Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Roget's Theosaurus and the Tickwitted Illusion of Sweet Fanny Adams

Perhaps it's as simple as Zero and One. Either you have a metaphysics of the One or you embrace the nihilism of the zilch, the nada, the bupkis...

Hmm, here's an interesting little factoid. I was just looking up synonyms for zero in my thesaurus, and I see that the very first two categories are Existence and Nonexistence, followed, appropriately enough, by Substantiality and Insubstantiality, then Intrinsicality and Extrinsicality. Thus, the first three pages of the thesaurus tell us pretty much all we need to know about theology, metaphysics, and ontology.

For, it is written, in the beginning was 1. EXISTENCE, or being, essence, presence, substantiality, reality, actuality, factuality, authenticity, not a dream, the truth of the matter, what's what, the nitty gritty, absolute, self-evident, inescapable, and indisputable fact, brass tacks, self-existence, uncreated being, noncontingent existence, aseity, and others.

How true, which is to say, correct, valid, sound, accurate, well-grounded, logical, veridical, inerrant, self-consistent, cogent, authoritative, uninvented, unadulterated, square, dead right, bang-on, straight-up-and-down, and honest-to-God, for Being implies Truth.

Indeed, In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was EXISTENCE. Or, you might say that In the Beginning God created BEING and NONBEING, or, to be precise, pulled BEING out of his own ASEITY, or beyond being.

What about the alternative, which is to say, 2. NONEXISTENCE? Let's see, we have nonbeing, nothingness, emptiness, vacuity, "the intense inane" (Shelley), unreality, negation, negativity, zero, absence, goose egg, not a whit, not a hint, not a blessed one, just Sweet Fanny Adams. In short. "ain't nobody here but us leftists."

What are the implications of this philosophy of zero, this metaphysics of nonbeing? According to Roget, it is to not exist, to be absent or lacking, to be annihilated, destroyed, eradicated and wiped out, to vanish, to be no more and leave no trace, to disappear, evaporate, melt away, die out, pass out of the picture, peter out, perish, circle the drain, go kaput, and just plain die.

This is indeed the fate of the leftist. In fact, he admits as much. Why then are they such chronic whiners? If their absence is intrinsic, why do they complain about it so much? I guess that's why. As we said yesterday, leftism is the attempt to use horizontal politics to fill a vertical hole of their own creation. They are self-inflicted victims of their own nothingness. Envy takes care the rest.

All because you never allowed yourself to exist by aligning yourself with the Real, the Absolute, and the Intrinsic. Rather, you made yourself nonexistent, unreal, imaginary, fanciful, unsubstantial, illusory, and without being. Which is to say, you made yourself. But nobody made you.

Zoom!"

"What was that?"

"That was your life, mate."

"Oh, that was quick, do I get another?"

"Sorry mate, that's your lot."
--Sillyloquy of Basil Fawlty

Again, how true this all is -- which is to say, how false -- or mistaken, erroneous, fallacious, self-contradictory, flawed, deviant, heretical, abberant, perverted, distorted, misconstrued, and deluded. What a blunder, slipup, oversight, misstep, faux pas, gaffe, stupidity, boo-boo, blooper, boner, screw-up, and howler.

For how could Being not exist? How dense does one have to be to postulate such an absurdity? What kind of fool, schmuck, jackass, clown, doodle, ignoramus, milksop, mooncalf, softheaded lunatic figure of fun could believe this? What sort of chump, booby, klutz, dingbat, saphead, mutt, jerk-off, asshole, goof, schlemiel, galoot, dolt, dunce, clod, ninnyhammer, looby, noddy, yokel, jobbernowl, golem, driveling nincompoop, tickwitted dope, lamebrained lummox, dumb cluck, buffleheaded, beefwitted, noodleheaded, cabbage brained, pumpkin headed, addlepated, blubberheaded clodhopper and flibbertigibbet could think such a thing?

