embracing with daggers unsheathed

living in a world

where science is shrouded by faith

and faith is clouded by science

one assuming the limitations of linear logic

to be universally all encompassing

the other attempting to justify a sacred intuition

with linear empiricism
the day might come

where faith is substantiated

and where empirical science removes the blinkers of self-determinism

 

but until then we continue to embrace each other with daggers unsheathed

 

one grasping at self ascendency

assuming be placed high amongst the stars

 

the other dragging the heavens down

to be strapped to the loins of mortal man

 

pardon our dust

there is no such thing as reward

external reward is more illusionary than illusion itself

inside the vacuum grows

filling the substance of empty space

with the dust of purpose

as it morphs into the next step

 

there is no time for reward

there is only the next step

the reality of illusion

lately I’ve been wrestling with the reality of the world we seem to have created for ourselves… and it’s not a pretty picture

we believe that due to our tremendous technological advancement we are more powerful than ever before yet so much seems to be no more than smoke and mirrors … and instead of being stronger than ever we appear more naked now than the day we were born

we all seem to live under an illusion of our own making – a personally convenient, subjectively desired perspective that actively shapes our own private reality

possibly one of the biggest enemies we face is the superficiality of the illusionary power of our cognitive intellect and the ascendency this has assumed in our thinking in this present age?

perhaps the only way we seem able to really and effectively help ourselves and others is governed by the extent to which we are able to tackle our own illusions

very possibly the biggest weakness of the ascendency of this dominant linear cognitive intellect is that it seems so easily to overlook the strongly suggested probability that the cognitive is merely only the surface 10% of the human “iceberg” which is slowly melting into history

it’s more often than not that it’s the submerged 90% of the human “iceberg” that floats, steers, determines and often sinks the whole psycho-social individual human package

… and the hotter we make it for ourselves the more the dark underbelly of who we really are is brought steadily to the surface only to be melted away by the light of the day

 

the boxoffice

the view is always internal

and upside down to boot

the external, merely an illusion

all conclusions remain moot

 

but yet we stand on soapbox top

uttering impassioned cries

to try to turn the minds of men

when all we trade is lies

 

we only see what we can see

and very few agree

the cost of seeing otherwise

will be the death of me

 

there is no fence

‎

we spend our lives trying to climb over, dig under, avoid crashing into, understand its structure…

we try to skip around it, paint it, repaint it, measure it, mend it, warn others about it or even tear it down…

‎we philosophize about it, analyse its perimeter and the implications thereof, measure the horizon by it, study its foundations and origins, assess its impact, redesign it, encourage others to ‘occupy it’…

yet there is no fence

______________________

happy xmas?

Happy Xmas?

 

Today is the day of reconciliation in my country

It’s a joke

Also on this same day the people cry, “Merry Xmas”

It’s a joke

 

We preach a materialist gospel

To the glory of ourselves

shameless neocolonialism

 

We live in captivity and celebrate liberty

Like the blind admiring the sunrise

 

Who are the real fools?

Those who say there is no God

Or those who say they worship a God

who is no God at all?

 

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy. …….

psalm 137:1-6

a process of thought

Simply a process of thought – do symbols carry any symbolism in and of themselves?

And do signs cease to be when the destination is reached?

And what kind of folly breaks out when a sign becomes a destination?

“Sign’s and wonders”

Signs are symbols, pointers, directives towards and of another thing, of something else… they are not the thing itself…

Wonders are things that provoke inquisitive exploration .. they bring a sense of wonder, intrigue.

If something is ‘wonderful’ it doesn’t necessarily mean it is good, but that it makes one wonder, be amazed, challenged.

Wonders introduce mystery and mystery again makes us wonder

To seek wonder for the sake of its presence … is this not merely fanciful folly?

And is not the mystery and the momentum of the wonder then robbed of its inherent power?

The wonders of signs

The significance of wonder

birthdays are strange things

Birthdays are strange things.  I don’t recall asking for mine, planning for it to happen, or even being there when it happened.  All I really have to show for it is the sincere opinion of the mother and father who claim to be my parents and a piece of faded official paper with what appears to be my name on it witnessed only by the scrawled signature of some official faceless stranger who has never met me nor whom I will most probably ever meet and who would obviously not recall me or my name even if we did actually bump into each other one day.

Yet faithfully each and every year, this day is celebrated.  Even distant acquaintances who hardly ever make contact join in and take the time to send celebratory wishes.

Birthdays are strange things!  Indeed, to my mind they are one of the universes great and mysterious little illusions.

Also, this is possibly the only real fact I have about my life and my future … – that when I leave this world, of which I have no recollection of participating in any plan to decide where or when this will happen, someone else shall on my behalf receive yet another certificate which will mean nor matter not one little bit to me at all after I have left.

This grand forthcoming event too will be officially commemorated and witnessed by the scrawled signature of some official stranger whom I will have most probably never met and who would never even recall me or my name even if we did actually bump into each other in some other place somewhere out on another leg of the journey I’m not really so sure I’m even having now.

The funniest thing is that most of us are delighted when this day is celebrated and profoundly hacked off by any who forget to celebrate it for any reason whatsoever.

