste and loss both to property and life.

A contented person is never dishonored. One who knows how to stop with enough is free from danger; he will therefore endure.


---Chapter Forty-four of Dwight Goddard's Tao te Ching translation, 2nd addition

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December 27, 2005

Suns yield up their ghosts of flame

Suns yield up their ghosts of flame; but out of their graves new suns rush into being. Corpses of worlds pass all to some solar funeral pyre; but out of their own ashes they are born again. This earth must die: her seas shall be Saharas. But those seas once existed in the sun; and their dead tides, revived by fire, will pour their thunder upon the coasts of another world.

Transmigration--transmutation: these are not fables! What is impossible? Not the dreams of alchemists and poets;--dross may indeed be changed to gold, the jewel to the living eye, the flower into flesh. What is impossible? If seas can pass from world to sun, from sun to world again, what of the dust of dead selves,--dust of memory and thought? Resurrection there is,--but a resurrection more stupendous than any dreamed of by Western creeds.

Dead emotions will revive as surely as dead suns and moons. Only, so far as we can just now discern, there will be no return of identical individualities. The reapparition will always be a recombination of the preëxisting, a readjustment of affinities, a reintegration of being informed with the experience of anterior being. The Cosmos is a Karma.

-- LAFCADIO HEARN, Gleanings in Buddha-Fields (sacred-texts.com)

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December 21, 2005

The end of things

The ultimate end of things where they cannot go any further
Is not bound by rules and measures:
In the Mind harmonious [with the Way] we have the principle of identity,
In which we find all strivings quieted;
Doubts and irresolutions are completely done away with,
And the right faith is straightened;
There is nothing left behind, There is nothing retained,
All is void, lucid, and self-illuminating;
There is no exertion, no waste of energy--
This is where thinking never attains,
This is where the imagination fails to measure.
-- Shinjin-No-Mei (sacred-texts.com)

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December 12, 2005

Sage of Omi

There exists the Inexhaustible Source (of morality) within me.
It is an invaluable treasure.
It is called Bright Nature of man.
It is peerless and surpasses all jewels.
The aim of learning is to bring out this Bright Nature.
This is the best thing in the world.
Real happiness can only be secured by it.

To-ju Naka-e

(source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/rosa/rosa07.htm)

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December 5, 2005

Philosophy Monday: The prince's robes

The child who is decked with prince's robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step.

In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move.

Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.


---Rabindranath Tagore, GITANJALI [1913]

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November 14, 2005

Its mission: art or information

THE picture of a flower in a botanical book is an information; its mission ends with our knowledge. But in pure art it is a personal communication. And therefore until it finds its harmony in the depth of our personality it misses its mark. We can treat existence solely as a text-book furnishing us lessons and we shall not be disappointed. But we know that there its mission does not end. For in our joy in it which is an end in itself we feel that it is a communication, the final response to which is not the response of our knowing but the response of our being.
Rabindranath Tagore, Thought Relics (1921)

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November 7, 2005

To live in nothingness

To live in nothingness is to ignore cause and effect;
This chaos leads only to disaster.
The one who clings to vacancy, rejecting the world of things,
Escapes from drowning but leaps into fire.
---http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/shodoka.txt

One can not cast off the world and live in ignorant bliss. That is the path to emptiness and self destruction.

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November 1, 2005

Leaving the darkness.

DARKNESS is that which isolates our consciousness within our own self. It hides the great truth of our unity with the world, giving rise to doubt and contention. Groping in the dark, we stumble against objects to which we cling, believing them to be the only things we have. When light comes we slacken our hold, finding them to be mere parts of the all to which we are related. This is freedom--freedom from the isolation of self, from the isolation of things which impart fierce intensity to our sense of possession. Our God is that freedom, for He is Light, and in that light we find out truth, which is our perfect relationship with all.
---Rabindranath Tagore, Thought Relics [1921]

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October 10, 2005

Our truest nature

We gain our freedom when we attain our truest nature. The man who is an artist finds his artistic freedom when he finds his ideal of art. Then is he freed from laborious attempts at imitation, from the goadings of popular approbation. It is the function of religion not to destroy our nature but to fulfil it.
Rabindranath Tagore, SĀDHANĀ: THE REALISATION OF LIFE

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September 19, 2005

I have a relationship with the world which is deeply personal.

I have a relationship with the world which is deeply personal. It is not of mere knowledge and use. All our relationships with facts have an infinite medium which is Law, Satyam; all our relationship with truth has an infinite medium which is Reason, gnānam; all our personal relationship has an infinite medium, which is Love, ānandam.
--Rabindranath Tagore, Thought Relics (1921)

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August 28, 2005

Communicating personal identity to yourself.

If you had to think of a words to describe your very core what would it be?

Would you use your personally traits toward other people? Worlds like kind, fare, selfless, selfish, mean, vengeful all describe ones behavior to toward other people. But does it say who you are?

Would you use your job or title to describe you? Saying that you are a plumber, lawyer, programmer, office assistant, or librarian describe what it is you do. But does it say who you are?

Would you use your dominant emotional state to describe you? That you are happy, excited, inspired, depress or angry describes how you feel. But does it say who you are?

