What we truly need…
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Category Archives: Philosophy
In Remembrance…
Кто знает закон Бытия,
Помог бы и мне найти ответ.
Жестоко ошибся я:
От смерти лекарства нет.He who knows the Law of Genesis
would have helped me to find the answer
I was cruelly mistaken:
there is no medicine for deathFrom братья
IQ classification
Found an old email from an IQ test I did, apparently I am:
“[...] a Visual Mathematician. This means you are gifted at spotting patterns. This and your overall high intelligence make you good at understanding the big picture.”
Coriolis winds blowing over Dune….
I reread Frank Herbert’s Dune recently. Things are so much clearer once you know more about Islam and the Qu’ran and some of the rituals there as well as Zen Buddhism and other topics such as Christianity and the Kaballah.
Magnificent book to be honest, he manages to drag you into the story and totally washes over you with a imaginary, yet possible future of mankind.
Dune Messiah is a most bizarre follow-up tale. Hard to describe what you read in those meager 200 pages, but they nonetheless make a tremendous impact. Amazing, just amazing.
The Butlerian Jihad was quite an interesting read by Brian Herbert, Frank’s son, to learn about the events that lead to the extermination of the thinking machines, the rise of the sorceresses, the Tleilaxu, Zensunnis and Zenshi’ites.
Now reading Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
Laughter is Good…
Given the sheer stupidity of the world or, rather, ourselves, how can you but smile at all the foolish things happening in our lives?
ΑΘΗΝΑ 2004 | Athens 2004
Wonderful, just wonderful.
That’s the best description I can give after watching the Olympic opening in Athens, Greece.
To see all these countries come in (in Greek alphabetical order), some in large groups, some in small, a few having only one, two, or three athletes, but nevertheless present. To watch the diversity of the world present on such a small area, standing shoulder to shoulder, friendly, without obvious hatred, religious fanaticism, or other prejudices is just heart-warming. At least to me.
It makes you wonder why we cannot overcome our difficulties as mankind and just live together in peace and strive to work on the common good. Gaia (or mother Earth or Terra, depending what you prefer) weeps, her children not caring for her as they used to. We need all of our effort to focus on keeping Gaia alive and clean to keep living there together with all the other non-human life forms.
It is also the challenge of stepping out into space, exploring the vastness of that galaxy, universe, kosmos out there. Suppose there is life out there, beyond what is present here, what wouldn’t it think of us, acting barbaric towards eachother, exploiting eachother.
We need to become more human…
Thank you
As I put on my poems page:
Thank you,
mom and dad,
for putting me on this world, hard as it was…
Thank you,
all the loving people in my life,
for you have guided me in my first steps…
Thank you,
all the people in the early stages of my life,
for showing me how the apparent strong have to pick on the seemingly weak…
Thank you,
all the people in the school-going phase of my life,
for being enemies, even though I had no idea of any crime committed…
Thank you,
all the people in my working experience,
for showing how simple values seemingly have to make way for money and power…
Thank you,
dearest of friends,
whom I consider my refuge and guardian angels when I need to exhale…
Thank you,
nature,
for being the ever-present pool of water in which to reflect…
Thank you,
universe,
for the realisation that I am but a small part of a bigger thing…
Thank you,
race of Buddhas,
for showing me the Eightfold Path,
the Four Noble Truths,
and the miracle of compassion and ‘the blowing out’ of the ego…
Namu Amida butsu…
Sharing honours…
According to the political compass I am:
Economic Left/Right: -7.88<
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.28
Which means I am in the same quadrant as: Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Mahatma Gandhi. Given I am also INFJ/INFP (according to the Jung-Myers-Briggs type indicator) this is not surprising, since NFs are the Idealists, the INFJs the Counselors, and the INFP the Healers. Gandhi is classified as a Counselor.
Nice quote with regard to INFJ:
“Come to the edge, he said,
They said: We are afraid
Come to the edge, he said.
They came,
He pushed them,
and they flew.”
– Guillaume Apollinaire
Furthermore, I am a musical thinker.
Musical thinkers:
- Tend to think in sounds, and may also think in rhythms and melodies
- Are sensitive to the sounds and rhythms of words as well as their meanings.
- Feel a strong connection between music and emotions
Focus on your one purpose…
There are times when I seriously wonder about life and mankind, well, even moreso than I normally do.
Have I been thoroughly blessed by being reborn into my current life, my balance of karma weighing heavy in the positive side thus allowing me to be and become who I am today?
Why has my life been relatively non-complicated or drastic compared to the stories other people entrust in me? Why do they divulge this kind of information to me in the first place. All, in supreme confidence and faith, is being related to me. In itself not bad, but why is this gift, which some may indeed call curse, of profound empathy, understanding, caring, and healing so predominantly present in me?
Why do I see the endless possibilities still, when the people themselves have given up finding any new and possible ways to deal with their situation?
Why is their vision so bleak and worn down and do I still see the sun casting its last rays on a setting summer day, whilst they are already deep within the darkest hours or night?
What is it with me that I look beyond the person as they appear in front of me and see their radiant shining self, still lurking deep within themselves, as a flower bud, still waiting to bloom?
I do not mind, I love helping people. But sometimes the healer in me has a hard time keeping faith in the world around him, it feels so out of place, out of sync. As if you were plucked from another realm of time or space and planted into present day Terra.
Ah well, may I at least have left a warm hand print upon the heart and soul of those I encountered, made their bleak day a bit warmer and more colourful. Give love where little was…
Namu Amida butsu…
Butterflies & Hurricanes
Well, thankfully it is a weekend again. I find I need more and more time to get back on energetic levels. Guess getting up every morning at 06:30 is asking a bit too much of my body. Darn that glandular fever (Pfeiffer) that I once suffered from. It never leaves your body.
Oh well, at least the good news is that I found out the appartment I was interested in, about two-three weeks ago, in Schiedam is now available again. Guess the financial stuff didn’t work out for the people who intended to buy it. Going to see it on monday. Yay!
Bought a bunch of books, amongst which: Classics of Buddhism and Zen – Volume One, Linkers and Loaders, Optimizing Compilers for Modern Architectures, Engineering a Compiler, C.S. Lewis’ first two Narnia books (The Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), Frank Herbert’s Dune (wanted to reread it again), Oliver Twist, Moby Dick, Poe’s Spirits of the Dead, Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men and Dude Where’s my Country?, and Asimov’s I, Robot and Caves of Steel.
Been coding a lot lately. Expanded the r9 bot with some modules for RDF fetching, bugzilla bug fetching. Next is notifications.