Frankly, you probably have to be crazy, which is to say, loco, daft, moon-struck, unhinged, tetched, not all there -- you know, a little daffy, dotty, buggy, barmy, bananas, bonkers, crackers, loopy, cuckoo, slaphappy, flipped, gaga, haywire, off the trolley, round the bend, minus some buttons. Raving mad, possessed, frothing at the mouth, amok, berserk, babbling, wild-eyed, incoherent.

You must be a certifiable One Cosmos troll.

Enough of that. What is "nothing," anyway, and why are there people who believe in it? Schuon writes of nothingness that it is, "on the one hand, an intellectual notion and, on the other hand, a cosmic tendency; this notion of nothingness is identical with that of impossibility; that is to say, nothingness is total impossibility, whereas there do exist relative impossibilities, namely those which represent situations modifiable in principle."

So true nothingness cannot really exist except in the minds of nihilists. Therefore, they know of what they speak, since they themselves are the absurd "possibility of nothing," which is just one of the diverse possibilities of Something. The nihilist is just a self-unmade man, or man unmade, to be exact.

Schuon continues:

"The notion of 'nothing' is essentially a reference -- obviously negative -- to something possible or existent, otherwise it would be meaningless and even inconceivable. Indeed, 'nothing' indicates by definition the absence of something: it excludes one or many objects, or all objects, according to context; to speak of an intrinsic 'nothingness,' of a nothing in itself, without reference to the things which it excludes, would be a contradiction in terms. When a receptacle is filled and then emptied, there is a difference; now this difference is a reality, otherwise no one would ever complain about being robbed. If this 'nothing' were in itself a 'nothingness' -- if it had no 'referential' character -- there would be no difference between presence and absence, plenitude and vacuity, existence and inexistence; and every thief could argue that the 'nothing' he produced in someone’s purse does not exist; the word 'nothing' would be devoid of meaning just as the nothingness is devoid of content.... an intrinsic nothingness cannot concretely be opposed to anything or be affected by anything in any way."

So EXISTENCE and NONEXISTENCE aren't actually opposites. Rather, the one is real, the other entirely fanciful, an absurdity, an impossibility, a... never mind.

Similarly, as Will was saying the other day about the "ether," or the spiritual substance of reality, in the absence of such a metaphysical category, the cosmos makes no sense at all. For, "space, if it were an absolute emptiness -- if it did not in practice coincide with ether -- could not comprise distance and separation, for a nothingness added to another nothingness -- if this were conceivable without absurdity -- could not produce a distance."

Now, back to the ZERO and the ONE. Schuon notes that "the difference between 1 and 2 is relative, but the difference between 1 and 0 can be termed absolute..." Which is to say, "A thing cannot exist half-way, either it exists or it does not exist; consequently, since there is something absolute about existence in relation to inexistence," this speaks to "the whole miracle of creation."

Or, put it this way: "When one, two or three out of four candles are extinguished, the difference in luminosity is relative; but when the last one is extinguished, the difference is total, for it is that between light and darkness. This is what allows negative expressions such as 'the Void' (Shunya), 'not this, not this' (neti neti), and other terms of the kind to be applied to pure Being, and a fortiori to Beyond-Being. All apophatic theology stems from this principle of terminology."

Ah ha! So NOTHING does exist. In fact, it is not the negation of BEING, but the ABSOLUTE EXISTENCE of the God-beyond-being, who must exist -- and if so, must coincide with the sovereign good.

"The idea of 'being' positively implies reality, and restrictively manifestation; we say 'restrictively' because manifestation or existence represents a 'less' or a limitation in relation to the Principle which is pure Being. In signifying reality, the idea of 'being' evokes ipso facto the 'good' and also the 'more,' hence quality and quantity; but above all it evokes 'presence.' As for the opposite idea of 'nothingness,' it implies first of all the 'absence' of being, or impossibility, and more relatively the absence of determinate things; it also implies, by derivation and by analogy, the phenomenon of 'less' and, in another respect, that of 'evil.' But this idea can also be applied, quite paradoxically, to the transcendent or principial order: from the standpoint of the manifested world -- hence from the standpoint of existence in the restricted sense of the term -- all that transcends this world and consequently is free from existential limitations, is 'nothingness.'”