Would you use your physical appearance to describe you? Describing your self as attractive, strong, ugly, fat, thin, tall, or short tells what you look like. But does it say who you are?

The point of this exercise is not to build a vocabulary of your description; the point is finding the areas of yourself that you pull these words from. These come from mental structures that where taught to us from birth. We find our identity by finding our location within them and attempt to describe ourselves by communicating that location to other people. However, before we can discuss why this system is flawed, we need to know more about these mental structures.

Human beings are complicated creatures. We build structures in our minds to help us deal with the complexities of contemporary life. Some of these structures are purely utilitarian like verbal and written language. Some of these structures allows us to operate smoothly with other people like morals, personal space, secretes, and lying. Some of these structures allow us to operate within a hierarchical society like social class, private property, jobs, and title. Over time, we see these mental structures as being concrete and unchangeable when in fact they are all simply shared mental concepts that we all believe in.

For example, if a man owns a house on a piece of property we believe that he has certain axioms that go along with it. The house and land are private property that outsiders cannot enter without permission. If he wants to, he can exchange ownership of the property for something of equal value, probably money. How much of the previous statement is physically real and how much is just mental structures? The man, the house, and the land are real. Private property, ownership, permission, exchange ownership, equal value, and money are just concepts. But in modern society we have been blinded to what is real and what is a shared concept.

I am not saying that shared concepts are bad. They allow our race to collectively accomplish things that we could not do otherwise. Rules of our society allow us to live together without killing each other over the limited supplies of natural resources. They offer a degree of protection to our physical bodies and those of our offspring. They allow us to increase the quality of our lives through the controlled acquisition of goods and services. In the end, it allows us to live and reproduces with much more success then our pre-societal ancestors. Making organized society a "good thing" to have.

So back to the original discussion about describing yourself. We tend to use these structures describe ourselves because they are common to all people within the same society. But they are also ambiguous and vary slightly from person to person. The structures only give a clue about the full story. We need to uses these word to figure out what you abilities are.

Lets start with a easy example. A person states that they are wealthy, what does this mean? It means that if they want to or need to, they can amass a larger volume of goods and services by trading in their personnel monetary value. Therefore, what if instead of saying that I am worth 2.6 million dollars, I say that I could have 2.6 million dollars worth of sports cars parked outside by tomorrow morning. Now we are moving from the ream of abstract mental structures to real physical potential.

Any of the descriptive words I used before are translatable into real-world potential. A selfless person will allocate personnel resources (time, money, services) to those who need it without expecting equivalent trade. A plumber will spend has the ability to repair broken plumbing and can be contracted to do so. A depressed person will not be fun to spend time with. A strong person has the abilities to complete difficult physical labor. These may seem like concussions that we make automatically upon hearing the descriptive word, but does a persons potential ability create their identity? No, because there is a big difference between what you can do and what you will do.

That is the missing part of the identity puzzle. The very stuff a identity is made from; your past actions and your future actions. The debate about what a identity is formed from is outside the scope of this blog entry. For this case, lets just use an easy definition for what a personal identity is: The sum of all actions performed within a lifetime. This means that your identity will not be complete until the day you die. Until then, it will be in a permanent state of flux.

So how can personal identity be communicated if it is uncertain until death? I am only 23, I have most of my life to live and there for most of my identity still to be formed. This is true there is no way to have a perfectly accurate identity in the middle of you life, but that does not mean that you can not make a best guess. There are the actions in the future that you want to complete. These are the important thing like having a family, a successful career, and a relaxing retirement. Other people may want nothing more then to bathe in opulent luxury having there cardinal physical need fulfilled constantly. These desires vary from person to person. You may not think directly about them every day, but they are there. These tasks and the subtasks required to fulfill them, get us out of bed in the morning, they pull us through the hard times, and keep us moving forward. This is the framework of our future actions. With it, you can build a identity that is accurate as of right now.

So how can this identity be communicated to other people? It takes a long time to verbally transfer enough information to form a identity. This is why to really get to know someone, you must spend a lot of time with them. However, the title of this entity is “Communicating personal identity to yourself.” You already have all the information you need right in your very own head, but most people have the problem of seeing the forest through the trees. They become jammed up on finding themselves within mental structures or finding physical potential that they never see the big picture until they have already played through most of it.

To beat this you must sit down and do a little organizing in your head. Find all the parts of your life that concerned with finding or changing you location within mental structures and put them aside. These are tools for achieving what you want, not the goal. Then find all the parts of your life that are concerned with creating potential abilities and put them aside. Again, these are tools you are creating for your benefit to achieve what you want, not the goal. You are left with are all the actions that you perform to actually achieve your goals. If you are still not sure what your goals are, use these actions as a compass. They will all add up to some goals somewhere in the future. It is in your best interest to find them.

Once you know your past, present, and potential future, you will now have the tools you need to discover who you are.

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Adding a little philosophy to the mix

I have decided to add a philosophy category to the blog. It will be a place where I can wax poetically of deeper issues of life, the universe and everything. To start, I would like give a dictionary definition of philosophy to provide a framework for this amorphous topic:

philosophy:
...the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence ...
source: New Oxford American Dictionary

I think that philosophy is a fun place to play. It is like a mental fun-house full of strange and exotic items that your mind can romp around with at will.

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