Month: September 2017

What is mixed reality & quantum computing?

Could technology be the solution to (the problems of) capitalism?

Spiritual philosophy, for CEOs & politicians…!?

20.9.17

– Divine creation – software (speech) –> hardware (things)

“In your light, we see light” – it is the Word (divine revelation) that makes all things comprehensible to us.

Light ~ Word ~ Life ~ Image

The Creator is also the Sustainer is also the Lord is also the Redeemer is also the Judge!

Light ~ life ~ truth ~ good ~ order ~ fullness

Darkness ~ death ~ falsehood ~ evil ~ chaos ~ emptiness

The darkness has not/cannot (ultimately/permanently) overcome the light!

Creation (Genesis) ~ Jesus’ story (the Cross) ~ my regeneration!

– Othodox Teaching Sermon The Transfiguration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWqIwGT7rEs&list=WL&index=13

Transfiguration ~ incarnation + crucifixion + resurrection!

“While he was still speaking…” (Matt. 17:5) – for the times you don’t know when to shut up…!

Coming away, without leaving your world – the mountain, the wilderness & the closet!

Law + Prophets = Christ/glory/salvation!

Climbing into one’s own inner aridity/terror, and being transformed, by discovering & embracing the futility within!

Mat. 17:4 – this is what I want, but “if you want”… The temptation of institutionalization – make GOD unambiguous, manageable, accessible, affordable, reproducible, etc.!

Is the shrine built for His honor or for my safety?

The Indwelling ~ Meaning (Law) + purpose (Prophets) + passion (Christ)!

Finding Christ in BOTH the inner sanctum AND the outer storm!

– Sacred Calendars: The Transfiguration of Christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN87wr0dW3c&list=WL&index=14

Mystery ~ sacrament ~ ordinance ~ feast

Full celebration

Gospel chronology & Church Calendar

The Transfiguration is meant to prepare the disciples & sustain their faith, because they are yet to experience their greatest crisis – witnessing the Crucifixion!

The anonymous site of transformation

The revelation/unveiling of the divinity already inherent in the ordinary/everyday

Saints as contemporary revelations of Christ

Spiritual faculties/senses

Supernatural light

Studying GOD, & saying what it is and what it is not

Felled, by the (encounter/experience of) Majesty!

The Body & all bodies

Jesus as the one who unites Moses & Elijah with Peter, James and John – OT/Israel/Past & NT/Church/Future – the present Kingdom/eschaton!

Scripture ~ icons ~ sermons – products of faith and sources of theology!

Tradition & context, practice and experience

– Christ:

Adam ~ Jesus ~ Church ~ me/you/us/them!

– Life is boring is life is boring is……!

>> Life is boring

>> Boring is life

>> “Life is boring” is life!

>> “Boring is life” is boring!

– Questions about the GST cess

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/questions-about-the-gst-cess/article19710552.ece

Legal validity & legislative competence

Compensation cess

Tax slabs

Policy flip-flop

Cess, tax & fee

Earmarked purpose

Labour welfare

Relatability

surcharge

Fiscal deficit

False returns

Colourable claims

Sin goods

Unfettered discretion

– The Privacy Quandary

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-privacy-quandry/article19715927.ece

Face recognition technology

Privacy

Vs.

Security

Second order fall-outs

Augmented reality, cloud computing & social networking

Autonomous vehicles

Mobile panopticon

– My advice to Christ University:

(Should I email this to the VC?!)

