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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 10:58:12 GMT 10
1 of 2:The "I" in me, my friend, dwells in the house of silence, and there- in it shall remain for ever more, unperceived, unapproachable
My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me that the lamp which I carry does not belong to me, and the song that I sing was not generated from within me
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have found the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths
Let us disperse from our aloofness and serve the weak who made us strong, and cleanse the country in which we live. Let us teach this miserable nation to smile and rejoice with heaven's bounty and glory of life and freedom
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself
O love, whose lordly hand has bridled my desires, and raised my hunger and my thirst to dignity and pride, let not the strong in me and the constant eat the bread or drink the wine that tempt my weaker self. Let me rather starve, and let my heart parch with thirst, and let me die and perish, ere I stretch my hand to a cup you did not fill, or a bowl you did not blessKhalil GibranLebanese mystic poet ( The Prophet) (Born this day 1883) Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 10:58:46 GMT 10
2 of 2:Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers
Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children
Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?
Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being
All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mindKhalil Gibran(Born this day 1883) Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth'
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 10:59:35 GMT 10
Rockefeller once explained the secret of success. 'Get up early, work late — and strike oil’
The difference between playing the stock market and the horses is that one of the horses must win
Do not worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older it will avoid you
If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all
Cut out those intimate little dinners for two — unless there's someone with you
Most people play a fair game of golf — If you watch them
May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutionsJoey AdamsAmerican comedian (Friars’ Club) (Born this day 1911) Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 11:02:50 GMT 10
I describe a world with no exit, convinced that God accompanies man throughout his history
The biblical teaching is clear. It always contests political power. It incites to "counterpower," to "positive" criticism, to an irreducible dialogue (like that between king and prophet in Israel), to antistatism, to a decentralizing of the relation, to an extreme relativizing of everything political, to an anti-ideology, to a questioning of all that claims either power or dominion (in other words, of all things political), and finally, if we may use a modern term, to a kind of "anarchism"
There are different forms of anarchy and different currents in it. I must, first say very simply what anarchy I have in view. By anarchy I mean first an absolute rejection of violence
I can very well say without hesitation that all those who have political power, even if they use it well, have acquired it by demonic mediation and even if they are not conscious of it, they are worshippers of diabolos
It is not true that the perfection of police power is the result of the state’s Machiavellianism or of some transitory influence. The whole structure of society implies it, of necessity. The more we mobilize the forces of nature, the more must we mobilize men and the more do we require order
Science brings to the light of day everything man had believed sacred. Technique takes possession of it and enslaves it
A principal characteristic of technique … is its refusal to tolerate moral judgments. It is absolutely independent of them and eliminates them from its domain. Technique never observes the distinction between moral and immoral use. It tends on the contrary, to create a completely independent technical moralityJacques EllulFrench philosopher, law professor and sociologist (Born this day 1912) Freedom is completely without meaning unless it is related to necessity, unless it represents victory over necessity
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 11:03:28 GMT 10
Everything I say here is a lie — bullshit, in other words — because anything that you put in words is not experience, is not the experiment. It's a representation — a misrepresentation
We are still general purpose computers who can program any conceivable model of the universe inside our own structure, reduce the single self-metaprogrammer to a micro size, and program him to travel through his own model as if real
The miracle is that the universe created a part of itself to study the rest of it, and that this part in studying itself finds the rest of the universe in its own natural inner realities
The centre of the cyclone is that rising quiet central low-pressure place in which one can learn to live eternally. Just outside of this Centre is the rotating storm of one's own ego, competing with other egos in a furious high-velocity circular dance. As one leaves centre, the roar of rotating wind deafens on more and more as one joins this dance
I finally found a God that was big enough. As the astronomer said to the Minister, 'My God's astronomical.' The Minister said, 'How can you relate to something so big? The astronomer said, 'Well, that isn't the problem, your God's too small!’
Whatever one believes to be true either is true or becomes true in one's mind
Our only security is our ability to changeJohn C LillyAmerican physician, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, philosopher and writer (Born this day 1914) In the province of the mind there are no limits
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 11:04:13 GMT 10
1 of 2:Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth
It would be, of course, much better, if this occasion were celebrated with no talk at all, and if I addressed you in the manner of the ancient teachers of Zen, I should hit the microphone with my fan and leave
Ego is a social institution with no physical reality. The ego is simply your symbol of yourself. Just as the word "water" is a noise that symbolizes a certain liquid without being it, so too the idea of ego symbolizes the role you play, who you are, but it is not the same as your living organism
What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself
Everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality. Not God in a politically kingly sense, but God in the sense of being the self, the deep-down basic whatever there is. And you're all that, only you're pretending you're not. And it's perfectly OK to pre- tend you're not, to be perfectly convinced, because this is the whole notion of drama
We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, exper- ienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated "egos" inside bags of skin
The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated egoAlan WattsEnglish writer ( Book on the Taboo) (Born this day 1915) Camus said there is only really one serious philosophical question, which is whether or not to commit suicide. I think there are four or five serious philosophical questions: The first one is: Who started it? The second is: Are we going to make it? The third is: Where are we going to put it? The fourth is: Who's going to clean up? And the fifth: Is it serious?
