Everyone post some favorite quotes!

[Taomeow]

The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life. -- Confucius  

[manitou]

 Even in exile, friendship exists and can become an anchor

 

                                         - Elie Wiesel

[Taomeow]

"It will never not infuriate me that when the time came for women to start claiming a human-sized amount of space in our society, the solution we came up with was for us to start acting more like men. Which was the exact opposite of what the world needs. 

We want equality, so let's jump into the capitalism game men invented and the political game men invented and the war games men invented and prove we can be just as insane and destructive as any man."  -- Caitlin Johnstone

[manitou]

"The ultimate truth cannot be learned.  It must be realized."

 

                             (The guy in my daydream just a minute ago)

 

                           

[Mark Foote]

"... the situation occurs, Ananda, when wanderers belonging to other sects may speak thus:  'The recluse (Gautama) speaks of the stopping of (determinate thought in) perceiving and feeling, and lays down that this belongs to happiness.  Now what is this, now how is this?'  Ananda, wanderers belonging to other sects who speak thus should be spoken to thus:  'Your reverences, (Gautama) does not lay down that it is only pleasant feeling that belongs to happiness; for, your reverences, the Tathagatha (the "Thus-Gone One", the Buddha) lays down that whenever, wherever, whatever happiness is found it belongs to happiness."
 

(MN I 400, Pali Text Society MN Vol. II pg 69) 
 

[Taomeow]

“The American male doesn’t mature until he has exhausted all other possibilities.” -- Wilfrid Sheed

 

 

 

 

[Sketch]

19 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

“The American male doesn’t mature until he has exhausted all other possibilities.” -- Wilfrid Sheed

 

 

 

 

That pretty well fits where I'm at in my life.

[RiverSnake]

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Original American Seal 

[neti neti]

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Edited January 2, 2021 by neti neti

[neti neti]

"They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority."

 

~Gerald Massey

[Taomeow]

1 hour ago, neti neti said:

"They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority."

 

~Gerald Massey

 

More like, they make it difficult for those who have taken truth as the authority.  

[silent thunder]

“The hypothesis of God, for instance, gives an incomparably absolute opportunity to understand everything and know absolutely nothing. Give man an extremely simplified system of the world and explain every phenomenon away on the basis of that system. An approach like that doesn't require any knowledge. Just a few memorized formulas plus so-called intuition and so-called common sense.”

~ Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Strange department, this. Their motto was: "The comprehension of Infinity requires infinite time." I did not argue with that, but then they derived an unexpected conclusion from it: Therefore work or not, it´s all the same."
In the interests of not increasing the entropy of the universe, they did not work.”

~ Arkady Strugatsky, Понедельник начинается в субботу

 

“I would put it this way. There are objects for which we have found uses. We use them, but almost certainly not the way the visitors use them. I am positive that in the vast majority of cases we are hammering nails with microscopes.”

~ Arkady Strugatsky

 

“Easier to believe than comprehend.”

~ Arkady Strugatsky, The Snail on the Slope

 

[silent thunder]

 

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject?

 

And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

 

And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

 

And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

 

~ Kurt Vonnegut

[Taomeow]

2 hours ago, silent thunder said:

 

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject?

 

And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

 

And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

 

And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

 

~ Kurt Vonnegut

 

This reminded me...  When I was 19, I had a karate boyfriend, who (together with his master) tried to convince me to give it a go, impressed by my natural flexibility and stretchability (I could lift my leg to kick someone in the head without any prior training whatsoever).  I seriously perceived the idea as a bad joke...  what are you talking about?  I'm too old to start learning something like this!  I will never catch up with those who started ten years earlier!  That was the conditioning...  too old to do something new at 19 because I will never be the champion, it's too late.  

 

How I want to go back in time and kick my 19-year-old self in the head to hammer some conditioning out of her sooner.

[neti neti]

"There are some things so serious that you have to laugh at them."

 

~Niels Bohr

[neti neti]

"On the vast canvas of the self,

the picture of manifold worlds is

painted by the self itself

and that supreme self

seeing but itself

enjoys great delight."

 

~Sankara

[Wilhelm]

I ask you sir

Even if you amass a mountain of gold, can you buy off impermenance?

Seeking no way to leave the path of delusion.

Talented and virtuous enough to have no match in the world,

Even so, you are by no means a true man.

a hundred years is like a spark made by colliding stones,

A lifetime's undertaking like a wandering bubble,

Craving nothing but material gain and prominence,

Yet having no concern for the ever creeping decrepitude of your body and countenance,

I ask you, sir,

Even if you amass a mountain of gold, can you buy off impermenance?

 

Though human life has a limit of a hundred years,

The length of life, whether it be difficult or smooth, cannot be known

Yesterday, riding a horse through the town,

Today a sleeping corpse in a coffin;

Family and wealth cast off,

They are not your possessions,

With evil deeds still lingering,

You cannot fool yourself.

Making no effort to search for it,

How could you possibly come upon the way of great enlightenment?