Which was Petey's whole point in beginning -- and ending -- and beginning -- the Coonifesto with the word nothing. Not to signify negation, non-being, nothingness, Sweet Fanny Adams, or some other addle-pated hooey. Rather, this is the infinite gap between the first and last Word of existence, which is to finneganally say,

... nothing,
a formless void without mind or life,
a shadow spinning before the beginning over a silent static sea,
unlit altar of eternity, fathomless vortex of the Infinite Zero.
Darkest night, dreamless sleep:
Outside in. Spacetimematterenergy.
No beforeafter, nobodaddy, no mamafestation, nothing but neti.
One brahman deathless breathing breathless,
darkness visible the boundless all.
Unknown origin prior to time and space,
fount of all being, unborn thus undying,
beginning and end of all impossibility,
empty plenum and inexhaustible void.
Hallow, noumena!

82 comments:

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

You know, some of us should be careful with the thesaurus ...

I'm just sayin'.

So then, NONExistence precedes Existence; and bifurcates back into Nonexistence; but which non existence? That's the quantum question, the kings conundrum, the principal problem! For if being came from nonbeing which is to say beyond being then ether we're going to be null and void or noel and void! Being as we are, and beyond-being as we will be, and will we be? Be what? Not what, but not what! What not will be we? We won't be 'flesh'; but we will be living; we won't be 'alive' but we will breathe, we wont 'take breaths' but we will need to exhale, we won't exhale anything, which is to say, nothing!

Enough of this cyclebabble!

Mizz E said...

Thought I was only going to be looking up only one word, Aseity ,today, then I ran smack dab into flibbertigibbet.

OK, back to reading the rest of the fun channeled stuff Being pulled out of his aseity.

Gagdad Bob said...

Out of Petey's aseity, to be exact.

Anonymous said...

Direct access to nothingness is the main work of meditation. Supposedly (for I've not been yet) contact with it produces an indescribable bliss.

Anyone been to the nothingness that feels so good? Testify for me, so that I may be cheered in my own efforts.

Anonymous said...

I'm a leftist and i assure you I am something. I am composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons, all whirling in spacetime.

Nothing, indeed. Where did you get that crazy idea?

Anonymous said...

What is the electron, that we should be so mindful of him?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Pain is what's on the menu? No, buddy, [HT the art world ] the menu is what's on the menu.

God as actuality, and potentiality (or not); and Gagdad as Wodehouse's George Mulliner, who courted the Vicar's daughter with crossword solutions, though with seldom a cross word to the plentiful hysterics and lunatics that keep the narrative moving.

The unavoidable void, the Silence at the center of the sound, the electron whizzing 'round, just looking for a Friend. Sufficient unto the day is today's daily peephole into "the whole miracle of creation."

Mizz E said...

Given that we've had a recent increase of female zombies here at the main watering hole, I'm presenting two words ( a phrase actually) for coonsideration and induction into the newly revealed Gagdad Bob Hall of Famous Names for Flibbertigibbets.

Dozy Bints

1.) dozy adj. Perhaps most kindly represented by the word slow. Someone described as 'dozy' might be a little sluggish at picking things up.

2.) bint n. Woman, in the loosest sense of the word. One step short of a prostitute, a bint is a 'bird' with less class, less selectivity, more makeup and even more skin. 'Blokes' don't talk to bints unless they've had at least eight pints of beer, which is why bints turn up in free-for-students nightclubs at 2:45 am with their faked student ID and dance around their non-designer Che G. backpacks.

wv approves: wkotwmz

Wack on the women zombies.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

There's nothing to it!

walt said...

Existence...

