from the chapter "committed to becoming"
the world, whose nature is to become other, is committed to becoming, has exposed itself to becoming; it relishes only becoming, yet what it relishes brings fear, and what it fears is pain.
no need to fearrrrrrrrrrrranythinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggatalllllllllll =0)
Monday, December 17, 2012
excerpts from "an end to suffering" by pankaj mishra
"Trapped in its subjectivity, the self recognized each image of the world as something to be made use of or exploited. This is how it entered into a purely instrumental relationship with nature as well as with other human beings, whose subjectivity it did not acknowledge. In pursuit of its desires, it reduced everything in the world to the level of 'things', which were either an aid or a hindrance to the fulfillment of desire. The occasional fulfilment of desire strengthened the belief that one was a self, distinct from others; and such a belief fixed one further into the grid of such emotions as greed, hatred, and anger.
The Buddha tried to reverse this process by advocating a form of mental vigilance that undermined the individual's sense of a distinctive unchanging self with its own particular desires. To observe even temporarily the incessant play of desire and activity in the mind was to see how the self was a process rather than an unchanging substance;how it had no single identity across time; and when assumed to be unchanging could only cause suffering and frustration.
He hoped to bring about a fundamental change in the attitudes of men savouring their individuality: to prove to them that everything in the world is part of a causal process and cannot exist in or by itself; that things are interdependent, and that this is true as much for human beings as for physical phenomena.
The Buddha began with a biological image of man as ruled by impulses and desres- the same image that inspired Adam Smith and Hobbes. But he might have been puzzled by the assumption that the private satisfaction of these impulses and desires would not only somehow bring about an ideal state and society but also eventually make the individual more self-aware. His own attempt was to reveal how unchecked desire led to the individual's alienation from both nature and human society.
It is partly why he did not try to envision the moral and political order that could accommodate such autonomous individuals and their desires. He wished to establish what Rousseau called 'the reign of virtue'. But he did not see it coming about through an abstract political organization. Although he stressed that the ruler be righteous, he balked at making a faceless entity such as the state the supposed arbiter between allegedly solitary and fearful individuals, who preyed upon each other and so were in need of a remote master. The same delusion that made men suppose themselves to be solid and independent individual selves could also make them see such changing, insubstantial entities as state and society as real and enduring, and subordinate themselves to them.
The Buddha's compassion presupposed no gulf of class or caste between persons; it sprang from his concern with the mind and body of the active, suffering individual. It sought to redirect individuals from the pursuit of political utopias to attentiveness and acts of compassion in everyday life.
As he saw it, without the belief in a self with an identity, a person will no longer be obsessed with regrets about the past and plans for the future. Ceasing to live in the limbo of what ought to be but is not here yet, he will be fully alive in the present."
The Buddha tried to reverse this process by advocating a form of mental vigilance that undermined the individual's sense of a distinctive unchanging self with its own particular desires. To observe even temporarily the incessant play of desire and activity in the mind was to see how the self was a process rather than an unchanging substance;how it had no single identity across time; and when assumed to be unchanging could only cause suffering and frustration.
He hoped to bring about a fundamental change in the attitudes of men savouring their individuality: to prove to them that everything in the world is part of a causal process and cannot exist in or by itself; that things are interdependent, and that this is true as much for human beings as for physical phenomena.
The Buddha began with a biological image of man as ruled by impulses and desres- the same image that inspired Adam Smith and Hobbes. But he might have been puzzled by the assumption that the private satisfaction of these impulses and desires would not only somehow bring about an ideal state and society but also eventually make the individual more self-aware. His own attempt was to reveal how unchecked desire led to the individual's alienation from both nature and human society.
It is partly why he did not try to envision the moral and political order that could accommodate such autonomous individuals and their desires. He wished to establish what Rousseau called 'the reign of virtue'. But he did not see it coming about through an abstract political organization. Although he stressed that the ruler be righteous, he balked at making a faceless entity such as the state the supposed arbiter between allegedly solitary and fearful individuals, who preyed upon each other and so were in need of a remote master. The same delusion that made men suppose themselves to be solid and independent individual selves could also make them see such changing, insubstantial entities as state and society as real and enduring, and subordinate themselves to them.
The Buddha's compassion presupposed no gulf of class or caste between persons; it sprang from his concern with the mind and body of the active, suffering individual. It sought to redirect individuals from the pursuit of political utopias to attentiveness and acts of compassion in everyday life.
As he saw it, without the belief in a self with an identity, a person will no longer be obsessed with regrets about the past and plans for the future. Ceasing to live in the limbo of what ought to be but is not here yet, he will be fully alive in the present."
Friday, December 7, 2012
is my head too far up in the clouds?
"things" are real if you believe they are real.
bridget falco once wrote to me, "keep living in the exact world that you choose, even if most of that world exists in your thoughts"
look at it with me from this angle for a moment: aren't we all (people) living in the exact world that we choose, and doesn't a lot of that world exist in our thoughts?
bridget falco once wrote to me, "keep living in the exact world that you choose, even if most of that world exists in your thoughts"
look at it with me from this angle for a moment: aren't we all (people) living in the exact world that we choose, and doesn't a lot of that world exist in our thoughts?
elnombredisponible
it seems papita will end up here time and time again, through her fingertips or mine
"it is so easy to attach to things visually. for me, it is a fixation on light, on its infinite nature. light in all the colors together. everything becomes one. in everything.
i wonder if i can ever make peace with spoken language"
papita, here are the words with attached meanings that i thought of in response
it is so easy to attach to sounds. for me, it is a fixation on vibrations, on their infinite nature. vibrations traveling from one "thing" to another at every moment, connecting them all. everything becomes movement and change. always...
spoken language has a lot of difficulties. but papita, it is spoken language that allows you to create those stories for the kids. that allows them to communicate things to you so you know that the way you are hoping to interact with the kids is happening. and your new challenge to yourself seems like you are wanting to make peace with spoken words at the right time...
"one must be impeccable with one's words. one must also know when things are superior to words, and secure in the arms of silence."
ms. frida, i like you.
"it is so easy to attach to things visually. for me, it is a fixation on light, on its infinite nature. light in all the colors together. everything becomes one. in everything.
i wonder if i can ever make peace with spoken language"
papita, here are the words with attached meanings that i thought of in response
it is so easy to attach to sounds. for me, it is a fixation on vibrations, on their infinite nature. vibrations traveling from one "thing" to another at every moment, connecting them all. everything becomes movement and change. always...
spoken language has a lot of difficulties. but papita, it is spoken language that allows you to create those stories for the kids. that allows them to communicate things to you so you know that the way you are hoping to interact with the kids is happening. and your new challenge to yourself seems like you are wanting to make peace with spoken words at the right time...
"one must be impeccable with one's words. one must also know when things are superior to words, and secure in the arms of silence."
ms. frida, i like you.
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