Essays

Attention

Submitted by jackrabbit on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 14:37

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.
Jiddu Krishnamurti

In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories, to the details around us.
Virginia Woolf

Compassion

Submitted by jackrabbit on Sat, 09/04/2010 - 20:08

Compassion is an action. Compassion as multi-faceted idea has been evolving for millenia with each culture borrowing, morphing, and creating a symbol for the actual action. By the present day the American English word compassion has so many connotations that some in depth attention is required to understand it.

Thought and thoughts

Submitted by jackrabbit on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 11:44

Abstraction is selective ignorance
Andrew Koenig

Understanding detached from sensation is called thought
Oswald Spengler

Life does not consist mainly -- or even largely -- of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one''s head.
Mark Twain

Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
William James

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.
William James

Belief is Idolatry

Submitted by jackrabbit on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 13:42

And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Jesus in the Gospel of Luke

Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's job with yesterday's tools and yesterday's concepts.
Marshall McLuhan

Religion is a defense against a religious experience
Carl G. Jung

Ocean of Images

Submitted by jackrabbit on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 12:05

What is an image? My usage of the word in this website defines an image as any of the following words: thoughts ,ideas, memories, a visual sensory snapshot, beliefs, and symbols.

We swim in an ocean of images. How did this come to be?

Acceptance

Submitted by jackrabbit on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 16:44

A new phrase has entered the American Cultural Landscape. Resistance is victory. The spoken word song at the end of a Flobots album is where I first heard it. I'm sure that it has a long history. My interpretation of this phrase is that what is being resisted is unwanted mental thought patterns. One group of individuals dominates the mass of people first through force, but as the culture develops thought control moves the physical force into the background. The threat of force in people's minds keeps them in line.

Command vs. Control

Submitted by jackrabbit on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 17:11

A leader leads by example not by force.
Sun Tzu

Imagination

Submitted by jackrabbit on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 16:56

Now, isn''t imagination a precious thing? It peoples the earth with all manner of wonders, strange beasts and birds, angels, cherubim and seraphim. And it has to be exercised. No child should be permitted to grow up without exercise for imagination. It enriches life for him. It makes things wonderful and beautiful.
Mark Twain

Nature

Submitted by jackrabbit on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 16:52

How far do you have to walk from your home to perceive that your are in nature? Do you have to leave your home to be in nature? Do you have to drive to the national park in the mountains? I''m going to shake the idea of nature up like a martini (not stirred). \r\n\r\nNature is defined as : 1. A wild primitive state of being (e.g. the environment or the outdoors; foods; herbs), especially in its essential form, untainted by human or synthetic chemical influence.\r\n2.

Slow Winds of Cultural Change

Submitted by jackrabbit on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 16:32

In primitive times, when man only organized in small familial groups and clans, hundreds of thousands of cultures grew up, matured, and died. With a life expectancy of 30 or less it was difficult to learn and store knowledge and wisdom. Every group has a different mythos, different root idea. Simple environmental factors, or past disasters affect the belief structure. People did not have what we would call ideas. Starting from pure attention to senses the beginnings of cooperation began communication. To communicate one needs symbols to represent physical objects.