...NonExistence...

and "flibbertigibbit??"

Haven't heard that word since I was a kid, and NEVER knew it was a real word. My Dad's family was from Texas, so perhaps MizzE will find a cultural basis for her investigations.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Sudoku: It is said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you."

Anonymous said...

Seek O and 1 shall be added... or subtracted...

NoMo said...

What a brilliant post! That is to say beamy, bright, effulgent, incandescent, irradiant, lambent, lucent, luminous, lustrous, radiant, refulgent, shiny, glorious, gorgeous, magnificent, proud, resplendent, splendid, splendorous, splendiferous (?), auspicious, fair, favorable, fortunate, propitious, intellectual, intelligent, knowing, knowledgeable, etc.

“Oh blinding light,
Oh light that blinds,
I cannot see,
Look out for me!”

Firesign Theatre (Don’t Crush That Troll (Dwarf), Hand Me The Pliers)

Joan of Argghh! said...

Goose eggs. Goose eggs are laid by silly geese.

A proposal: All trolls henceforth shall be referred to as Geese, as evidenced by the goose eggs they leave around here. They got nuthin'.

****

Ximeze! Our fears are allayed and our hearts gladdend to hear of your safe journey and welcome return to our lodgings here at OC. We shall visit you anon, for we wish to hear a full account of your adventures. I hope you received the boquets and sweet treats we sent your way. Indeed, Van and Will and the others here insisted on making such a fuss!

*****

Mizze, the "female zombies" are neither. I suspect if Dupree wanted he could assure my suspicions that the particular posts you refer to are in fact, posted by a man. Coon vision. Scary-smart.

Anonymous said...

Another tool for Dupree:
humiliate them by disemvoweling them.

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=199600005

-AB

Anonymous said...

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/
printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=199600005

Anonymous said...

Sudoku

I believe i have, but it wasn't through any ritual or voluntary meditation.

What i experienced was a long, painful, day after day "cleansing" of a false sense of what i was taught to be important.

This culminated in a real/pyhsical change in the FACT that i became allergic reaction to Zoloft that i was taking for depression.

The "nothing-ness" was exactly that, a huge burden lifted off of my 'being'.

There is much more i would like to share with everyone but that would take more time than i can afford.

julie said...

Dougman,
are you the E3 Dougman?

julie said...

Dilys,
thanks for the links - more light reading for this morning :)
After this week's comments, I'm going to have to read more C.S. Lewis, I think.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Ah, yes. Tim O'Reilly's code had one problem: It succeeded in disarming the proprietor as WELL as the miscreant..

Disemvowel? Sounds like delightful fun.

With trolls, I guess you just need to make light of them.

Dougman! Is this the dougman we're allowed to blame?

Anonymous said...

yup, that's me.

robinstarfish said...

The Secret of Nothing
this one comes after
one hundred seventy three
row with ether oar

Anonymous said...

One Cosmos geese are always self-refuting, being that the Secret protects itself anyway. Thus, all Coons can add is a little mockery, or the icing on the kook.

Anonymous said...

argghhLady:

Those were eggs??

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Raw-tin agggghhhhs!

Mizz E said...

Walt, per your request:

Not gobsmackingly, I had never heard the word used until today, so I googled 'Texas & Flibbertigibbets'. It's an old word, Shakespeare was fond of it, so that must explain its heavy use in Texas. (My ancestors arrived from England in the mid 1500s.)

Current day usage of flibbertigibbet in Texas:

"Fourteen Interrogatories for Flibbertigibbets"

"Flibbertigibbets get stuck for the drinks"

"Save-the-Planet eco-flibbertigibbets"

"flibbertigibbets share fantasies of fighting heroically"

"current crop of political flibbertigibbets off the hook"

"my message has always been that ugly flibbertigibbets suffer"

"It's hardly news to note that Austin, Texas has an above-average number of ... Right-wing religious flibbertigibbets".

Mizz E said...

