Of Love and Happiness.

I know that it is possible for one to speak of many things for hours and hours, but no matter how much one speaks, these words will be empty unless one has experienced the ideas at hand. Prime examples of this are love and happiness.

Love. Is it an overused word nowadays? Definitely. The pop music industry and the hormone-fueled storming emotions of adolescents are put to blame, along with the catalysis by social networks. 'Love' is everywhere. It's sickening. The thing about love is, those who are in it will wholeheartedly agree with the fact that it is the best 'thing' they've ever felt. It lifts them up to the ether, where all is beautiful... and it leaves them there. How long they stay and how fast they'll fall depends on how much the other person they're in love with can help them sustain that illusion. It will always grow, like an addiction that cripples the heart with joy. But once it ends, all will fall. It is possibly the strongest illusion that mankind has known. Wait.. is it an illusion? I'd say not. But, if it's not an illusion, then why do people fall out of it? I'd say it's because love is an idea. And, like all other ideas, it will only control one for as long as they believe in it with everything they have. They must have faith. Once they doubt that idea, even with the slightest doubt, the illusion falls. Love is not within us. It is an idea that we were destined to understand without knowing any language. One can't stop himself/herself from falling in love with anything. They can only deny it for as long as they want... but this denial makes them grow old and frail, young and free though they may be.

Happiness. I will not explain this myself, for others have managed to put this to words much better than I have. The following is a quote by U.G. Krishnamurti, about happiness: "Is there any such thing as happiness? I would say, no. So, the quest for happiness is a cultural input, and that is the common desire that we know exists everywhere, in every part of the world. That is what we all want, and that want is the most important want in human beings everywhere. Happiness, if you want to use that word, is like any other sensation. The moment thought separates itself from what is called the sensation of happiness, the demand to keep that sensation going longer than its natural duration also occurs with it. So, any sensation, however extraordinary, however pleasant it may be, is rejected by the body. Keeping that sensation going longer than its duration of life is destroying the sensitivity of the sensory perceptions and sensitivity of this living organism. That is the battle that is going on."

The quote above is from the following e-book (download link available): http://www.holybooks.com/thought-enemy-conversations-ug/

I just wanted to speak those two thoughts on my mind.

God bless.

(:

Chart #3

The following text is an excerpt from a song by the Canadian post-rock band, Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They are not lyrics, but rather a sample that was recorded in real life and used with the music. The sample is a recording of a speech given by an apocalyptic street preacher in Vancouver, Canada. The band recorded it and used it in their track titled 'Static'. I couldn't find the whole thing, not for my life (would've been great listening to the whole thing). So what follows is the excerpt used in the song... it's quite interesting to think about. It's a little bit haunting, too, I should add. Please listen while reading.. the preacher's voice and tone are hauntingly captivating.

Listen to the part labeled 'Chart #3' in the description; from 04:43 to 07:22... and listen before reading the lyrics first. Get the impression from the preacher's voice first before reading what he says exactly...

(Note: the words I couldn't hear are denoted by this below: "_____" [without the quotes]...)

I hope you enjoy.

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"...prepared in innocence to meet our king of glory, and so we have this. You have it in your secret windows, and you're understanding to understand it and to bring it forth. It takes minute detail. It takes a holy life. It takes motions. It takes dedication. It takes dedication. It takes a death. And only God can allow it, and you couldn't do it if you're not the seed of God. And so the path through the great corridors, these are corridors unto his perfection; that is which the prophet and the Urim and Thummim has penetrated. That through this great sea of blackness that I penetrated through these corridors, and I went through that last segment where I went through these dark serpentines. I passed through that corridor where they sat, where they are. And when you penetrate to the most high God, you will believe you are mad. You will believe you've gone insane. But I tell you, if you follow the secret window and you die to the ego nature, you will penetrate this darkness. Oh yes there's many a man or woman that's been put in the insane asylum when this has happened to them, and they're sitting there today, people think they're insane. But they saw something that's real. And they see it when they're on drugs... the only thing is they see it not through the light of God, and the way I show you. I show you to see it through the light of God and the understanding of God, because when you see the face of God, you will die, and there will be nothing left of you, except the God-man, the God-woman; the heavenly man, the heavenly woman, the heavenly child... There'll be prayer on your lips day and night! There'll be a song of jubilee waiting for your king! There will be nothing you will not be looking for in this world, except in for your God. This is all a dream, a dream in death. And so I went through that window, and the tower of hell and the great serpentines of the highest order, and I went through that when I showed you chart #3. The question is asked and learned and someone who can turn this _____ of this horrible _____ of my _____. All in front of me can now ask me a question. If it's asked from the right _____ or the right soul out of Urim and Thummim, I can give you unspoken words that's never been spoken; it's not even in your bible. Yet, it does clarify what is spoken in the bible..."

