MOTIVE
- People of unconscious motive live their destiny
- People of conscious motive create their destiny
- People without motive are not burdened by destiny
POINT OF VIEW or VIEWING POINT?
- 'He fought hard against cancer, but unfortunately, he lost'.
Q - If there is no loss without gain, nor gain without loss, and this fellow lost, then what did he gain?
DESCARTES (Cartesian Thought)
- Rene Descartes (1596-1650). French Mathematician & philosopher.
Descartian philosophy (Cartesian thinking) is representative of a dualistic mode of thought common to western-educated man. i.e. mind vs matter; materialism vs spirituality; good vs bad etc.
Descartes famous statement is Cogito ergo sum' ('I think; therefore I am'). The proof of man's existence to himself, is that he is cognizant --- of his own existence. The Eastern philosophical point of view is diametrically opposed to Cartesian duality. as is some western existential traditions. Their reading would position itself as : 'Ergo sum cogito' (I am; therefore I think). Western tradition emphasizing the world of the discursve mind', and eastern tradition, the world of a foundational 'beingness'. Yet, despite Descartes being a 'mind-centred man', in common with all wise men, he has also a clear appreciation of the limitations of the thinking mind, as example:
'In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate'.
So, within the context of the seemingly contradictory statements of 'Cogito ergo sum', and this later statement, it would be interesting to know from Descartes, how contemplation would improve the mind?
HEAVEN & HELL
Heaven, hell and purgatory are not geographically removed fictional places suited to allegorical reference. Heaven, hell and purgatory are right here now. They are conditions of the mind. We create hell on earth. We create heaven on earth, and we create purgatory on this earth -- all through the mind. Look around you. There are people living in hell, a select few living in heaven, and a vast majority somewhere in between in a purgatorial state. But these states of mind are transient - forever shifting. For periods of our life, we may live in a hellish state of mind, where we feel tormented by life's circumstances. For some, this leads to suicide. Fortunately, for most, a hellish state of mind does not last forever. When circumstance changes, so too does the intensity of personal mental suffering. The aim of meditation is to free the mind from the fluctuations of all transitory states of mind -- whether that state be of 'heaven', 'hell' or 'purgatory', so that we may live in a state of mind removed from mental suffering, thus abiding in deep inner peace.
ADVERT
Heard on a TV advert the other day -- 'He doesn't know what he is looking for, but he sure knows this isn't it". Does this not describe where we are at?
REALITY WHAT?
Two people talking at the gym discussing their favourite TV reality shows. It immediately raises questions around the nature of 'reality', and what is 'real'? When watching 'reality' TV, we supposedly are watching 'reality' because it is 'real' people, like us, doing 'real' things that we might do, or would like to do. Therefore the TV show is 'reality' (so what are other TV shows?), based upon the assumption that we, the watchers are 'real' in an existential sense. So, is what we experience as our self, and our experience of the self of others, the 'reality' of self i.e. self-itself, or is it just a 'perception' of self, as we might perceive things in a dream? Maybe what we call 'reality' is simply a collective dream from which we can awake? So, 'reality' TV is only as 'real' as we take ourselves to be.
IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
You may not be able to change the world singlehandedly, but you certainly can change yourself, singlehandedly, and then you will witness the world changing of itself.
QUESTION TO A LOCAL
'Q - Do you think it will rain? A - It might rain or it might not, It depends upon the weather.
WHO'S REALITY?
A bloke goes to see his G.P. He says, 'My brother thinks he is a chicken'. The G.P. laughs and replies, 'why don't you tell him he isn't'. The bloke responds, 'because I need the eggs' - Woody Allen
THE PRISON OF THE MIND
We build our own cage & stare thru the gaps between the bars - James Ellroy
A UNIVERSAL IRONY
We cannot adequately understand our wife, our husband, our boy-friend, our girlfriend. How much harder then is it to understand the complexity of our self? The irony is that it is simply impossible to understand our self. The mind is incapable of doing so. The mind can only understand the mind. To know our self requires going beyond the mind, which means 'no mind'. We cannot understand our self but we can know ourself by being our self in a state of un-self consciousness. In being our self there is no room for self-conscious thought. Witness a child at play.