Food For Thought

[roger]

Bloody hell, Mike – I’ve just spent an hour reading, another hour trying to absorb, and two hours trying to pick a favourite.

I couldn’t do that – the shortlist was about twenty but I’ve finally narrowed it down to these four –

"Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer." – because it’s what I believe.

"Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule." – because it’s an absolute truth.

"I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness" – because whether or not I should have, I laughed.

"An enlightened master seeks to create enlightened masters, not obedient followers" – because if that was really how it was, what a wonderful world we’d have.

Brilliant stuff, Mike, thanks so much for posting.

[agapanthus]

I think I'm going to read one thought a day ... to absorb it all.

One thing I noticed though as a woman .. I could not find any women quoted on that list - is it that we don't say anything profound or do we just live profoundly? (some of us at least). 

[roger]

But I've just worked it out, Aggie - it'll take you twenty-seven years!

Not speaking for all women here, because we have to remember that there are some called Katie Price, but in your particular case, it's most definitely because you LIVE profoundly, so there's no need for profound words!

[mikeofdoom]

I think I'm going to read one thought a day ... to absorb it all.

One thing I noticed though as a woman .. I could not find any women quoted on that list - is it that we don't say anything profound or do we just live profoundly? (some of us at least). 

If, in the past, the great artists, philosophers, etc, were mostly men it almost definitely had more to do with societal gender biases than the worth of females as artists & philosophers.
Some feminists will try to argue that, say, Hildegaard of Bingen was the equal of Beethoven. And, while musical appreciation is totally subjective, I just can't see it at all. But I would agree that it was the dogmatic thought of the day (male superiority) that led to the dearth of female artists, etc, as they just weren't allowed into those positions.
Hell, the same was true in even the sciences until the last 50 years or so.

Bloody hell, Mike – I’ve just spent an hour reading, another hour trying to absorb, and two hours trying to pick a favourite.

I can't do anything without going over the top, mate 

Another couple that just sprung to mind -

"Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work." - Gustave Flaubert

"Now we rise, and we are everywhere" - lyric, and epitaph, of Nick Drake (no idea what he meant, but i do like stuff that's open to infinite interpretation)

[roger]

You're a VERY clever bloke, Mike. But I'm not sure that you realise that.

Anyway, it's been good to see you being so active on here today, really good. Hopefully, that means you're having a good spell.

[mikeofdoom]

Nah, the clever blokes are the ones who said all that stuff. Any fool can copy & paste.

Haven't been too bad lately, but the forum is either down an awful lot lately, or some other problem has made it seem so.

[roger]

Bollocks - you're a CLEVER BLOKE - be told!

That's good news 

[Lucinda]

I’m afraid it'll take me a while to read all of that Mike! Will try and read some though.

And yes, it is an unfortunate truth that the rampant sexism that dominated most of the world for so long meant that women of the past did not have a voice. However, if we look at quotes and inspirational stuff of the last 100 years we will find plenty of it is provided by women!

Personally, my favourite writers and poets are mainly female. And my favourite quote of all time is by a woman (I have had this on my wall for years!) –

'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.' - Margaret Mead

[oldshoremore]

Man is born free, and yet everywhere is in chain-stores

[oldshoremore]

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[roger]

Another nice one, Luc - thanks for posting. And trust me, Mike's are well worth a read.

And as for you, Oldie - What if there were no hypothetical questions? - well for a start, your quote wouldn't exist 

[mikeofdoom]

I’m afraid it'll take me a while to read all of that Mike! Will try and read some though.

And yes, it is an unfortunate truth that the rampant sexism that dominated most of the world for so long meant that women of the past did not have a voice. However, if we look at quotes and inspirational stuff of the last 100 years we will find plenty of it is provided by women!

Personally, my favourite writers and poets are mainly female. And my favourite quote of all time is by a woman (I have had this on my wall for years!) –

'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.' - Margaret Mead

I've often wondered if there's something in writing/art/philosophy that reflects the gender of the writer/artist/philosopher & that we pick up unconsciously (beyond obvious gender themes) because it's closer to our own (unconscious) biases in our worldview.
I'm sure most of my female friends prefer female writers (especially the, in their own words, "hair-legged man-hating" lesbians), and the males prefer male ones.

