Tag: buddhism

Personally, I believe the key to perceiving dogma (and how to escape it) lies in knowing/disciplining myself enough to be ethical first, effective second.  Unfortunately, it seems that if you become ethical and effective enough, people will construct a dogma around you, and stop concerning themselves with ethics and effectiveness.

I enjoy simplicity as much as the next person, but to only see the good or evil in something doesn’t just bar me from seeing that which is effective, but also that which is transcendent.

A scientifically sound model of reality states that billions of years ago, an extremely dense kernel of energy/matter expanded due to unknown causes, instantiated time and space (and thus causality), and through partially understood mechanisms like gravity and exploding stars, eventually gave rise to life on Earth. This, to me, is nothing short of amazing. …

Being disciplined gives me a chance.  Being strategic increases my chances.  Everything else seems to be icing on the cake. For much of my life, I tried to find a shortcut around discipline and strategy.  Now, I suspect that there isn’t any.

There is a beautiful irony in a writer who details the hero’s journey; the hero’s journey means an individual will venture into chaos, and through [logic/discipline/perception/audacity/creativity/any number of timeless qualities] bring order to that chaos so that others may navigate it.   What do you think the writer does when (s)he wrenches a narrative out of…

In order to contemplate meaning across eons, cultures, and beyond the scope of space and time, I find it useful to view morality as an abstract human construct.  But in day-to-day life, I have no problem pretending it’s a definitive truth, for I am personally biased against malicious behaviors.

From what I’ve experienced, it’s not the high state of mind that allows me to avoid unpleasantness and drudgery, it is seeing through the illusion of “unpleasantness and drudgery” that brings about a high state of mind.

If there is an underlying order to all phenomena, it seems that purporting to know it invites wars, discord, and ideal-borne failures.     What seems to work is presuming NOT to know, and giving it sufficient space to reside as Mystery; to refer to it indirectly through poetry, paradox, and to constantly give it fresh…