From the outside, it is easy to assume that sitting zazen is a very passive activity. But this is simply an illusion cast by the fact that behavior has become mostly private – gone covert. Feelings, urges, thoughts are all as real as any other event we can speak of.
Archive for September, 2015
Posted in Philosophy on September 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Philosophy on September 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I meet a lot of people who think that human behavior either is or should be governed by rules. Plenty of famous philosophers also believe and believed this. Leibniz and (maybe) Kant to name two. Hayes, Freud and Beck to name another two. Yet, I have doubts.
Consider the following sequence:
01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101
It expresses one of the most famous phrases in the English language (or so I’m told). Can’t read it? Ok, here’s what it (supposedly) says: “To be or not to be.” Still can’t read it? Well, that’s strange, I just told you what it says. Why can’t you read it? Why can’t you just follow the rules and read it? Are you strange or something? A weird sort of person? Not normal? Why doesn’t this make sense?
The problem, I think, is that no one has ever been able to make sense of sense. No one has ever been able to live life, mean meaning, draw drawing, sing singing, or dis-cover discovering. Come to think of it, that would be a pretty good definition of God.
A God that tortures people who wonder about God.
Posted in Philosophy on September 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Are abstractions real or the objects that are abstracted from real?
Plato: The objects are real, seeing them is difficult.
Aristotle: Actually, seeing them is impossible.
Augustine: God made the objects and gave humans the capacity to speak of them.
Descartes: I agree with Auggie, except I think therefore I God.
Leibniz: Objects are the same, abstractions are different.
Kant: I am rationally bound to agree with Aristotle and Descartes.
Kierkegaard: Yes, depending on your experience.
Berkeley: The objects are thought by God.
Hegel: The objects are thinking through history.
Nietzsche: Objects are power. Reality is power.
Freud: Resistance is futile.
Heidegger: What objects?
Sartre: I agree with Soren.
Skinner: I agree with Soren too, and I’m gonna prove it.
Wittgenstein: uh…WTF?
metonymy4u 