On the contrary, saying “underwear” solves the whole problem. I am a big fan of solutions that answer the questions we did not ask, thus making the questions we ask unnecessary. Possibly even stupid, if we are lucky.
I have been lucky enough to get a few comments lately, mostly from someone using the pseudonym Turkey. That reminds me of something I just read the other day:
During Thanksgiving, many turkeys are killed and eaten. Shortly thereafter, each year, winter comes. Thus, killing turkeys causes winter.
Spurious connections like these are everywhere, thus conspiracy theories, superstition and many of the daily mistakes of ordinary people. Ooh, that reminds me of the other turkey quote:
“Based on projections from the previous months, we turkeys look forward to the Thanksgiving season with great confidence.”
Even if something is obvious, even if it is self-evident, it may still be wrong. This is why we need ever higher (or wider) perspectives. The higher our point of view, the wider we can see, and the more connections. More about that in a separate post, Light willing.
I keep thinking that if someone disagrees with what I say, it is caused by my failure to communicate. If only I could explain what I see, it would be self-evident that it is the truth (as far as it goes). But that is just how I see it now. When I meet someone who sees things from a higher perspective than I do, I try to get to where they are, at least in theory. For this reason, whatever I say now may seem stupid to me if I live another decade. Hopefully long before that. On the other hand, I do recognize stupidities of my own past in other people, and that is not meant as an offense. On the contrary, it is a message of hope. If I can see things I didn’t, then so can others. I am not some kind of avatar who just pretends to be human. My journal over more than a decade bears that out, in case anyone would ever be in doubt. Not that I think there is much doubt yet, more’s the pity.
Speaking of slaughtering turkeys, I certainly have no intention of even hurting the feelings of the local Turkey. Rather, my intention is to increase the happiness of all and one, for this life and the next.
On that note, I tend to believe that happiness, unlike pleasure, can be carried over from one life to the next. Pleasure is of the body, but happiness is of the soul, if not spirit. Actually I think a deeper word is needed for the spirit, such as “enlightenment”. That is what we all want deep down. But some get caught up in pleasure, the first level of happiness, and chase it and it alone for the rest of their lives. Others get caught up in the joys of the mind, the next level, and that is where they stop. In each case, the one who stops at an outer level will feel that proceeding inward would cost them their happiness, while actually even a modest happiness at a deeper level far exceeds an intense pleasure at a more superficial level.
This is obvious, right? Truth, self-evident? Now if only I can JUST DO IT.
***
Then again, I just got another comment from someone else. It asks why bra is singular and panties plural. I guess what really matters to people varies. I also guess a teacher of English could answer that on their feet.
But I am not a teacher of English. I am perhaps a teacher of the obvious, of what you already knew but never thought of before. (Such as, if in doubt use “underwear”.) At least that is my own favorite way of learning, being reminded of what I did not know I knew. But I can’t be a midwife of the soul before I have given birth to myself. Or that’s what the voices in my head tell me. (And here I thought constipation was as bad as it comes…) I sure have a lot of obviosity left to learn. Perhaps if it becomes Thanksgiving all year I may still have time to learn some of it. As it is, I keep confusing turkeys and black swans. Thanks, Taleb.
Is there any difference between the content in your live journal and this blog?
Difference? Lots and lots. Contradictions? I hope not. They have a very different audience though.
How do you draw the line between superstition and religion?
That’s easy: Other people’s religion is my superstition. ^_^
Seriously though, it can hardly be avoided that all religions accumulate a good deal of superstition over time, because humans are superstitious. And what is worse, the exact same statement can be a deep truth when said by one person, but rank superstition when said by another who does not understand its true meaning.
I’d be wary of any religion that does not have an experiential element. That is to say, you should be able to do something and know by experience that it works.
“I’d be wary of any religion that does not have an experiential element. That is to say, you should be able to do something and know by experience that it works.”
How do you tell something is working or it is simply coincidence?
Same way as in any science: Repetition and peer reviews.
Taleb also mentioned that the difference between science and some superstitions, is that scienctific ideas can be disproven.
A lot of your ideas cannot be disproved or proven. Like your latest post on the astral world.
Do you have anything that actually suggests that there might be an astral world?
Honestly, I don’t think there is an astral “world” in the sci-fi alternate dimension sense. Rather, it is a more fluid state with different rules, and it is partly subjective and partly objective. To avoid the sci-fi associations, I personally prefer words such as “realm” or “domain” rather than “world”, but sometimes it is just handy or I’m quoting someone else.
As for proving or disproving the astral realm, you simply have to use the appropriate tools, which are different from the appropriate tools for exploring the material world. In a certain sense you cannot even prove the material world – we may all be characters in The Sims 19 and never know it – but we have to at some point accept what we observe regularly and which other people also seem to observe.
But then you can use that logic to justify any kind of afterlife.
For example:
“I believe we will all be born in Zeus’s beard when we die.”
What? Is this connected to anything I have said?
I don’t think so, if I may jump in. (Or even if I may not, I guess, because here I am.) It’s late, and I’m tired, so excuse me as I ramble.
But, logically speaking, according to Magnus, if we observed indications that we were destined to end up in Zeus’s beard and if other people seemed also to observe that we were headed toward that whiskery eventuality, we’d have to accept that there is some possibility that that would indeed be the case.
But faith is a different matter. Faith is something one chooses, even when it isn’t logical. (Not saying it always isn’t. Just that faith sees you through the times when logic is not a happy place. Which is a frequent situation in my poor, addled mind.)
To me, superstition borders on OCD these days, at least if I let it. In elementary school we girls all had strict rituals we had to go through in various situations: when one saw a Volkswagen, when one crossed a bridge while riding the school bus, when one saw the boy one liked in the hall between classes (with variations for whether it was before or after you’d been to your locker, no less), etc. . . .
This type of behavior, basically bringing luck or certain good or bad outcomes, frequently able to be traced back to ancient attempts at explaining natural phenomena and take some small modicum of control over such things, is what I consider superstition. People should be more cognizant of the difference when they pray, because prayer is more than a ritual to simply go through in order to get something you want. Prayer should be an effort to commune with God, not a superstitious undertaking. If you can chant or partake in ritual while communing, it is not superstition. If you are simply chanting or participating in ritual without the communion . . . superstition. Or, possibly worse, just killing time.
“But, logically speaking, according to Magnus, if we observed indications that we were destined to end up in Zeus’s beard and if other people seemed also to observe that we were headed toward that whiskery eventuality, we’d have to accept that there is some possibility that that would indeed be the case.”
But people claim to observe all kinds of afterlifes all the time. People manage to make other people believe in nonsense.
I do not still see anything that suggests that there is an astral world.
Let’s just agree to disagree then.
Yes, agreeing to disagree is fine.
I did say “some possibility”, though. It’s taken me a long time to stop worrying about the nature of the afterlife. I suppose my faith was not strong enough before, or I just wasn’t smart/mature/tired enough before to leave it to God. I have that within me that knows God exists, so whether I have to go toward the light after death, or rise through the clouds, or end up in Zeus’s beard . . . it will be ok.