Saturday, February 19, 2005


Light Posted by Hello

I think therefore I am....Really?!

Well, so I had a recent conversation with a bright curious philosopher in training. He was obviously German and well versed (or so he wanted it to seem) in Hegel. I am sure he is very well read but in my opinion he epitomized the idea we are dealing with..namely the obsession with intellect. Two hundred or more years ago during the renaissance we gained and lost something. The gain was the discovery of scientific methodology in our thinking. The loss was the illusion that this was infallible. So started our love affair with the primacy of human intellect. It has been a boon in many ways...Mendel, penicillin, computers and air conditioning. But it also left us bereft of other ways of growth. So much so that we have now been believing for the past fifty years that the human intellect can fathom the very universal truths in life, i.e. the intellect will help us traverse the boundaries of metaphysics and show us the truths behind our real "selves". Or better still it has led a lot of us to believe that these do not exist as we have no intellectual construct of these. So they were/are rejected along with the other corruptions proselytized by the church. This intellectual indefatigability is the underpinning of the same obsession with sensory gratification (read of the mind) that we had talked about a few posts ago. This same obsession and it's participatory mental jingoism is what has resulted in spiritual aridity in our cultures. The mind/intellect (I know the use of these two interchangeably will make the epistemologists out there cringe) has gone from a tool to be used for personal and societal growth to the master of our selves. Thus most of us live in a state of almost continuous mental chatter that saps us dry of any other form of development. These thoughts and the role of the intellect need to be explored further.

Sunday, February 13, 2005


Freedom Posted by Hello

Paradigms

Is it possible for there to be a different paradigm towards thinking about what needs to be achieved in life? Is it possible that young people can have a shift in thinking about what is important? Or is it too much to expect the conditioning of childhood to be overcome? Does it have to so that the our societies will continue to gauge success by the trappings of materialism and not by spiritual development. Material comfort as a means to a spiritual end and not just an end in itself; is that not how it was meant to be? But isn't the human mind is too susceptible to getting trapped? What is the role of institutionalized western religions in this universal delusion? Is it possible for there to be a paradigm shift to what a "developed" society does with its time and deems important? Or do the more introspective eastern societies have to inevitably fall into the same trap despite their collective spiritualized attitudes to life. Is modernization the only way to evolve? Or is it just one of a few different paths today's humans can/could have taken.
I believe in the latter. Is it possible to bring about this change is another thing all together.

Friday, February 11, 2005


Stillness Posted by Hello

Starting out...

Well, something has been playing in my mind for a little while recently, namely are there more people out there who realize that most daily activities for most of us are so inconsequential? Not in a regressive sort of depressive way but more in terms of, do we really pay keen attention to what we deem truly important. And what does really matter in the big picture? And more importantly, how much time do we commit to figuring that out. Most of the hours of our days are spent in pursuits that only provide inane fodder for our minds. That which tittilates and numbs at the same time. The primacy of the human mind and intellect is all pervasive. And it's demands are endless.

But should it not be so? And I can hear some of the more outspoken ones say "Oh! There is another one of those nihilists." Well, I do not know if that is truly what I am suggesting. But it surely must seem that way if it involves some scaling back of materialistic preoccupation and it's resultant sensory gratification. I hope to explore with some other like minds some of these questions in the next few days. This is not an outcome wrought in stone as it depends on if these questions are worthy of enough collaborating minds and seeking hearts who happen to be serendipitously together. Bon courage!
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