Having come on it, and yet making no effort in practice,

In a word, you are a fool!

 

-Chang Po-tuan

[silent thunder]

7 hours ago, neti neti said:

"There are some things so serious that you have to laugh at them."

 

~Niels Bohr

I adore Niels Bohr. ^{ha, rhymes!}

 

This quote of his (and subsequent parlay by Alan Watts) caused a shift in me.

 

And some time ago, I traded away seriousness in my demeanor for sincerity.  After living this way, I'll ever go back.

Serious is dead inside, muddied and muted, to me.  Somber without need and innately withdrawn on a fundamental level.

 

Whereas Sincerity is vibrant, fully capable, engaged, present and able to play in the midst of still 'getting shit done'.

 

Sincerity over Seriousness for the win.

 

And deep love for Sir Bohr.

[neti neti]

9 hours ago, silent thunder said:

I adore Niels Bohr. ^{ha, rhymes!}

 

This quote of his (and subsequent parlay by Alan Watts) caused a shift in me.

 

And some time ago, I traded away seriousness in my demeanor for sincerity.  After living this way, I'll ever go back.

Serious is dead inside, muddied and muted, to me.  Somber without need and innately withdrawn on a fundamental level.

 

Whereas Sincerity is vibrant, fully capable, engaged, present and able to play in the midst of still 'getting shit done'.

 

Sincerity over Seriousness for the win.

 

And deep love for Sir Bohr.

 

Thank you.

[C T]

Like the revolutionary, the heretic refuses to accept any definition of philosophy rooted in an appeal to the authority of philosophical tradition. But unlike the revolutionary, who more often than not overturns tradition in order to reactivate philosophy’s supposedly originary but occluded essence, the heretic proceeds on the basis of an indifference which suspends tradition and establishes a philosophically disinterested definition of philosophy’s essence, or, as Laruelle prefers to say, identity. This disinterested identification of philosophy results in what Laruelle calls a non-philosophical use of philosophy: a use of philosophy that remains constitutively foreign to the norms and aims governing the properly philosophical practice of philosophy. And in fact, ‘non-philosophy’ is Laruelle’s name for the philosophically unprecedented or heretical practice of philosophy he has invented. ~ Raymond Brassier

[Ajay0]

Awareness is who we are and forgetting that leads to suffering. -Vicki Woodyard


Being unconscious means you’re lost in thought, in the pictures and stories your mind is producing. You have entered the made-up content of your mind and are occupying it as if it were reality itself. Your ego is invested in this content as being real and important, and very likely as a result you are experiencing some kind of emotion (stirred up by the thinking). You have forgotten that all of it is the product of your mind (even if its content appears to be true or important). As a result, you are missing actual reality, what’s happening in the now — including that you are inventing the thoughts. - JAN FRASIER


Your true nature is awareness and not what your mind is producing. - Burt Harding

 

 

[C T]

Do not be ashamed of the wars your soul has fought to save itself. ~ Isra Al-Thibeh

[manitou]

On 1/5/2021 at 9:38 AM, C T said:

Like the revolutionary, the heretic refuses to accept any definition of philosophy rooted in an appeal to the authority of philosophical tradition. But unlike the revolutionary, who more often than not overturns tradition in order to reactivate philosophy’s supposedly originary but occluded essence, the heretic proceeds on the basis of an indifference which suspends tradition and establishes a philosophically disinterested definition of philosophy’s essence, or, as Laruelle prefers to say, identity. This disinterested identification of philosophy results in what Laruelle calls a non-philosophical use of philosophy: a use of philosophy that remains constitutively foreign to the norms and aims governing the properly philosophical practice of philosophy. And in fact, ‘non-philosophy’ is Laruelle’s name for the philosophically unprecedented or heretical practice of philosophy he has invented. ~ Raymond Brassier

 

 

I've read and re-read this and can't quite see through the convolution.  Is Mr. Brassier saying he reveres the heretic, or the revolutionary?  And where would that leave those that come up through the 'direct knowledge' route? (i.e. self realization)

[C T]

10 hours ago, manitou said:

 

 

I've read and re-read this and can't quite see through the convolution.  Is Mr. Brassier saying he reveres the heretic, or the revolutionary?  And where would that leave those that come up through the 'direct knowledge' route? (i.e. self realization)

 

This might help https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-philosophy

 

This is particularly clear: 

Quote

 Laruelle scholar Ekin Erkan, elucidating on Laruelle's system, notes that "'non-philosophy' [...] withdraws from the metaphysical precept of separating the world into binarisms, perhaps epitomized by the formative division between 'universals” and “particulars' in Kant’s Transcendental Deduction. Laruelle’s method also rejects the 'evental' nature of Being described by Heiddegger [...] Laruelle's 'One' is understood as generic identity - an identity/commonality that reverses the classical metaphysics found in philosophy’s bastion thinkers (a lineage that runs from Plato to Badiou), where the transcendental is upheld as a necessary precondition for grounding reality.

 

[stirling]

"There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity." - Shunryu Suzuki