Write about your dream home.
Must be portable, because it needs to be movable if it’s to be expected to keep up.
PROMPT: Dream Home
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Category Archives: Philosophy
PROMPT: Fantastic News
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
Fact check
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PROMPT: Break
Do you need a break? From what?
I travel for a break from the ordinary. I spend time at home (wherever that might be) for a break from novelty.
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BOOKS: “Hōjōki” by Kamo no Chōmei; Trans. by Matthew Stavros
Hojoki: A Buddhist Reflection on Solitude: Imperfection and Transcendence – Bilingual English and Japanese Texts with Free Online Audio Recordings by Kamo no ChōmeiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Release Date: May 7, 2024 [for Tuttle’s bilingual edition]
This is the Japanese Walden, except that it was written several hundred years before Thoreau’s essay and was predominantly philosophically informed by Buddhism rather than Transcendentalism. (Though those philosophical systems do agree on a number of points, most relevantly that materialism is not a sound route to happiness.) Like Walden, Hōjōki is an autobiographical promotion of the hermitic lifestyle. Both works sing the virtues of life in a simple, rustic cabin in a natural setting, a life of minimalism and subsistence living.
There are many translations of this work available, and so I’ll spend the remainder of this review on what differentiates this edition from the two others that I’ve read. First and foremost, the other versions I’m familiar with were presented as prose essays. This edition is presented in verse, which I understand to be the form that the original Japanese work employed. I should say that in some places the work comes across as poetic in the conventional sense, though in others it seems like a versified essay.
Secondly, this edition has a few handy ancillary features. One is that it is bilingual. Romanized Japanese allows the reader to experience the sound quality of the original. This edition also has graphics in the form of maps, artwork, and photographs. Some of the graphics support or expand upon the information delivery while others seem to be more a matter of creating atmospherics. Also, there are explanatory endnotes that help readers unacquainted with Kamakura Period Japan to understand some of the book’s references that might otherwise remain unclear.
I enjoyed and benefited from reading this edition, even having read others. If you are looking for insight into the ascetic life, I’d highly recommend it.
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Five Wise Lines (February 2024)
“If one conforms to the world,
Kamo no Chōmei, Hōjōki; [Stavros Trans.]
He’s bound to suffer.
If he doesn’t,
He’s considered mad.
But nothing ever bores me. So much the worse for those who are moulded of boredom.
Salvador Dalí, Hidden Faces
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
Blaise pascal
I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea.
Lú Tóng (Poet of the Tang Era)
The man who wears the shoe knows best that it pinches and where it pinches, even if the expert shoemaker is the best judge of how the trouble is remedied.
John Dewey
Bonus Quote:
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Marcus tullius cicero
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BOOKS: “Great Minds on Small Things” by Matthew Qvortrup
Great Minds on Small Things: The Philosophers’ Guide to Everyday Life by Matthew QvortrupMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
This book was inspired by Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary, a collection of essays by the French polymath put out in several editions and which covered topics such as: “Adultery,” “Free Will,” “Kissing,” and “Nakedness.” In some ways, the inevitable comparison that results from such a “reboot” as this proves the connection between the books to be apt. But in at least one sense, the comparison is unfortunate.
On a superficial level, comparison is apt. Not only does this book expound upon a range of alphabetized topics, often of an “everyday” nature, but it uses many of Voltaire’s topics. It should be noted that Qvortrup’s book also includes many topics that Voltaire didn’t address, notably topics such as “cars” that didn’t exist in Voltaire’s day. One difference that benefits the book greatly is that (as the title suggests,) Qvortrup’s book draws on ideas of a wide range of thinkers, mostly philosophers but also artists of a philosophical bent. [Whereas, Voltaire’s book is a single-point of view, his own.] The “great minds” in this book range from the ancient world to that of the present. While it is (by the author’s admission) Western-centric, it does reference Eastern thinkers (e.g. Taoists and Buddhists) more than many books I’ve read that weren’t as self-aware of their own Eurocentrism.
Where the comparison to Voltaire’s dictionary is not so apt is that Qvortrup’s book rarely mixes wit and stimulation in the way for which Voltaire had a genius. This doesn’t mean Qvortrup’s book isn’t witty or thought-provoking, but just that it’s rarely both, simultaneously. In dealing with a topic like flatulence it can be witty but trivial, in expounding on the ideas of Kant it is intriguing but not usually amusing. That said, the book is laden with interesting ideas and insights into seminal thinkers that most people will find unexpected, if quirky. It is also the case that the overall tone of this book is lighter and more aimed at amusement than is Voltaire.
I found this book to be compelling, readable, and well worth the time, and would recommend it for readers of pop philosophy.
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“Religion” by Paul Laurence Dunbar [w/ Audio]
I am no priest of crooks nor creeds,
For human wants and human needs
Are more to me than prophets' deeds;
And human tears and human cares
Affect me more than human prayers.
Go, cease your wail, lugubrious saint!
You fret high Heaven with your plaint.
Is this the "Christian's joy" you paint?
Is this the Christian's boasted bliss?
Avails your faith no more than this?
Take up your arms, come out with me,
Let Heav'n alone; humanity
Needs more and Heaven less from thee.
With pity for mankind look 'round;
Help them to rise -- and Heaven is found.
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PROMPT: Un-invent
If you could un-invent something, what would it be?
Being acquainted with the Law of Unintended Consequences, there isn’t a thing I’d un-invent. You start arrogantly messing in the natural progression of things, and you never know what kind of monster you’ll birth.
Once upon a time, I might have said nuclear weapons (still a strong contender for ender of our species.) Then again, who knows what kind of horrific World War III we might have had, had we not been forced to sober up a little.
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Five Wise Lines (Jan 2024)
Every so often I run into a sentence that blows my mind a little bit. Here are a few recent examples:
We may be in the universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeing the books and hearing the conversation, but having no inkling of the meaning of it all.
William james
One must read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles to be an educated man.
Old chinese adage (As Translated by ha jin in The Banished Immortal)
Poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance.
Carl Sandburg
Distrust of grammar is the first requisite of philosophizing.
Ludwig wittgenstein
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.
John stuart mill
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PROMPT: Clutter
Where can you reduce clutter in your life?
My mind. It’s a constant battle.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 