Tag Archives: leaders

ART, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER, UNIVERSES

FOLLOWING

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“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought”.

— *Basho, (1644-1694)

This is good advice. However, I would amend it to say “Follow in the footsteps of the wise and seek what they sought”.  The harmonics of wisdom recognize the gradient scale of wisdom.  Wisdom is relative to all other wisdom.
In the teaching of wisdom, one much become  a good follower.  Yet to follow effectively one must lead others.  Basho exemplified the most able of wise men.  At the time of his death, Basho had more than 2000 students.
Yet, here is the eternal right of the individual to disdain from the playing of games simply to enjoy the serene and simple state of Being.   Or, the enjoy the pleasure of Creation for its own sake, without regard to an audience.  However, it is far easier to preach to the choir than to enlighten the “heathen”.

Here are a few of the wonderful  *Haiku poems attributed to Bash (they may not have retained their purity in the English translation, but you get the flavour of them):

An old pond!
A frog jumps in-
The sound of water.

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The years first day
thoughts and loneliness;
the autumn dusk is here.

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Poverty’s child –
he starts to grind the rice,
and gazes at the moon.

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A weathered skeleton
in windy fields of memory,
piercing like a knife

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*DEFINITION OF HAIKU: Haiku is one of the most important form of traditional Japanese poetry. Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Since early days, there has been confusion between the three related terms Haiku, Hokku and Haikai. The termhokku literally means “starting verse”, and was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses known ashaika. Because the hokku set the tone for the rest of the poetic chain, it enjoyed a privileged position in haikaipoetry, and it was not uncommon for a poet to compose ahokku by itself without following up with the rest of the chain.

The name Basho (banana tree) is a sobriquet he adopted around 1681 after moving into a hut with a banana tree alongside. He was called Kinsaku in childhood and Matsuo Munefusa in his later days.

 

 

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THE POLITICAL ICON

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“The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. …This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.  When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.”  — Plato, 380 BCE

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“Plato (423 BC – 348 BCE), was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.” (Wikipedia.org)

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LEAPING LEMMING SHEEPLE, BATHOLE!

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HOW CAN HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF PEOPLE BE WRONG? (again, and again, and again, and again….in fact, almost always)

Lemmings became the subject of a popular misconception that they commit mass suicide when they migrate. Actually, it is not a mass suicide, but the result of their migratory behavior. Driven by strong biological urges, some species of lemmings may migrate in large groups when population density becomes too great. They may encounter a body of water along the way, try to swim across and drown.  But, it’s accidental death.  I can happen to any migratory species, and often does. (especially when there are alligators involved!)  Is there any significant difference between human beings and lemmings?  Well, for starters, lemmings are MUCH cuter, they don’t DESTROY their environment and they don’t KILL and EAT other animals.

Since about 8,000 BCE —  the brief history of Humanity on planet Earth — there have been a total of approximately 107,602,707,791 human beings who have lived and died (give or take…).  If you think that re-incarnation is an actual phenomenon, then there is an excellent chance that a LOT of those dead bodies where inhabited by you and me in the past,  over and over and over again.  (I know it’s a scare thought, but so what?  It is what it is, or isn’t according to your own experience.)

During the past 10,000 years or so, most of the powerful “leaders” in the history of humanity were worshiped, endorsed, supported and adored by the majority of the population they led into ruin, death and chaos.  Not just mass-murders like  Hitler, Stalin, Caesar, Bush and Cheney and other obvious psychopaths, but people like The Royal Families and The Popes of the past and present.  These “leaders” who claim they have a  “Divine Right To Rule” — empowered directly by the “word of god” — are equally power hungry, greedy and murderous:  they’re just more clever at disguising their blood / power lust.  In any case, the repeated tendency of “the majority” toward  self-destruction should give one pause to consider the possibility that THE MAJORITY of human beings are 1) Simple-minded 2) Cowardly 3)  Incredibly gullible 4) Suicidal.

I suggest a couple of things to do the next time you see a herd of people (or lemmings) stampeding toward certain death  and disaster, which are the inevitably result of “financial consulting”,  “majority rules”, “banking regulations”, “democratic elections”, “popular opinion”, “honor and glory”, “social / political correctness”, “corporate integrity”, “Hollywood entertainment”, “television commercials” and “government warnings”:

1) STAND BACK SO YOU DON’T GET TRAMPLED

2) HIDE SOMEWHERE “THEY” CAN’T FIND YOU

3) RUN THE OTHER WAY!

4)  IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN AGREEMENT WITH THE “MAJORITY” YOU MIGHT WANT TO GET MORE INFORMATION FROM OTHER SOURCES

5) Or, IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO, GO DOWN TO THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS AND WAVE GOODBYE AS THEY JUMP IN!