The open elective course I am offering in Christ University…
Author: Immanuel Joseph
Immanuel Joseph (Male; Born - 11.08.1979, Madurai)
What am I doing??
Actually, nothing much!
But I am a self-employed, part-time, freelance spiritual worker.
What that means exactly, I myself don't know......
I don't have a job. But I have vocation......
Christian, medical background.
Lay, maverick, eccentric thinker & spiritual friend (Insightful Facilitator) - passionately seeking to better experience, understand & enjoy life!
Reclusive & contemplative autodidact.
Controversial conversationalist.
Life-partner - Salome Divya. Living in Hulimavu, (Bengaluru, India).
Email
jimmanueljoseph@gmail.com
Cell Phone/WhatsApp
+919840227977
…refer previous post!
Translate!
“Spiritual Conversations” WhatsApp group chat
LINES
6.10.17
– The Las Vegas Shooting and the Search for Meaning
– “All our life is like a day of celebration for us; we are convinced, in fact, that God is always everywhere. We work while singing; we sail while reciting hymns; we accomplish all other occupations of life while praying.”
— Clement of Alexandria
Life ~ rejoicing ~ working ~ praising ~ loving ~ praying
We are saved by faith (in Grace).
To believe (in GOD) is to live (fully)! Does the vice versa also hold good? To value Life and enjoy it, irrespective of the contingencies……
– “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive.” – Mat. 7:1-2
Use the same standard, to judge others, as you use to judge yourself. Then GOD will be pleased with you and reward you.
– collegium
parole
SEBI
– News:
Nobel peace prize: ICAN award sends nuclear message
For transparency’s sake, Supreme Court starts uploading its Collegium’s decisions
Delhi: 2 kids die of suffocation after a family member accidentally locks them in car
– Bombard
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/2017/10/06/
7.10.17
– joi
– “Black Gospel” by Davie
– http://www.wikihow.com/Smoke-a-Cigarette
http://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-a-Cigarette
Did you get high??
8.10.17
– “Everybody” by Logic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_fQMaLciww
– “Real life” by Aaron Sprinkle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk7x7QmnxaQ
https://genius.com/Aaron-sprinkle-real-life-lyrics
– “Pray” by Sam Smith
https://genius.com/Sam-smith-pray-lyrics
– “Whiskey & Wine” by Planning for Burial
– TV series:
“The Sinner” Season 1
Did you notice the Rorshach patterns in the title graphics?!
Not just another crime/detective series.
The spiritual & the psychological, the moral & the cultural, clash together… And the result is aesthetic!
It’s better left as a limited series.
Sinner/cursed, patient/victim or human/agent??
Observe her individuation happening, right before your eyes! No tragedy, no (opportunity for) maturity!?
I think I am more like Phoebe!
9.10.17
– Does hedonism empower or cripple?
It could strengthen your lust for life and thereby enable you to suffer (endure/fight) better!
It could also weaken you by enslaving you to the pleasure of immediate gratification……
Since most people are occupied with work, and only occasionally make time for entertainment, maybe I should do the inverse!
– About TED
https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization
– TED (learning & sharing) + Socratic method (thinking pattern) + Sublimewe (communication style) + SFG (meeting format) + mindful meditation (getting deeply in touch with oneself)
Ideas-world-selves (interaction)
+
Critical – connective/collaborative – creative (thinking)
+
Express – empathic listening – reflect/interject (repeat/deepen)
+
Theory-experience-practice (overlapping)
+
Body-mind-spirit (integration)
Curiosity –> passion for understanding/growth –> inquiry & dialogue
Authenticity, vulnerability & empathy
Observe –> reflect –> respond
Information –> knowledge –> wisdom
Faith, hope & love ~ meaning, vocation & intimacy
Rhythm, pleasure & achievement
How do we find the good life?
Why is education important?
What does it mean to be human?
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“How is it with your soul?”
Journaling & story-telling
Problem-sharing & consulting
Focus on relaxing & enjoying
Attendance + participation + presentation (3 grades – fail, pass, distinction)
In-class assignments & assessment
Max. 12-15 students. Can be done for minimal (half?) charge, so that no student is left out because of financial reasons.
Syllabus will be vague initially and will evolve as the course progresses. Topics/subjects will be determined by what emerges out of the dynamic interaction between the participants.
The course can be called “Open Learning in Small Groups”
(An innovative movement in education – activities that either enhance learning opportunities within formal education systems or broaden learning opportunities beyond formal education systems – teaching methods, interactive learning, optimal training, etc. – ecologies of learning communities – central focus is needs of the learner as perceived by the learner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_learning)
Offer (free) mentoring – vocational guidance, Rule of Life, learning plan, candid conversation, spiritual companionship, etc.
– Initial Public Offer
Energy trading
– Supreme Court bans firecrackers in Delhi!
10.10.17
– The Nansen Passport
Proof of concept
Pet project
Pilot experiment
The semantics of natural language
Formal/structural knowledge
– I think that the timing of the opportunity to teach an open elective course in Christ University, and my reconnection with the Socratic Method is providential.
Synchronicity!
– I should read, think & write MORE!
Should I listen and talk more too?
– denegation
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/2017/10/09/
11.10.17
– How do you indulge in such a way that it does not decrease (but increases!) your capacity for discipline?
And how can you discipline in such a way that does not decrease (but increases!) your capacity for indulgence?
– Movies:
“Vikram Vedha” (Tamil)
வேதா ~ வேதாளம்!
