Month: February 2016

18.2.16

– NEVER underestimate the power of words (& your own work), Joe!!!

19.2.16

– Challenges/demands for future development:
1. Healthy interaction & cooperation between different departments of the government.
2. Free communication and genuine collaboration between civil society/NGOs, private/corporate and public sectors.
3. The media and judiciary to hold all these 3 accountable, especially the state.
4. The executive to function free from political interference/manipulation.
5. All citizens to be conscientized regarding relevant social issues.

– Alan Watts helped me realize that whoever I am/whatever I am doing, it is both frivolous/trivial and glorious/wonderful…
So I need to continue (instead of giving up entirely on whatever it is, I am trying to accomplish……), but always in an attitude of playfulness and creativity!

– Tragedy + comedy = farce!

– Distinguish:
Rebellion 
&
Liberation 

– Idolatry
&
Iconoclasm 

– The idiot-sage 

– “Concerning his mystical experiences, there is speculation that his discussion of  fraudulent mystics acting as master teachers— the so-called “trickster guru” —is a self-reference. Moreover, he often maintained sharp criticisms of  academic life by arguing that upstanding reputations in American universities require production of  mediocre work.” – Alan Watts 

– Blatant pedantry 
Learning > academic study
Socrates Vs. The Sophists 
Jesus Vs. The Pharisees 

– If you try to be a hero, you will most probably end up becoming a villain!
If you blindly follow others, you will end up as a nobody.
If you work on fully being your(true)self, you will definitely become a great/good person!

– “Watts portrayed himself  as an amalgam of  contradictory and paradoxical aspects: a “coincidence of  opposites” and “a joker” with reference to a wild card taking on a variety of  qualities in various circumstances. He wrote, “I realize quite clearly that the ego-personality named Alan Watts is an illusion, a social institution (as are all egos), and a fabrication of  words and symbols without the slightest substantial reality”. Watts is not a man on whom it is possible to deliver an easy verdict— he escapes labels.”

– Immanuel Watts ~ Alan Joseph! 😉

– Metatheologian
Apophatic thinker
Intellectual yoga
Negative canon
Normative questions 

20.2.16

– Analytic theology 

– Metapsychology 

– Energetic and intelligent prayer

– Movies:
“Boyhood” (hit)
Let life happen!
“Seized by the moment”
Grow up, not old.
How would girlhood be different?
Cultural convention
Vs.
Individual meaning
– the choice is made very early in life!

21.2.16

– Proslogion
Prolegomena

– Religious skepticism

– When you lose everything, that’s when you realize, all that is nothing!

– “So you think you can tell heaven from hell……”

– Rock orchestra

– My problem is with Christianity itself, & not just the Church…
So I don’t/can’t blame the pastors (alone).

– Let’s ogle (at the world) together! 😉

– Who is more free – GOD or man?

22.2.16

– Retreat/seminar preparation – 6 months each. First 3 months, alternate day 1 hour. Second 3 months, daily 1 hour.

– URL
Vs.
IRL

– Sine die

– Financial literacy

– I’m a straddler!

– Problematizing everything!

– Natural history

– “The Joyous Cosmology”

– “Columbus, Peter J._ Rice, Donadrian L. – Alan Watts – Here and Now_ Contributions to Psychology, Philosophy, and Religion”

– “A Taste of Death” – Mahesh Bhatt on U.G. Krishnamurti

23.2.16

– Sapiosexual

– Movies:
“The Big Short” (hit)
Hmmm…… Is this ‘comedy’ too gloomy??
“They are not confessing, they’re bragging!”
How did we get here?!
If there are no heroes (among us), is there any hope left (for us)?
When leadership fails, institutions fail. Then you need other leaders/institutions to step in & compensate, or the people must unite & rise to the occasion.

– “Homo adorans –> Homo sapiens –> Homo faber”

– “Food is the last natural sacrament.”
The family meal!

– “Man ceased to see his utter dependence on the world, as a sacrament of his communion with the God of life.”

– The world as such (What it always has been & ever will be)
Vs.
The world as it is (What it has become, for now)

– Free ~ unconditioned ~ disinterested

– Love > desire
More, NOT other!

– chasuble

– “The liturgy as (the recovery of our) supernatural (original) childhood.”

– Heaven ~ glory ~ holy

– e-mail, not email!

– GOD ~ life ~ world ~ person ~ sacred

– Power vacuum 

24.2.16

– parliamentary (adj.)

– “Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram”

– Status report

– “You can have fun and win.” – Brendon McCullum
Impatience ~ urgency!

– Brexit 

– Distinguish:
Debate
&
Disruption 

– Maoist capitalism!
“Mass line”

– Politics:
People for party (power)
Or
Party for people (service)?

– Decentralization 
Vs.
Redistribution 
Power is the ultimate resource, not wealth!

– Unrivalled leadership 
Vs.
Populist grandstanding 

– Welfare tourism 
Economic migration 

– Sponsorship & objectivity 

– Jats 
Vs.
Patels 

– Why the discrepancy between the online & print version of the same newspaper?

– Kidglove treatment 

– Ideologues & the masses
The unscrupulous & the mindless

– “Patriotism without nationalism”

– Sentimentality & violence!

– Public awareness & political will 

– Artificial anxiety 

– Soft skills
Vs.
Liberal Arts

– Independent researcher

– canteen
scalp (v.)

– harlequin