So, may I end off by wishing once and for all a most sincere and wonderfully happy birthday to you.

so what are you so very passionate about?

Anti-gay pastor arrested for public masturbation asks gay community for forgiveness | The Lookout – Yahoo! News.

Every time I hear someone (including myself) getting really passionate about an issue I get these warning bells in my head…

…and the persistent ringing in my ears seems to be telling me that nothing happens independently or in a vacuum.

It tells me that whatever it is, it’s all coming from ‘somewhere’ … and that ‘somewhere’ is mostly out of control and not really often all that conscious…

… to us.

It also warns me that very possibly the so-called “impassioned” person is merely trying to make sense of it in his/her own life one way or the other.
I am never surprised by these things when they come out publicly…  in fact, I am almost expectant.
It’s almost as if it’s something we can only wait for to happen.

The expectant, faithful skeptic – that’s me.

The only ‘surprise’ I tend to have is how some manage to ‘conceal’ it better and longer than others?
… and just maybe … could this be an indicator of exceptional ‘deviance’ and the real ‘intentional sin’? – now there’s perhaps a thought worth getting some feedback on don’t you think?

(and for those fundamentalists amongst us…  have a good little look at Romans 2:1 ~ … what we judge and condemn in others is in us and we do the same things …. etc.)

so how do we live?

so how do we live? …by faith in vain science? … or by the science of vain faith?

I asked this recently and someone said, “I’d rather live to believe that Jesus is real and find out He’s not than to believe He’s ‘not real’ and find out He is.”

I understand that response but is that kind of response reflecting faith or is it reflecting blinding fear?

Is it not also merely suggesting that at the end of the day our belief systems (whether ‘spiritual’ or ‘scientific’) are merely a construct of convenience?  And not really a personal construct either, but a social, cultural one at that?

Wasn’t it Bob Dylan who said, “you have to believe in something”?

Is this the reality of things for us?

Is life like our present democratic system of governance where we are presented by only two (or maybe at best a few) choices that aren’t really choices at all?  A cosmic polling station where we are forced to chose what for the circumspect can only be really a choice between the lesser of two evils… and yet we feel it our duty to put our cross on one of the options and once we do make our vote we set about seeking as many as possible who made the same choice and form communities.

There are many of us who don’t vote or who even ‘spoil’ our vote but even then if we participate as a non-participant our hearts as well as all those around us condemn us?

But then again, maybe like this democratic system we so love and adore, that’s all we have? – we make a reasonable decision (according to ourselves at least – and also those significant others in our lives) based on the best data available to us at the time.  … and so we believe … and do everything possible to sustain that belief system.

However, for me this data set seems to be based essentially on incomplete and mostly intangible options.

Perhaps honesty is all we have? … however, these days I find that there is very little honesty around.  There’s lots of huffing and puffing – marketing of our own views and what we would like others to think we are, or what we believe, or what we would like them to think we can do… excuse my scepticism, but all I see is a very successful “Hollywood” marketing system reigning in our hearts and minds.

Honesty and humility?

Hardly any of us have the ability to clearly see our own flaws and weaknesses.   And if we do manage a glimpse we cover ourselves with fig leaves and hide behind trees… Maybe that’s why we eventually turn to belief, to a system of faith?  Maybe that’s why we align ourselves and commit to a course of … self generated internal or social equilibrium perhaps?

Personally I do have a belief in God but I also have many doubts.

Amongst quite a few other things I doubt my own sincerity towards life and it’s meaning.  I doubt my own ability to really understand enough of what’s actually happening in me and around me.  I doubt my own integrity as a rational being, my own ability to make accurate decisions.  I also doubt my own ability to shrug off my own self-embraced illusions, etc.

As a result these days my efforts are invested far less in trying to support my chosen belief systems than they are focused on trying to remain as open minded as I possibly can…  if that’s really at all possible?

The truth is that it takes so much discipline on my part to confront my own faith and belief systems and to weigh them up against the good and the bad times, against reality as I am exposed to it.

And through it all I am amazed that I still believe in God … but even that sounds so arrogant… It sounds like because I believe God is real and exists… maybe it’s more of a truth that God believes in me and because God believes I exist?  Maybe it’s God who holds tight to me and not the other way round?

And maybe this all is just another illusion of convenience I simply cannot seem to shrug off?

But I really struggle with the God of the majority and cannot embrace that popular social construct – a God who is exclusively focused on me and blessing me, doing things for me, whilst simultaneously pouring out wrath and anger on everyone who doesn’t agree with my beliefs.

Instead I am confronted with what I can only describe as a somewhat confusing source of immense power and peaceful majesty that calls out to me more than I call out.

Instead of this source of power being focused on me, to bless me personally and exclusively, I seem to find that the more I challenge my own abilities and fight my own vanity the more peace I get, the more at rest I become within myself  and with my environment.  It’s in this pain that I find healing.  It is through this pain that I seem to become whole.

For me, both faith and science are profoundly speculative and the most insecure seem to be those who try to shout the loudest, who claim to know beyond a doubt.