"Love or Luv?"

The Senior Distinction

100% Responsibility

Story: Muddy Road ("Carrying the Girl")

Buddha's Four Noble Truths. I offer this caveat: If you spend much space explaining all four of the "Noble Truths," you won't have enough space left to do a really good job of expressing your thoughts about any of them or your use of them.

"There is choice I don't have" is not the same as "I don't have any choices."

"Exactly as they are."

The Senior Distinction -- Reality ("What Is")

[Human beings] are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things. (En, V)

Radical Free Will

Senior Distinction -- Creation of Meaning

"Duties are usually measured by relations" En.

I always have a choice.

“This is the best gift that I could ever give you. In spite of what you may think or have been told, you are ordinary.” -- Hedy Schleiffer

How You Became Who You Are

"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken." -- Oscar Wilde

 

Using Responsible Language: I Language

 

"Conduct me, Zeus, and thou, O Destiny,
Wherever your decrees have fixed my lot.
I follow cheerfully; and, did I not,
Wicked and wretched, I must follow still." (En p. 39)

 

How the decisions I make in the present will always effect my future.

 

"For every emotion there is a equal or opposite emotion."

 

I get what I think.

 

The Gates Of Paradise: understanding my heaven and hell.

 

Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life. (ZM, p. 92)

 

Two Ideas of "Control" =
 

Emptiness in Zen Mind. p. 110 

Attention and intention

Patience in reference to "The Poor Brothers' Hats"
 

Love and "In Love"

When you see anyone weeping for grief . . . . -- (En XVI)

Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden. -- Karl Kraus

The sum total of the effect I am having on the universe is right here, right now.

"We tend to overestimate what we can change in the short run and underestimate what we can change in the long run."

"A cup of tea"

"If you love something, let it go . . . "

The nature of humor

Life is about choice.

Mind Waves

"Turtles ... all the way down."

"Insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results." --Rita Mae Brown

"The philosopher's school . . . is a surgery . . ." -- Epictetus

"If a man wears shoes, the whole world is covered with leather."

"Secrets and Lies"

Anger as a "covering emotion" for fear

Story: "Chased by a Tiger"

Feigl: Short statement vis-a-vis "scientism"

"The Wayfarer," a poem by Stephen Crane (TYB)

In the sense that there is no reality for human beings apart from our interpretations, we invent our reality. -- John Hanley

"A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" -- Dylan

"Know Thyself"

"The Examination of Assumption"

"Mr. Natural! What does it all mean?"

"Conversation for Self-Forgiveness"

The Moon Can't Be Stolen

Enforcing Agreements

Enchiridion I, p. 17

Physical Concepts -- Einstein

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

"It seemed so to him." -- (En XLII, p. 35)

The Power of Language

You can be unconquerable if you enter into no combat in which it is not in your own power to conquer. (En, XIX, p. 23)

The marrow of Zen

Epistemological Conservatism

What is, is -- regardless of my interpretation.

Most human beings have almost an infinite capacity for taking things for granted. -- Aldous Huxley (TYB)

"The Flood" (story/joke in TYB)

To be uncertain is uncomfortable. To be certain is ridiculous. -- Goethe

"I am responsible for creating every authority in my life."

Enchiridion: V and VIII

"Trading Dialogue for Lodging" (Zen story)

Assumptions and Reasoning

Free will or Fate?

Self-Deceit

"If you wish to see truth,  then hold no opinion for or against. When the deep meaning of things is not understood, the mind's essential peace is disturbed to avail." -- Sosan, the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen

Zen Greeting story

To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him. (ZM, p. 31)

"It's obvious that the truth is what's so. What's not so obvious is that it's also 'so what?'" --  Werner Erhard (TYB)

Suffering as a result of attachment

The past, the, present, and the future can only be affected (in fact, created) by focusing my attention in the present moment.

Russell's Train Ride

Enlightened Egoism

Sosan, 2. "The Way Is Perfect"

"I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it." -- Bob Dylan

When you say something to someone, he may not accept it, but do not try to make him understand it intellectually. Do not argue with him; just listen to his objections until he himself finds something wrong with them.” . . . Try not to force your ideas on someone, but rather think about it with him. If you feel you have won the discussion, that also is the wrong attitude. Try not to win in the argument; just listen to it; but it is also wrong to behave as if you had lost. (ZM, p. 91)

The distinction between empirical and a priori knowledge claims.

