Every finite thing is vain, empty, fleeting, devoid of self-nature or own-being, ontologically and axiologically ambiguous, an admixture of being and nonbeing, of value and disvalue, anatta. And the system of these finitudes, the whole lot of them? The same. And beyond the system? Nothing.
Category: Aphorisms and Observations
The Citadel of the Here and Now
Retreat ever and again into the citadel of the Here and Now, and the dragons of elsewhere and elsewhen will turn to chimeras.
Birth and Death
At birth the curtain lifts. Or does it fall? At death the curtain falls. Or does it lift?
Of Blood and Spirit
Consanguinity is no substitute for spiritual affinity. Blood may be thicker than water, but minds meet in the aether.
Intellectual Maturity
One mark of intellectual maturity is the ability to tolerate uncertainty, the ability to withhold assent, the ability to withstand contradiction and recognize the merit of opposing views – all of this without lapsing into skepticism or relativism. The intellectually immature, by contrast, bristle when their pieties and subjective certainties are called into question. Their doxastic security needs trump their need to inquire into the truth.
Institutions and Corruption
Every institution is either corrupt or will be. Institutions are like the houses where I live: they either have termites or they will get them.
A More Profitable Question
Do not ask whether there is immortality unless you are prepared to ask whether you are worthy of it.
A Big Ego
An inflated ego may manifest itself in ostentation, self-promotion, and domination of others. But it is no less manifested by oversensitivity to the slights, real or imagined, of the ostentatious, the self-promoting, and the domineering.
The Company You Keep
You will be judged by the company you keep ___ and the company you keep away from.
Antagonize Parsimoniously
Do not multiply enemies beyond necessity.
No Pun Intended
Ah, but it had to have been intended because you were aware of it and let it stand. Otherwise you would not have uttered 'no pun intended.' The difference between 'pun intended' and 'no pun intended' is merely verbal.
Young Scholar, Old Scholar
The young scholar may pepper his prose with foreign expressions so as to appear erudite. But as the years pass, a different ideal may appear choice-worthy, namely, to write as simply as possible, using only the resources of the mother tongue.
Choose Your Advisors Carefully
The barber is hardly the one to ask whether you need a haircut.
Causes, Causation, the Uncaused
The scientist wants to know what causes what; the philosophical analyst wants to know what causation is; the true philosopher wants to know the Uncaused.
Against Postponing Self-Mastery
Wait too long to develop self-control and you may find that your vices have abandoned you before you have had a chance to abandon them. In divorces of all kinds it is better to be the one who sends packing rather than the one sent packing.