We are not at home in this world, a fact more likely to be revealed by travelling than by staying home.
Category: Aphorisms and Observations
It’s Enough
Standing on a hill behind my house, looking down on it, the thought occurred to me: It's enough. One modest house suffices. And then the thought that the ability to be satisfied with what one has is a necessary condition of happiness.
Satisfied with what one has, not with what one is.
Perhaps it is like this.
The fool, satisfied with what he is, is never satisfied with what he has. The philosopher, satisfied with what he has, is never satisfied with what he is. The sage is satisfied with both.
There are many fools and a few philosophers; are there any sages?
George Carlin
The poor guy died in adolescence.
The Additivity of Small Amounts of Money
He who is penny-foolish will also be pound-foolish.
Horror
The horror of a life completely entangled in the finite, lost in the mundane, swamped by the senses, mesmerized by the social.
Creation
The world's existence, intelligibility, and beauty point beyond it to its Source; its impermanence and deficiency to its non-identity with its Source.
Negativity and Animality
Negativity is more difficult to subdue than animality. No surprise: the mind is more difficult to control than the body.
A Big Ego
One associates loud, domineering, and aggressive behavior with a 'big ego.' But a long memory for wrongs done one, a fine sensitivity to slights and slurs real and imagined are also signs of a 'big ego.'
Suggestibility
People lack an inner compass; or rather the compass they possess is easily deflected by the surrounding 'socio-magnetic' fields.
Philosophy as High Ground
Philosophy is the high ground from which to survey the dismal and contentious scene, the bellum omnium contra omnes. One retreats to the high ground for three reasons. To contemplate and understand the passing scene, to escape from it, and to be in a position to transcend toward what is neither passing nor a scene.
Society and Solitude
Solitude does not guarantee elevation, but society almost always insures the opposite.
Perils of Helping
Help a man, and he may be grateful to you. Or he may resent it that he needs your help, or envy you your ability to provide it, or act as if he has it coming, or become dependent on you, in which case your 'help' is harm.
Absolutely, one must do no harm. (Primum non nocere.) But when to help and when to leave well enough alone require careful thought.
Refutation
To refute an argument is not to refute its conclusion.
Contradiction and Koan
What is a contradiction from one angle is a koan from another. In a contradiction, logical thought hits a dead end. Discursive thought's road end, however, may well be the trail head of the Transdiscursive.
The Highest Mastery
The highest mastery is self-mastery. The highest self-mastery is thought-mastery. To control one's thoughts is to control the seeds of one's words and deeds.