Rhapsody of Nonsensical Blither-blathering
On nonsense.
This is just a series of random passages and messages from a particular chat platform from the past year that I’ve recently had the pleasure of posting and thought maybe I should share them to people at large.
So once again, grab some pizza or three, and 5 gallons of your favourite energy drink, (I’d prefer coffee), and enjoy the shitshow.
The Man Who Yelled
There was once a man who wrote only in capital letters. It was especially bad since his job was working as a journalist for the New York Times. Nobody had the balls to stand up to him or even fire him because his way of talking was not unlike his writing. He yelled all the time.
Then one day, his boss invited him to a dinner party at his house. The man knew exactly what was expected, not to yell at the dinner table. So he decided to text message to his boss during it, to the utter dismay of his wife and kids.
The boss’ wife threw the man out not ere long, and said a piece of her mind to the boss: “I have an idea. The next time he writes an article using capital letters, send him to your office. But this time, have your entire staff be in there and all of you yell as much as you can, from the bottom of your stomach, “YOU ARE FIRED, ASSHOLE!” And so the boss arranged this. And sure enough, the man was fired ultimately.
Reflecting on himself, the man got sad, and wondered if anyone will ever understand his plight, of having a syndrome that causes him to yell. He tried his best to make people aware of it, using capital letters to hint towards it in his articles, but all it did was got him sacked in the end.
Later, he spent his time drinking alone, because he was afraid to go to bars or pretty much anywhere. Few years later, he died. He didn’t have family, or friends. Then, some time passed. A worn out Times was discovered from his office which was now in shambles.
It was so interesting, and different, he suddenly became world famous, as the only reporter in history who wrote in all caps. They made memes of him, and even a biographical movie, which won an oscar.
We think so much of the immediate effects of people, at the time they take place. We don’t give quarter to questioning why they are the way they are. We usually ignore them, or deny them. The “greater good” and all. Can’t be helped I guess.
I do wonder how many great people we dismiss out of ignorance and self-interest. It’s one thing to be aware that they are causing people to become uncomfortable, and another thing to undermine their being. The latter is the result of neglecting one’s capacity to be open to alternative possibilities.
Well anyway, if you managed to read all of this, it means you were just as bored as I was at the time of writing it. So, kudos and adios.
The Ultimate Point
It is my opinion that almost all Eastern thought in the last 5000 years or maybe more derive their core philosophy from one single concept: polarity. That is to say, the recognition of the contrast between the positive and the negative aspects.
Even in Hinduism, or to use its romanized true name, Sanatana Dharma, the way they got to the concept of Maya was through this same principle. Because in order for there to be a world, the Godhead has divided itself, either apparently or literally. And that separation, or there being a seeming separate agent, who experiences the world as something “out there”, is Maya.
In Taoism, you get the fundamental concept of Yang and Yin, which might be on par with the Vedas in terms of dating. Buddhism is a sort of borrower of these concepts, infusing both polarity and nondualism as part of its esotericism.
It’s interesting to note how these go together. For myself, I am always playing around, bouncing from one school to the others, considering all of them as a sort of web, but not limiting this to merely Eastern religions or philosophies. Same ideas can be found all over the world when one looks closely enough.
The recognition of polarity is as old as thinking itself, because we as human beings can only notice things by contrast. And it was early thinkers who saw that you cannot really have a point of view, apart from everything else. As if it was disconnected from all contexts. Polarity means relationship ultimately.
The Perpetual Wheel
There is a wheel, that has been put into the mind. This wheel, has two functions, among others. Firstly, it keeps one in a vicious circle of thinking, so that they will condemn others for not thinking. Because they are so used to it, that the contrary sounds counterproductive.
Secondly, it will make one think that they are the wheel, by tricking them into the turmoils of its emotional baggage. The only way to get out of this wheel, is to first slow it down to a halt. This does not mean stopping thinking indefinitely. It means taking a break from the vicious circle.
