When we are confronted by the possibility that everything we’ve learned in life could be a lie, how do we “know” what we think we know?
FLOATING ON AN ENDLESS SEA
OF QUESTIONS AND UNCERTAINTY.
DRIFTING ON AND IN A FATHOMLESS ABYSS:
A TINY PLANET FLOATING IN THE SKY.
OUR NAKED FLESH CANNOT SURVIVE
THE AIRLESS COLD ON EITHER SIDE.
DRIVEN BY WINDS OF CHAOS AND REALITY
WE STEER OUR TINY BOAT OF LIES
TO SUSTAIN OUR FRAGILE LIVES
FOR AN INSTANT IN ETERNITY.
WHO NAVIGATES THE BRUTAL TIDES?
ARE WE OUR ONLY FRIEND AND GUIDE
WHILE SAILING THROUGH INFINITY?
“In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.”
“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.”
“Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.”
“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.”
“I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.”
Watch the excellent video excerpt about the life and philosophy of Spinoza from the book The Story of Philosophy, by Will Durant
Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677 ) has been called by some “The Prince of Philosophers”. By the Catholic Church and the Jewish priests he was banned as a “heretic”. Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine. The Jewish religious authorities excommunicated him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23. His books were also later put on the Catholic Church’s Index of Forbidden Books.
If you are fundamentally heretical, like me, how can you not love this guy?
haiku, unrhymed Japanese poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. The term haiku is derived from the first element of the word haikai (a humorous form of renga, or linked-verse poem) and the second element of the word hokku (the initial stanza of a renga). The hokku, which set the tone of a renga, had to mention in its three lines such subjects as the season, time of day, and the dominant features of the landscape, making it almost an independent poem. The hokku (often interchangeably called haikai) became known as the haiku late in the 19th century, when it was entirely divested of its original function of opening a sequence of verse; today even the earlier hokku are usually called haiku.
Originally, the haiku form was restricted in subject matter to an objective description of nature suggestive of one of the seasons, evoking a definite, though unstated, emotional response. The form gained distinction in the 17th century, during the Tokugawa period, when the great master Bashō elevated the hokku, as it was then known, to a highly refined and conscious art. Haiku has since remained the most popular form in Japanese poetry.
