Category Archives: Metaphysics

PROMPT: 10 Things

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List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

1.) Nothing is permanent.

2.) The world is not what it seems.

3.) One’s subjective experience is not determined by the state of the world.

4.) Nobody grasps enough truth to be intolerant.

5.) Uncertainty is the root of all fear.

6.) Fear is the root of all hatred.

7.) Hatred is a subjective experience (See #3.) Also, uncertainty is the root of all hatred (by the transitive property,) hence the benefit of travel.

8.) Any who: a.) has suffered a string of hardships; b.) allows themselves to believe that some “other” is wholly responsible for said hardships; and c.) who lacks a sufficient sense of self-empowerment to avoid surrendering entirely to a group identity can (and likely will) become a Nazi (or the equivalent of their day.)

9.) No one can predict the future. [Regardless of how much we all love to try. (See #5.)]

10.) Entropy increases (ultimately, in a closed system.)

NOTE: I remain ready to abandon any certainty in the face of better information.

PROMPT: Decision

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Daily writing prompt
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
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To surrender to my ignorance. If one can never know exactly what game one is playing, it becomes much easier to avoid getting worked up about whether one is playing it right or whether one will “win” or not.

Evolution [Free Verse]

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Anywhere copies are made, 
   but copies aren't exact,
      selection will take place.

Some erroneous copies will 
    be more beloved than others.
      Some errors will propagate.
      Some errors will die out.

Thus is language,
   thus is chemistry,
   and thus is life.

Raising Chaos [Free Verse]

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Raise chaos:
   That's the job of intelligent life,
      to make nice & orderly things
      so they can crack and shatter
      and eventually end up pulverized
      to dust --
   A fine, granular dust that will blow
      across the universe.

First, the bowl must be made:
   Some potter must shape and glaze
      and fire it with care,
   Turning sandwiches into art... 
      and waste heat --
         entropy slow and fast.

All so someone can crack or chip it
   (with ease and lack of intention,)
   starting it on a path to being sand
   grains a world away.

The Cave [Free Verse]

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Jagged window 
   on the world:
 All light and sound
   deadened,
   but from one opening --
 The cave mouth.

From behind
   nothing stirs,
      nothing glows,
   shadows are subsumed
      by shadow.

 Eyes and mind
   frame the cave mouth,
   making the mind
      a cave within a cave:
         layered silence
         layered remoteness,
      and all input of a single,
         common source.

How many caves deep might
   this thing go?

BOOKS: “Jñāna-Yoga: The Way of Knowledge” by Ramakrishna Puligandla

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Jnana-Yoga--The Way of KnowledgeJnana-Yoga–The Way of Knowledge by Ramakrishna Puligandla
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Google Books Page

This is one of the most useful books I’ve read on the topic of Jñāna-yoga — the approach to yogic philosophy employed by the studious / inquisitive (in contrast to Bhakti-Yoga [the yoga of those for whom faith and devotion works] and Karma-Yoga [the yoga for those for whom a course of self-less action appeals.]) There are Jñāna-yogic Hindu sects and Buddhism — in general — can be thought of as a school of Jñāna-yoga. The author draws from the teachings of both, principally Sankara for Hindu thinking and Nagarjuna for the Buddhist approach.

A word of warning, the author is a scholarly philosopher, and so — while not as unreadable as many works of academic philosophy — it will be a slog for those who are not used to reading scholarly writing.

That said, Puligandla does a fine job of laying out what he views as the central tenets of Jñāna-yoga in a concise fashion and reviewing them at the end. This is not to say I would agree with all that he proposes, herein. In particular, his Chapter 3 conclusions about consciousness are insufficiently justified to be considered core principles of Jñāna-yoga (in my view.) Of course, the beauty of Jñāna-yoga is that it not only doesn’t insist upon coming to the same conclusions, it generates explanations as to how it’s perfectly possible / reasonable to come to different conclusions (see “The Principle of Superimposition,” herein.) Furthermore, since the author is reporting the ideas of Sankara and Nagarjuna, I can’t really hold these ideas against him.

If you’re interested in Jñāna-yoga, and can handle scholarly prose, I’d highly recommend this book.

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Melting Clocks [Free Verse]

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Waking to a world in which
    Space & Time misbehave:

Shapes slump,
   Even melting into pools,
   Oozing to flatness, then 
     Over the edge and
     Into nowhere.

Time moves in riverine fashion:
     Rushing in the chokepoints
     And lazing in the wide plains.
     Though still flowing 
       Inexorably and unidirectionally.

The illusion tries
   To reveal itself,
     But who can understand...

“A Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe [w/ Audio]

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Take this kiss upon the brow!
 And, in parting from you now,
 Thus much let me avow --
 You are not wrong, who deem
 That my days have been a dream;
 Yet if hope has flown away
 In a night, or in a day,
 In a vision, or in none,
 Is it therefore the less gone?
 All that we see or seem
 Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
 Of a surf-tormented shore,
 And I hold within my hand
 Grains of the golden sand --
 How few! yet how they creep
 Through my fingers to the deep,
 While I weep -- while I weep!
 O God! Can I not grasp
 Them with a tighter clasp?
 O God! can I not save
 One from the pitiless wave?
 Is all that we see or seem
 But a dream within a dream?

Unity [Free Verse]

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Many particles to the atom,
 Many atoms to the molecule,
 Many molecules to the cell,
 Many cells to the tissue,
 Many tissues to the organ,
 Many organs to the system,
 Many systems to the organism...

And so it goes,

The many always viewable as
   a larger ONE.

BOOK: “Toleration and Other Essays” by Voltaire

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A Treatise on Toleration and Other Essays (Great Minds Series)A Treatise on Toleration and Other Essays by Voltaire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Project Gutenberg — Free Access

This collection gathers together eight essays and a poem. The theme that interconnects these works is a petition to avoid petty tribalism and irrationality / superstition in the practice of one’s religion. The titular essay, “On Toleration,” sets the collection’s tone, beginning with its detailing of the murder of Jean Calas on religious grounds and its exploration of many more acts of savagery attributable to sectarian forces in alliance with authoritarian governments. The poem, “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster,” echoes the central idea of “Candide” — i.e. the idea that we live in the best of all possible worlds is patently false.

As one would expect of Voltaire, there is plenty of humor and satire throughout these pieces. The arguments are also generally well supported by facts. It is clear that Voltaire possessed a great deal of the knowledge of his day. That said, the reader may well find some factual errors. Most notably, Voltaire tends to attribute a kind of enlightened utopian vision to cultures with which he was likely largely unfamiliar as he builds a case against many within the culture with which he is familiar. This isn’t to say that there isn’t some truth to Eastern traditions being historically more tolerant of other sects than the Abrahamic religions, but the degree to which he extends these idyllic views of those outside of Europe (and the details, thereof) don’t always seem to comport with the historic record.

While some may be inclined to dismiss this book as a collection of anti-religion writings, it is really not anti-belief at all. (Though he does poke holes in many a Biblical myth, so too does he actually provide a deist argument in favor of the existence of a god or gods in the book’s final essay.) Instead, the collection is anti-intolerance, anti-superstition, and anti-authoritarianism. I’d highly recommend this book for all readers. Whatever flaws it may contain are outweighed by the great importance of its message and the cleverness with which Voltaire conveys said message.

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