A Reminder and Digest
Ways in which I can live a more effective, altruist life and reasons why this will bring benefits: small Practical solutions to large impractical problems:
Volunteering with groups
The goal of this class, and life itself, is not to solve all of the issues of the world. The goal is much more noble, it is to ameliorate our the world, through ameliorating our lives. By becoming aware of the water we can start to find cleaner water. This does not require drastic radicalization but effective action through our virtues. Constantly putting our best selves forward and holding ourselves up to the highest standard we possibly can. It is about having these “dangling carrots” and continually reaching for them but continuing to eat the grass, to give us energy to continue for the carrot.
The Goal of this class is to learn to love, and treat with dignity, those around us, as well as ourselves. It is to align our daily actions with our basic values and principles as human beings.
Volunteering with groups
- OSPIRG
- Getting Involved - with my community and local politics
- etc.
- Less Toilet paper
- Car pool to school
- etc.
- Eat all of the food I order and make
- etc.
The goal of this class, and life itself, is not to solve all of the issues of the world. The goal is much more noble, it is to ameliorate our the world, through ameliorating our lives. By becoming aware of the water we can start to find cleaner water. This does not require drastic radicalization but effective action through our virtues. Constantly putting our best selves forward and holding ourselves up to the highest standard we possibly can. It is about having these “dangling carrots” and continually reaching for them but continuing to eat the grass, to give us energy to continue for the carrot.
The Goal of this class is to learn to love, and treat with dignity, those around us, as well as ourselves. It is to align our daily actions with our basic values and principles as human beings.
Asking doesn't always (if ever) lead to understanding
Since I was a young boy I have been full of questions; Why this? And, Why that? Who? Where, and What? I think some of these questions came out of pride. Not pride in why I had the question but pride in the sense that asking lead to me thinking highly of myself, regardless of what the answer was. And if I look closer I think that there is pride in how other people, both think of me, and think about the question I asked.
Having questions is a positive, and definitely leads to good things for me and those around me. But I don't always think that asking these questions leads down a positive road, or the road we intended. Often when I ask a question it may divert the topic from the road which we are on to something entirely different or a shortcut, one that doesn't seem as clear or lead to as much clarity in the initial question at hand. The questions asked (not held, but verbally asked, and pined over) along the way are an obstruction from what initially created and brought about this pertinent question to begin with.
I think life is like this as well. If I spend all my time asking questions (especially for the wrong reason i.e. not for the growth of myself and the community, with intellectually and spiritually) then I may never reach the destination I am shooting for. I may cloud my sense of direction so much that I have no idea what brought this initial question on to begin with.
*I closed my laptop and pulled out a tea bag to put in the cup of hot water I had poured. It was a Yogi tea bag, which have little sayings written on the tags of them, typically words of encouragement. I always read them and try to meditate on them while drinking the tea. The one i opened and read right after writing this said “where this is love, there is no question.” Life is intricate and beautiful I simply want to witness with my full being*
Having questions is a positive, and definitely leads to good things for me and those around me. But I don't always think that asking these questions leads down a positive road, or the road we intended. Often when I ask a question it may divert the topic from the road which we are on to something entirely different or a shortcut, one that doesn't seem as clear or lead to as much clarity in the initial question at hand. The questions asked (not held, but verbally asked, and pined over) along the way are an obstruction from what initially created and brought about this pertinent question to begin with.
I think life is like this as well. If I spend all my time asking questions (especially for the wrong reason i.e. not for the growth of myself and the community, with intellectually and spiritually) then I may never reach the destination I am shooting for. I may cloud my sense of direction so much that I have no idea what brought this initial question on to begin with.