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 11:05:00 GMT 10
2 of 2:A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world
But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes
The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity
But to me nothing — the negative, the empty — is exceedingly powerful
I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is
But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really isAlan Watts(Born this day 1915) Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 11:07:31 GMT 10
Societies depend on agreed rules
You couldn't have human society without language.
It is in the nature of science that once a position becomes orthodox it should be sub- jected to criticism ... It does not follow that, because a position is orthodox, it is wrong
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is the only workable explanation that has ever been proposed for the remarkable fact of our own existence, indeed the existence of all life wherever it may turn up in the universe
Natural selection is the only workable explanation for the beautiful and com- pelling illusion of 'design' that pervades every living body and every organ
Knowledge of evolution may not be strictly useful in everyday commerce. You can live some sort of life and die without ever hearing the name of Darwin. But if, before you die, you want to understand why you lived in the first place, Darwinism is the one subject that you must study
The last decade has seen a steady increase in the application of concepts from the theory of games to the study of evolution. Fields as diverse as sex ratio theory, animal distribution, contest behaviour and reciprocal altruism have contributed to what is now emerging as a universal way of thinking about phenotypic evolutionJohn Maynard SmithBritish evolutionary biologist and geneticist (Born this day 1920) It is an occupational risk of biologists to claim, towards the end of their careers, that the problems which they have not solved are insoluble
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 11:08:38 GMT 10
Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go
Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake
Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader — not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way
History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth E.L. Doctorow, US novelist ( World's Fair) (Born this day 1931) The difference between Socrates and Jesus is that no one had ever been put to death in Socrates' name. And that is because Socrates' ideas were never made law. Law, in whatever name, protects privilege
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 11:11:24 GMT 10
Human beings are historical beings whose mode of social action transforms their own nature. If we accept this definition, we will also have to accept that this is a being that can, intention- ally, transform its physical constitution. And indeed, that is something we see happening
This process began with the use of instruments that, arrayed before the body as external “prostheses,” allowed human beings to extend their reach, to extend and amplify their senses, and to increase their strength and the quality of their work
Today, moreover, human beings have begun to penetrate into the interior of their own bodies, transplanting organs, intervening in their neurochemistry, practicing in vitro fertilization, and even manipulating their genes. If by the word “nature” we have wanted to signify something fixed and unchanging, then it’s a seriously deficient idea, even when applied to what is most object-like about the human being, that is, the body
In light of this, it is clear that nothing of what is termed “natural morality” or “natural law” or “natural institutions” exists through nature; on the contrary, all of this is socio-historic
Humanist action does not draw its inspiration from imaginative theories about God, nature, society, or history. Rather, it begins with life’s necessities, which consist most elementally of avoiding pain and moving toward pleasure. Yet human life entails the additional need to fore- see future necessities, based on past experience and the intention to improve the present situation
Human experience is not simply the product of natural physiological accum- ulation or selection, as happens in all other species. It is social experience and personal experience directed toward overcoming pain in the present and avoiding it in the future. Human work, accumulated in the productions of society, is passed on and transformed from one generation to the next in a continuous struggle to improve the existing or natural conditions, even those of the human body itself
Human beings must therefore be defined as historical beings whose mode of social behaviour is capable of transforming both the world and their own nature. Each time that individuals or human groups violently impose themselves on others, they succeed in detaining history, turning their victims into “natural” objects. Nature does not have intentions, and thus to negate the freedom and intentions of others is to convert them into natural objects without intentions, objects to be used
“Silo” (Mario Rodríguez Cobos) Argentine writer (Humanist Movement) (Born this day 1938)
All the senses produce their representations, and this representation is given in a mental space, this space sets an ambit where the representations are emplaced that have originated from different perceptual sources. This space is nothing other than the totality of internal representations proper to the cenaesthetic system. And so the mental space is a sort of screen that reproduces the impulses of one’s cenaesthesia. Thus, every phenomenon of perception that arrives to the apparatus of coordination is emplaced at some point of the representation screen. Whether it is a matter of a sound, a smell, or an object that enters visually, in every case it is emplaced at some point of the space of representation. This space not only has grad- ation on two planes — it has depth, it has volume, and it approximately replicates one’s own body. It is a “body” of representation, or — if you prefer — a “spatial referential background”
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