Asian Philosophy is Eloquent

[IDMclean]

Without steadfastness, the gentleman would not command respect, and his learning would not be sound. Advocating loyalty and trustworthiness, he has no friend who is not his equal. He would not hesistate to correct his faults.

[hallenrm]

An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind -- It is not satisfied with explanations, with conclusions; nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another form odfconclusion.

 

The 3 keys to success! - Persistence, persistence, and persistence. The power can be created and maintained through daily practice - continuous effort

.

 

Money itself has no explicit nature. Money is what one makes of it.

 

Very poignant and useful inputs, Good thoughts to start the day with!!;) :)

 

Thanks a lot Racoon, for providing them!!:) ( i really wish there was an emoticon of a namaskaar or pranaam)

[hallenrm]

A truely philosophical mind must be like an ocean: Open, quite or turbulent with time.

[IDMclean]

Even a common man by obtaining knowledge becomes a Buddha.

 

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. ~Matsuo Basho

[Michaelangelica]

Get the name right it's Kun'g Fu Tzu. ;)

Good one:)

You got me:D

I'll pay that.:)

 

I read that quote in Chris Patten's book about Hong Kong "East meets West"

He was the last British Governor of Hong Kong. He was a Minister in Thatcher's Government.

I might be getting old and reactionary but I found him very wise in the ways of the world.

The Chinese government has it's own special brand of deviousness

Patten has a new book out on international politics which I am dying to read.

 

Patton started with a quote before each chapter. Kun'g Fu Tzu's "First, Get the name right" really stuck in my head. I had just been reading Don Watson's "Weasel Words Contemporary Cant & Management Jargon" which is a dictionary showing how politicians and others try and influence our perceptions giving something a "nicer" or jargonny name.

For example, In OZ, we have for refugees "Detention Centres". These are in fact jails where people can languish without trial for 5 or more years. Children too see

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/NoChildInDetention

Sometimes weasel words can be funny

ie

"Implementable= can be done

sometimes not

"inappropriate behaviour = (detention center) riots, self-mutilation, attempted suicide, hunger strikes etc

 

It seems to link up, a bit, with what we talked about- Laing's idea of a sick society trying to mold our perceptions etc. You would 'enjoy' both books

 

Sorry for the long post Racoon.

I will be brief next time

Nice thread.

[IDMclean]

This is my 200th post, and as i didn't make a big deal of 100 I thought I would just note it.

 

Only when all contribute their firewood can they build up a strong fire.

[hallenrm]

Find out the limits of your thoughts; then keep attempting to venture beyond!

[IDMclean]

Though I am as the tea cup, I am enternally empty, ever ready for the next lesson.

 

My mind is as the universe vast sparse and mostly empty, the only certainties I have is that I know nothing and compared to the mountain I am not even a pebble in my wisdom.

[coberst]

Cognitive science argues for an embodied realism as opposed to philosophy’s metaphysical realism. Embodied realism provides us with a link between our ideas and the worlds we experience. “Our bodies contribute to our sense of what is real”.

 

Spatial-relations concepts are not part of the world but are embodied and provide us with our ability to make sense of the world. “They characterize what spatial form is and define spatial inference.”

 

We do not see neither nearness nor farness but see objects in the world as they are and attribute the characteristic of nearness or farness to them. “We use spatial-relation concepts unconsciously, and we impose them unconsciously via our perceptual and conceptual systems. We just automatically and unconsciously ‘perceive’ one entity as in, on, or across from another entity. However, such perception depends on an enormous amount of automatic unconscious mental activity on our part.”

 

We might see a butterfly ‘in’ the garden. We conceptualize a three-dimensional container that is bounded by the garden and that which contains the butterfly. We locate the butterfly as a figure relative to that container. “We perform such complex, though mundane, acts of imaginative perception during every moment of our waking lives.”

 

Spatial relations have built in “logics” by virtue of their image-schematic structure:

Given two containers, A and B, and an object, X, if A is ‘in’ B and X is ‘in’ A, then X is ‘in’ B. Such is self-evident and requires no deduction. A container is a gestalt structure, its parts make no sense without the whole, it has an inside, outside, and a boundary.