1. Separate Christ College (UG) from Christ University (higher education/research institution), & develop a distinct culture/ethos for each, according to their respective level/purpose.
2. Make selection of students & faculty more rigorous. Emphasis on quality over quantity. Reduce number of courses & number of students in each class, especially in the Humanities & Social Sciences.
3. Stop using money as a strategy to “hire the best”. Be(come) the best (world-class), then you will also attract the best!
4. Be future-oriented – try out new creative ideas & radical practices, drawn from diverse sources, in both the meaning & execution of education. Emphasize & promote inter-disciplinarity. Do away with long, tedious written exams based on standard question paper.
5. Shift onus for learning from teachers on to students. Make the environment conducive for self-development and provide adequate avenues for equipping those who are passionate & idealistic. E.g. Reduce number of lecture/teaching hours.
6. Reduce extra-curricular (cultural) activities.
7. Introduce proper vocational guidance (based on Psychology), not just the employment counseling given in placement cells, for each & every 1st year student!
8. Start a Centre for Education with people qualified in Pedagogy, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, etc. and passionate about reform/progress, to oversee the functioning of each department and guide the general direction of the institution, in light of the vision/mission/values. Start a Department of Philosophy fully independent from Theology.
9. Introduce mentoring & holistic education (includes the physical & spiritual) through highly motivated & well trained resource persons for the overall health & development of students & faculty. This can be done via small groups with expert facilitation (a la SFG & “How is it with your soul?”). Basic counseling training for all faculty.
10. Make Saturday a holiday.

CU, it’s time for you to move into full adulthood, as an institution!

– Rohingya – Bangladesh’s burden to bear:

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/rohingya-bangladeshs-burden-to-bear/article19694058.ece

Rakhine province

The Rohingya as homo sacer

Short-lived relief

Refugee camps

Advisory commission

Discrimination >> retaliation >> discrimination >>…… Victim >> terrorist >> victim >>……

When the army goes berserk…!

Humanitarian gesture or just political posture?

21.9.17

– hyle

– Movies:

“The Walk”

The closer one is to death, the more alive he/she is! The challenge is to find a way to survive at that place of passion……

True friends/lovers are those who accompany & support you in (your own unique) insanity!

Sexual edging as a spiritual discipline!

– I think I have found the elusive/secret formula for an robust lifestyle…

Alternate day extreme discipline and severe indulgence – I can feel them converging & blending already! 🙂

Always enjoy the ecstasy of intensity

22.9.17

– Maybe my next avatar is sensual crusader/erotic artist!

– troubadour

Strange light

Ravenna

Adriatic Sea

High Middle Ages

Medieval Vs. Renaissance

Anonymous works of lesser lights

ekstasis

The thousand year theory!

The beauty of simplicity

“Saving the appearances” – the major task of science

World-theory

Systemic exceptions

Simpler ~ better

Spirited away

perforce

Summum bonum (the greatest good) – the strong & sweet ruler of the universe

Pagan Christianity

Consolation of Philosophy

Postmortem reparation

“Ashamed to be ashamed”

neophyte

Alternative orthodoxy

Augustine

Vs.

Aquinas

– Distinguish:

Explain

&

Prove

– Distinguish:

Innovation/new

&

Development/better

– “Give me chastity, but not yet!” – St. Augustine

“The son of these tears will not perish.” – Ambrose

“Take (up the book) and read” – GOD?!

Happy to die, with the vision of the beyond, “when we shall all be changed”

23.9.17

– Post-critical philosophy

Non-Christianity

Non-relationality

A new type of inversion

Correct ~ reduce ~ supersede ~ explain ~ dominate

Quantum thoughts

Fractal thinking

Refracting the Real, instead of representing reality

Formal experiment

Strange mediation

The better half of life

Internal critique

A genuinely new mode of thought

Theoretical mutation

A broadened paradigm of (apparently opposed) alternatives

A democratic ecology of thought – pluralistic & equivalent

The practice of abstraction

The conceptual performance of extraction & re-envisioning

Salvation axioms

The Real as the occasional cause of thought

Hypothesis ~ wager

Material ~ lived

Philosophical narcissism/obsession/blindness

User of philosophy

Neither false nor true

Architectonics

The materiality of philosophy!

Techno-scientism, biologism, physicalism, computationalism

Thoughts ~ photos!

Materiality without materialist theses

A (non-reductive) field of infinite materialities

The proxies of philosophy

“Thing-in-itself”

Putative powers

The metaphysics of knowing

Wonder, intuition, induction, deduction, will to power, affective encounter, selfless observation, questioning

The logic of inference

Self-styled philosophies

Totality ~ exclusivity

Partiality ~ plurality

Normative hallucinations

Enlightened humility

Self-simplification

Figure-ground shift in perception

Indifferent ~ undifferentiated

Re-visioning

From absolute perspective (transcendent) to material part (immanent)!

