Tom Storm

That's a great line...

Where I come from psychologists are not well liked, so I'm not so sure. Which probably brings us to another perspective on sages. One person's sage is...

That's good. Can you expand a little on 'vital' and 'ready'?

Good advice for many of us. I think the term is problematic because to me it has some ugly connotations. Esotericism is that which is known or availab...

Hesse - 30 years ago. Kundera 20 years ago. My favourite Kundera quote (I can't find the source anymore) and this is better than many whole books of p...

I don't think I've met anyone who can't enjoy high and low art together. Even Shakespeare put fart jokes in his play. I used to love the movie Barfly....

:up:

Now I think I have heard this before, but it's a fascinating perspective. You can minimize it if you have attained it. But I guess you shouldn't go af...

:up:

Indeed. Murdoch may be atrocious but people forget there was Hearst and Lord Beaverbrook, the Plato and Aristotle of Yellow Journalism.

Yes, that's the question. Justification is not always available.... that's the problem with dying religions. As Nietzsche writes, the ghostly shadows ...

I'm fascinated that the great novelist George Elliot provided a translation of Ethics that is said to be very rich.

That's the commonly held view. Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there - I always suspected that I was watching ...

Huh? The point is that the PWE has significantly influenced secular culture just as Christian ethics have influenced our human rights frameworks. The ...

Not wishing to be in God's favor is the same thing as being a sack of shit.

Being hit by a truck is the same if it were real or an illusion? How do you know that? Wanna give it a test?

As you suggest, altering our ways of seeing can be done in a million ways. The trick may be in which options not to choose. There's almost nothing tha...

The distinction between doing and not doing is curious to me. It sounds very Protestant work ethic - 'Don't just sit in your room, get out there and d...

I picked 'higher' because that is how people often describe it and the literature often talks about levels of understanding. It is hierarchical. I per...

I can't quite follow this one, Tim. Can you expand on knowledge of ideas? I have assumed that esoteric means that which cannot be described but is und...

I hear you but I imagine that even the term 'knowledge' is inadequate for the kind of thing we are attempting to describe. Revealed wisdom is another ...

Gnosis would be another example of esoteric knowledge. Isn't the function of this type of knowledge a realisation that brings the knower closer to hig...

When we talk of sages, are we talking about enlightened or just wise folk?

You bet. And when I used to drink, My Favourite Things. But most often I used to listen to hours of Mahler and transport myself...

Ditto. And of course the funny thing is that almost everything that makes life worth living to me (and many others) is based on elusive glimmers of th...

Or through contemplative practice after years of training, say.... I'm willing to acknowledge that I am 'trapped' in a Western scientific tradition th...

That's a nice succinct intro. I am too Western and modern for this approach but I have enjoyed the discussion. Although it does surprise me that somet...

It's curious isn't it? The argument is also put the other way around by some apologists. Our tiny little precious pocket of intelligent life in an oth...

:up: As you probably know Epictetus has been an influence on a range of helpful therapeutic interventions including rational emotive behavioral therap...

I haven't read one and no one I know has ever disclosed reading one (that I can recall). But I understand they sell like the clappers. Any good exampl...

Not true. I had church and a Christian education until I was 17. Even before I could read, stories of the afterlife held no interest. Nevertheless I c...

That's very enticing. I am not well read in this area. But the centrality of language can not be understated. I have worked for many years in the area...

The alternative is to say nothing. My point is these are folksy maxims and they can't be assessed. They are as wrong as they are right.

Is it a game? But yes, I think he means serious philosophy. He is not talking about principles like social justice or the virtue of non-judgment. Do w...

I have never imagined that there was a life after death. Nothingness has never held any terrors for me. I think resolving this issues is usually about...

Don't want to be a schmo but let's examine this. I can't help myself when I hear these sorts of statements, even though I am sympathetic to this kind ...

Oops, I didn't mean too.

Did I say it wasn't? :smile:

Shouldn't that be 'B'?

:up:

But could not Aoife Jones be changing continually in a singularly Aofie Jones manner? :wink:

Digression: That does make me laugh and I have sometimes said similar things. But the way it's presented is also highly tendentious, using the word 'r...

No

I think there are robust studies demonstrating that secular countries have happier citizens. Religiosity may not really be about God all that much and...

And the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 did not want to believe in the existence of atoms.

Fair enough.

Nice! :cheer:

This is a powerful idea if it is used well. I'm curious, and you may well decline to do this, but if you were a skeptic, hypothetically making a case ...

Sounds like an argument borrowed from the Tao Te Ching. I'm disappointed to learn that Nietzsche is a metaphysician after all. :wink:

Nice and thanks. I just can't read an entire book in this tone. The observations are rich but for me the prose is so swollen, passive aggressive and r...