2007/12/06
2007/11/17
2007/10/10
this more realistic portrayal of extremism is the only way through which to properly view fundamentalism. for in deriving the concept from the term’s ethnological roots, we understand it as an extremist adherence (which may or may not be conservative) to the most base literary fundamentals of a schooling. the Universal Darwinists are cemented to the principles of natural selection, with signs of their extremism appearing in the disregard (if not complete denial of) the other essential functions to evolution – ‘survival of the fittest’ is the world’s Absolute creed. the Sunnies and the Shi’ites now continue to dispel their rage of their political differences through violence and war sponsored by their each absolutely infallible version of Islam – despite that the Islamic doctrinal differences at the base of the politics is so trivial that such hatred and killing could hardly be proclaimed to have religious purposes in mind. and there are of course those Christians, most renownedly labeled fundamentalist Christians, who have perhaps spanned the course of history longer than any other form of fundamentalism (albeit in a wider variety of manifestations). it is also perhaps the most formidable fundamentalism, second to only one other in the world (which i will get to in a minute) but at the same time invariably linked to it. for Christianity, in its fundamentalist form, unlike the structure of Islamic fundamentalism which is foundationally religious and stems into a disparate but inseverable political arena, is political throughout; that is to say that the religion and its contextual political environments have since its propagation been so interwoven that the differences between them have by this day and age become inscrutable. thus why the insistence of a separation between church and state has nevertheless mostly resulted in its failure. thereby, the number one fundamentalist operation, so covert and widespread now that few would not hesitate to call it that, is the adherence to an American-based ultracapitalist model around which all developing conformist countries and globalizing societies revolve, beset from the start with past colonialist influences and reformations to thus be so conducive to this way of (the more subtle and thus perhaps more dangerous) neocolonialism.
if we approach these real world schemas with the left-hand-right-hand gestalt of extremism, we can, however painfully, justify these courses of theory and action as a very far right wing affiliation (the Son sits at the right hand of the Father), just another sort of manifestation within the diverse spectrum of beliefs. as such, it deserves the respect and toleration that all sorts are due, especially amid the ever growing awareness and necessity for international, intercultural cooperation. but that is precisely what throws fundamentalism outside of the categories for belief systems at the pragmatic stage – for Christianity rises among Christians, but fundamentalism is itself blind to the veracity of its host beliefs except as to whether or not the conditions of the host are sustainable – for it is at its rudimentary praxes uncooperative, unnegotiable. fundamentalism is not any kind of belief; it is a function by which a system of beliefs can assume a tyrannical or at least dominant position against other systems. and what is partly so dangerous about this is that it does not retain itself within the order from which it originated but breaches all manner of diplomacy, protruding further and further into eventually raping the substances of other intermingling orders – überChristians are captured by the fabricated rhetoric of politicians raving world progress in the name of the Father and are at once moved to challenge, and respond to being challenged by, the sciences, in converting by forgery the observations of their religious reality into those of a scientific one (i.e. Creationism); Universal Darwinism not only confounds the sciences (for it is not itself a science but an approach to science) by castrating of them their necessary degrees of complexity and permanently vague teleological conclusions (wherever they have any), but also destroys God. it is thus not anything so innocuous as a choice of the right versus the left (which is itself too limiting a model by which fundamentalism can operate), but an uncompromising literalism with solely proselytizing intentions, a forceful insemination by a distorted and relentless intercultural phenomenon.
miss truth
One of Science’s main contentions with religion is in its handling of the truth. For in this day and age, only religion can hold a person’s appreciation for lies, for this is most often how it reveals to us the truth. Indeed, some truths can only be understood through lies, which are not really lies so much as mistruths, imaginary elements that provide the contrast that is sometimes our only means to perceiving an important aspect of the real. As such, both conservative sciences and fundamentalist Religion (what we can call the ‘pseudoreligious’ in the same way that we call methods and institutions sub par of the natural sciences pseudosciences) make the same mistake in assuming that all knowable truths are explicit – with conservative science belaboring the attempt to make what is knowable explicit, and fundamentalist Religion what is explicit knowable. Both miss entire dimensions of reality, dimensions that are real as that they are manifest in the physical and mental and spiritual aspects of human being, and that are missed due to this myopic, monist and even violent assumption concerning the nature of truth. Only the spiritually healthy perhaps can develop an experienced appreciation for mistruths.