It is vicious, because it causes all kinds of negative emotions, such as anxiety. As Shakespeare famously put it: “There is nothing good nor evil in this world, but thinking makes it so.” But not thinking, also does not mean becoming inert, or motionless. When one watches a bird flying by, they do not need thoughts to experience it. That is why there exists a concept for the “suchness” of phenomena, called tathata.
And this “unborn mind”, as Bankei called it, is the mind as it experiences things and events free from that vicious circle. In fact, all techniques having to do with contemplation of any kind, has as their ultimate goal this cessation of the vicious circle.
On Suffering
I think pain and suffering is the most direct biological analogue for a catalyst for realizing that the only way to beat it, is by going completely with it. When you’re riding on a rollercoaster, and it’s coming into an almost complete vertical dive, you really have two choices. You either are completely against it, or you go completely with it. That’s the kind of thing I mean. It’s the resisting of suffering, that actually makes it much worse.
This does not mean that we simply give in to all pain and not do anything. It means that we overcome the fundamental fear that we have about pain. No greater psychic energy is wasted currently on behalf of human beings than preventing potential suffering. And that ties into the future-thinking. I guess we can’t really help it on a larger scale, but on an individual scale, we can. When we stop the excessive fixating on it.
Furthermore, I think pain is to large extents, a social institution. What that means is that we generally agree, depending on the culture, what is painful and what is not. For example, a lot of people don’t subscribe to going to the dentist as being painful. But they might consider cutting one’s fingernails as being extremely painful when you don’t.
Like time or beauty, pain is (to a degree), an agreed upon conception, which tells us something important about ourselves and of the world. But a tool is only as useful as its user. And it’s up to us to use them sensibly, where don’t let them take control over us.
On Linux
The Linux kernel has over 27.8 million lines of code, is being actively developed by over 13,000 developers, and it powers 85% of smart phones currently on the market according to Hayden James. Specifically the Android, which is based on it. It is estimated that by 2027 the Linux market size will be 15.4 billion dollars, and is currently powering close to 40% of the internet’s websites.
And despite of all this, the current usage and market share occupies only 2.09% as the third most popular operating system. It’s to be noted that “Linux” in itself doesn’t mean a full operating system but refers specifically to an operating system’s kernel.
What people usually call Linux is in fact GNU/Linux which comprises of a multitude of userland applications on top of the kernel, constituting the system. And so there are currently about 600 actively developed GNU/Linux OSes out there, with flavors for every conceivable user and purpose, ranging from programming centered systems, to gaming friendly systems, to general usage.
Linux was invented originally by a Finnish developer known as Linus Torvalds, who wanted to build a better kernel on top of the MINIX, a minimal UNIX-based operating system. Linus himself states that if the GNU kernel had not been a thing back in 1991, he would’ve never gotten extremely drunk in his university and hammered down for days on end with what would become the modern Linux.
The Gain of Philosophy
“What can I get out of it?” - I think this is the wrong question to ask when it comes to philosophy in general. We don’t question and marvel at reality because we want some advantage or a gain from it at the end of the day.
Not a whole lot of people can admit to the underlying reason, or necessarily even be aware of it. We think with our progressive minds that all things necessarily need to lead to something.
Where we cannot allow for the possibility that maybe you are just doing what you’re doing for fun. No, the thing has to be worth it. Either it is contributing to our well-being, our intellect, our outlook or something else. The important thing is that it contributes.
It was Chuang Tzu who first argued that the usefulness of an old tree, has more to do with it just being that tree, than being chopped up and made into a vessel. That the usefulness of the ideal man, is to be malformed, with his face stuck into his navel, then being the ideal figure everyone was expecting of him to be.
Philosophy is not meant to be useful, in my opinion. It’s meant to scratch a specific itch we have about existence, but without offering solutions necessarily. If you are looking at the old philosophers with the attitude of “what can they offer to my current circumstances”, well I’ll tell you for my part.
Insight, recognition of relativity, spontaneity, a sort of calmness in the midst of storms, a psychological framework, and a metaphysical framework, although I had to refine it myself. And still am in the process of doing so.