Abstraction

Vs.

Axiomatization

Abstract vision

Dis-analogy

Miming the world

The non-philosopher as ventriloquist/charadist

– Non-solitude:

When you’re surrounded by society, you take refuge in your intimate partnership or inner circle.

When you’re in a coupleship, you withdraw into your truest self.

When you’re all alone, you realize there’s no one there!

It is then that you are fully free……

– What happens when you (try to) blend “high” & “low” culture?

You find that there is no division/opposition!

Animal intellect ~ body spirituality

– Distinguish:

Thinking/feeling

&

Having thoughts/feelings

How are consciousness & intentionality related?

Full awareness is the prerequisite for perfect freedom!

– TV series:

Rectify (Season 1 Episode 1)

“Always There” – remember where this line comes in the episode?

Why do I (feel) like this guy?!

24.9.17

– Home-made intoxicants 😉

https://m.baklol.com/baks/Bizarre/Get-High-Without-Drugs-Or-Weed-_2354/1

http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-shocking/15-of-the-strangest-ways-kids-get-high/

Codeine, dextromethorphan, diphenhydramine, promethazine, caffeine, alcohol, sugar, cocoa, MDMA, phenibut, kava, aromatic oils, ASMR, binaural beats, sleep deprivation, hypnosis, meditation, sex, exercise, psilocybin, prednisolone, nicotine, tobacco, Marijuana, etc.

HACK your body! 👊🏽

– Moth to the flame (ASMR)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1IR1vIamVk&t=15s

– TV series (story-telling – mythology/liturgy >> play/novel >> movies/serials):

“The Sinner”

WOW! It takes more/better/greater to make me say that, nowadays……

“Why did you do/say that?”

“I don’t know!” – that’s the right (first) answer, whatever!

– 3 kinds of days, based on 3 different attitudes/approaches to the body:

1. Rhythm – awareness & flow (mindfulness/moderation/consciousness)

2. Work – discipline & performance (asceticism/right extreme/will)

3. Freak – pamper & indulge (hedonism/left extreme/flesh)

Rhythm-work-freak… REPEAT!

– Which one are you?

1. Me, we or us?

2. Heart, intellect or body?

3. Vision, strategy or execution?

E.g. I am Me-intellect-vision

Do you know HOW to find out the truth(s) about yourself?

– GOD ~ self ~ other ~ real ~ one ~ life ~ being – meaning ~ truth ~ power ~ joy ~ light ~ energy ~ spirit

25.9.17

– I need to try to learn to give some of the allowances & concessions, I usually give myself, to others too. Cut them also a piece of slack, Joey!

– metropolis

Lemon law

Patriarch, metropolitan, archbishop

monoplane

happenstance

Polemical ~ controversial

– “Enthusiasm, n.: A distemper of youth, curable by small doses of repentance in connection with outward applications of experience.” – Ambrose Bierce

Is it possible to overcome naïvety (in outlook), without losing one’s lust (for life)?

Wisdom without disenchantment is what we desperately need!

– Creative + recreational ~ recreative!

– A person plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps.

Proverbs 16:9 NET

http://bible.com/107/pro.16.9.NET

Check out the NET notes.

Contrast:

Plan/course

&

Direct/steps

Is this supposed to teach us humility? Or should I just keep a plan B ready always? 😉

Maybe it’s both!

26.9.17

– “Rescuer (Good News)” by Rend Collective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAg7rn7fH3Q

– Will Hollywood ever use ugly actors?

– Login for daily rewards in Asphalt 8 & Real Racing

27.9.17

– Foo fighter

12.9.17

– Why was I not born in a war zone like Yemen, or born with disability/in poverty, or born as a female in Egypt (genital mutilation)?

Sometimes, such thoughts paralyze me……! 😔

I don’t want to be like the common people who are naïve & blissful.

I also don’t want to be utterly destroyed by my abyssal (abysmal?!) lifestyle.

Where is the way forward then?

