Month: October 2014

3.10.14

– “What kind of conversation is it that is so completely one-sided, & at the same time so satisfying?”

– Home truths

4.10.14

– “The school of Hellas”

– The liberal coastal people & the conservative land-locked regions

– “War is primarily a matter of money.”

What about marriage?

– The disease, the art (medicine), nature, the patient & the doctor

– Theological wisdom, encyclopedic knowledge & spiritual discernment

– Underwrite

– Metaphysical risk!

– Non-violent coercion

– Necessity & freedom

Are they mutually exclusive?

– Legal theory

– Anamorphic

– Imbrications

– Corrective self-criticism

– Legerdemain

– “…Instead you can just do self-study on the stuff that interests you.”

“You should focus more on the interface between Medicine & Christianity which is by itself a vast & rich play-field!”

“I usually fix theology & spirituality as my primary field. All others are more peripheral. So I focus more on them than the others. It is vital to get the priorities right, especially since we are limited beings!” – x

“You do make me contemplate.” – y

“Please do”

I think FOCUS is crucial!”

“I will go home & send some good stuff which can stimulate & nurture you as a Christian-Physician. May GOD empower you with grace & truth!”

“DON’T stop studying Medicine or reading the Bible!” – x

“Thank you very much. You are a prophet” – y

“WOW! Thank you”

“I guess the real challenge lies in very deliberately engaging in a dialogue with Medicine & Christianity rather than just letting them run like parallel rails. They must be interwoven so that your profession & faith mutually sharpen & enrich each other! Even when you engage in only one of them, the other must always be present as a dialogue partner…

Then we can expect something amazing & transformative!”

“So I could suggest 3 levels of study for you:

1. Medicine; Theology; & your dialogue with them.

Most important level.

2. The interface between them.

Second, but almost as important as the first.

3. Other (allied) interests.

Least important. But a great hobby!

This can help you organize your resources accordingly & make the most of all that is available, in line with your identity/vocation!” – x

– The final guardrail

– The quality of the highways (national, etc.) always seems to be much better than the roads within a city/town. Why??

– Wonderful ~ haunting

8.10.14

– “I agree that insecurity (as well as possessiveness/jealousy – the other side of the same coin) is natural/normal, especially for a woman. But the question is what is the mature/adult way to deal with it! Only the one who can resolve his/her own psychological stuff in a healthy way, can love others, right?”

– When there is a person who is dependent on others (financially, physically, psychologically, etc.) and therefore pulling others down with him/her, we have a choice to make:

Whether to invest our resources in supporting that person or to let him/her ‘die’.

On what basis do we make this choice?

It depends on whether that person is doing whatever they can to become independent, how much we can afford to help without harming ourselves, what our relationship is with that person & what the chances are for our help to make the recipient recover from a position of dependence.

It is not ethical to withdraw medical support from a patient (for whom there is no hope of recovery) if the option of euthanasia (quick & painless death) is not available.

Which is the greater evil – suffering or death?

To what extent are we responsible for our own welfare & to what extent are we responsible for each other’s survival?

– Auto-correct & word-prediction – don’t use!

– Basic dignity

Dehumanize – brutalize, demonize, commodify

– I want to know what it would be like to do what Gautama did, to get to the bottom of this mystery called life.

To live… without money, without family, without sex, without a house, without a job, without religion, etc. What is life without these things? Is it just deathly existence, or is it really the abundant life that we all perpetually (claim to) seek, but will never attain, because we are too terrified to find?!

– Poverty, sickness & ageing

– Maybe the one thing that we should all eliminate, in order to be saved, is the desire to be spared from suffering!

– Spiritual liberation is the fundamental value upon which every other human endeavour & progress (science, culture, etc.) must be built. Without this attainment, all achievement is worth zilch!

– I think salvation is the state of human personal existence in which the ego is completely delivered from all need, & desire is fully transcended.

Freedom (from conditionality & limitation) becomes even more valuable than survival or happiness!

– Maybe psychological suicide is spiritual salvation! Maybe eternal life is to somehow taste death while still conscious & breathing…

– Yes, food & shelter are essential for survival. But what if survival itself becomes non-essential??

– Contrary to the universal belief that such a person will be most useless in the service of mankind, the truth is that only such a person will be of any lasting value to this world.

30.9.14

– Economic espionage

– Intimate, extravagant & everlasting love

WOW! Fantastic??

– Conscientious passion

– Why should I suffer (willingly) for your faults/defects/sins?

Because I am a Christian.

Because we are family.

Because I love you.

Don’t I also gain because of your gifts/strengths/virtues?!