2007/09/27
2007/09/22
a supposition for spirituality
this is the most stagnant of the niches in spiritual development and is primarily a top-down determined expression of a religion's or culture's (mostly past) intention to incarnate the spiritual into symbolically meaningful praxis. the ritual performed from this niche in its relationship to one's spirituality greatly resembles the crossword puzzle or riddle to one's mentality, or even masturbation to one's physicality, in that at most it sustains or merely stimulates the faculties of the respective aspect of human being. change in respect to the ritual is mostly passive, derived from custom or ruling (thus the top-down scheme), and in fact the conservatism of its application requires a minimal of internal reflection or external informative influences.
involutionary niche 2: symbolistic institution
this requires knowledge of the ritual, if not the ritual itself, but expands it into the symbolic order of the religion or culture, as the responding procedure to the event of inquiry regarding the ritual -- the consensus to the inquiry 'why do we do this?' as it might possibly be answered with regard to the nature of what is spiritual. manifest ritual is explained through its relationship to the world.
(here is born the misconception of disparate worlds of being, that is, not that different modes of being [that accompany the diversity of perspectives and responses a person or a people may have to the world] occupy one existence ["we're all in this together!"] but that separate dimensions of existence [e.g. the divine and the natural] mysteriously occupy different times within one's singular mode of [potentially eternal] being. thus, we can also see from this the drive to submit oneself to [supposedly] unending occupation by forms of a separate existence as a goal to one's spiritual development [i.e. the invitation for the presence of christ to never leave me throughout my temporal Earth-based life].)
thereby, ritual is signified, made significant, by the education of its indoctrinated meaning. this niche is occupied by the greatest number of those whose vocation or inclination is to share doctrinal information ('spread the "Good News"') as it is by those who relate a tradition's signifiers to life as the final significance (or aspect of the final significance) to living.
involutionary niche 3: spiritual roundedness
the conditions of this niche have undoubtedly been most affectively experienced (though perhaps not yet sufficiently explained) by the world's most sincere mystics. however, most of these have likely failed to fulfill the niche, as i believe it requires as much a growing religiopolitical awareness as (if not more in the beginning than) the full-fledge impression of the real upon the sensible. for we must understand here that the real does not contain distinctions between the aspects of human being, and so the mental is as essential to pronounce in the symbolic order as the physical if the demands of the niche are to be met. human history and cosmology are quickly becoming active ingredients to this awareness and seem to promise to resolve the ritual to the most necessary praxes per individual or people, to suffice and sustain the remaining priorities of the spiritual that institutionalized religion and culture (qua State) cannot. (it may even require a further breach in consciousness that characterizes the stereotypical enlightenment of mystics, and scientists or artists.) among the terms of its range of perspectives is a dissolution of the human/divine dichotomy, and may include the same of the staticity to the self/other, Self/Other binaries. in any case, i believe it entails a consecration of the All, with oneself as fundamentally divine and Natural, as opposed to a consecration of merely one or the other. in a sense, it is dialectic, but to posit it in its explanation as merely a dialectical process is to miss by far the elements of its verity.
2007/09/09
2007/09/08
2007/08/11
surface
and there is depth.
The
waters bow
under in
some
all significance
to the
face
a good spot?
it
must
happen.
d-gi
ve
n
to so
many joys.
And yet,
couple your sight
to your
sensitivity
Many-face and the
anyone
love
and
hate
2007/08/10
-- Rudolf Steiner
whether or not this altering of the soul by one's "own will-power," this lifting oneself by one's bootstraps, is a metaphysical possibility is against the point. the power of self-discipline, in both the effects and process, is a remarkable thing. there is also, as is obvious here in steiner's last statement, an incredible amount of faith that is required that these things will come with time. but such is the importance of the means, the process, even sometimes over the ends.
2007/08/07
2007/08/05
2007/08/04
2007/07/27
2007/07/12
The deigo flower has blossomed, and it has called the wind, and the storm has arrived.
The deigo flowers are in full bloom, and they have called the wind, and the storm has come.
The repetition of sadness, like the waves that cross the island.
I met you in the Uji forest.
In the Uji forest I bid farewell to Chiyo.
Island song, ride the wind, with the birds, cross the sea.
Island song, ride the wind, carry my tears with you.