Scary-smart Joan.
You expand my depth of field, again.

wv: dkzzl - dark zombies zapped by Light

julie said...

Mizze,

It's interesting that the definition listed in wikipedia ranges from a flighty young person to a demonic succubus.

I suppose the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive; I've known enough people (usually women) who act like the former but really are more the latter.

Van Harvey said...

Note to Mrs. G -

Some of us, those whose brains haven't just leaked out their tearducts, would appreciate it ever so much if you could... after DL's gone to sleep, ever so quietly, creap, sneak, stealthily (Argh! STOP that!... sorry) into his study, carefully remove his thesaurus, and again ever so quietly, burn it, smash it, tear it, stomp on it with the utmost brutality and extreme prejudice and then force it down the garbage disposal chunk after dreadful chunk!!!

Thank you.

:-|

Anonymous said...

Dear Van,
I would love to help you with this little project, but I'm a little leary of poking around back there.

Let's just say that when you get within 50 yards of GB's "home office," you hear what sounds like a squirrel fight. Or a raccoon scrum.

This I will do. If GB ever accidentally leaves the thesaurus in our shared living quarters, I'll put it in the freezer til garbage day when I can destroy it once and for all.

Fondly,
Mrs. G

Anonymous said...

The electron is composed of energy.
Energy just plain is.

Where did it come from? Is there a prime cause?

Of course there is, but we needn't worry about what it might be.

The important thing is to just relate to what is.

So, of course I exist. I am electrons, protons, and neutrons, of an origin with I can have no truck with (and neither should any sensible person).

You can't know it so give up already.

NoMo said...

So, the fact that there is a word for nothing makes it something?

wv: cogbo (and that ain't nuthin' neither)

julie said...

real freakin' something,
and your point is?

Anonymous said...

So, J of Arghhh, bethinks ye I a man?

On what evidence base ye this?

Give a good answer and I shall let ye know if you err or not.

NoMo said...

real freak - I'm sorry you have no truck, but how can we help you?

Van Harvey said...

Mrs. G,
I understand completely - my wife says about the same thing.

Of course anything you can safely do, would be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

;-)

Anonymous said...

My point is that I am a lefty and I am something, not nothing, and neither do I believe in nothing as GDB suggests.

He's just plain wrong about that.

Leftists are not atheists. That went out in 1956. We are Buddhists. You're tilting at windmills in your own mind, Don Juan.

NoMo said...

real freakin' reality - but seriously, this may make no sense to someone as "rational" as you, but it has been embraced by scores of humans down through the ages -

"...faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Heb 11:1)

You need some (along with a good reliable truck).

Van Harvey said...

dozy bint said "So, J of Arghhh, bethinks ye I a man? On what evidence base ye this?"

Pardon me for butting in, but the fact that you asked might be a tip off?

julie said...

So, you speak for all leftists?
I know a lot of agnostics, Jews, Christians, atheists and even Wiccans who are leftists. Are they all Buddhists, too? They have a lot in common, however, which is why broadly speaking they are self-identified leftists.

If you are real and not nothing, as you say, you might be better served to first speak for yourself, that we might respond better. Saying that atheism went out in 1956 is just silly.

Unless, of course, you're trying to be funny, in which case I can only excuse my lack of laughter by saying that Bob already got my laughs for this morning.

dpstnt - no, rather shallow I think...

Van Harvey said...

"Pffffttt!" "Pffffttt!" "Pffffttt!"

walt said...

MizzE -

Thanks ever so much for the education. Obviously, my ignorance of a fine old English word like 'flibbertigibbet', was exactly that i.e. "my ignorance." But now I be smartened, thanks to your help.

julie said...

Off topic, but interesting:
Once again, science suspects what coons already gno.
What's funny and sad about these articles, though, is that the idea of the vertical is strictly verboten; anyone mentioning the "G" word is dismissed as a mystic crackpot.

(TW Dave Barry's Blog)

Sometimes, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Anonymous said...