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For clarification purposes: Urim and Thummim are two objects of an unknown nature, possibly used for divination, worn on the breastplate of a Jewish high priest.

I hope you enjoyed listening to and reading this.

God bless.

(:

Blessings and Curses... More?

Lately, I've noticed that many people don't quite understand what blessings and curses are, and how to accept them. I went with the opinion of most people, who generally believe that a blessing is any good thing that happens to you, and a curse is any bad thing that happens to you. That is, as is the case with most public opinions, wrong (from my point of view). A blessing can be 'bad', and a curse can be 'good'... but before diving into this, please allow me to define the parameters that I'll be using, and develop my main points:

- Good: That which will improve a part of your life on the long run
- Bad: That which will ruin a part of your life on the long run

Both ideas of good and bad have to be thought of in the long run, because it's a different case in the short run. In the short run, many long-term bad things can be perceived as good things. A simple example is drugs... people do drugs every day, because they find it good. If you ask them they will never stop talking about how good they are.. they alter their state of conscience, and they feel as if they are beings of a higher order; they feel as if they have been freed from their bodies, and are free souls now. But that's only as long as they're high, and only considering the short-term benefits. When taken on the long run, the benefits of drugs are outweighed by the harms.. and the biggest of these is the loss of the 'self'. Not the lack of control over desires, but the lack of desires in themselves. After long-term addiction, people lose the will to live if they're not high. They disregard everything else but that in their lives; the top priority. You might ask, but isn't this the same as having a passion? Well, a passion is something that grows out of who you are, and you choose how it defines you. Drugs define who you can't be and turn you into a hollow person; a hungry ghost; an animal. That insatiable craving changes your human fabric. So, are drugs a blessing or a curse? In the short run, a blessing for the person who's on them. In the long run, a curse for him and all others around him. (One has to be careful regarding the point of view they are talking from when defining good and bad.)

Thus, a contradiction arises; just like it always happens with anything and everything. Everything contradicts in a way that they seemingly agree with each other in a way that's beyond our grasping. That enchanting beauty of everything that is connected around us without us knowing it, but just feeling it. The connection that exists between all that is alive is enough to convince me that there is a creator. The contradiction mentioned here is double-faced: a contradiction between the points of view, and a contradiction between the long-term and short-term effects of anything. The contradiction is natural, but is important to consider and wonderful to ponder over.

In the same (contradicting) manner, a curse may be a hidden blessing. If one, for example, gets really ill and goes to the hospital for a long time, they might consider this a curse. But if they were to consider what they could do with their time in the hospital, and what that illness might have prevented them from doing outside that would cause them more harm, they'd see it as a blessing. It's a matter of perception and the double-edged standards of humans who want nothing but blessings that are good in both their long and short term effects, and very few of these exist.

In application, everything will always contradict perfectly, as planned. Every blessing is a curse. Every curse is a blessing. We're destined to live confused. What we can do is choose carefully from what we're presented with... think ahead about the potential benefits and drawbacks. Consider how your decisions will affect the lives of those around you.

God bless.

