Lines

10.7.15

– Shopping as entertainment
Fuck that shit!

– Is prostitution nothing but the crass commodification & consumption of human (especially female) bodies?
Or is there more (substance/value) to this (age-old, precapitalist profession) than ‘meets the eye’?

– Distinguish:
Prudence
&
Prudery

– The hollow within –> the wasteland around!

– The erotics of the (financial) market – is greed the new lust?

– What is originality & creativity, in the light of intertextuality?

– The intellectual & the ethical go hand-in-hand. Right?

– Are aesthetics & cosmetics antithetical to each other?
Beauty that is not expressed is NAUGHT. But do you have the eyes to perceive it??
If the skeptic is (spiritually) blind, then is the believer also (sensually) blind?!

– Edward Welch – so is it better if God is big & people are small?
But isn’t GOD ‘human’, & man divine, too?!

– Erotics, poetics & polemics (in that order)

– AV entertainment:
Sensual stuff to fill your spiritual vacuum
Or
Aesthetic dialogue of the inward imagination & external artifact?

– The other side of anger (macho man) is anxiety (sissy)!

– Personalist philosophy & transpersonal psychology……
–> the transcendent person!

– Are ‘esoteric’ & ‘occult’ synonyms?

– How are the transcendent ideals & the theological virtues related?

– Journalism, literature & philosophy

– I have become a fan of Kamal Hassan!

– I join the bespectacled!

– Have you ever had sex with a stranger?
Can you reflect on it philosophically?

– Theory facts
Faith reason
Tradition experience
Community individual

– ” jaundiced • \JAWN-dist\  • adjective
1 : affected with or as if with a disease characterized by yellow pigmentation of the skin
2 : exhibiting or influenced byenvy, distaste, or hostility
Examples:”Since I tend to have a jaundiced view toward marriage in general,” saidGeorge, “I’m not the guy you should be asking for wedding tips.” “Accumulated wisdom helps us process facts, but the circumstances of our current world may require the hopeful view of youth rather than the jaundiced perspective of experience.” — MarkTibergien, ThinkAdvisor.com, June 1,2015
Did you know?
The adjective jaundiced, which was introduced into English in the mid-17thcentury, is the direct result of the older noun jaundice. The physical condition called jaundice involves a yellowishcoloring coloring of the skin, tissues, and body fluids caused by the presence of coloring matter from bile. In ages past, people believed that a hostile, irritable temperament   indicated an excess of bilein in one’s body. This belief not only led to the extended use of jaundiced, but it also resulted in a similar use of the adjective bilious, which can mean either “marked by or suffering from liver dysfunction and especially excessive secretion of bile” or “ill-tempered.”

– “To live intensely & abundantly is to deeply engage & confront the diverse forms of death.”
– Cornel West
WOW! How alive am I??
This world – playground or battleground? Both – existentially, a playground within a great battleground, and metaphysically, a battleground within an eternal playground!

– The politics of knowledge

– Readings:
“The Sea of Faith” part 1 – Don Cupitt

– “Yesterday’s orthodoxies are today’s heresies”
Yesterday’s heresies are today’s orthodoxies too?!

– Yes, I envy my lifestyle too!  😉

– Movies:
“Paapanaasam” (Tamil)
Compare with “Mystic River” & “Gone Girl”
The idea of sin in a shame culture
Movies as education, even enlightenment & inspiration!
What happens when all too corruptible humans are given the power & responsibility to protect others & enforce the law? Police brutality – wolves in shepherd’s clothing!
Virtues/ideals vs. Family/loved ones – he is very smart, but also a small man indeed! Maybe that is what the education (which he missed) is supposed to cultivate in all student-citizens…….
Truth/justice vs. Affection/survival – the transcendental goods (spirit) vs. The individual/social self (flesh) – Philosophy Vs. Psychology!
Crises bring out the best (from the mind), AND the worst (from the heart), in people – ordinary people become capable of extraordinary attitudes, choices & actions!
Why didn’t they just call the police and report the murder as done in self-defence against a rapist?? They would have a fair case to acquit themselves legally, without all this monkey-business… But you forget that the culprit-cum-victim was the Inspector General’s only son!
Internet pornography, mobile technology & a prudish/hypocritical culture – India, caught between the past & the future……
The existential value of thrillers.

11.7.15

– “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” – Martin Luther King
What is your dream, dear postmodern, Indian, adult Christian??

– The best of both worlds, through role-play – who said you can’t have the cake & eat it too?!

– “Solar living”

– Movies:
“Snowpiercer”
Oh yeah!  🙂
Distinguish:
Apocalyptic
&
Eschatological!
Survival (of mankind) at all costs is extinction (of humanity).
Opting out of a deathly existence, for a fatal alternative, is Life!
Is GOD more like Curtis, or like Wilford, or like Gilliam?

13.7.15

– Psychoanalysis is more of a Philosophy than a Psychology!

– The 2 sides of the coin:
“You want privacy, only because you are doing something wrong”
&
“You are not being naughty, only because you are afraid of being found out”

– The Social Sciences – midway between the Arts & the Natural Sciences.