 

“Container schemas, like other image schemas, are cross-modal. We can impose a conceptual container schema on a visual scene.” We can impose it on something we hear, on music perhaps to separate components, on our motor movements such as breaking down our movements in a tennis stroke and deal with these parts as within the whole.

 

Another important schema commonly used in perception and conception is the source-path-goal schema, which has an internal spatial “logic” with built in inferences”:

*If you have traversed a route to a current location, you have been at all previous locations on the route.

*If you travel from A to B and from B to C, them you have traveled from A to C.

*And so forth.

 

“Our most fundamental knowledge of motion is characterized by the source-path-goal schema…One of the important discoveries of cognitive science is that the conceptual systems used in the world’s languages make use of a relatively small number of basic image schemas…The spatial logics of these body-based image schemas are among the sources of the forms of logic used in abstract reason.”

 

The embodied mind hypothesis “radically undercuts the perception/conception distinction. In an embodied mind, it is conceivable that the neural system engaged in perception (or in bodily movement) plays a central in conception. That is, the very mechanisms responsible for perception, movements, and object manipulation could be responsible for conceptualization and reasoning.”

[Turtle]

...to subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest of excellence.

 

Therefore, the best warfare strategy is to attack the enemy's plans, next is to attack alliances, next is to attack the army, and the worst is to attack a walled city.

 

Sun-tzu - The Art of War - Chapter Three: Planning Attacks

[Turtle]

Warfare is the Way of deception.

 

Therefore, if able, appear unable,

 

if active, appear not active,

 

if near, appear far,

 

if far, appear near.

 

If they have advantage, entice them;

 

if they are confused, take them,

 

if they are substantial, prepare for them,

 

if they are strong, avoid them,

 

if they are angry, disturb them,

 

if they are humble, make them haughty,

 

if they are relaxed, toil them,

 

if they are united, separate them.

 

Sun-tzu

[Michaelangelica]

"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light,

and what is elusive and deceptive

resolves itself into crystal clearness"

Gandhi

[insight]

The words used by Jawaharlal Nehru to describe Mahatma Gandhi

'The essence of his teaching was fearlessness and truth, and action allied to these, always keeping the welfare of the masses in view.'

[IDMclean]

I remain an optimist, not that there is any evidence that I can give that right is going to prosper, but because of my unflinching faith that right must prosper in the end….. Our inspiration can come only from our faith that right must ultimately prevail.

 

-The Mind Of Mahatma Gandhi

[paigetheoracle]

It is eloquent and it is what my posting 'The Systemic Universe' was about. By the way did you know Zen actually is supposed to really be an offshoot of The Tao and not Buddhism? Think about it. In my opinion Zen is just about orientation - the journey in with questions/ the journey out with answers. Zen says don't ask, experience. Life doesn't make any sense! Realize this and walk on. Seeing the simple truth, the scales fall from our eyes and we abandon the mysteries of the world to move on as free beings: Believing things are complex and difficult to do anything about (change) we stay where we are and stagnate, mentally and physically (better the devil you know than the devil you don't). To be as a child, as Jesus dictates is the same thing - enjoy life, hold onto nothing, expect nothing, take each day as it comes for the opportunity it offers (Carpe Diem). Those who argue over triffles and defend to the death their property, lose sight of the greater reality and its enjoyment (We make prisoners of ourselves, locked in a paradigm of boring certainty because we don't have the courage to break free of our own prejudices: Even a caged bird will die, if not fed from the outside. Temple Grandin's book 'Animals in Translation' quotes a study in which it was found that animals kept locked up or chained in a restricted area, were more violent and less social than those allowed access to the outside world (defensive of their limits). Think of this with regards to humans (Travel broadens the mind)).:naughty:

[InfiniteNow]

Wise is the one who realizes that there are no ills "out there" in the world. The wise understand that the individual creates their own world.

[Turtle]

Arjuna said: O Krsna, first of all You ask me to renounce work, and then again You recommend work with devotion. Now will You kindly tell me definitely which of the two is more beneficial?

 

The Personality of Godhead replied: The renunciation of work and work in devotion are both good for liberation. But, of the two, work in devotional service is better than renunciation of work.

 

One who neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities is known to be always renounced. Such a person, free from all dualities, easily overcomes material bondage and is completely liberated, O mighty-armed Arjuna.

 

--Bhagavad-gītā