Category Archives: Philosophy

Context, An Ever-changing Aspect of Experience

Brain, Experience, Life, Philosophy, Thought,

DSC06736 Here is a house in the sun, with clouds in the background sky.   There are palm and other tree in front of, and around, it.  There are also curbs and a sidewalk in front of it.  This is part of the context of this house.  Another part of the context of the house might be who lives in it.

For the person who lives in it, the house and everything outside it, is part of his context, and another part of that person’s context is his past in that house, and indeed the entirety of his past,  and everything he or she ever experienced, whether remembered or not.  They say that the brain bears traces of everything, even that which is seemingly forgotten.  These things in the past ,  and everything which we experience  in the present, are part of each individual’s context, and everybody on earth has a different one.

Not only do we have different sets of eyes, ears, taste buds, nose sensory organs, and skin sensations, we each have absolutely unique combinations of genes with which our bodies respond to our  environment, physically, and mentally, continually adding to our contexts, and our experience of it.  On top of that, our physical a and emotional experiences change over time from birth, through growth, maturity, decline, and death.

I have my unique, immediate, mental context, and you have yours

Our contexts are never the same as they were even an instant before.  This is why we “shall never pass this way again.”

Please Say, “Thank You”

Philosophy, Thought,

This morning when I saw  a “Gratefulness Challenge” on Facebook, I thought, “What a good antidote to all of the disturbing news we have been getting on TV .”  With be-headings of journalists abroad, arrests of journalists in this country, suicides of prominent figures, and so on, it is good to take stock of what is good.DSC04003 Here is the front of an American Greetings card which shows gratitude put into words for a specific  person.  “Thank you” is trans-formative for both the giver and the recipient of the thanks, truly.  This sentiment is embodied in the butterflies surrounding the bouquet.

Every transaction between individuals could have a thank you attached by each to the other.   None of us have any entitlement to anything, and so we have to be thankful.

 

 

 

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Checking on Balance

Philosophy, Religion, Thought

12422416221542450468Esoteric_Taijitu.svg.hi This Eastern symbol can be interpreted as balance.  As one of the four four boundless qualities to be cultivated within  an individual, according to Buddhism, it is equanimity.

There are so very many ways in which to consider balance, for example, within an individual, the impact of genetics and environment.  Other balance-able diads include good and evil, right and wrong, war and peace, slow and fast, small and large,  too much and too little,  the two sides of a see-saw, and so on.

Of course, more than two things can also be balanced, such as the three points on a plane which determine a triangle, and four points in space which determine a four triangular faced solid, a center of gravity of which can be imagined.

When we want to balance more things,  it is more difficult to  visualize, and then we can consider that we are in multiple dimensional space.