14.7.15

– All-weather roads

– Open Page

– ribbing
ragging

– Dream:
I am preparing, with some others, for a technology exam. We are discussing a question, “What is grove aversion?”

– Not all shaping experiences can be clearly & concisely articulated in terms of “insights & lessons”!

– A radically free individual is a threat to everyone around!

– Google doodles

– gif

– There are no little people, but some people are bigger than others…

– Lectio continua

– Gerontology
Theology, philosophy & psychology of ageing, disability & chronic illness
Active ageing

– Movies:
“Fifty Shades of Grey” (flop)
Ah… Now I see the difference between love & lust! And why they can never coexist.
Can you have voluntary rape?
Abuse –> woundedness –> self-healing –> drivenness/aggression/ambition
She loves him too much to be (just) his slave! And he can never love, because that part of him is dead.
Can you both control/use, and respect/care, for the same person?
Marriage – What does the contract say??
The honeymoon is over, honey! So now what?
Are romance & infatuation antonyms or synonyms?
Is GOD a title or a name? Now you know why GOD is dead – because those created in his own image will never be (his) slaves – they would rather live in a godless world than an inhuman one!
“I can’t stay with you as you want me to, even though you are so great & I am in awe of you, because that is not who I am.” – Anastasia
Yes I am who I am, but is it good to be what I am? Why am I this way? And how can I change for the better?
I am Christian Steele!
Where are the 50 shades (… the ties?)?
“Beauty & the Beast” is not a fairy tale, it’s a tragedy!

15.7.15

– Everyday, do something new/different/exciting/difficult/challenging.
Create something unique/original/authentic.
Write a line, or draw a sketch, or learn a game……

– An apolitical, irreligious & amoral spirituality is nothing but a polished brutality!

– How you say something matters as much as what you say!

– Learning – 1/3rd read/study + 1/3rd contemplation/reflection + 1/3rd training/creating

– “For in him, all things were created, & in him all things hold together.”

– The things we can see (below/physical/apparent) – matter & energy (the governed)
The things we can’t see (above/spiritual/essential) – principalities & powers (the government)!

– “He is the first in everything” – the source, basis, centre & goal!

– GOD – the meaning, nature & purpose of the universe.
Christ – GOD revealed!

– Angels – ministers or masters?

– The head & the body ~ consciousness & materiality ~ spirit & flesh
Animate & integrate!

– Advaita – cosmic Christ without the Cross!

– Your greatness is proportional to the extent to which you are a blessing (to others)!

– Christ – alien –> native
Christian – native –> alien

– The only way to possess everything there is, is by losing (becoming free of, by being willing to let go of) whatever you already have.

– metrology

– Lamentations 1:1, 2:1, 4:1 – social, theological, spiritual dereliction – OH HOW… !

– Grief & composition!
Horror & visualization!

– Wrath ~ reject, abandon, forsake

– Have you ever wept for your people??

– City – walls, temple & palace

– Acrostic poem

– Distinguish:
Stanza (& verses)
&
Paragraph (& sentences)

– Passion + study
Agility + discipline

– Culture – tabernacle, law, feasts, priests, rituals, etc.

– No VIPs in war!

– Theoretical wisdom (theology) & practical knowledge (technology)
Theoretical knowledge (philosophy) & practical wisdom (spirituality)
Theorizing the practice & practising the theory

– Mysticism is nothing but experiencing the metaphysical!

– “A colony of army ants is the most invincible animal on earth!” –  Animal Planet

– argot

– peroration

– Sexual exclusivity –> family-centrism –> Protestant work ethic –> capitalism!

– piacular

– Sciences – more objective/empirical than subjective
Arts – more subjective/speculative than objective
Is there a mediator?
What happens when you use the tools of the former to study the realm of the latter, & vice-versa?

– A time is coming when open marriage will be the norm, & not the exception……
But will this happen before Jesus returns?!
Ha ha ha ha ha!  😉

– Are even terrorists & saints, ‘mixed creatures’??

– Pride + frustration/irritation = righteous indignation!

– harangue

– Christianity is (a perfect blend of) both stoic & epicurean (& much more), therefore it is neither (purely) stoic nor (wholly) epicurean!

16.7.15

– Why does pornography work??

– Salvation is not just transcending the self, but realizing the transcendent self!
Union with the divine, by being true to your (deepest/truest) self (> ego – going beyond the superego-id dichotomy)…

– Kovai S.R. Krishnamurty (on D.D Podhigai)
WOW!

– Distinguish:
Canny
&
Uncanny

– The (shocking) suicide of a (great) psychoanalyst!

– Of ducks & swans

– eaves

– Readings:
“Hans Christian Andersen: Shaping the Child’s Universe” – Walter Wangerin Jr.

– Salvation – by Luck, through wit!

– Mis-en-scene

– arcana

– tarot

– Pure research

– apologue

– Readings:
Scientific Humanities on Coursera (Week 1)
Translation, detour & composition