When I say that all leftists are Buddhists I allude to the fact that they all believe in the impersonal infinite.

Wiccans are Buddhists, as are agnostics. "Atheists" are simply confused Buddhists. All of them to a (wo)man will admit to the logical necessity of Prime Cause (God)and all will say It is a quality-less silent void.

All leftists like to "walk in nature" because they get the sense of being close to the infinite in cosmic nature and sounds of wind and water and the feel of sunlight on the skin.

But they have trouble admitting the personal God; deny that God can have a face and can speak so that we may hear.

The fact is, they wish this were so; they play a game of sour grapes with God. "I can't see you, God, so I'm going to assume you don't know me. This way I won't be dissapointed."

They are petulant children; Daddy's been gone too long so that now when he comes they say "I don't know you."

Anger at being left alone is tempered by the knowledge that the Parent is out there somewhere.

But to think one is nothing?

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Oh you are quite nothing, for you are a potential, and a potential is not measurable nor extant until it appears, and yet it is; so it is nothing, a positive void. Nothing is and yet isn't. It's called a paradox.

If you have a genuine question use a non-troll name.

walt said...

Van, I noted with interest how you said,
"Phffffttt! etc. etc."

We all know how you've struggled with this. It is heartwarming to watch your progress.

Anonymous said...

Here is the genuine question:

All things return to the One, to where does the One return?

Anonymous said...

To the many. And then back.

Anonymous said...

And that about sums up everything you need to know about life.

Thank you, Petey.

NoMo said...

Yep, RFR, if you've got that in your head, you've got it in a nutshell. Ha!

8']

Anonymous said...

Correction: in notshall.

Stephen Macdonald said...

River:

Methinks "Realy Freakin'" may be a bit curious about this little corner of the Coonsmos...

I can ususally smell a troll immediately. Something about this chap/gal gives me pause.

Maybe he/she is willing to hang around and absorb a bit. Never forget that the Dear Leader was once a fargin' leftist himself (as was yours truly).

I like to entertain the notion that at least some of the self-confessed flatlanders can be turned (inflated?).

--------------

Anyone ever notice that there are times when the late quartets are all but impenetrable, and other times when the luminosity and grandeur cause open weeping?

Anonymous said...

From Joe Vs. The Volcano (damn! not him again!):

ANGELICA: Daddy told me to tell you that I don't know what he hired you for, and not to tell me. That I'm totally untrustworthy. I'm a flibbertigibbet. C'mon, let's get outta here.

JOE: I've got some luggage.

...A short time later...

ANGELICA: You want me to come in? I could come up with you?

JOE: No.

ANGELICA: Alright. Will you have breakfast with me? I'm supposed to get you to the boat by ten, but I could meet you for breakfast.

JOE: Okay.

ANGELICA: I told you I was a flibbertigibbet.



Note: Everything a coon needs to know is in that movie. ;--)

Anonymous said...

Mrs. G.: take heed to Van! Stop this abuse now! nip it in the bud!

walt said...

Dilys, you are too much! Correct, of course, but too much!

Anonymous said...

There seems to be a lightheartedness here today, which I would like to destroy now, please -

>> . . . it ("nothing") also implies, by derivation and by analogy, the phenomenon of 'less' and, in another respect, that of 'evil<<

Reminds me of something I think pertinent in this day and age: in Buddhist and filtered-down new agey thought, evil is often thought of as a mere negation of the good, ie, it is a "nothing" that is merely an absence. It is allowed that this "nothing" is actually the "something" of maya, which of course is an "illusory something" - which is ultimately "nothing".

There's a certain truth to this, of course, but I think it's an incomplete truth, one that tends to dismiss the impact and ultimately the threat, of evil. I tend toward the idea that the "nothing" of evil is more than simply an absence of the good, but rather is a "thing-in-itself nothing" in the same way that anti-matter, while being a negation, is also a "thing in itself".