(:

Ashes in the Snow

Clad with grace. Wrapped in eternity. Older than time. Younger than today. Starker than contrast. Colder than snow. Warmer than a mother's heart. Immense. Stirring. Cathartic. A grand beginning. Incredible, magnificent, fantastic. Deserving of awe. Epic. Shatters you to smithereens and then puts you back. Lifts you up to the ether, and leaves you there. You only fall because your are not deserving. Elation. Elusive. Elaborate. A journey in itself, on a life-long journey. Subtle. Gloomily happy. Grandeur. A new life in itself. A hymn to the immortal wind. Ashes in the snow. Beyond.

God bless.

(:

Circle.

This is something I had written down in a notebook of mine a year ago or so, and I thought I'd share it. The essence of the first part, when you imagine it, inspired the second part. Enjoy.

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Pride breeds passion. Passion breeds consistence. Consistence breeds experience. Experiene breeds skill. Skill demands passion. Passion breeds pride. The circle ends where it began. Or does it end?

This is a circle. It has no start. It has no end. It is perfectly symmetrical in any way. It is an infinite loop that seems finite. It is not necessarily empty, and not specifically full. It is only defined by its one, continuous smooth curve that defines a certain boundary for itself. It can infinitely grow or shrink, and its size is always relative to its surroundings. A circle is experience in two dimensions only. A two-dimensional circle in a three-dimensional world is just a shape, and not an object. A circle would have to evolve into a sphere to exist in the three-dimensional world as required.

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The point of the second part is to think about the properties philosophically, and relate them to life and people's characters.

God bless.

(:

Questions and Musings...

I was, I am, I will be. I was not, I am not, I will not be. People were, people are, people will be. We all pass, some of us forgotten and some of us remembered. Perhaps not with what we liked, but we are remembered. Sometimes all I want to be is... forgotten. I wish not for anything more, just to be forgotten. It's not as simple as I'd wish it were, for I do not know the extent of my existence. Not just that which is yet to come, but that which has already happened. Maybe the future has already happened and all we're doing is acting it out. Maybe time runs in the opposite direction; we die before we were born. Who said that we're living anyway? We only say we're living now because that's what everybody else says, but who thought so in the first place? Perhaps he was mistaken. Perhaps we are not living. Perhaps we are still waiting for our true life to be here. Can we cease to exist? Why is it impossible for us to truly 'create' something that was never there? Can I take this as proof of us being creatures and that there's a God who was created this universe? To what degree can a theory be inflated by a man to satisfy himself and not to seek the truth? Would it really be good if man gained better knowledge of the supernatural? Can man truly comprehend the supernatural if it were explained to him, or is it supernatural because man can't understand it? Can we define a God as the entity which can both create and give consciousness and life to that which it creates? What would happen if man were able to understand the language of other living creatures, such as trees? Would this make him any different? Would he be able to sleep at night? How do some men sleep at night knowing that what they've done is what they shouldn't have done? Why is it that those who do not deserve to have power have it? If the world is unjust to everyone equally, wouldn't this actually make it just? Is there anything that is just what it is, or is everything more than it appears to be? Why is it that as far as I know, I will never know?

God bless.

(:

P.S.: Thought of the day: Good art is always more than it appears to be.

Bertrand Russel; Quotes

Today I'm sharing with you some quotes from Bertrand Russell; a British mathematician, philosopher and logician. Enjoy.

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"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true."

"Historical facts, many of them, have an intrinsic value, a profound interest on their own account, which makes them worthy of study, quite apart from any possibility of linking them together by means of causal laws."

"No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other."

"It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly."

"To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true."

"We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think — in fact they do so."

"The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."

"Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry. In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act. This state of mind is rather difficult: it requires a high degree of intellectual culture without emotional atrophy. But though difficult, it is not impossible; it is in fact the scientific temper. Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibility. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when widespread, produce social disaster."

"What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices."

"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty."

"Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one. Even in the most purely logical realms, it is insight that first arrives at what is new."

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead."

"Boredom is therefore a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it."

"Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality."

"Change is one thing, progress is another. "Change" is scientific, "progress" is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy."

"As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles."

"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair..Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people..the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me."

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EDIT: The following quotes were sent to me by a friend after seeing this post, and I could not resist sharing them on here, so I've added them. Enjoy:


"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.”

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important."

"I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy."

"Sin is geographical."

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God bless.

(: