Sunday, December 6, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
To add to the second last post
You can logically get to a conclusion which I think is important:
All stress and worrying is caused by the desire to know the future. Anxiety's source is when people fear the unknown - "what's going to happen?", "what if...?".
However - if a person knew the future, truly knew everything (or anything) that was going to happen, it would be TORTURE. I really believe that, because whenever something is predictable it sucks. It's a paradox, really.
So the only conclusion I can draw from this is that we are designed - our nature - to accept that we cannot know and should not want to know the future, and should adopt the attitude of "I don't know" for everything. And THIS is the only way to find joy and appreciation of the present moment, which is the only place you will ever find peace.
All stress and worrying is caused by the desire to know the future. Anxiety's source is when people fear the unknown - "what's going to happen?", "what if...?".
However - if a person knew the future, truly knew everything (or anything) that was going to happen, it would be TORTURE. I really believe that, because whenever something is predictable it sucks. It's a paradox, really.
So the only conclusion I can draw from this is that we are designed - our nature - to accept that we cannot know and should not want to know the future, and should adopt the attitude of "I don't know" for everything. And THIS is the only way to find joy and appreciation of the present moment, which is the only place you will ever find peace.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Abousfian Abdelrazik
Listened to this guy talk about his experiences with CSIS, Sudanese prison/govt, Canadian embassy in Sudan, FBI, CIA, etc. Was basically held in Sudan without charges in and out of prison, tortured, and unable to get back to Canada for something like 6 years.
It's hard to make an assessment of this situation so I'm going to do some research. But at face value it's a glaring indictment of the inability of intelligence agencies, namely CSIS in this case, to do what they are supposed to do: gather intelligence. How can you excuse the torture and abuse of an innocent (as far as I know, and when you consider that he is now travelling around Ontario talking about how the gov't fucked him, most likely innocent... but who knows) civilian? Aren't there easier ways to find out if the guy is a terrorist? How about watching him without him knowing. Monitoring his online activities, reading his email. I realize that these are not likely constitutionally allowed, but what would you rather have? Why the fuck should I care if they want to read my email? If I have nothing to hide, it shouldn't bother me - I mean, I don't WANT people reading my email but if torture is the only alternative, I'll take it.
It's hard to make an assessment of this situation so I'm going to do some research. But at face value it's a glaring indictment of the inability of intelligence agencies, namely CSIS in this case, to do what they are supposed to do: gather intelligence. How can you excuse the torture and abuse of an innocent (as far as I know, and when you consider that he is now travelling around Ontario talking about how the gov't fucked him, most likely innocent... but who knows) civilian? Aren't there easier ways to find out if the guy is a terrorist? How about watching him without him knowing. Monitoring his online activities, reading his email. I realize that these are not likely constitutionally allowed, but what would you rather have? Why the fuck should I care if they want to read my email? If I have nothing to hide, it shouldn't bother me - I mean, I don't WANT people reading my email but if torture is the only alternative, I'll take it.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
What Goes Around Comes Around
This notion of 'karma'. I know karma literally means action and I won't claim to be any kind of authority on the language of what I'm talking about.
Was thinking about the idea of all of life/existence being interconnected - one being or one manifestation, etc. Many manifestations within one is more accurate maybe. It naturally follows that any harm done to another - thing, person, place... is fundamentally done to one's self.
When you start regarding all of existence as your 'self', your perspective changes markedly. Now you have to accept everything and everyone, and withold judgment too. You can't value one thing more than another, and you have to appreciate the tiny contributions of all things.
You also have to live in the unknown. When you stop evaluating and assuming, all that's left to say is 'I don't know'. But this doesn't tell the whole story, because you spontaneously develop a different way of knowing. A non-rational, instinctive way of knowing - aligned with reality it seems. It's hard to throw around words like truth and reality, but these are evoked in the mind when one experiences life in the unknown. Life is a paradox - when you don't know, you know. And you can't want to know, because when you want, you are thinking that you 'know' what you want. So forget everything. EVERY-THING.
Was thinking about the idea of all of life/existence being interconnected - one being or one manifestation, etc. Many manifestations within one is more accurate maybe. It naturally follows that any harm done to another - thing, person, place... is fundamentally done to one's self.
When you start regarding all of existence as your 'self', your perspective changes markedly. Now you have to accept everything and everyone, and withold judgment too. You can't value one thing more than another, and you have to appreciate the tiny contributions of all things.
You also have to live in the unknown. When you stop evaluating and assuming, all that's left to say is 'I don't know'. But this doesn't tell the whole story, because you spontaneously develop a different way of knowing. A non-rational, instinctive way of knowing - aligned with reality it seems. It's hard to throw around words like truth and reality, but these are evoked in the mind when one experiences life in the unknown. Life is a paradox - when you don't know, you know. And you can't want to know, because when you want, you are thinking that you 'know' what you want. So forget everything. EVERY-THING.
Monday, September 7, 2009
watched Gonzo. Inspired by Hunter's ability to cut people's minds with words. Those kinds of writers are so important because they bring hidden parts of life into focus. We seem to be getting farther and farther from the truth with 'news' at a distance. But I think it could flip soon. The internet and communication technology's ubiquity (?) allow now for news to be made any time, anywhere. This will inevitably force transparency down the throats of the institutions that attempt to protect themselves and stay secret.
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