Tag Archives: Philosophy of Life

PROMPT: Patriotic

Posted on by
Reply

Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

I certainly was as a young man, but increasingly I have shifted towards a more “citizen of the world” worldview. I’m no doubt influenced by my admiration for the life of Socrates (such as we know it,) who was said to have been a valiant and fearsome hoplite warrior in his youth but came to call himself a Citizen of the World. As one becomes governed less by passions and more by reason, it becomes easier to have a logically consistent ethics by doing so.

Consider the question: “Is it wrong to stab a person in the back without warning, a person who you do not know, a person who doesn’t know a thing about you and has never done you any personal wrong, a person who to your knowledge has always lived a good and virtuous life?”

Of course, the immediate impulse is to say that that act is clearly wrong. Really, the only case we can attempt to successfully counter argue would be a soldier in war or a military action acting on lawful orders against an enemy combatant. But everything becomes messy. Is it enough that the soldier is operating on “lawful orders?” In that case, is the soldier a moral individual, if he lacks agency? To what degree can a infantryman or spec ops soldier know that it is – in fact – a lawful order? Can a lawful order be morally and ethically reprehensible and indefensible? The questions abound, and that’s why I suspect Socrates – lover of questions as he might have been – had a shift in philosophy about the matter over the course of his life.

It may seem I’m arguing that this is growth or betterment, but maybe it’s just the natural progression of a life. Maybe we need more passion in our youth and more agency as we age.

Of course, in those elder / “citizen of the world years,” the Athenians straight up murdered their onetime hero, so maybe I have not picked the best role model.

PROMPT: Dream Home

Posted on by
Reply

Write about your dream home.

Must be portable, because it needs to be movable if it’s to be expected to keep up.

PROMPT: Break

Posted on by
Reply

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.

BOOKS: “Hōjōki” by Kamo no Chōmei; Trans. by Matthew Stavros

Posted on by
Reply
Hojoki: A Buddhist Reflection on Solitude: Imperfection and Transcendence - Bilingual English and Japanese Texts with Free Online Audio RecordingsHojoki: A Buddhist Reflection on Solitude: Imperfection and Transcendence – Bilingual English and Japanese Texts with Free Online Audio Recordings by Kamo no Chōmei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

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.

View all my reviews

Five Wise Lines (February 2024)

Posted on by
2

“If one conforms to the world,
He’s bound to suffer.
If he doesn’t,
He’s considered mad.

Kamo no Chōmei, Hōjōki; [Stavros Trans.]

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

“Religion” by Paul Laurence Dunbar [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
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.

“On a Journey” by Hermann Hesse [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Don't be downcast, soon the night will come,
 When we can see the cool moon laughing in secret
 Over the faint countryside,
 And we rest, hand in hand.

Don't be downcast, the time will soon come
 When we can have rest. Our small crosses will stand
 On the bright edge of the road together,
 And rain fall, and snow fall,
 And the winds come and go.

James Wright Translation

PROMPT: Mission

Posted on by
14

What is your mission?

To be a better version of myself.

BOOKS: “Bohemian Manifesto” by Laren Stover, Paul Himmelein, and Patrisha Robertson

Posted on by
Reply
Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge (Kindle Edition)Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge by Laren Stover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

The central premise of this book is that not only does the Bohemian artist live on, but she does so in five distinct varieties: the Beat, the Zen Bohemian, the Dandy, the Folkloric Bohemian, and the Nouveau Bohemian. While the title calls this book a “manifesto,” the term used in the subtitle, i.e. “field guide,” is far more apropos. Like a field guide to birds or mushrooms, it lays out
characteristics and distinctions, the characteristics of Bohemians, generally, and the five flavors thereof, more specifically, and it does so in a way that separates them from the other varieties of human.

One might be wondering, why are these varied categories classed as Bohemian, as it seems they are their own distinct class. One way to understand this is to consider the “Zen Bohemian,” who often bears little resemblance to the “Zen Buddhist” for which one might mistake him. The Zen Buddhist has both a strong connection to and a depth of knowledge of Zen Buddhism, but the Zen Bohemian often rather has a strong connection to a broad hodge-podge of Eastern philosophies and spiritual traditions that he may or may not properly understand the distinctions between.

This book is quite readable, and informative in an easy-going way, but it’s also perplexing. It’s informative in that it clarifies the characteristics of Bohemians across many criteria (e.g. food, clothing, tastes in literature, art, movies, and music, interest in boxing, etc.) It’s perplexing in that it starts with the premise that Bohemians are, at their core, free spirits who refuse to be hemmed in by convention, but then the bulk of the book is about the various tribe-signaling boxes that the Bohemian puts himself within to conform to the norms of the group. It seems that the authors are aware of this and actually produce humor through oddly specific statements such as, “They [Bohemians] still adore Laurie Anderson even though their yuppie brother went to see her.” It feels like they are aware that, to the extent Bohemians are truly free spirits, any description the authors give will be wrong at some level of granularity, and so they lean into it with great (sometimes comedic) specificity.

I enjoyed reading this book and picked up a number of interesting references to other books and whatnot. (I’m currently reading Kliph Nesteroff’s “The Comedians” because of a reference to it in this book.) I did find bits on subjects like wardrobes and astrology to be a bit tedious, but just skimmed through them.

View all my reviews

PROMPT: Differently

Posted on by
1

What could you do differently?

Literally, everything. That’s the gift and curse of being human.