*I closed my laptop and pulled out a tea bag to put in the cup of hot water I had poured. It was a Yogi tea bag, which have little sayings written on the tags of them, typically words of encouragement. I always read them and try to meditate on them while drinking the tea. The one i opened and read right after writing this said “where this is love, there is no question.” Life is intricate and beautiful I simply want to witness with my full being*
Conversations of God. - Wrote this a year ago after a class disscussion on God existing or not
The question of “Does God exists?”
the claim that God does not exist is a slippery rabbit hole to go down. I believe part of what makes God such an interesting thing to communicate about, is that there is no way to communicate he concept of “god”. To me God is not a person but rather the solidarity of all people; it is the unity of all living things. Past the molecular level there is an energy that connects all living/animate and unliving/inanimate things. Atomically there is electrons flowing around a nucleolus at all time, flowing from one atom to another.
God is not something that can be verbalized, because verbalization only brings with it divisiveness and that is in direct contradiction to what God actually is. To make a definition one must say this is this, so this is not this. If there is God there must be a devil, if heaven a hell. But to think of things as such is to try to teach, try and convey what one can only feel and never convey through words.
Any “teacher” through out time has no choice but to divide things. That is what teaching is, dividing into right/wrong, good/bad, ect/ect. But this is not the way of God. God is where all things meet, where this is no polarity. No good and bad. God both exist and does not exist simultaneously.
God is undefinable because there is a constant fluidity to it. It is constantly shifting. As our emotions are never stagnant neither is God. God is constant change, and how can one prove that constant change exists? Exists implies has a form, has a shape but the deeper we go down this slippery slope, the less form there is. God is simultaneously what IS, what WILL BE, and what Was. how can this be defined as Fact or opinion? It is both a fact to someone and an opinion. The only way a fact can be described is through faith, so it holds no weight as a fact when verbalized. but often the foundations for this faith people feel is rooted in an undeniable fact, but this fact is only fact through their perception.
When discussing God, it is futile to argue if he exists, it seems a much more productive argument to try and define God. Even then one can only define it through a definition of fluidity, where it is not bound by law or the definition but the definition itself implies a freedom of God.
This is some thoughts on why this discussion/argument has never really brought much fruit to our society. But I believe as science continues to be able to define existence, and what it actually means for a conscious being to exist, it is becoming more apparent that a definition of god is Possible, through fluidity of a definition.
the claim that God does not exist is a slippery rabbit hole to go down. I believe part of what makes God such an interesting thing to communicate about, is that there is no way to communicate he concept of “god”. To me God is not a person but rather the solidarity of all people; it is the unity of all living things. Past the molecular level there is an energy that connects all living/animate and unliving/inanimate things. Atomically there is electrons flowing around a nucleolus at all time, flowing from one atom to another.
God is not something that can be verbalized, because verbalization only brings with it divisiveness and that is in direct contradiction to what God actually is. To make a definition one must say this is this, so this is not this. If there is God there must be a devil, if heaven a hell. But to think of things as such is to try to teach, try and convey what one can only feel and never convey through words.
Any “teacher” through out time has no choice but to divide things. That is what teaching is, dividing into right/wrong, good/bad, ect/ect. But this is not the way of God. God is where all things meet, where this is no polarity. No good and bad. God both exist and does not exist simultaneously.
God is undefinable because there is a constant fluidity to it. It is constantly shifting. As our emotions are never stagnant neither is God. God is constant change, and how can one prove that constant change exists? Exists implies has a form, has a shape but the deeper we go down this slippery slope, the less form there is. God is simultaneously what IS, what WILL BE, and what Was. how can this be defined as Fact or opinion? It is both a fact to someone and an opinion. The only way a fact can be described is through faith, so it holds no weight as a fact when verbalized. but often the foundations for this faith people feel is rooted in an undeniable fact, but this fact is only fact through their perception.
When discussing God, it is futile to argue if he exists, it seems a much more productive argument to try and define God. Even then one can only define it through a definition of fluidity, where it is not bound by law or the definition but the definition itself implies a freedom of God.
This is some thoughts on why this discussion/argument has never really brought much fruit to our society. But I believe as science continues to be able to define existence, and what it actually means for a conscious being to exist, it is becoming more apparent that a definition of god is Possible, through fluidity of a definition.