2.10.14

– 2 categories of sins:

1. Active/hot:

Pride-greed

2. Passive/cold:

Sloth-anxiety

All other sins fall into one of these 2 classes.

E.g. Anger falls under the first & stupidity falls under the second.

– Distinguish:

Meekness

&

Timidity

2.10.14

– “No matter what our age, we find it hard to believe that there is anyone in the universe who knows better than us what is best for us, or wants it more.”

– “To enter into total submission to GOD is to enjoy ultimate security”

– “Our power over demonic forces teeters on the extent to which we are in perfect, submissive union with our Lord.”

– “If however, you are still “your own”, how can you be saved from the bondage of sin?”

– “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through knowledge of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them & are overcome, their last condition is worse than the first.” – 2Pet. 2:20

– The only way to resist the Devil & overcome the world, is to crucify the flesh.”

– “To be victorious, like Christ, in the face of severe trials & temptations, we must be like Him in being willing to suffer “hell on earth” for Heaven’s sake.”

– “So, since Christ suffered in the flesh (for GOD), you also arm yourselves with the same attitude (patiently to endure, rather than to please yourself or the world). For whoever has suffered in the flesh (having the mind of Christ) is done with (intentional) sin.”

– Physical discipline enables us to undergo psychological pain without moral compromise.

– “Pride is a sort of selfish seriousness that makes us drown with our own weight. But angels fly, because they are light.”

– “It is a curious coincidence that the Christian doctrine of Original Sin is confirmed by obvious human history!”

– “Prevent us, O Lord, from all our doings”

– “There are many desires which are unattainable. But there are also some desires which are undesirable.”

– Is morality the enemy or the friend of pleasure?

– “The building of the spiritual edifice is simultaneous in all its parts. The roof is stretched while the foundations are being laid.”

– The Equalizer always turns out to be the friend of the lowly (lifter) & foe of the lofty (abaser)!

Luk.3:5a

– “There would be less bustle if there were more activity. The world would be more silent if it were more strenuous.”

– Lowliness is so rare even among the lowly!

– – “The passion for intimacy with GOD is too deeply embedded in the human heart. It cannot be silenced by the attempt to relieve one’s pain with pleasure… so it degenerates into a futile attempt to kill off all desire.”

– You are a Christian to the extent you evidence desire for salvation from sin.

– The personal, spiritual being who creates, governs & redeems this world is living within me/us!

– “So act that your principle

of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.”

– “We cannot plan, organize or manipulate GOD. But without careful discipline, we cannot receive him either.”

– “I can never forget You,

I will never be the same…

What can I give that You don’t already deserve?

You laid down Your life, when I refused to give mine!”

– “The man in marriage – deep purpose, tender strength & decisive action”

– “The woman in marriage – she is to actively engage all her faculties of feminine personhood in response to the man’s initiative of pursuing GOD’s will – this is how she will experience maximum joy in life”

– “You only see what you want to believe”

– For the Christian, mercy IS justice!

– “In the infinity of life where I am,

All is whole, perfect & complete!”

– “Lord! Lord! Holy One,

Give attention to us who are suffering grievously.

You graciously sanctified Israel as your people.

Now wipe away our sins & errors. Speedily let your mercies overtake us,

& put praises in the mouth of those who have put their confidence in you,

& are now broken in spirit.”

– “Culture is the framework of moral claims & narratives, within which social ideals, attitudes & institutions, and individual actions operate.”

– “What if the core of our identity was located more in the body & desire, than in the mind & belief?”

– “Human beings are dependent & rational, moral & believing, desiring & embodied, social & historical animals.”

– “The entire Christian ethic can be summarized in 2 words – “Don’t lie!”

– The heart of the King is in the hands of the LORD!

– “One has to go back sometimes, in order to go forward!”

– Holiness – is it possible to be both intense & balanced?

– “This is where humanity’s paths part: if you want peace of soul & happiness, then believe, but if you want to be a follower of truth, then seek.”

– “Philosophy is merely thought that has been thought out”

– “There is no place where earth’s sorrows

Are more felt than in Heaven;

There is no place where man’s failings

Have such kindly judgment given.”

– ” ‘Tis not all we owe to Jesus;

‘Tis something more than all.

Greater good because of evil,

Larger mercy through the fall.”

– “Some nights I stay up, (wondering)…

O Lord, I’m still not sure what I stand for,

Oh, most nights, I don’t know anymore!

So this is it.

I sold my soul for this?

Washed my hands off that for this?

I miss my mom & dad for this?”

