The Traveller's Last Journey DEDICATED TO SHAI MAROM Z"L

Selected Quotes

S

The title of this blog comes from Fernando Pessoa.

The subject of this blog are any of those items that crystallize in my mind and urge concentration into the written form.

The traveller is the journey, the outer is a refraction of the inner, and everything enlightens everything else.

Good journeys.

From: ABOUT THE TRAVELLER IS THE JOURNEY

This is my own path. I’m writing this for no one except myself.

If anyone should read this, be warned: You can not judge, you can not comprehend, you can not apply.

From: A SILENT PATH

I have assimilated the Western philosophy from around 600BCE to around 1920CE.

I have assimilated Indian philosophy from all the primary texts of the Theravada cannon around the eightfold path, and also explored the BG at multiple translations, and also the Rg Veda, and also explored the practices around these.

I have looked into the Talmud and Seder Hishtalshelut far more than most could imagine.

From: CONSTRUCTING A CONTEMPLATION FOR CONFIDENCE

At a younger age I read Einstein’s An Introduction to Special and General Relativity. Frustrated by my inability to understand the latter, I investigated further, learning about the Vienna circle, and thus the significance of Wittgenstein in schools of thoughts within those great minds.

Deciding that if I understood what formed the basis for their disagreements would enlighten me as to how Einstein thought, I attempted to read a book on Wittgenstein. Failing to make it through the book’s introduction, which mentioned Descartes, eventually led me to plan a study of what philosophy’s led to Descartes and thence to Wittgenstein.

Thus I started with Plato’s Republic, later backtracking to learn of the Pre-Socratics, through the Socratics (incl. Plato and his schools, Aristotle, the Stoics, and some of the lesser-known), I picked at the Latins, fast-forwarded through the darkness of the Dark Ages, was disappointed by Scholastics, picked at the Muslim renaissance, marvelled at the impact of the Lacoon, collecting Machiavelli along the way, began the age of reason (with Descartes again), was reinvigorated by Spinoza, accumulated a useful medley that funnelled into Kant, pursued and judged his successors, leap-frogging until I reached Bentano and Husserl, falling into Nietzsche, and finally only reading enough Wittgenstein to know that I agreed in the most part.

It is ironic that I never made a full study of Wittgenstein’s words since they inspired me to write what I thought about the nature of reality. The conclusions, which are not the subject of these writings, were (to state obtusely) that reality is perceived by a sort of metaphorical idealism.

From: APOLOGY

Arise, my heart.
Don’t look down, no matter the pains that surround me.

Shine, my heart.

Cast the beacon of your feelings on all that arises within me.

Your light has come, my heart.

The sympathy you seek is here within me.

You are an honour to creation, my heart.

You bring honour to my creation, my heart.

I looked to you with faith, my heart.

Look with faith at me.
I shone my faith at you my heart.
Shine at me with faith.

I sought you as goodness, my heart.
Seek me with goodness too.

I yearn to honour all your whims, my heart.
In this I honour me.

From:  A CALL TO MY HEART

The world is a dream within a dream, and all lights mask greater darknesses, which when uncovered reveal greater lights.

From: NASO

I seek to redefine the meaning of words and objects, to enrich them with knowledge of the cosmos they contain. To see the world in a grain of sand – which are its continents and the animals and civilizations that inhabit them? Acknowledging the fractal nature of reality is only a first step, preceding discovery of the autonomous systems hidden within its dimension of depth and scale.

From: EXPLORING PHOTOSYNTHESIS – CAPTURING LIGHT

To me, it is clear that that which we call god is actually beauty. The religious sometimes confuse this when they say that beauty resides outside the world. The humanist sometimes confuses this when they say that beauty is the world. We are all magicians trapped in cells, and life happens in flashes, like light opening up from above.

From: THE WRITING OF THE GOD

The (mere) fact that I have more to write about all of these entries, or in other words that each of these is incomplete, a start of something that could be so much more, is a fact also of life. It is to be acknowledged but not mourned. To be admitted, but not dwelt on, although it may be pondered and perhaps even dealt with.

From: MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013

When I look at the moon I think of you.

You know that feeling – falling through the stars? Sitting in the park (the vacuum of the cricket field, the silence seeps from cedar benches bereft of players) or along the beach (I hope you’re there now, the ocean’s lapping is like a heartbeat and it follows us into sleep, through dreams),
gazing upwards (the land becomes lost, and gravity just a momentary tether) into that familiar vista become alien (the astronomer’s chalkboard disintegrated by the memory of our primeval inheritance: the infinite savannas when everything was new): see the great expanse (cobalt pitched darkness; sky) and countless sparks (denying count, distorting measure; stars), mayhap too the veil islets (sfumato topologies adrift; clouds) and of course the ever present ever hiding (when I look at the moon I think of you).

FROM: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2013

On the way home I thought about two contrasting descriptors for my life. I was at the late beginning of an epic journey that takes me from being a heroin addict to a valuable professional doing some pretty cool stuff. And I envision the long road Frodo imagined lay between him and Mordor. Except my Mordor is hopefully less violent. But on the other hand the battle was every day, and in fact, every decision wherein we are prone to being tawdry in our responsibilities to our self, therein we are due to talk to Krishna and be taught the value of service. I envision the long lines of men in the Bagavahad Gita. The soldiers aligned in armour and sword. Archers and horsemen. Both armies scream with noise to celebrate the start of the war and cast fright. The battle is now, and you MUST fight.

FROM: WE LILVED IN A FARMHOUSE

As I think about how wonderful consciousness is, I quickly move to thinking about how wonderful the world is, and existence too. It instinctively bothers me how far life has become, away from truth and meaning, and I imagine what it would take to fix this human problem.

FROM: GROWTH OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Time and space are the changing acting on the unchanging
(I wonder if this is the difference between mind and matter).

FROM: WHAT ARE TIME AND SPACE

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The Traveller's Last Journey DEDICATED TO SHAI MAROM Z"L

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