Actually I think this is thunderingly self-evident when the perversities - and that's using a very mild term for it - of the Islamofascist culture are considered, And then there's the satanic theatricality of serial killers. Such things are *statements* saying in effect that Creation is being reversed, order being reduced to chaos. This amounts to a lot more than the mere "absence of good" - there is an intelligence behind it.

I hasten to add here that one should never allow one's self to become obsessed with the problem of evil. However, it is at least as dangerous, probably more so, to neuter evil down to the level of a simple emotional untidiness or misguideness - that's just another method by which the devil convinces people he doesn't really exist.

Lisa said...

The One never left, hence no return! It just is!!!

Mizz E said...

Required field must not be blank -Blogger

Anonymous said...

Quote Christopher Hitchens on Shawn Hannity's Fox News show:

"If you gave Jerry Faldwell an enema, you could bury him in a matchbox."

Christopher, you sick fucking subhuman scum, it's too bad for you that there is most certainly a hell, and you are going straight there.

Not that I don't have my issues with the Christian right, but this was a man of God who did a lot of good.

What kind of depraved fuck actually thinks like this, let alone spouts these views on national tv??

Anonymous said...

Someone who disagrees with his points of view, his conclusions, his methodology, perhaps. You sound like a good candidate for overstatement yourself. Freedom is as freedom does, you slick puck.

Mizz E said...

Unfortunately, this Hitchens fellow is a man of such choler that--Well, things are as they are.

Anonymous said...

Pay no attention to smoov and his lightweight approach to coon etiquette. A good gagdaddian coon is a solitary creature at heart, and too many of us means we're on the wrong track. Smack the interlopers, I say! Nip them in the bud before they spoil our club. This stuff, as Bob says, is Self Protecting and as such our smug attitude is not only warranted, it is demanded! Remember as Schuon says, we owe nothing to nobody, 'cause we're spiritual and God is on OUR side! They owe us! (OK, so I paraphrase.) Deguello!

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Or, piratically, (which my spell checker did not catch?) things ARR as they ARR... matey. (Petey?)

RFR: Think about it this way; there is the Nothing that is Something, which is Atma, and then there is the Something that is Nothing, which is Maya. I don't beeleaf I botched that won...

I doesn't think the One ever went anywhere to begin with, except for Once and then he went back.

Makes digital so much more elegant...

One... O! One... O! One... O! O! O! One... One... O!

And sO On(e).

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Pay attention to no puffery emitted by dozy anonymouses; nor ruffery permitted or remitted by such! No guff or scuff you bumbling tumbler, your rumbling grumbler of stuff! Enough!

Van Harvey said...

cosanostradamus "Note: Everything a coon needs to know is in that movie. "

Big... big... Mooon....

Van Harvey said...

dilys said "Mrs. G.: take heed to Van! Stop this abuse now! nip it in the bud!"

Exactly Right!

;-)

Van Harvey said...

er ;asldk jkfk;; (groan...) d;fa (erarrgghhh!!!...)

"Pffffttt!" "Pffffttt!" "Pffffttt!"

Van Harvey said...

will said "There seems to be a lightheartedness here today, which I would like to destroy now, please"

ahh yes... lightheartedness... you know, I think evil dislikes lightheartedness (not humor, for that can be one of it's most effective tools) with a special hatred - you know why? Because it operates similarly to one of it's major tactics - but with exactly opposite results.

There are two types of Evil, the one that disintegrates, pulls apart and leaves a destroyed nothing in it's wake, and there is the type that misintegrates, purposefully and with fell precision, takes what doesn't go together and forces their junction, plugs dream A into horror Z, and brings all connections in between to utter destruction and despair - leaving less than nothing in it's wake.

How is that similar to lightheartedness? Lightheartedness takes two things that you wouldn't normally associate, puts them together in a context that makes skewed but surprising sense, and in that merry misconnection relieves anxiety and lifts your spirits - producing more than was there before. Read some of P.G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories for a good sense of what I mean.