But it certainly isn’t to say that for all our efforts, we are to “dismiss and update” the ancient or medival philosophers. And you know, I think that many of the ideas that they put forward are timeless, and as such will always lead to new discoveries in the long run. I know they do for me.
A Short Thing on Wonder
“G. K. Chesterton once made the glorious remark that it is one thing to look at a griffin or a gorgon in an amazement, a creature that doesn’t exist, and quite another thing to look at a hippopotamus, a creature which does exist but looks as if it didn’t. And I find that when you look at the stars at night, the giraffes, even the hippopotami, when you look at them from a certain point of view, they’re as weird as any griffins, or any fantastical beasts of the imagination. They are just plain improbable.-Alan Watts”
This attitude of seeing existence as something strange, something odd, goes hand in hand with the approach to things that does not take them for granted. It is to look upon the universe in wonderment, to seek answers to its unknowns with a zesty fervour.
So, I share this approach both with Chesterton and Watts. Life is bloody weird. It is not only certain sciences like quantum theory that hold weirdness, it can be seen everywhere. All one has to do is look more carefully. The moment life ceases to be weird, is I think the point at which we have lost our touch with our inner wonder, that we all have growing up. And this is particularly true of people who don’t enjoy life. Who view it as a trap. Something to be overcome, either by spiritual means or otherwise.
A Rant About Society
Society has basically two kinds of people if we go extreme polarity in describing them. One is the “groupers”, and the other is the “loners”. And we’re always playing with the two sides. Sometimes we can’t get out being one or the other. But society tends to want to group you as fast as humanly possible. It happens on all levels, and very subtly, or drastically depending on the situation.
It can range from simple things such as your peer group classifying you as stupid, or a geek. They want you grouped. I’ve tried for example, to avoid my whole life of joining the workforce. Or even going to school. There is always something averting to me in the idea of “belonging” to something. Sure, we all want to belong to some kind of group, if even subconsciously.
Maybe it’s a group of friends, or a community enterprise. It gives your daily activities meaning. But what happens when these two sides come into conflict? Maybe the person doesn’t want to be part of the system. And in the very extreme we call them hermits, who live in secluded places like mountains. But the fact is that even they have to rely on other people somehow. Nobody can be cut off from society completely.
But there are times when we need breaks as to not become too entangled within the “machine”. And so yes, I agree to large parts with the sentiment “fuck society”. You have limits in which to make up your mind and what you really want to do. And it seems each year those limits get more explicit and tight, where becomes a reduction of freedom as a price, from the umbrella term of safety. We exchange all the time, our safety for our freedom.
And this goes to amazing lengths. For example, they now want to take down encryption here in Finland from communications. And give our protection police the freedom to bug anyone’s home without their say so. Yes, added protection for what? For the illusion of security. End rant.
End of the Dream
Thoughts drifting in and out. Daydreaming of the gardens that are right outside of my window. Why do we divide reality into levels and refuse to face the highest of them? Many paths there are set, with no correct ones to tell us who we are. Just pick one. Maybe it will lead to something better, who knows.
I don’t know where to start. The only thing I know is my destination, which comes regardless of the futility. The fights, the strife, the hatred, are but toys of our own making. A mockery, put in place to hide the fact of where we are. Time does not bind, it only traps when you insist on it.
Even in the midst of chaos and turmoil, you create a mountain. A hermit, in the middle of a crowd, you mask away your self. Finding it seems like an impossible task now. Yet it is always there, laughing next to your shoulder. The truth you once hushed up and repressed perpetually under the floorboards.
They say that once you hit bottom, the only way is up. But I say that it only takes one’s outlook to see things in their genuineness. Weren’t for this “mechanism”, we would never feel joy. And I find that even the most mundane, ordinary and boring, can be pure magic at times. All it takes, is a flip. A flip to quench the insatiable thirst for the “goodie” in life.
So, before you know it, you’re in the middle of it all, experiencing the present in its fullest. And in that moment, there are no problems. All questions have vanished. You simply are. As is the universe.
L.