The deigo blossoms have fallen, soft ocean waves tremble.
Fleeting joy, like flowers carried by the waves.
To my friend who sang in the Uji forest.
Beneath the Uji, bid farewell to Yachiyo.
Island song, ride the wind, with the birds, cross the sea.
Island song, ride the wind, carry my love with you.
To the sea, to the universe, to the gods, to life, forever ride on this dusk wind.
Island song, ride the wind, with the birds, cross the sea.
Island song, ride the wind, carry my tears with you.
Island song, ride the wind, with the birds, cross the sea.
Island song, ride the wind, carry my love with you.
bradr14 at www.jpopasia.com
(some corrections made by me)
2007/06/29
2007/06/23
2007/05/20
2007/05/19
2007/05/18
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
2007/05/03
2007/05/01
This attachment to the material world as our primary source of happiness lies at the root of much of the craziness that humanity perpetuates upon the world. It is this that leads us to consume resources we do not need, to treat other people as elements in an equation, to discharge our refuse out of sight, and to mistreat and abuse our own bodies.
...
If we are to stop abusing our world we need to let go of our attachments. ... In a state of non-attachment we no longer believe that what we have or do will provide the peace that we seek. As a result we are free to care more fully for other people, and for all living beings.
Thus the most important fight of all at this crucial stage in our evolution is not the fight against hunger, the fight against inflation, the fight against pollution, or the fight against corrupt governments. Each is very necessary and cannot be relaxed. However, they will not be won until we have also won the fight within ourselves: the struggle between our self-centered mode of thinking and the inner knowing that there is more to life than gratifying our ego-centric needs.
- The Global Brain Awakens,
Peter Russell
"The people of your world," said the Little Prince, "grow 5000 roses in a single garden... And yet they can't find the one special thing they are searching for..."
「そうなんだ」とぼくは答えた。
"Yes," I answered.
「みんなが探しているものはたった1本のバラやほんの少しの水の中に見つかるのに……」
"Even though that one special thing can be found in just one rose or the littlest bit of water..."
「そのとおりだ」とぼくは言った。
"It's true," I said.
王子さまはこう付け足した ---
The Little Prince replied with this ---
「目に見えないんだ。心で探さないとだめなのさ」
"It can't be seen with the eye. It can't be searched for by any other way than the heart."
2007/04/22
2007/04/18
it's the path of least resistance for neocolonialist agenda. there must be friction if there is to be change in favor of anyone or anything beyond these in power. and there must, at key times, be acceptance of this friction, by those who feel the heat of it.
2007/04/14
it does, is that
2007/02/10
2007/02/06
every where,
holes in
people.
Everything we do is an attempt to
fill
the
-m.
Voids are vacuous -- left unattended,
they are wounds, or virgins. Harmful or unfulfilled.
Love is hole-filling.
Sincerity is depth, and
happiness is success.
Despair is
cavity.
'She took something from me -- a part of me is gone that I'll never have again.'
There is no p-
ure blood; there is no being wit-
hout tran
s
plantation.
That is becoming.
That is human living.
2007/01/30
something
-- something right in front of us, while hiding in and among everything, everyone. it's surely more like a grand, massive misperception, due to no one's direct intent but to a universal condition as to who and what we are
.
2007/01/29
2007/01/24
obscure parts of me, of everyone,
that penetrate into this conscious world,
through slitted paper,
between and throughout
the mediating delays of
apperception and experience.
Love. The becoming-God.
As gods ourselves, we incline
to unify while retaining our
plurality, our independence.
It is impossible, but this
is what we do,
by adding restrictions.
auto-perception, relying on
the eyes, ears, tongues,
bodies
lovers, friends, children,
teachers, colleagues,
others.
love for ourselves, by auto-
stimulation, the fingers,
lips, tongue, arms, words,
praises, skin, embraces,
collisions,
perceptions we prefer.
It is automatic
to loving them.
be no purpose
in it.
of these things
times, they only
bring
2007/01/20
2007/01/08
An introduction to existentialism
2007/01/04
how to think
and express ourselves
clearly,
nothing
whatsoever
about either the way the world is
or the way it should be.
worldview
follows
from
intelligibility.
and its formalization
as funda-
mental rules
of logic
-- a worldview that may or may not be accurate.
Logic
requires
only
that
we,
not reality,
make sense.
Intimacy or Integrity