Thursday 12 May 2016

 

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” 

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” 

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research [‘re’+’search’] would it?” 

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” 

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” 

Albert Einstein

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Back to some quotes….

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity. One of his discoveries was the succinct equation: E=mc² – Energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. It was the first time that a scientist related energy to mass, that energy and mass can be related. Einstein’s work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. Certainly, his quotes are comprehensive and humane!

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” 

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” 

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” 

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.” 

“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” 

Albert Einstein

Saturday 30 April 2016

Another item of extraordinary creativity ….

I love the chairs in the Wellington Central Public Library. They are quite funky. There is a lot of them too – about 50 or 60?  No plastic, stackable chairs for the clients of the library!

They are molded wooden chairs with leather seats and back-rest pillows. They are jointed at their spine – a graceful curve with three metal vertebra as joints. Each of the wings has a metal koru design. And they are comfortable to sit in – unless you have a very big book!

It reminds of the conflicting ideas of Plato and Aristole.

One of Plato’s most important ideas was the theory of archetypes, and that what we experience in our world is just an approximation. The most common example used is that of a chair. Plato said that when we call something a chair, we do so because it has “chairness”; that is, it calls to mind the ideal, archetypal form of a chair. We will never experience a true chair, only our own earthly approximations of a chair.

Aristotle thought differently. He said that if something is made of wood (or something else suitable for making a chair) and is in a shape such that it can be sat on, then it’s a chair. There are no archetypal forms; the particular is the thing of itself.

I not sure which one ‘wins’, but the Library’s chairs are satisfying – comfortwise and aesthetically.

Friday 29 April 2016

An aphorismic comment from one of the great thinkers in human society: Aristotle.

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
– Aristotle

Should I say more? I think not!

But, when we WANT to change, that is another matter.
Some people cut their hair when they have a radical change of their circumstances / environment / situation. Unfortunately, in my case, that is not possible! Maybe I have to ‘cut my hair’ figuratively, not literally – another physical dramatic change. Maybe a tattoo? Or shave my beard? Or wear a beret ALL the time.

Thankfully, my excellence is exemplary, and I don’t have to change anything (…ahem…)

Tuesday 9 February 2016

mural
/ˈmjʊərəl/ or [myoo r-uh l]
noun
1. a large picture painted or affixed directly on a wall or ceiling.
2. a greatly enlarged photograph attached directly to a wall.
3. a wallpaper pattern representing a landscape or the like, often with very widely spaced repeats so as to produce the effect of a mural painting on a wall of average size; a trompe l’oeil.
Word Origin
C15: from Latin mūrālis, from mūrus wall
Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
Dictionary.com

What size constitutes a ‘large picture’?
What if its not ‘painted’? or not ‘photograph’ed?

On Cuba Street, between the bypass and Abel Smith Street, there is a poignant ‘mural’. It is easy to overlook, and I think that was the artist’s intention. It a tile, not a painting, set into the bottom corner of the wall.

It is like one’s of Banksy’s graffiti social-comments – maybe pertaining to the biblical quote:
Behold the birds of the sky, that they neither sow nor reap, neither do they gather into barns, and your Father who is in Heaven sustains them; behold, are you not better than they? (Matthew 6:26 – Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

A sparrow, falling dead, is a shame, but relatively unimportant for many people. But what of the human ‘sparrow’s – the homeless and destitute? Are they irrelevant to us? Insignificant? Brushed under the carpet?

This is a paean, an ode, an hymn to the nondescript and undistinguished. Easy to miss, but hard to forget.

The size of the mural is not important – the meaning is.

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Another mural exists in Marion Square and, by the evidence of the note at the bottom of the wall, it has long history too: ‘Liquid Lunch Production 93‘.

It adorns one of the walls of the Theosophical Society (previous blog, January 26) – a miniature Greek temple built in 1918. The mural has a cosmic aspect – constellations of stars, tendrils of flowers, arcane and esoteric symbols, and a knowledge-seeker with six arms and a dramatic flaming headpiece. At the top of the mural there is a legend: ‘Questions Answered, Answers Questioned‘.

On the entrance to the hall, the building has clues for its esoteric function.

On the pediment, below the apex of the roof, there is a ring-shaped form.
From the top: the Om – the sacred sound, a spiritual icon and mantra in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Next, there a whirling cross within a circle. It is a very ancient symbol, found all over the world—in India, among American Indians, and in many other cultures around the globe. In Sanskrit it is called a swastika, meaning ‘good’.
The main circle is in fact the ouroboros, a serpent eating it own tail. While first emerging in Ancient Egypt and India the ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism.
In the interior of the circle is the the Star of David – is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism today, but it is actually a relatively new Jewish symbol.
At the centre, the Ankh – the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that means ‘eternal life’.
[You can see the meaning of the symbols for the Seal from the website of the International Theosophical Society.]
Surrounding the graphic are the words: ‘There Is No Religion Higher Than Truth‘.

