Tag Archives: enlightenment

PROMPT: Quote

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Daily writing prompt
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
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“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.” – Mark Twain

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“What you imagine, you create.” – Siddhartha Guatama Buddha

All restatements of one key principle, that our [mental / emotional] experience of the world is an entirely separate thing from the world itself. The latter one has almost no control over, the former one can reach a state of complete control (granted through painstaking and relentless effort.)

Surrender [Lyric Poem]

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Let the flood sweep 
   one away — out
 of the shallows, 
 into the deeps.
   Don’t ever cry;
   Don’t ever weep;
 Just feel the speed 
   Carry one on.

BOOK: “The Jefferson Bible” by Thomas Jefferson

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The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of NazarethThe Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth by Thomas Jefferson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

PDF available online [Public Domain]

Thomas Jefferson (yes, the same one who wrote the Declaration of Independence) produced this book by cutting and pasting excerpts from the Gospels so as to produce a distillation of who he believed Jesus was and what Jesus’s essential teachings were. It mixes parables and other New Testament teachings with biographical description.

There is an introduction which offers the reader more specific insight into Jefferson’s thinking than can be gleaned merely from what he includes and what he trims. The Introduction also discusses the similarities and differences between Christian philosophy and that of the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans.

If you’re looking for a condensed version of the New Testament, I’d highly recommend this book. Jefferson was obviously a sharp guy who looked at the Bible from the perspective of Enlightenment-era thinking.

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PROMPT: Writing

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Daily writing prompt
What do you enjoy most about writing?
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EPIPHANIES.

But, if you think about it, writing is miraculous. In the scheme of gifts that nature grants, it is way out beyond left field. Encoding ideas and images in simple characters in a way that can evoke emotional or cognitive responses in readers is kind of a superpower. (As is reading.)

PROMPT: Romantic

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Daily writing prompt
What’s your definition of romantic?
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With a big-R, it’s a philosophical and artistic movement that served as a counterweight to the Enlightenment by advocating for Idealism (versus Materialism) and spirituality (if not necessarily religiosity.)

With a small-R, it’s the skill or proclivity to advance conditions for amorousness.

That’s why capitalization matters.

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.

PROMPT: Everyday Things

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What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
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My wife, movement, new & interesting ideas, play, and epiphanies.

[I’m presuming we’re using the word “thing” in the broadest possible sense — as a stand in for any noun. If it is meant in the narrower common usage of trinkets, gewgaws, baubles, and tchotchkes, then I’ve got nothing.]

PROMPT: More Every Day

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Daily writing prompt
What do you wish you could do more every day?
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Have epiphanies. They are quite hard come by.

PROMPT: For a Day

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Daily writing prompt
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
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A Buddha / Bodhisattva (if there’s one about these days.) Why? To feel how his (or her) subjective experience compares to my own.

“I’m Happy to Be a Free Yogi” by Drukpa Kunley [w/ Audio]

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I'm happy to be a free Yogi,
   growing evermore into inner happiness.

I can have sex with many women
   as it helps them find the path of liberation.

Outwardly I'm a fool
   and inwardly I live a clear spiritual path.

Outwardly I enjoy wine and women
   and inwardly I work for the benefit of all beings.

Outwardly I live for my pleasure
   and inwardly I do everything in the right moment.

Outwardly I'm a ragged beggar
   and inwardly a blissful Buddha.