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31
Chasm / Re: Science vs. Spirituality.
« on: April 12, 2012, 04:31:33 PM »I feel older than dirt, and that's all that matters, right?
Feelings don't matter; they are either a pose or self-pity. Thought and action do.
If pseudo-profundity were a commodity, this forum would set the spot prices for futures trading.
32
Chasm / Re: Science vs. Spirituality.
« on: April 12, 2012, 06:56:13 AM »
You'll hear what you want to hear, and there's no sense in trying to make it otherwise.
May the road you travel lead to where you'd wish to go. As for me and my house, we shall seek sleep.
May the road you travel lead to where you'd wish to go. As for me and my house, we shall seek sleep.
33
Chasm / Re: Science vs. Spirituality.
« on: April 12, 2012, 06:43:09 AM »Whatever you say, Jack.
In all seriousness, "son" is a term of endearment 'round these parts, not really a statement about age. I write like I talk, and I talk like a kid from the holler made good.
34
Chasm / Re: Fence Sitting.
« on: April 12, 2012, 06:29:46 AM »
Don't pop a wing out of joint patting yourself on the back, old bird ;-\
On the other hand, I can't help but thinking that if most people hate you, you're probably on to something.
Cheers, son!
On the other hand, I can't help but thinking that if most people hate you, you're probably on to something.
Cheers, son!
35
Chasm / Re: Science vs. Spirituality.
« on: April 12, 2012, 06:26:45 AM »Dylar:
If you grow weary of thinking without nuance, perhaps you should try introducing some, to your thought.
I see everyone being very good at pointing out the often-imaginary flaws in others.
While being oblivious to their own.
This is nothing new.
But it sure gets old.
BTW, I was 59 this very day.
If you're calling me "son", you must be really, really old.
I feel older than dirt, and that's all that matters, right?
36
Chasm / Re: Science vs. Spirituality.
« on: April 12, 2012, 06:16:46 AM »
I expect intelligent folks to be able to distinguish between the baby and the bathwater, and I grow weary of thinking without nuance. When people spout horseshit, I call it likes I sees it.
There's nothing inherently good about "spirituality" and nothing inherently bad about "science." Like life, they are what you make of them. I see no great value in creating a binary opposition where there need not be one.
There's nothing inherently good about "spirituality" and nothing inherently bad about "science." Like life, they are what you make of them. I see no great value in creating a binary opposition where there need not be one.
37
Chasm / Re: Science vs. Spirituality.
« on: April 12, 2012, 05:17:32 AM »Ah. Horseshit. I had wondered.
I'll be sure and abandon a lifetime of searching, finding, utilizing, appreciating, then.
Thank you so much.
You're making this either/or, black/white, 1/0 when it doesn't have to be. As I said, spirituality is a tool: do you throw out your hammer just because some jobs call for screwdriver?
38
Chasm / Re: Science vs. Spirituality.
« on: April 12, 2012, 04:40:02 AM »Spirituality is not a tool.
It is a baseline, reference-point, from which to live life.
Not having a baseline, one is able to say things like: "spirituality is simply a tool".
That's horseshit, son. "Spirituality" is—in every particular—an invention of Man, intended to meet the needs and serve the desires of Man. It is no more and no less than a conceptual hammer: useful to those with the wit to use it, useless to those who don't, and dangerous in the hands of still others.
In fact, for the vast majority of those who practice it (or have practiced it historically), spirituality serves primarily to, A.) make sense of and impose order upon experience and B.) to provide a means for asserting control over the wider universe. In other words, for most "spiritual" people, spirituality fills precisely the same functions that others seek from science.
39
Chasm / Re: Science vs. Spirituality.
« on: April 11, 2012, 04:25:13 PM »Science appears, on the face of it, to be a good thing.
But it is not a replacement for spirituality.
Science takes a thing, manipulates it, 'understands' it, and exploits it.
This process, far more often than not, results in the destruction of whatever science is applied to.
Whereas spirituality appreciates a thing, for what that thing is, perceives it, makes use of it, while not destroying it.