According Wikipedia:
Theosophy refers to systems of esoteric philosophy concerning, or seeking direct knowledge of, presumed mysteries of being and nature, particularly concerning the nature of divinity. In fact, the word is derived from the Greek word θεοσοφία theosophia, which comes from the combination of words θεός theos, God + σοφία sophia, wisdom; literally ‘God’s wisdom’. Theosophy is considered a part of the broader field of esotericism, referring to hidden knowledge or wisdom that offers the individual enlightenment and salvation. (Wikipedia: Theosophy)

The New Zealand Theosophical Society has its own website too – a very modern nomenclature: http://theosophy.nz

It makes for some fascinating reading….

Tuesday 19 January 2016

This quote has an element of objectionality – and I must state that it is not MY view at all.

IdrisPukke is a chauvinist, isolated and sequestered – his name doesn’t help either! He is expounding his philosophy of human relationships to Cale, a 14-year old boy who has experienced a narrow and constricted childhood. From IdrisPukke’s point of view, his explanation is relatively elegant. We all have people that exhibit antisocial behavior, but IdrisPukke has coloured everyone in this hue.

But, again, this is NOT my view!

“To be sociable,” IdrisPukke continued, “is a risky thing – even fatal – because it means being contact with people, most of whom are dull, perverse and ignorant and are really with you only because they cannot bear their own company. Most people bore themselves and greet you not as a true friend but as a distraction – like a dancing dog or some half-wit actor with a fund of amusing stories.”
IdrisPukke had a particular dislike of actors and was frequently to be heard declaiming on their shortcomings, a distaste lost on Cale because he had never seen a play: the idea of pretending to be someone else for money was incomprehensible.

“Of course, you are young and have yet to feel the strongest impulse of all: the love of women. Don’t get me wrong – every woman and every man should feel what it means to love and to be loved – a woman’s body is the best picture of perfection I’ve ever known. But to be perfectly honest with you Cale – not that it will make any difference to you – to desire love, as some great wit once said, is to desire to be chained to a lunatic.”

~ Paul Hoffman – from ‘The Left Hand of God‘

10 January 2016

I have just read a poem/quote/poster and it is thought-provoking (thanks facebook!).

It is in two parts. You can read the bold part on the left as a sensible statement – a little negative. Actually, a LOT negative. A punctuation mark or two may be missing but you can get the picture.
But if you read the whole text – the bold and the italics together, it is inspiring.

I guess it is like a left/right hemisphere process in the brain – our work mind (LH) and our vacation mind (RH), our masculine mind (LH) versus our feminine mind (RH), or our judging mind (LH) versus our perceiving mind (RH) (see Jill Bolte Taylor – blog of 29 June 2015).

Our ‘judging’ mind focuses with the left part of the poem/quote/poster, but the perceiving mind (hopefully) balances the whole picture.

Think about it – and do it.

ART IS POINTLESS                               WITHOUT PASSION.
YOU HAVE TO GO OUT                        AND CREATE ART.
GET AN ACTUAL JOB                           DOING WHAT YOU LOVE
AND MAKE A LIVING                          BY BEING YOURSELF.
YOU CAN’T JUST LET                           OTHER PEOPLE DEFINE
THE REST OF YOUR LIFE                   AND SAY YOU WILL
BE A JOKE, A FAILURE.                       FOLLOW YOUR HEART.
YOU WILL END UP                               HAPPY AND FREE, NOT
A STARVING ARTIST.                           LOVE YOUR ART AND
CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY                 BY INSPIRING PEOPLE
INSTEAD OF WASTING TIME            LETTING OTHER TELL YOU
YOU’RE WORTHLESS.                         YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.

5 January 2016

‘We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’
–T. S. Eliot

I encountered these words for the first time at a assembly in Taikura Rudolf Steiner School, Hastings. I think it was a Class 10 performance inspired by Rochelle Dewdney, a fantastic English teacher. The pupils were a ‘chorus’, in the Greek dramatic sense of the word – some solos fragments or phrases, some in chorus, some delivered by 3 for 4 students. It was a impressive listening experience, much more than listening to one person intone the poem.

These lines resonates in my memory. I think they are profound words – almost recondite or esoteric.

They are contained in T. S. Eliot’s poem ‘Four Quartets’, Little Gidding V.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half heard, in the stillness
Between the two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always –
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

Another quote, in the same sort of vein, was delivered by Nelson Mandela:
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

I think the quotes are complementary.
When we have life-experience, we can see what have altered in us, because our perspectives has changed.

6 December 2015

On July 22, I wrote a blog about a mis-attribution. A quote ‘from’ Nelson Mandela was not actually authored by him. In fact, the writer was by Marianne Williamson from her book ‘A Return To Love’ (1992).

Another mis-attribution…

He said, “Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

This quote, often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, but not actually by that curmudgeonly author. It is in fact by William Saroyan, an Armenian-American writer best known for his Pulitzer-winning play, The Time of Your Life (1939).

‘Be in the Moment’ is a commendable doctrine, but this quote is more direct.
‘Be in the Moment’ is like a tap of your shoulder. This quote is more like a falling brick on the head.