Distinguish:
Immorality
&
Amorality
Vikramaditya and Vetal story (Indian mythology – check out Amar Chitra Katha!)
http://devdutt.com/articles/applied-mythology/leadership/vikramaditya-and-vetal.html
Theme song lyrics
http://www.tamilpaa.com/3416-karuppu-vellai-tamil-songs-lyrics
The action scenes are quite laughable, but still watchable.
– What is (my) brand equity?
– Luscious apparatus
– Behind the camera
Graveyard shift
– Wunder carpool
– Risks of light & intermittent smoking
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2865193/#!po=22.7941
http://amp.timeinc.net/time/4590517/smoking-death-lung-cancer/?source=dam
– Healthy alcohol use
– Is pornography addictive? http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/04/pornography.aspx
Porn: What’s really going on?
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/8515402
– 2 cigarettes – once a week
2 hours of porn – once a week
400 ml beer or 40 ml vodka/gin – 2 times a week
Drugs – once a week
2 freak out days per week – one with the bad stuff and one without.
12.10.17
– It’s always wiser to buy a used, quality product than a new, inferior one.
– “In many people, it is already an impertinence to say ‘I’.”
– THEODOR ADORNO
Refer:
The lamentation (& condemnation) of the diminution of individual consciousness in (post)modern subjectivity, and its consequent primary docility (passive obedience to social relations)!
13.10.17
– auk
– interdigitate
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/2017/10/12/
– creativeness
Virtual gyroscope
14.10.17
– Fluid ounces
Privacy policy
Performative stance
Blind revolution mad
Tears (falling) on stone
Theories of everything
– Distinguish:
Abstraction
&
Axiomatization
Axiomatization ~ decisionism
– Is self-deification avoidable?!
What makes you ask such a question??
– Explanations as (incomplete) material parts of the Real, rather than transcendental (complete) representations of it.
Anthropocentrism –> anthropomorphism
Self-attribution
The epistemological implications of a scientific philosophy!
Experience as immanent experiment
“Thought is a thing”
Postulate ~ posture ~ gesture ~ vision
Rigorous conclusion, arising out of utterly persistent & fearless application
The necessary evil of consistency
The strangeness of Gnostic thought
Logical destiny
Always open to corruption
Contrary to proverbial opinion
Ordinary, pluralistic, mutable, performative thought
– All (progressive?) evolution is a collection of (random?) mutations!
– HOW did Laruelle land upon his radical insights & unique axioms?!
– Distinguish:
Ordinary/everyday
&
Easy/simple
– There are 2 women in his life.
With one, the similarities are many & superficial, and the differences few & basic.
With the other, the differences are many & superficial, and the similarities few & basic.
The first is the spouse.
The second is the soulmate.
But the sad fact is that he cannot live without the former, nor can he live with the latter.
Maybe the soulmate (dream) is just the imaginary/idealized spouse (real). Once the union is actualized, the dream evaporates!
– You’re a spiritual genius, just like me,
And you’re a social retard, just like me…
That’s why, we both will always be
Admired, and lonely! 🙂
– T20 cricket match washed out
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/21012650/hyderabad-washout-hurts-cricket-value
Playing Spotify (free, from Bengaluru!)
THOUGHTS
28.9.17
– Racial segregation in the American church
“Children are concrete thinkers”
“Who is she going to want to be?”
Native American news
Chinese Uighurs
– From My Detention in Malaysia, Thoughts on Islam and Tolerance
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/opinion/mustafa-akyol-detention-malaysia.html
– Hugh Hefner dead
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/hugh-hefner-dead-at-91-playboy-founder/1/1057560.html
– Immersion technology
Quantum mechanics
– Blessed are those who are loved by their beloved (or who love their lover).
– The mind is what lies in between sensation & perception.
– GOD is NOT a he, a she or an it.
– There is a kind of agnosticism/skepticism which is just a cover/excuse for laziness/cowardice.
Beware of it!
– highlander
outlander
– The fear of people becomes a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be set on high.
Proverbs 29:25 NET
http://bible.com/107/pro.29.25.NET
Check out the NET notes
Fear/worldliness ~ danger
Vs.
Trust/godliness ~ safety
Self-fulfilling prophecy?
Attitude –> actuality!
Not all extroverts are cowards, and not all introverts are courageous.
1.10.17
– No, Hugh Hefner did not love women
http://time.com/4963765/no-hugh-hefner-did-not-love-women/
– The philosopher shakes up the foundations of Psychology…!
The passion of rigorous thinking
Vs.
The desire for well-being
– Compare bands:
Behemoth
&
Ghost
– “He is” by Ghost
From the pinnacle to the pit
Cirice
Inside “Ghost”
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/skulls-satan-and-dave-grohl-inside-mysterious-occult-rock-band-ghost-20150804
3.10.17
– Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/manhattan-project-robert-oppenheimer
– badass
Nameless ghoul
– Satanism – subverting religion through the use of sacred symbolism!
5.10.17
– slowburn
Beyond the Cloud
What is mixed reality & quantum computing?
Could technology be the solution to (the problems of) capitalism?
Spiritual philosophy, for CEOs & politicians…!?
NEWS
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?!)
- Separate Christ College (UG) from Christ University (higher education/research institution), & develop a distinct culture/ethos for each, according to their respective level/purpose.
- 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.
- Stop using money as a strategy to “hire the best”. Be(come) the best (world-class), then you will also attract the best!
- 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.
- 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.
- Reduce extra-curricular (cultural) activities.
- Introduce proper vocational guidance (based on Psychology), not just the employment counseling given in placement cells, for each & every 1st year student!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Vocabulary exercises (from Free Dictionary)
Immanuel Joseph's Blog 