– “Let’s take this walk, it’s long overdue,

Let’s sit & talk and slow things down.

Just be our old (original) selves again finally…

Let’s take a walk to somewhere pretty.”

– “…this is where it all begins,

This is where everybody turns out right in the end!”

– Isn’t it better to fight the right Battle & lose, rather than fight the wrong battles & win?

– “The heart has its own reasons of which Reason knows nothing”

– “The Lord does not look so much at the magnitude/difficulty of anything we do, as at the love with which we do it.”

– Is your job primarily an economic enterprise that enables the rich to get richer, or is it primarily a service that contributes to the enrichment of life-quality for all?

– “To become a Christian involves learning the story of Israel and of Jesus well enough, to experience and interpret oneself & one’s world in its terms.”

– “Proclaiming the Christian gospel may primarily be the telling of a story, but this story gains its meaning & power only within the total gestalt of community (church) life & action.”

– “Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom. The art of story-telling is dying out, because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.”

– “Community is the victory of love over death”

– “Faith means receiving GOD himself; it means being overwhelmed by GRACE.”

– “Our job is to fight death.” This is expressed in total surrender to the Father (worship) & mutual submission to each other (love). This is how we overcome!

– Prayer/faith comes alive only when, you attempt something that is far beyond your reach.

– “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

“Could not he have kept this man (whom he loved) from dying?”

– “Ordinary Radicals”

– “Generous Orthodoxy”

– “New Monasticism”

– The only way to spiritual revival is the immediate & complete cessation of all ‘religious activity’!

– “Who do you say that I am?” – we are judged by our own judgment on Jesus!

– From religion to spirituality,

From morality to ethics,

From tradition to community.

– “A lot can happen when one just goes through the motions. The routine begins to inscribe habits of the imagination within us.”

– “A society is to be evaluated based on how it treats its animals.”

– “Dogs & philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.”

– “The human mind can only stand so much reality.”

…And that is the truth!

– “Critical Theory is a form of self-reflective knowledge, involving discernment & judgment, to reduce entrapment in systems of domination or dependence, obeying the emancipatory interest in expanding the scope of autonomy.”

– “What we desire is to bring into a world founded on discontinuity/differentiation, all the continuity/unification such a world can sustain.”

– “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

– “Forgetfulness is the way to exile. Remembrance is the way to redemption.”

– “Less control is (more) exciting.”

– “Worship-service”

– “Lest we forget……”

–  “For Heaven is (a state) as near down as up, and up as down:  Insomuch, that whoever had a

true desire to be in Heaven, then that same time she were in Heaven (spiritually)! For the highway to there, is run by desires, and not by paces of feet.”

– “The art of contemplative prayer: that passionate intent stretching to God which, if it be wholly set on Him, cannot fail to reach its goal. Such a blind shot with the sharp dart of longing love may never fail of the prick,

the which is God.”

– “The best way to stay in touch with those we love, is to do something, that we believe in & highly value, together…”

– “The Good News – GOD is doing something glorious in our world, & all are invited to be a part of this, for their own good!”

– “There is no shallow end to the philosophical pool”

– “Philosophy – the revelation of possibly painful truths, we must learn to live with, is an ultimately healing work.”

– Ubuntu – “I am what I am, because of who we all are.”

– “Worship is the ordering & reordering of our material being, to the end for which it was meant.”

– Our primary, even only, task is to struggle with GOD for the gift of faith!

– “What we ought to do depends, in part, on what we can do.”

– The most common reason/excuse given for controlling the other, is that it is done only for the good of the other.

– “Men hate those to whom they have to lie.”

– The WHAT,

the HOW

& the WHY

– “Philosophers are here to help, or at least make things more complicated.”

– “We can now recognize that the fate of the soul IS the fate of the social order; that IF the spirit within us withers, SO TOO will all the world that we build about us.”

– “You’ve got VERY badly to want to get rid of the old, before anything new will appear – even in the self.”

– “LOVE is to love yourself,

Is the greatest love of all…

…It’s easy to achieve!”

– “If there is any road to Heaven, it is through Hell.”

– “Choose the ideal, determine the means, & then let go the ideal… perfect the means & the effect is bound to come.”

– “Total negation is the essence of the positive.”

– “Truth is a pathless land.”

– “Understand, however, we all really do set our own laws…”

– “For we & our ancestors have passed our lives in ways that bring death; but it is because of us sinners that you are called merciful.

For if you have desired to have pity on us, who have no righteousness, then you will be called merciful.”

– Theology – “Some of the things you have spoken rightly, & it will turn out according to your words.”