Science seeks always to 'understand'. And of what use is 'understanding'?
Once labeled, known, put in a box and organized, what is that thing, then?
It's life, its magic, its uniqueness, has been taken from it, and it is, henceforth, taken for granted.
Used up.
Spirituality makes use of.
Science uses up.
The former reveres, appreciates, and benefits from.
The latter demeans, diminishes, and destroys.
Science, like "spirituality" is simply a tool, a method, a technique. Do you blame the sword for the hand that wields it?
40
Chasm / Re: The problem with capitalism
« on: April 10, 2012, 08:24:33 AM »
Alternately, simple inertia.
41
Chasm / Re: Empty Headedness.
« on: April 06, 2012, 08:19:00 PM »Nice description. If it works, it works.
Me, I blame sports. Practice, when done right, serves a purpose not unlike that of meditation: thoughtful action without thought.
42
Chasm / Re: Empty Headedness.
« on: April 06, 2012, 07:57:37 PM »
There were times in my life that I sought out solitude in the wilderness, but I've come to see these as "retreats" in the pejorative sense. That is, they were attempts to run away from mental noise, rather than a means to conquer it. What I found is that, even when I went in search of mental or spiritual repose, I still sought out action and the direct, visceral experience of life. I was drawn always to those places where the water roars as it leaps to shatter itself upon the rock, or the wind howls through the trees. I never found peace in meditation: just a vague sense that I could be doing something that carries with it the visceral experience of living, followed inevitably by boredom.
I find my stillness in doing. It's there when I teach, when I sing, when I fish or share a laugh among friends. When I feel the impulse to meditate, I am far more likely to scratch the itch by heading to the gym to spar or down to the cage to take cuts than to head out to the middle of nowhere.
In truth, I have come to enjoy the noise, to take joy in bringing order from it. I still head into the wilderness from time to time, not to seek isolation but because I simply love the beauty of nature, the chill of the stream and the kick of a big brown against the line.
I find my stillness in doing. It's there when I teach, when I sing, when I fish or share a laugh among friends. When I feel the impulse to meditate, I am far more likely to scratch the itch by heading to the gym to spar or down to the cage to take cuts than to head out to the middle of nowhere.
In truth, I have come to enjoy the noise, to take joy in bringing order from it. I still head into the wilderness from time to time, not to seek isolation but because I simply love the beauty of nature, the chill of the stream and the kick of a big brown against the line.
43
Chasm / Re: Tree hugging is good for you
« on: April 06, 2012, 06:03:19 PM »
The common wood scorpion (or "Southern Devil Scorpion" as people 'round here like to call it) is only about an inch long in total. A stick to hold the body in place and a pocket knife are usually sufficient to keep you out of range of the business end, and I usually put them in the fridge for 20 or 30 minutes, to get them in a torpor first. They must wash into the creeks and rivers a lot, because they're about the most effective bait I've found when the levels are up and the water is turbid. Big trout will hit them, too, but they're smallie crack, apparently.
44
Chasm / Re: Tree hugging is good for you
« on: April 05, 2012, 09:26:25 PM »A tree, cut into rounds, prior to splitting for firewood, actually weeps.
Sap oozes out and makes you sticky.
I take only dead trees for firewood.
They are past weeping.
It then becomes a detailed search for grubs and spiders.
Locally, we add the delightful common wood scorpion to the mix. For reasons unfathomable to man, the little buggers turn out to be dynamite smallmouth bait.
45
Chasm / Re: What is 'thinking', anyway?
« on: April 02, 2012, 07:43:59 PM »
Personal experience: people who talk loudly of their lack of ego are creatures dominated by their egos, and intellectual, emotional and spiritual security rarely manifest themselves in the form of dismissing opponents as 'neanderthals' or pronouncements that one is so secure as to have no need to consider thoughts that originate outside one's own direct experience.
Throw this one to the forum: can there be such a thing as Phariseeic Buddhism?
Throw this one to the forum: can there be such a thing as Phariseeic Buddhism?