In the information age, you don't teach philosophy as they did after feudalism.
You perform it. If Aristotle were alive today he'd have a talk show.
~ Timothy Leary
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we are all broadcasters now
thank you, internet
i can just hear oprah now,
"you get a microphone!
you get a microphone!
and you! you get a microphone!
EVERYBODY GETS A MICROPHONE!"
Yawn of Yawns
Once upon a time there was a yawn
Not under the palate not under the hat
Not in the mouth not in anything
It was bigger than everything
Bigger than its own bigness
From time to time
Its darkness dull desperate darkness
In desparation would flash here and there
You might think it was stars
Once upon a time there was a yawn
Boring like any yawn
And still it seems it lasts.
Vasko Popa
When life gets chaotic, when I feel unhinged, I hear my dad’s voice reciting this. He made absolutely certain that I understood this creed applied to me regardless of the last line:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son.
—Rudyard Kipling
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.
Anon (1805 in the collection “Original Ditties for the Nursery” ).
Know the essence of mind. Its intrinsic essence is pure clarity. It is essentially the same as a Buddha.
Know the functions of the mind. Its functions produce the treasure of teachings. When its activity is always silent, myriad illusions become suchness.
Constantly be aware, without stopping. When the aware mind is present, it senses the formlessness of things.
Constantly see your body as empty and quiet, inside and outside communing sameness.
Plunge the body into the realm of reality, where there has never been any obstruction.
Keep to unity without shifting. With constant presence, whether active or still, the student can see the Buddha nature clearly.
- Tao-hsin (580-651)