– “Where is the One, who came to me at first? For it was He who brought me into this overpowering bewilderment; my end has become corruption, & my prayer a reproach.”

– “Speak, my Lord; only do not forsake me, so that I may not die to no purpose. For I have seen what I did not know, & I hear what I do not understand – or is my mind deceived, & my soul dreaming?”

– “If only one might create the future after one’s own heart – for a little pure truth, a little unflinching application of simple truth to life – the heart cries out ceaselessly.”

– “GOD perfects us BY preserving who we have always been.”

– “There are things which must cause you to lose your reason, or you have none to lose.”

– “An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behaviour.”

– “These words (24 books) you shall publish openly (to all), & these (70 books) you shall keep secret (deliver only to the wise).”

– “Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”

– GOD made diseases, & man made medicines…

– Fatal half-heartedness

Inexpressible destructiveness

– Love is “freedom together”.

– “And this (renunciation) does not mean that there is nothing at all that we shall enjoy. For attachment is egoism in love, & not love itself. Desire is limitation & insecurity in a hunger for pleasure & satisfaction, and not the seeking after the divine delight in things.”

– We only know all the other religions in our world, through their Christian caricatures!

– Variety/novelty is the spice of life!

– “Thus an account of how to theologize aright needs to show either why a certain sort of progress should not be expected or how lack of progress can be overcome.”

– “There is only one thing that I dread – not to be worthy of my sufferings.”

– “Do not let yourself pretend that truth is obvious & easy to attain if one adheres to a single position. Free yourself from simplistic biases & search for the truth dispassionately.”

– “Nobody takes the trouble to be essential.”

– “I do not know what the difference between ‘plain practical religion’ & theology is supposed to be!”

– “Everyone who prays knows that the object of the exercise is a thought, an aspiration or caring which is no more ours than it is that of GOD in us. We know that the action of a person can be the action of GOD in him or her, our religious existence is an experimenting with this relation.”

– “The beautiful rhythm of the dancers… What a freedom, & yet at the same time, what a control! And the marvel of it is that the control & the release are one and the same thing – the MUSIC – it lets you go AND it holds you!”

– “My GOD & my all.

My beginning & my end,

My sole & everlasting good,

My GOD & my all.”

– “The supreme moral task is to so order our loves that they correspond to the true order of values.”

– “Sometimes, an act/lifestyle that is generally acknowledged to be morally wrong contributes all by itself to its being non-morally good!”

– “How can we dance when the earth is turning…?”

– “In this age, there is a new life stirring in all the peoples of the earth…”

– “World peace is not only possible, but inevitable.”

– “Anyone who does not want you to think (for yourself) is not (truly) your friend.”

– “Paradigms paralyze us…

You’re crazy!”

– “I’m not alive,

I’m not alive enough…

…Call 911.”

– “He who has a why to live for, can bear with almost any how.”

– “The Third Testament for the Third Millennium.”

– Conviction without certainty

– Re-enchantment without supernaturalism

– “Take it easy, take it easy…

Don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.

Lighten up while you still can,

Don’t even try to understand.

Just find a place to make your stand,

And take it easy!”

– “My child, treat yourself well according to your means. Do not deprive yourself of the day’s enjoyment.”

– “GOD/Spirit is the One who contains & enlivens all. Torah is everything that we learn in (& from) our lives. Israel is the community/place/context where we share, through behaviour, the revelation that our purpose is to repair & complete the world.”

– “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”

– “The more I long to know GOD, the more faces I see!”

– Eccl.11:9-10 – “GOD calls people to account for failure to accept the gift of enjoyment.”

– GOD will bring the unrepentant into judgment ~ those who refuse to learn from their own mistakes will never have a bright future.

– Be serious about having fun.

– Marriage is made (by GOD) for man, not man for marriage.

– The theologian has to be alert to the way in which theological ideas can be used or abused, all in the name of GOD.

– “And why is it amazing, that the desires of the body for the enjoyment of beauty, are rendered powerless by the rational mind?”

– “A second- or third-hand theology is no more adequate than a second- or third-hand experience of Grace.”

– “To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often.”

– “To come to your senses, you have to go out of your mind!”

– “Mysticism is not so much a doing as an undoing, a removing of the barriers, a creating of space, a getting out of the way…”

– “What the child received on another’s authority, the adult will know as his/her own inner experience.”

– GOD is the most simple being that exists.

– “The natural man is to be trusted.”

– The enemy of the spirit is not the material body, but the programmed mind.

– “Shotgun poetry…

Crack the whip again,

Infiltrate the mind, the body…

And make me see!”

