Some quotes carry the best filters to pass any topics through them.
“I have approximate answers and possible
beliefs in different degrees of certainty about different things,
but I’m
not absolutely sure of anything"- Richard Feynman
William
James, “In the end nothing less than the whole of everything can be the truth of anything
at all”.
Swami
Chinmayananda,"The spirit of
Advaita is not to keep away from anything, but to keep in tune with
everything."
Voltaire said, “Four
thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is”.
"We live in succession, in division, in
parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole: the
wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally
related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose
beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in
every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the
spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by
piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which
these are shining parts, is the soul."Excerpt from The Over-Soul, by
Ralph Waldo Emerson, first published in 1841.
“Study the assumptions behind your actions.
Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.”
― Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and
Spirituality in the Sufi Way
“For in spite of language, in spite of
intelligence and intuition and sympathy, one can never really communicate
anything to anybody [I may add only through intellectual analysis/verbal
communication].”― Aldous Huxley
Sometimes
enough materials, loads and loads,
will help one to get academically confused, if not clarified;
The ideology freaks resort to
arriving at conclusions based on contrived and convoluted concepts justifying
them with farfetched data, irrelevant surveys and attention grabbing statements.
Human life, after
all, is a very short journey in the ocean of totality of LIFE.
Identities of all hues while they enable
creating social groups at the same time enfeeble options for universal
acceptance.
Writers, when they slide on the side of reason are 360 degree stroke
makers, they are able to seek and to see
numerous possibilities that exist between, beneath and beyond ‘Yes’ and ‘No’
which ordinary mortals may not that easily
grab and give a name or label and in addition writers are not averse to
churn by throwing those possibilities in the cauldron which may contain from
several sources all sorts of thoughts, information and /or
knowledge of /in various domains, imaginations, dreams, fantasies, intellect,
conscious awareness, perception, tools of perception, logic, reason,
evaluations, purpose of evaluations, tools of evaluations, understanding and
application of understanding, social values, social interactions, individual
and/or collective emotions/feelings, psychology, cultural contexts, ideological
identities which influence that very thought process, imaginations, dreams,
fantasies, scientifically established facts, intelligent questioning,
attitudes, willingness and ability to understand and solve problems,
bio-chemical components of human beings and /or some other species as
well, application of highest physical laws etc.
Writers realize at least, partially that reality is that shifting
priorities, drifting value systems, jilting relationships, wilting spirits seek
only befitting systems and swift solutions and not suffocating taboos and
traditions, rituals devoid of rational, sermons of socio-morals of ancient
times which may enthuse automatic cognitive operations
through appealing nicely worded socially applauded hyper philosophizing
thoughts and opinions[passing of as collective wisdom] but will
get exposed at the altar of existential anxieties which may expose how far removed they are from any contextual relevance.
Evolution, metamorphosis, change are the three important and
inevitable dimensions of time.
Love and religion are relating,
reconnecting and reuniting with
real involvement 'how we relate' with
others and by extension with higher spirits. Religion is derived from the two Latin words “re” and
“ligare” which means “to
reconnect”. We try to reconnect our
feelings, emotions, expectations in joy with someone else known to us
[which is called love] or some other unknown source [which is
called religion]. Love etymologically refers to the
manifestations like the Germanic word leubh- "to care, desire,
and love" (cf. Latin lubet, later libet "pleases; “Sanskrit lubhyati
"desires." So, the reality of religion and love is unity of
human spirits, senses and sanity. Love and Religion are positive manifestations integrating human reasons, responses, reactions,
reciprocations and reuniting and
creating synergy synthesis and synderesis ultimately.
Scriptures, scientific discoveries and
inventions, philosophical explanations, great thoughts, ideas, actions, events,
works of art, culture, and traditions are all some of the revelations popping
out of as parts of the evolutionary process of human understanding of life. But
we must be aware that they are neither the whole of life nor
can anyone well versed in any of these aspects claim to be possessing the keys
to understand the whole of life nor are they even answers to all aspects of
life that we know of. Life is lived from moment to moment.
Religion is understood better by synthesis than by analysis. Religions grow better by syncretism than by antagonism.
The beauty of life
consists in
the unknowns and the unending searches and researches –the unending process of evolutionary trends in everything.
Growing up and
growing out of certain things are natural process of evolutionary metamorphosis
both biologically and psychologically.
Life is
functionally a dynamic energy; visually a multi-faceted splendor; in reality a marvelous mystery which unfolds itself through each and every one of us at
every moment. Therefore, life cannot be either generalized in any manner or
simplified into any predefined categories.
Life continues to evolve in its dynamic energy every moment and
constantly throws up challenges in varying degrees and intensities, in
different dimensions and at unexpected intervals. Wisdom is to live in the present context and to practice certain time
tested values which have relevance in present context but with global
perspective to bequeath a liveable planet, a lovable society with lovely
ecosystems and improved living conditions. Scott Atran, a
respected Anthropologist called Religion as “belief in hope beyond
reason”.