YMCA Camp

"Power and What Is"

"Avenging the Master"

"Scientists have proven that it's impossible to long-jump thirty feet. I don't listen to that kind of talk. Thoughts like that have a way of sinking down to your feet." -- Carl Lewis

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. -- Soren Kierkegaard

When any person does ill by you or speaks ill of you, remember that he acts of speaks from an impression that it is right for him to do so . . . . Therefore, if he judges from false appearances, he is the person hurt, since he, too, is the person deceived. For if anyone takes a true proposition to be false, the proposition is not hurt, but only the man is deceived.  -- (En XLII, p. 35)

In human affairs the logical future, determined by past and present conditions, is less important than the willed future, which is largely brought about by deliberate choices. -- Rene Dubos

Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life. (ZM, p. 92)

Sosan, 1. "The Great Way"

Determinism, Indeterminism, and Compatibilism

. . . I think that sometimes the best horse may be the worst horse, and the worst horse can be the best one. (ZM, p. 39)

Your brother's life is a matter for his own concern, but it is external to you and out of your control, in the same way as property, health, and reputation are. The purpose of philosophy is to keep your own will in harmony with nature -- your own will, not the will of anyone else. -- Epictetus, Discourses

"Here's my secret: I don't mind what happens." -- J. Krishnamurti

"If you would till the square-foot field, till carefully the square-inch field." -- Suzuki (TYB)

Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. (En, VIII)

"It is a sign of maturity to live with an unfinished world view." -- Herbert Feigl

Altruism, egoism, and egotism

Karma and Reincarnation 

Mind Weeds

Moral, Technical, and A Priori Solutions

"On Catching Life" -- Kurt Vonnegut

Never proclaim yourself a philosopher, nor make much talk among the ignorant about your principles, but show them by actions. (En XLVI, p. 36)

"Sell your cleverness, and purchase bewilderment." -- Rumi

The Gates of Paradise

"Being Happy" (On Happiness) -- Story

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. -- Goethe

"The Torchbearers" -– George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, act 3

Psychological Egoism and Ethical Egoism

"Battleship" Story

A school is a place through which you have to pass before entering life, but where the teaching proper does not prepare you for life. -- Ernest Dimnet

The Significance of Belief: What does it mean to say that "Some of our most important choices are made when we do not know which choice is right"?

Philosophy as a way of life makes [human beings] free. It is the last ditch stand of liberty in a world of servitude. (En, introduction)

"No excuses. No blame: The Universe's game" -- It's How You Play the Game

The principle of human inertia --  It's How You Play the Game

I worship everything, nothing is sacred; I worship nothing, everything is sacred.-- Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Effective Freedom -- It's How You Play the Game

When you are sitting in the middle of your own problem, which is more real to you: your problem or yourself? (ZM, p. 40)

No idea is so wrong, dumb, or dangerous as one that settles down to live in a mind without the conscious permission of the mind's owner. -- Unknown

Quotation from The Master Game -- Robert S. DeRopp
 

Epictetus on "Patience" from The Discourses

"A young Greek once asked his comrade on the battlefield what he would do with his unusually short sword. 'I will advance one step quicker than the others,' came the reply. All he has in the world is that one sword; long or short, he must fight with it." -- Nyogen Senzaki

"A flower falls even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it." Even though it is so, this is our life. -- Suzuki, following a quotation from Dogen (ZM, p. 120)

Wish the success of your rival. When you then defeat him, you conquer a mighty adversary. And should he prevail you succumb to a champion. Take pride in the strength of your rival. It is by his strength that your own shall be measured. (after Nietzsche)

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few. (ZM, p. 21)

"Remember that you must behave as at a banquet. . . ."  (En, XV)

"When you give up, when you no longer want something, or when you do not try to do anything special, then you do something. When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something." (ZM, p 47) 

An egoistic argument for altruistic behavior. From Plato's "Apology."

"Keeping my will in harmony with nature" -- Epictetus

The Significance of Belief: What does it mean to say that "Some of our most important choices are made when we do not know which choice is right"?