– 2Cor. 10:5

Non-philosophy:

Christ ~ Man-in-person

Arguments/presumptions ~ philosophies/theologies

– Univocal ~ unequivocal

Abjure ~ forswear

Robust ~ racy

– “This is the sum of duty (dharma): do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.”

— Mahabharata (Anusasana Parva, Section 113, Verse 8)

A useful paraphrase of the Golden Rule (Bible).

Every ethical principle should have a flipside to it, to make it complete.

Do not do unto others whatever you do for yourself. Or, do unto others only some of the things that you do for yourself.

E.g. Chastisement

– What is the only alternative to suicide?

It’s NOT the usual blind life-affirmation!

It is self-transformation.

– Wittgenstein documentary

https://youtu.be/8BoKjQfMihs

13.9.17

– Harvey, Irma & Matthew

Farmer loan waivers, a cruel joke!

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar

– canon & codices

Christianities & Bibles

Greek Jewish Christians

Burgeoning scholarly methods

Apocrypha ~ deuterocanonical. Hidden ~ contested revelations

Ecclesiastical/theological disputes and sovereign/political power

Leadership & popularity – authority & acceptability – accuracy & appropriateness

Proto-orthodoxy – Bart Ehrman

Councils & creeds

Anonymous/pseudonymous texts

What would it be like, to be made king, because your father was murdered?

Greece Vs. Persia

Athens Vs. Macedonia

Diadochi

Military politics

Helenization

Cultural imperialism

polises

paideia

Gumnasium – the naked place

ephebe

city-state

Sports & war

demos – voting body

Citizens & warriors

Excluding aliens, slaves & women

boule

– I’m going to be 40, and I’ve still not figured out (my) life! 😟

– What do I do, when I feel like shit?

Lie down (awake) for 15 minutes

Mindful meditation for 15 minutes

Take a walk for 15 minutes

1 minute on-the-spot jogging with deep breathing

Journaling for 15 minutes

Music for 15 minutes

Physical intimacy with Chellam for 15 minutes

– non-recuperable

Signature -paradigm – statement

– Is celibacy/chastity a sexual perversion?

– The age of the giant (great individual) has passed!

Why? Should we lament it?

– Skipping – do it on the terrace, instead of inside the hall!

– The Self, as stranger/victim/witness

Reflection

Vs.

Shadow

– Courageous suicide

&

Cowardly lives

– Attend church worship service at least once a month, Joe.

Okay?

(You know why)

– How are mysticism & Marxism related??

– Father ~ pure being/potential/materiality

Son ~ pure thought/speech/intellect

Spirit ~ pure will/action/heart

What comes out of the full expression & interaction of these 3 is the GOD experience/emotion (or Life/Mind)!

– Westworld – the philosophy of indifference!

The blurring of the distinction between human & android – who is original & which is duplicate? Who is free & which is slave?

– Check WhatsApp status updates – Ishvar Mohan, Salome Divya, Amos Swaminathan, Vijayalaya Srinivas, etc.

– “You are sexy!”

Is that a compliment or an insult?

– Even suffering is impermanent!

– Spirit-TED – the next SFG!

15 minutes presentation by one person, on any intersection of theory, experience & practice.

15 minutes discussion.

15 minutes break.

Followed by another cycle of 45 minutes.

Total meeting time – 1 & 1/2 hours

14.9.17

– “Despite all my rage,

I’m still just a rat in a cage!” – Smashing Pumpkins

15.9.17

– Monkish

AND

Monkeyish

– Education, entertainment, enlightenment, inspiration, edification

– s(t)imulation

fuck (n.)

Spiral dynamics

Repersonalize

– Speculation ~ imagination ~ mystical intellection

– I can start a spiritual fellowship (small groups) in which full awareness & free expression of the body (emotions, sexuality, etc.) is encouraged.

– Professor – the correct order of your loyalties is:

1. The ideal of education

2. The welfare of students, faculty & other staff

3. The institution/system

– At this age, & after getting married, aren’t you ashamed to still be masturbating to pornography, ogling at teens & going online for hookups??

Why should she?!

– Suffering > pain

What makes injustice or death “evil”?