– “Attention (the most tremendous power in this world) is cultivated only through conscious labour & intentional suffering.”

– The opposite of freedom is choice!

– The only way to transform ourselves & the world is by totally embracing them!

– The most deadly spiritual poison is pettiness!

– “We cannot make sense of the word ‘GOD’ without saying something about ourselves.”

– “Selfhood is the point of departure & orientation from which otherness is experienced.”

– “Historicity – human existence is constituted both by our past/context, & our agency to create new historical realities.”

– “In quarreling about the shadow, we often lose the substance.”

– “At the center of things, there is a heart.”

– “Burn! Oh thou inner light, burn!

Burn on, oh light, fed from the oil

That never fails!”

– “The new simplicity – this regained unity is above man’s passions & actions, reuniting them in a single effort that will draw everything together in the thrust of his return to the Father.- “Theology is the rational articulation of concepts implicit in the symbols & rituals of religious practice.”

– Overcoming the conflict between desire, conscience & will, through the power of faith, hope & love!

– “Our goal is to change the world from the inside, by being co-creators with the divine Artist – living lovingly & building a culture of beauty.”

– “…he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself.”

– “Unless one expects the unexpected, one will not discover it, for it is not to be searched out, & difficult to comprehend.”

– “We can only live with the idea of an altered truth as the only way to live in truth.”

– “It is in the nature of revolutions that those who see GOD are first to gaze on the destruction of the temple.”

– The Body (Worded flesh) IS the Spirit!

– “How are the structure of language and the texture of existence correlated with each other, if at all?”

– “They knew everything, they knew infinitely much, through their holy books. But was it valuable to know all of this, without knowing the most & solely important thing?”

– Discontent is the want of self-sufficiency.

– “And so I’m starting to believe that this one true inner wisdom has no worse enemy than the desire to know it, to learn…”

– “Philosophy is such a reading of existence that catches life at its game of taking flight & restores it to its original difficulty.”

– “We have been put into this life to see if we have the mettle for eternity.”

– “Slave morality – everything that elevates the individual above the herd, and intimidates the neighbour, is called evil.”

– The opposite of faithfulness is innocence.

– “It is the claim of philosophy that we get the best results by yielding to the difficulties in faith, ethics & reason, NOT by trying to cover them over.”

– “If the primary & overriding goal of any radical movement must be the victory of liberty as rapidly as possible, then to be efficacious in achieving this goal, the means must not contradict the ends. And which particular issues should receive priority depends on the specific conditions of time & place.”

– The greatest acts of creativity are (also) destructive.

– “The opposite of every great truth is just as true.”

– “Wisdom which a wise man/woman tries to pass on to someone else, always sounds like foolishness to the other.”

– “The comic is the festive liberation from social restraints, & a rebellion against religious authority.”

– “It is the voice (the innate gift of human expression) that takes thought into action, articulates our unanswered questions & gives collective strength to communities. Without that voice, we would be dumb followers of a deaf state.”

– “No one wins or loses, everyone hopes for the best within their own understanding of life. So let us all listen to each other, & let everyone be heard. Let me disagree, but with a willingness to redraw my positions, with the humility to acknowledge that I could be wrong…”

– “My own personal choices have always been outside the prescriptive dictates, and so the attitudes of traditional mindsets that prefer conformity continuously form a challenging backdrop.”

– “And they fought happily ever after.”

– What are bra & panties doing on my bed??

– Hellboy – what is your ultimate value – Yourself (survival/power)? The welfare of your beloved? Saving mankind/the world? The order of your superior @ work? Your original mission?

I don’t think any one thing should be fixed as the supreme, eternal universal principle! They all have their turn, in their own time & place……

– “I have lost all my powers. Who knows, maybe I’ll be stronger that way…”

– “There are people who love you & want the best for you. But you gotta be responsible & give them a reason to respect you.”

– “Don’t feel sorry for me.”

– What does research have to do with inspiration?

– Philosophy Talk – Tenth Anniversary Episode

– Alan Watts – The Nature of Consciousness

– “Creativity is about showing up. And if you show up long enough, something is gonna happen!”

– Sacred ~ lovely

– I love you ~ I realize your value!

– Twitterverse

– Deception & conceit

Permutations & combinations

– Rush (TV series) – Hmmm…… Interesting guy, story, career – similarities with me too!  😉

– “Unfolded – Stories (& interviews) that reveal”

– Minerva/Athena

– “The greatest works of art almost always have more in them than the artist meant to put there.”

– “And it all ends happily, except that it doesn’t.”

– Artemis

Vs.

Aphrodite

– “In high dudgeon”