Sickness is an impediment to the body, but not to the will unless itself pleases. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will; and say this to yourself with regard to everything that happens. For you will find it to be an impediment to something else, but not truly to yourself. -- (En, IX)

"The Logic of 'Should,'"  -- Landmark Education

Human beings act as though they were the shapers and masters of language, while, in fact, language remains the master of them. -- Heidegger

Calmness and activity are not different. . . . Real calmness should be found in activity itself. (ZM, p. 119)

"Sartre's Cyclone": [I am] responsible for the destruction caused by hurricanes. -- Jean-Paul Sartre in Being and Nothingness

"Say To every unpleasing semblance, 'You are but a semblance and by no means the real thing.'" (En, I)

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine. -- H. L. Menken

Determinism and Responsibility

In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it. (En, XXIX)

The power of logic

When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shrink from being seen to do it, even though the world should misunderstand it; for if you are not acting rightly, shun the action itself; if you are, why fear those who wrongly censure you? (En, XXXV)

The Zen story "The Moon Cannot Be Stolen" and its relationship to moral, technical, and a priori solutions.

Effective Freedom is defined by the question: "What is my range of choices?" Even if I always have a choice, most often I don't choose my choices. The choices or alternatives you are faced with right now are dictated by the circumstances of your life. If you are male, you don't have some choices a female have and vice versa. If you are short, you don't have some choices a tall person has, etc. But, even though gender, body type, national origin, race, ethnic heritage, and such limit what you get to choose from, none of them change the fact that you have choices, real choices, every minute of you life.

A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself. (and) Up to a point, human beings lives are shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about them. Then there comes a time when it lies within their grasp to shape the clay of their lives into the sort of thing they wish it to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. All have it within their power to say, This I am today; that I will be tomorrow. -- Louis L'Amour

Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life. (ZM, p. 92)

"The Universe," a poem by Stephen Crane

There is a time to admire the grace and persuasive power of an influential idea, and there is a time to fear its hold over us. The time to worry is when the idea is so widely shared that we no longer even notice it, when it is so deeply rooted that it feels to us like plain common sense. At the point when objections are not answered anymore because they are no longer even raised, we are not in control. we do not have the idea, it has us. -- Alfie Kahn, Punished by Rewards

. . . [H]ow we behave is a function of what we believe, whether or not we recognize or understand the beliefs affecting our actions. "Examination of Assumption."

If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special. (ZM, p. 47)

Communication: Without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, to express yourself as you are is the most important thing. (ZM, p. 86)

You should rather be grateful for the weeds you have in your mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice. (ZM, p. 36)

These forms are not the means of obtaining the right state of mind. To take this posture is itself to have the right state of mind. There is no need to obtain some special state of mind. (ZM, p. 26)

Warranted Assertibility of Probability -- Feigl

What is the first business of those who philosophize? To throw away self-conceit. For it is impossible for human beings to begin to learn that which they think they know. -- Epictetus

You may have enemies whom you hate, but not enemies whom you despise. You must be proud of your enemy: then the success of your enemy shall be your success too. -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Self knowledge is always bad news. -- John Barth, Giles Goat Boy

If you take for your own only that which is your own and view what belongs to others just as it really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict you; you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will not have an enemy, nor will you suffer any harm. (En I, p. 17)

Shoshaku jushaku means "to succeed wrong with wrong", or one continuous mistake. According to Dogen, one continuous mistake can also be Zen. (ZM, p. 38)

It is when your practice is rather greedy that you become discouraged with it.  So you should be grateful that you have a sign or warning single to show you the weak point in your practice. (ZM, p. 71)

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. (ZM, p. 111)

Does anyone bathe hastily? Do not say he does it ill, but hastily . . . etc. (En, XLV)

When you set about any action, remind yourself of what nature the action is. If you are going to bathe, represent to yourself the incidents usual in the bath -- some persons pour out, others pushing in, others scolding, others pilfering. And thus you will more safely go about this action if you say to yourself, "I will now go to bathe and keep my own will in harmony with nature." And so with regard to every other action. For thus, if any impediment arises in bathing, you will be able to say, "It was not only bathe that I desired, but to keep my will in harmony with nature; and I shall not keep it thus if I am out of humor at things that happen.  (En, IV)

If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant and what ought to be done remains undone. If this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate. If justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence, there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything. -- Confucius

To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism. (ZM, p. 76)

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence. (ZM, p. 102)