Monthly Archives: June 2003

If I Were A

Posted on June 23, 2003 by | Leave a comment

If I were a month I would be: January
If I were a day of the week I would be: Monday
If I were a time of day I would be: 3:15 a.m.
If I were a planet I would be: Saturn
If I were a sea animal I would be: a humpback whale
If I were a direction I would be: north
If I were a piece of furniture I would be: a beanbag chair
If I were a sin I would be: pride
If I were a liquid I would be: white tea
If I were a stone, I would be: granite
If I were a bird, I would be: a mockingbird
If I were a tool, I would be: a sledgehammer
If I were a flower/plant, I would be: corn
If I were a kind of weather, I would be: a tornado
If I were a Musical instrument, I would be: a bass viol
If I were an animal, I would be: a badger
If I were a color, I would be: green
If I were an emotion, I would be: optimism
If I were a vegetable, I would be: a pumpkin
If I were a sound, I would be: a breeze in the trees
If I were an element, I would be: iron
If I were a car, I would be: a 1972 Olds Vista Cruiser
If I were a song, I would be: Page 43, David Crosby
If I were a book, I would be written by: Aldous Huxley
If I were a food, I would be: red beans and rice
If I were a place, I would be: Calcutta
If I were a material, I would be: flannel
If I were a taste, I would be: bittersweet
If I were a scent, I would be: patchouli
If I were a word, I would be: evanescence
If I were an object, I would be: a well
If I were a body part I would be: an ear
If I were a facial expression I would be: a smirk
If I were a subject in school I would be: english
If I were a cartoon character I would be: foghorn leghorn
If I were a shape I would be: a circle
If I were a number I would be: 7

23 JUN 2003

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Quiet

Posted on June 23, 2003 by | Leave a comment

Listen …

beyond the bustle of the nearby cross-street,
beyond the hum of the pulsing air conditioners,
beyond the rustle of the tree leaves,
beyond the chirping of the birds,
beyond the soft murmur of humming insects,
beyond the gentle rush of your own breath,
beyond the constant throb of thoughts,
beyond the slow growth of the grass,
beyond the hiss of the clouds as they pass,
beyond the turning of the earth…

ah, the silence of becoming,
the sound of being!

23 JUN 2003

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Today’s Potent Quote …

Posted on June 22, 2003 by | Leave a comment

The difference between the mortified, but still proud and self-centered stoic and the unmortified hedonist consists in this: the latter, being flabby, shiftless and at heart rather ashamed of himself, lacks the energy and the motive to do much harm except to his own body, mind and spirit; the former, because he has all the secondary virtues and looks down on those who are not like himself, is morally equipped to wish and to be able to do harm on the very largest scale and with a perfectly untroubled conscience. These are obvious facts; and yet, in the current religious jargon of our day the word “immoral” is reserved almost exclusively for the carnally self-indulgent. The covetous and the ambitious, the respectable toughs and those who cloak their lust for power and place under the right sort of idealistic cant, are not merely unblamed; they are even held up as models of virtue and godliness. The representatives of the organized churches begin by putting haloes on the heads of the people who do most to make wars and revolutions, then go on, rather plaintively, to wonder why the world should be in such a mess.
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

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A Shared Vision

Posted on June 21, 2003 by | Leave a comment

What I see is there for every eye;
it does not hide that well, it seems to me –
for although present in a clouded sky,
it is shielded quite ineffectively.

Beyond the veiled illusions it exists
and waits, expectant, ’til we catch a glimpse;
it is both light that hides, and hiding mist,
both door and hinge, both shadow and footprint.

I write about it, yet my mere words fail,
as well you know who see it clear as I;
my loose description does but mark the trail –

a fleeting flash of color passing by.
Sometimes, when we both look, our eyes may meet
and in that instant, the world is complete.

21 JUN 2003

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More on the Artist Within …

Posted on June 21, 2003 by | Leave a comment

The poet’s or the painter’s vision of the divine in nature, the worshipper’s awareness of a holy presence in the sacrament, symbol or image – these are not entirely subjective. True, such perceptions cannot be had by all perceivers, for knowledge is a function of being; but the thing known is independent of a mode and nature of the knower. What the poet and painter see, and try to record for us, is actually there, waiting to be apprehended by anyone who has the right kind of faculties.
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

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Today’s Potent (Seed) Thought

Posted on June 20, 2003 by | Leave a comment

The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the persecuting and make wars…The philosophy that rationalizes war and military training is always (whatever the official religion of the politicians and war makers) some wildly unrealistic doctrine of national, racial or ideological idolatry, having, as its inevitable corollaries, the notions of Herrenvolk* and “the lesser breeds without the Law.”
Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

* Translation from German: “Nation of the Masters”

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Footnotes to Occam’s Razor and the Heart Sutra

Posted on June 18, 2003 by | Leave a comment

I made reference to the principle of Occam’s razor in a post the other day. Here is some additional information on that principle:

Occam’s razor is a logical principle attributed to the mediaeval philosopher William of Occam (or Ockham). The principle states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed. This principle is often called the principle of parsimony. It underlies all scientific modelling and theory building. It admonishes us to choose from a set of otherwise equivalent models of a given phenomenon the simplest one. In any given model, Occam’s razor helps us to “shave off” those concepts, variables or constructs that are not really needed to explain the phenomenon. By doing that, developing the model will become much easier, and there is less chance of introducing inconsistencies, ambiguities and redundancies. Though the principle may seem rather trivial, it is essential for model building because of what is known as the “underdetermination of theories by data”. For a given set of observations or data, there is always an infinite number of possible models explaining those same data. This is because a model normally represents an infinite number of possible cases, of which the observed cases are only a finite subset. The non-observed cases are inferred by postulating general rules covering both actual and potential observations.

Much more to be found at: Occam’s Razor

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