Wiki-Stumble
First off, if you don't use Firefox, you should. It's not only more user-friendly than explorer, it's also a lot more intelligent with downloads and favorites. But, more importantly, you should get it so that you can install the "stumble" button. It's surfing the web without searching. You have interests, you click the stumble button, and it takes you to a page that may be of interest to you. Then, you get to rate the pages it sends you to, and the program redefines what you'd likely be interested in. The kicker, they recently up-graded the program, and now it's tailored to wiki-specific pages (or news-specific, photo-, video-, or your general, broad interest catagories).
So I've been wiki-stumbling, which I think is the best thing ever. And I came across Alan Watts. A link off this wiki-article was to the wiki-quotes page, where I found the following;
"Running away from fear is fear; fighting pain is pain; trying to be brave is being scared. If the mind is in pain, the mind is pain. The thinker has no other form than his thought."
"It is, indeed, a remarkable circumstance that when Western civilization discovers Relativity it applies it to the manufacture of atom-bombs, whereas this Oriental civilization applies it to the development of new states of consciousness."
"Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be."
"I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is."
"Life is a game, the first rule of which is that it is not a game."
So I've been wiki-stumbling, which I think is the best thing ever. And I came across Alan Watts. A link off this wiki-article was to the wiki-quotes page, where I found the following; "Running away from fear is fear; fighting pain is pain; trying to be brave is being scared. If the mind is in pain, the mind is pain. The thinker has no other form than his thought."
"It is, indeed, a remarkable circumstance that when Western civilization discovers Relativity it applies it to the manufacture of atom-bombs, whereas this Oriental civilization applies it to the development of new states of consciousness."
"Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be."
"I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is."
"Life is a game, the first rule of which is that it is not a game."
posted by J.B.P. at 12:09 AM
1 Comments:
Hmmm...I think we know some, errr, somewhat fanatical indidivuals who exhibit those sorts of 'clinging' traits...But even the non-fanatical exhibit their lack of faith in ways that are just as pathetic...
I quoted Hemingway on my blog one of the last times I wrote on it, which was...oh yeah, about a year ago:
"While the bombardment was knocking the trench to pieces at Fossalta, he lay very flat and sweated and prayed oh jesus christ get me out of here. Dear jesus please get me out. Christ please please please christ. If you'll only keep me from getting killed I'll do anything you say. I believe in you and I'll tell every one in the world that you are the only one that matters. Please please dear jesus. The shelling moved further up the line. We went to work on the trench and in the morning the sun came up and the day was hot and muggy and cheerful and quiet. The next night back at Mestre he did not tell the girl he went upstairs with at the Villa Rossa about Jesus. And he never told anybody."
--CJB
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