The story of the Fall, or the doctrine of Original Sin, is NOT meant to give a causative explanation for the problem of evil.

– merism

sufferer

– The doubts & complaints of exiled Israel

In another world……….

– What do essential insights and flights of fancy have in common?

Ultimately, they are identical!

– O, the untold damage caused by foolishness…

Maybe far greater than that caused by malice!

16.9.17

– Keep ~ observe ~ obey

17.9.17

– Movies:

“History of Violence”

Hmmm… life is all about, discovering the truth, about sex & violence!

Compare Tom’s history with the violent roots of America as a nation.

The family is okay with Tom as long as he is able to keep Joey safely locked up in the past. All they want, is not the truth of origin/nature, etc. (about him or themselves), but to be left undisturbed (by the hidden demons) in their ignorant bliss……

Evil is not just out there or in them, but it is always in here, among us!

– सुलभ

सॆवा दिवस

Toilet – a Love Story

– Sathyam Shivam Sundaram

http://osho.firstscreensaver.com/remository/osho-books-talks/t4.-satyam-shivam-sundram.html

– “What do you want?”

“To say what you won’t. To do what you can’t.”

– hobgoblin

gobsmacked

gob

imp

sprite

cosplay

motherless

– “Nothing is true.

Everything is permitted.

We fight in the darkness to serve the light” – Assassin’s Creed

– No peace without order,

No order without control,

No control without violence,

So, no peace without violence??

– Breathable, anti-bacterial memory foam

Screenshots from TV

Sweat bullets

– Photographer Jonas Bendiksen documented men who believe they are second coming of Christ

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-pacific-41282442/photographer-jonas-bendiksen-documented-men-who-believe-they-are-second-coming-of-christ

– Isms & Schisms

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ismsandschisms

18.9.17

– Do you (know how to) feel??

Savage indulgence

Vs.

Mindful sensuality

How does one remain sexy/lusty without becoming vain or abusive?

– Bigoted demagogue

anamnesis

amanuensis

madeleine

pulchritude

punctilious

saturnine ~ sardonic

– In remembrance of a great contemporary female thinker:

https://qz.com/725370/emerita-quito-the-greatest-forgotten-filipino-philosopher-has-died/

Quartz is a great news source! Check it out.

– Happy is the one who endures testing, because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him.

James 1:12 NET

http://bible.com/107/jas.1.12.NET

To love GOD is to fight complacency, despair & bitterness, and never give up on (living one’s) life (to the fullest). To keep believing that there is great reward in this attitude……

Check out the NET notes for “God”!

– “Patience is the root and guardian of all the virtues.”

— Pope Gregory the Great

Amen!

O how impatient I am to be(come) patient……

Patience ~ presence ~ mindfulness ~ awareness ~ consciousness

From entertainment to recreation, through meditation!

– How could terrorists & victims be confused?!?

– What is Snapchat?

Who is Blake Edwards?

19.9.17

– https://jimmanueljoseph.wordpress.com/2017/09/16/superman-suicide-counselor/

I think I would have preferred the (brutally honest) Dark Knight’s help/advice (better than the sentimental Man of Steel)…?

E.g. “I bet your parents taught you that you mean something, that you’re here for a reason. My parents taught me a different lesson, dying in the gutter for no reason at all… They taught me the world only makes sense if you force it to.”

– I watched around 8 episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” season 1.

It definitely does NOT deserve the Emmy award!

Capitalism/individualism (personal rights and chaos)

Vs.

Socialism/communism (common good and oppression)

Is there a third (better) alternative??

Grave crises call for extreme measures, right?

I don’t think it’s anti-Christian.

Fanatic secularism

Vs.

Religious fundamentalism

Dogmatic liberalism

Jezebels, Marthas, Mayday, Quakers

What do you choose when you have to decide between survival and dignity?!

Can tyranny ever take root where (most of) the people are fearless/fierce?

Compare with the freedom-struggle of the androids in Westworld – a far better show – I did NOT regret binge-watching that one!

– Limited series

– TV series:

“Transparent” season 1 episode 1 & 2

Trans-parent! 😉😈😛