I think Tolkein had that in mind with his Tom Bombadil character. Gandalf & Elrond, who thought him the most powerful being in middle earth, were concerned that he not guard the ring, not because he would misuse it, but because he wouldn't pay it an ounce of attention - couldn't be bothered. He had his songs and his wife Goldberry, the "Daughter of the River," and those who didn't see the power in that, he let them crumble in his wake.

A nice thought. But unless you have Tolkein writing your script, I'd stock up on some more substantial defenses as well. Where Am I going to with this? I think to bed. Yep, pretty sure... to bed.

NoMo said...

Van - Yes. True lightness of heart is only born of faith and hope - two realities the dark side can awkwardly imitate at best. Not to mention the 3rd and greatest...
I Cor 13:13.

Anonymous said...

RFR has a point. Most self-declared atheists (especially on the left) are really antitheists; they do believe in God, they're just unwilling to admit it because they have some personal grudge against Him.

To quote Richard B Riddick: "You've got it all wrong. I absolutely believe in God - and I absolutely hate the f__ker."

Anonymous said...

Good points, V'an.

Of course evil takes itself really seriously due to its ego-gravitational force. Real heavy, not light.

The light heart and spirit does not take itself too seriously, not in the ego sense. It can fly, bounce around, go hither and yon.

Some of the saints were seen to levitate on occasion. Now, that's *really* light-heartedness.

walt said...

Dilys -

I recall one "scene" you made entitled Little Garden of the Holy Virgin, and I believe you had attached a quote by Schuon.

Any chance you still have a link for that one? Or if you remember more or less when you did it, I could search through the archives.

mythusmage said...

Somebody's been reading The Silver Surfer again.

Mizz E said...

.

getting closer to closing time
pull up a nous chair
nothing to see soon

-o.o-

Magnus Itland said...

There is an immense difference between the darkness of a black hole and the darkness of empty space.

Empty space is filled with pure potentiality, while the dark hole rips apart everything that comes close.

It has been theorized that in the end, potentiality will overcome the black holes when they are left alone long enough, causing them to evaporate, the smallest first. I guess we shall find out in November when the Large Hadron Collider first attempts to make actual physical black holes on Earth.

Anonymous said...

Magnus, not sure if they're actually going to try to create a black hole at the LHC. Some are voicing concern that, among other things, there is a danger that they could create a stable black hole.

If they do manage to do that, we will all truly be one . . in a little compressed dot. Won't even have time to pack your bags.

Anonymous said...

Walt, the Schuon quote was of course via Gagdad I think on or before March 24, 2007. Here is the graphic, incorporating a 15th century painting by Lochner.

Anonymous said...

"If they do manage to [create a stable black hole] we will all truly be one . . in a little compressed dot. Won't even have time to pack your bags."

Thanks will for that information. I've been looking for a metaphor for the wrong-headed New Agey participation mystique lust for premature One-ness.

Some just won't rest until mankind collectively constitutes only a compressed dot in a black hole.

walt said...

Dilys -

Thank you so much! Yes, that's the one; I should have bookmarked it to begin with. Your choices of images and graphics are very intriguing.

Susannah said...

"Big... big... Mooon...."

:D That was my favorite part of the movie. Speaking of synchronicity, I've just begun reading and thoroughly enjoying Wodehouse this year. And, of course (because that's how these things work) now I see him referenced everywhere.

Regarding that Dr. Sanity post...Why We Homeschool. I'm not turning our children over to an entity that is intent on destroying their faith.

Last to comment, as always. :) Lateness is my special talent.

Anonymous said...

As they say, the source of our greatest strengths are to be found in our weaknesses.

Will did it again.

Plucked another string whose resonation (in my head) just won't stop.

Thanks Will, it makes life more interesting.
Not to say that all the other "pluckers" don't teach and resonate with me.

I learn alot here everyday.
Thanks All.

(Hey! my First stab at italics worked!

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