[mikeofdoom]

Am I alone in hating those trite aphorisms like "live your dream"?
I tried to live my dream once and ended up flying off the roof to go over the rainbow to a job I'd left 9 years ago to redo everything I'd messed up the first time round in the nude while everyone watched and the office turned into the school gym and all my teeth fell out so I had to battle the obsidian octopus librarian to win back the five dimensional neutronium cake.

Never try to live your dream, my friends. You'll end up with no teeth. And bits of octopus in your hair. Or even bits of hair in your octopus.

[roger]

LOL......I haven't the vaguest idea what you're talking about, but at least it made me  and that's worth something.

[mikeofdoom]

I do wonder if I'd be the last to know when the tattered remnants of my sanity crumbled to dust and blew away.

I find this kinda inspirational. In a lump-in-the-throat, wow-at-the-magnitude-of-it-all kinda way. It's kinda humbling to the power of a million, but hopefully shows just how precious what we have is, and how we barely deserve this tiny speck that teems with life in the midst of an unimaginable void, because we just waste it all on stupid, trivial hatreds and divisions.

The Pale Blue Dot

The tiny dot in the circle is Earth, photographed from Voyager 1 at a distance of over 6 billion km (3.7 billion miles).

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

[roger]

I find this kinda inspirational. In a lump-in-the-throat, wow-at-the-magnitude-of-it-all kinda way. It's kinda humbling to the power of a million, but hopefully shows just how precious what we have is, and how we barely deserve this tiny speck that teems with life in the midst of an unimaginable void, because we just waste it all on stupid, trivial hatreds and divisions.


Absolutely, Mike - thanks for posting.

[mothernurture]

Right, where to start. As like mike i am not keen on the live your dreams kind o stuf i had been purposely avoiding this thread in case it went all gooey and lovey and made me feel ill. anyway, i was clearly wrong! (yes i know, a strange thing i am a woman and i admitted to beng wrong - dont tell my husband)

Mike - yes as i have m.e and have been massiely overdoing it recently i am not going to be able to read all your posts at once - its going to tke me a while to catch up, but i loved lots of them- really great thoughtful stuff.
Thanks Lucinda for the Margaret Mead quote. I think its true to say that women artists, philosophers, scientists etc have been more invisible or unable to practice, even in todays worls of so called equality the male view still prevails.

Thanks everyone for an inspiring, challenging and laugh out loud thread.

[Lucinda]

Am I alone in hating those trite aphorisms like "live your dream"?

I don't like the whole 'live your dream' stuff either.

A lot of the common inspirational stuff around today is based on the hope of some glowing, happy future, where you may be rich, famous, in love with the most perfect person in the world, 100% healthy, and drop-dead-sexy.

But is this realistic? And are many of the things we hope for really going to bring us happiness? There are many people in the world who have some, or all of these things, and yet are very unhappy!! And there are many people who have none of these things and yet are totally happy and at peace.

We can spend our whole lives hoping for a bright future, or we could find peace and happiness right where we are...now.

I do think that, esp as sick people, it is good to have a positive attitude that we will get better. But I think happiness is ultimately found in the present moment, in accepting where we are.

That is not to say we pretend that everything is fine and dandy. Instead you really feel what you feel, see what you see, hear what you hear, etc, and accept it (by which I mean don't block it out or push it away) and stay present. Accept the good, accept the bad, accept the neutral, and be at peace. I think it is our resistance to really experience the present moment that causes a great deal of our pain.

Which leads me onto another quote I wish to share.

'There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way.' - The Buddha.

[roger]

Hi Luc,

Great post.

For what it’s worth, I see being happy as knowing who you are and being content with that but in the knowledge that if the muse takes you, you can be someone else and seek different circumstances and still be happy.

There is no external happy pill and, no, ‘worldly goods’ won’t make you happy, though some might say that being miserable in comfort beats being miserable in discomforts.

Put more succinctly, happiness comes and can only come, from inside your head.

Regarding ‘common inspirational stuff’ – I do think some of it has a place, but not if relies on hope – hope just leads to disillusionment and a pissed off attitude, unless you’re very lucky. But then I’m not keen on the concept of ‘luck’, either.