In evolutionary biology we find that all creations have shed
the unnecessary parts or shrunk them for better survival; in evolutionary
sociology too human race has shed too many models of social groups and narrowed
down on a few that would be easier for global interaction; in languages too,
from a few thousands languages that existed humanity has reduced the number to
just a few hundred languages for easy communication leading to at least better
verbal understanding.
Life is never fulfilled with
unfulfilled relationships within the family, with others in the
society, with the environment, with the many sciences, subjects, systems that
we come across which are useful to us, used by us or we are used by them and so
on. So, the quality of life is the
manifestation of the quality of the inter play of these various relationships.
Everything has its relevance and appeal to
different souls at various levels.
That's why we cannot deny or defy the importance of
anything or anyone.
So, over simplifications or sweeping
generalizations must be avoided.
“Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that
opposite things can be simultaneously true.” ― Ram Dass.
We cannot analyse anything and everything through ideological fixations
and subject them as well purely to satisfy socio- political justifications and
surreptitiously insert undeserving persons as intellectuals.
We must also know that everything has its own inherent attributes,
intrinsic values, internal mechanism and logic for its existence besides,
beyond, exclusive of and unmindful of human intellectual justifications,
acceptance, acknowledgement, social approvals, political support and
therefore , it is purely absurd to extrapolate anything with specific
ideological fixations.
A whole gamut of things and factors that go on to develop an intellect,
many more to define one and a lot to acquire that label which enable to deliver
the real universal wisdom.
Human knowledge even with all the advantages of technological advancements enabled
accessibility and availability hubris, still navigates in the orbit of finiteness.
Whatever they be
and however well packaged they are, be they surveys, statistics,
spread sheets all are meaningful abstractions and presentations of multiple
facets and factors like randomness, measurable patterns, easily understandable
classifications, blue prints or outlines or guide lines projecting or
superimposing the trajectory of trends of real events, activities, actionable
remedial measures of PEOPLE who are involved or impacted by or
responsible for such events or activities and circumstances which went on to
create those factors or facets.
“Scientists use
whichever methods help them understand the world: drudge like
tabulation of data, experimental derring-do, flights of theoretical fancy,
elegant mathematical modelling, kludgy computer simulation, and
sweeping verbal narrative" -karl popper.
"All the
methods are pressed into the service of two ideals, and it is these ideals
that advocates of science want to export to the rest of intellectual life. The
first is that the world is 'Intelligible'. The phenomena we experience may be
explained by the principles that are deeper than the phenomena
themselves." “The second ideal is that we must allow the world to
tell us whether our ideas about it are correct, i.e. consistency with
empirical evidence".
Vulnerabilities are unavoidable but leaving them unobserved,
unattended and unaddressed is bad.
"I was
at the age when one felt like one needed to read everything, which prevented
one from making contemplative stops"- Taleb.
This happens to
most of us. In a way it is good initially, more the merrier. Then we
end up getting lost with excess of fuzziness than real assimilation.
The
INSTINCT/IMPULSE to filter and be selective comes with prejudices and biases to
NARROWING DOWN on only a few things. However, the ABILITY to do so, comes with
enhanced matured way to choose and decide and end up CONSOLIDATING our radius
of receptivity.
Sometimes, many
other factors like time constraints and lack of resources limit our options.
I cannot resist
quoting my favourite author here.
“The ability to
choose an action that best satisfies conflicting goals is not an add-on to
intelligence that engineers might slap themselves in the forehead for
forgetting to install! It IS intelligence"- Steven Pinker
“Understanding does
not obey Moore's Law: knowledge is acquired by formulating explanations and
testing them against reality, not by running an algorithm faster and faster.
Devouring the information in the Internet will not confer omniscience either:
big data is still finite data, and the universe of knowledge is infinite"
- Steven
Pinker. He also writes, “if narratives without statistics are blind, statistics
without narratives are empty".
Summing up the
whole thing I would like to add that life is injected into the spread sheets only
when one SYNERGIZES them with underlying HUMANITARIAN WELFARE and long term
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT based on RATIONAL OUTLOOK and SCIENTIFIC
APPROACH with CONTEXTUAL RELEVANCE and ensuring not to hurt the SENTIMENTS and
VALUE THE SOCIO-CULTURAL SENSITIVITIES of the people involved.
Surveys, statistics, spread sheets are meaningful
abstractions and presentations of multiple facets and factors like randomness,
measurable patterns, trajectory of trends and so on of real events, activities,
actionable remedial measures of people who are involved or impacted by or
responsible for such events or activities and circumstances which went on to
create those factors or facets.
Life is injected
into the spread sheets only when one synergizes with underlying human and
environmental factors.
“Everything changes
as you move through three stages of awareness:
first, that beliefs are the result of conditions;
second, that beliefs are the cause of conditions;
and third, that beliefs are themselves conditions.”― Eric Micha'el Leventhal
“All of us
have our own inner fears, beliefs, opinions. These inner assumptions rule and
govern our lives. A suggestion has no power in and of itself. Its power arises
from the fact that you accept it mentally.”― Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your
Subconscious Mind
“We must realize that the subconscious mind is
the law of action and always expresses what the conscious mind has impressed on
it. What we regularly entertain in our mind creates a conception of self. What
we conceive ourselves to be, we become.” Grace Speare.
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