Martin said, "An individual has not started living until (he) can rise above the narrow confines of (his) individualist concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity..."
He also said, "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."
Kahlil Gibran said, "Life is that which we see and experience through the spirit; but the world around us we come to know through our understanding and reason."
He also said, "We are naught but frail atoms in the heaven of the infinite...If we suffer, the pain lies not in our wounds but in the very heart of Nature."
Are we ready for such words of wisdom...inspiration after decades of dreary platitudes?
Abraham, Martin and John made us feel hopeful, joyful, alive.
The dream died in 1968, but seems alive as we enter 2009.
Can we dream of a world of compassion, wisdom, truth and hope?
Will our new President repair broken world alliances, ecosystems, economic webs, minds and bodies?
Do we have the will to restore the American dream which was launched by the sacrifices of George, Thomas, and Benjamin?
Can we show the courage to leave the world a little better than we found it?
Yes we can.
Lee
Showing posts with label Zen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zen. Show all posts
Friday, January 2, 2009
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Zen and the Art of Africa
Robert Pirsig sought an understanding of quality and value in ZAMM and Lila. What he had in mind was not a superficial definition and essence, but a deep and resonant revelation.
Quality as a source of Aristotelian happiness, Platonic ideal, Sartrean existence...which transcends our understanding in the way the essence of particle physics does.
In America, quality can be realized in the free pursuit of excellence. What can be said of Africa?
The Congo wallows in Civil War, the legacy of Mobutu's incompetence and corruption. We all know about events in Rwanda. South Africa's response to AIDS was nothng short of bizarre. Robert Mugabe has set a new standard for evil arrogance in Zimbawe. Kenya...
Can African's dream of quality or value in the midst of the horrors visited upon them?
Of course, Africa is not alone. Many parts of the globe harbor hunger, torture, terror and fear.
Can anyone find quality when someone is being denied justice?
The essence of recent findings in particle physics is that everything is connected. At our core and at the core of everything in the cosmos is the nucleus of the atom which itself is composed of fuzzy, probabilistic, interconnected, multidimensional clouds of ethereal structures. Nonlocality and entanglement are inherent in the essence of being...a web of connections
How can we ignore the destruction of fellow beings or the environment in which we exist when we are all so profoudly connected?
The answer is we can't. For true liberation we must be each other's keeper. Only then will we know quality, value, harmony, agape and peace.
Lee
Quality as a source of Aristotelian happiness, Platonic ideal, Sartrean existence...which transcends our understanding in the way the essence of particle physics does.
In America, quality can be realized in the free pursuit of excellence. What can be said of Africa?
The Congo wallows in Civil War, the legacy of Mobutu's incompetence and corruption. We all know about events in Rwanda. South Africa's response to AIDS was nothng short of bizarre. Robert Mugabe has set a new standard for evil arrogance in Zimbawe. Kenya...
Can African's dream of quality or value in the midst of the horrors visited upon them?
Of course, Africa is not alone. Many parts of the globe harbor hunger, torture, terror and fear.
Can anyone find quality when someone is being denied justice?
The essence of recent findings in particle physics is that everything is connected. At our core and at the core of everything in the cosmos is the nucleus of the atom which itself is composed of fuzzy, probabilistic, interconnected, multidimensional clouds of ethereal structures. Nonlocality and entanglement are inherent in the essence of being...a web of connections
How can we ignore the destruction of fellow beings or the environment in which we exist when we are all so profoudly connected?
The answer is we can't. For true liberation we must be each other's keeper. Only then will we know quality, value, harmony, agape and peace.
Lee
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Zen and the Art of Particle Physics.
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig says, "...ghosts and spirits are quite as real as atoms, particles, photons and quants...the laws of physics and science ..these are ghosts..."
What he wants to do is develop an all-encompassing notion which allows for the transcendence of the dualities which have split humanity and being. Art and Science, Romantic and Classic, Induction and Deduction, Subjective and Objective, all ways of dividing the world analytically and breaking syntheses.
What he wants to do is develop an all-encompassing notion which allows for the transcendence of the dualities which have split humanity and being. Art and Science, Romantic and Classic, Induction and Deduction, Subjective and Objective, all ways of dividing the world analytically and breaking syntheses.
The Big Bang may have been an event from which perfect symmetry exploded leading to our reality through a series of symmetry breaks. The original connections of the primordial elements may still exist in the elements which make up ourselves and our world.
There may be a unity underlying the apparant diversity we face. Notions from mathematics and science like Non Locality, Entanglement, Fields, Probability Waves, Uncertainty, Complementarity, Exclusion, Fractals, Emergence, Quarks, Topologies, Groups and Spaces all point to the reality of an interconnected, holistic universe.
Philosophical structures like Platonic Forms, Baconian Idols, Kantian Categories, Sartrean Existence, Rousseauean General Will, Hegelean Spirit, and Smith's Invisible Hand, like Pirsig's Quality/Value speak of a transcendence pointing to a similar unity of being.
Lee
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