My brain wobbles sometimes, quite often, in fact, and I’m not really sure that I understand the Buddha quote – is he saying there’s no road to happiness but if you’re intrinsically happy, regardless of where it leads, your road will be a happy one?

[Lucinda]

The quote refers to what I was saying:

We can spend our whole lives hoping for a bright future, or we could find peace and happiness right where we are...now.

Happiness can only be found in the moment. So when the Buddha said:

'There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way'

He means that it is not wise to strive and grasp for happiness, thinking that it will happen if you do this and this and this.

For example, a person may think that he will be happy when he gets a job. He then gets a job but is not happy because he does not have a wife. He then gets a wife but is not happy as he does not have a nice car. He then gets a nice car and then is not happy because, etc etc.

And then not only this, but he finds he is not happy with the job he wanted as it is leaving him stressed. He is not happy as the wife he wanted nags at him. He is not happy as the nice car he wanted breaks down, etc etc.

The problem is he always thinking that there is a way to happiness – whether it be the job or the car or the wife, etc.

When in Buddhism it would be said that it is his constant grasping for happiness that is making him unhappy! Because at some level he is saying to himself ‘I will not be happy until this happens. I will not be happy until that happens’.

What the Buddha taught was that happiness comes when a person lets go of wanting, grasping, etc, and just experiences what is (for example, by focusing on your breathing, and softly smiling, not allowing yourself to get lost in thoughts but just staying with the experience of breathing). And that this present moment acceptance and happiness is the 'way'.

At least, that is what I understand at the moment. As always, my understanding may change, and other's understanding may be different.

[roger]

Yes, I think that's pretty much what I thought it meant - thanks.

[mothernurture]

Thats a great explanation, Lucinda - exactly what i believe to be true. You cant strive to achieve happiness, it is only a fleeting emotion anyway, when we are experiencing it in a moment of time it just is. we do no nomally think"ah, i have arrived at happiness" because like all emotons it is transitory.

Thanks Lucinda, no matter how much you think you KNOW something it is always good to be reminded.

[laurashaw]

Because I am stupid in the head and started a thread very similar to this thinking there wasn't one, I apologise for repeating myself here but I'll add some more to this thread:

Be soft.
Do not let the world make you hard.
Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.
Take pride that, even though the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.

-

I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable, beautiful and afraid of nothing, as if I had wings. - Mary Oliver

-

Be nice or go away.

-

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.
Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach.
Check your road and the nature of your battle.
The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It is yours - Ayn Rand.

-

Finish each day and be done with it, you have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day and you shall begin it with too high a spirit to be encumbered by your own nonsense. - Emerson.

-

Run outside during a thunderstorm.
That downpour, that conquered hesitation, that exhiliration;
that is what unlonely is like.

-

All people dream, but not equally.
Those who dream by night, in the dust recesses of their mind
wake in the morning to find that it was vanity.

But the dreams of the day are dangerous people
for they dream their dreams with open eyes
and make them come true. - D H Lawrence.

-

L
xxx

[Lucinda]

You're not stupid in the head Laura. Some of these threads do overlap a little.

Those are lovely Laura (and am esp happy to see Mary Oliver in there! My favourite poet).

My friend who introduced me to Mary Oliver's stuff when I was 19 has this under her Facebook profile picture:

'Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?'

- Mary Oliver.

I love that.

Run outside during a thunderstorm.
That downpour, that conquered hesitation, that exhiliration;
that is what unlonely is like.

Hehe has anyone ever done this? I have deliberately gone outside during massive rain and thunder storms before. It is exhilarating.

And the first quote reminds me of the poem, Desiderata, which I think would be awesome to post. Hmmm, don’t know whether to post it here or the poetry thread...

[roger]

No need for apology, Laura – two threads means two reads and this stuff warrants two reads, at least.

Favs?  Well all of them really, though especially the Emerson & D H Lawrence – many folk won’t go along with the latter, but I do!

But because I’m simple and like simple things, my absolute fav is – Be nice or go away. I wish I could always comply with that.

Thanks loads for posting – great stuff!