Up The Mountain

The best use of philosophy is to open the door and invite a walk in the garden of thought.

Dana Bate
****************
Hello Diane
****************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
When you stop thinking, night falls.
-------------------------------------
I enjoy reading philosophy (as I have said ad tedium). And I particularly like it when the philosophers don't agree with each other. There would be no point to philosophy or any form of original thought if they did.

Many philosophers through out the years of recorded history have started out on the journey as mathematicians, measuring the length, breadth and depth of human experience. And then a day comes when they reach the foot of the magic mountain of enlightenment or what they believe or hope is enlightenment and the climb begins. There may be only one summit but the choices of how to reach it are many. And that poses a problem for some people.

I know of a Museum of Philosophy that has a lot on interesting displays and biographical material about the world's philosophers But there is also a computer with a program that lets you answer a whole string of questions, and at the end will suggest a philosopher or two that best agree with your answers. It's a Find Your Own Philosopher game. The temptation is to then read that philosopher's works and none others. One thinks one has found his master and enlightenment is inevitable. But is it?

It's practically impossible to know at the beginning if that philosopher's trail up the magic mountain is a right one. Does it reach the summit or does it lead you into an intellectual gully? You won't know till you get there. The danger is to concentrate on your master's words and ideas to the exclusion of any conflicting thoughts. To follow in the footsteps of one only guru may lead to the green pastures of peace and knowledge. But by not challenging those footsteps as you go you may end up in the shadows.

Most of the inspired philosophers I have read, from Plato to recent times, all say, in one way or another, that the purpose of philosophy is not to tell you what to think or how to think but to get you to think for yourself. In other words there is a general acknowledgment that we are capable of exploring our own thinking, forming our own opinions and testing them out, making up our own minds. Original thought is the birthright of the human being,

That leads to another and even greater opportunity and obligation for the thinking person, the one who has accepted the responsibility of his own mentality. Somewhere along the pathway in that garden of thought are philosophers who know and warn that the issues of our lives are so much rooted in our thoughts that we ought to be careful about what we think. Hence the challenge to every aroma in the garden and every thought that passes through the air like a dandelion seed. And thus the discipline of looking ahead, deciding what you want and what you don't want and tracing them back to the thoughts which produce them.

The same watchman who guards the entrance to the garden is also the guide who can steer us to our right paths if we are awake, alert and thinking.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
***********************

Jacques And Job

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Herman Melville
****************
Years ago I played Jules in a production of "My Three Angels" in Florida. During the show I had to carry a live chicken across the stage. The hen was big and heavy but she was no trouble. She flapped her wings on cue. The only problem was with her name.

The crew person who handled her backstage kept referring to her as "Henrietta" and that's how she would be listed in the program. I objected. Every chicken who has ever appeared on a stage has been called HEN rietta. Couldn't people, for once, come up with a real name and not try to be cute. No. Henrietta she remained. I don't think she cared, but I did.

Another time I did a play in New England which was based on a short story that had been made into a famous film. The director wanted us to do the play exactly the way they did it in the film. He even hired actors who looked the same as those in the film. He would not listen to any alternative reading of a line or interpretation of the script. We were to reproduce the film on the stage. How boring.

I've known directors who have come straight out of a Drama Department somewhere who then try to produce a play just the way it was done back in school. How boring! How stupid!!

I have seen actors who try a Rex Harrison hair cut or Marlo Brando speech because they saw it in a movie. This sort of nonsense doesn't stop at the stage door.

Some thinker comes up with a theory about something. It sounds good. So people accept it as fact and then base their words and actions on it without ever challenging the basic premise. That can go on for decades, even centuries. How many different ways can one explain the theology that comes out of most seminaries? When you come right down to it the question "What's new?" has no answer.

Jacques Bolduc was a theologian who lived in the 16th - 17th Century in France. He was a Capuchin friar and a Hebrew scholar. After many years of research and study he published an account of the book of Job in which he claimed Job was the first book written, possibly by Job himself or one of his friends and possibly discovered by Moses and rewritten. He also put forth the idea that Judaism and hence Christianity are based on Natural Law and the 7 precepts of Noah's sons (Genesis 9).

Bolduc was basically ignored. But when he wasn't there were scathing criticisms of his books. Other theologians called them heretical, absurd, preposterous and sacrilegious. Why? Because they didn't conform to the traditional teaching of the church. Even today there is hardly any notice of Bolduc in modern theological study, and yet some are beginning to think that Job did predate Moses, though they don't give Bolduc credit for first thinking so.

He wasn't completely ignored however. Among the few who listened to him was Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher, who used Job's term "Leviathan" as the title of his most important work, which then troubled the theological waters, like the healing angel of Bethesda, and began a world wide discussion of what that name Leviathan really means.

Look closely. The smiling parson with his arms outstretched in beneficial holiness may be preaching nonsense and not know it. But if so, be assured the nonsense doesn't stop at the last pew.

In science, education, economics, politics, sports and any major endeavor are those who hold on to the "tried and true" and don't listen to a different reading of it. It's easy to believe you're right when no one disagrees with you. It's hard to believe you're right when everyone disagrees with you But those who have the courage to step away from imitation, to practice original thinking and to stand tall and sturdy when the storm of mindless disagreement pelts and blows, just might be on to something.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

With A Clear Head

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Albert Einstein
*******************
Is it possible the human race will ever be saved from itself? The human intellect is an amazing thing. It is capable of great imagination, control and design. And when properly employed it is responsible for marvels. But the improper use, the misuse of the mind, can cause tragedy and disaster.

When theories, opinions, false rhetoric, buzz words, sound bites. self justification, jealousy, revenge, hatred, anger, tangential suppositions, dogma, orthodoxy, cliches, bromides, intimidation, fragmentary ideas and gossip take the place of reason and genuine thinking the mental landscape is blurred by trash.

There has never been a human being who is totally innocent of messing up his head and his heart with presumptions and errors, We are led by the nose into the dark alleys of ignorance almost as easily as we breathe. It is one of those dangers that beset humans, a gremlin in disguise, a gang of marauding pirates masquerading as our own thoughts.

It may seem like a harsh and humiliating discipline, an annoying exercise and pointless task to stop and ask ourselves what we are thinking, to apply an antiseptic bandage to our mouths and a cold shower to our emotions, but if it is the only way we can stop ourselves from being fools then it's worth it.

Wisdom is an evolutionary thing. Truth is always truth but it can take many forms. Public opinion is often quite wrong and ought to be challenged at every step. It has been said that a true leader doesn't create followers, he creates more leaders. Original thought is met with scoffing and abuse, sometimes with violence, until it is honed and shaped to fit the average man's mind set and then takes it's place in the tapestry of the acceptable and soon becomes more of the same general opinion, adhered to without thought.

There will always be a real thinker in some lonely outpost, aloof and remote from the rest of us who sees clearly and knows his own heart. There's your genius. There's the leader.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

PUZZLE - WEEKEND EDITION

Labor over this.
***********************
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC UWTO EPG GUFE PCY FQ, GF ZOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC XBPGG EPG XBOOC PCY XBPWC EPG HOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC HFD EOBO P KOCYOB PCY VPUUFE TOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB, PCY WT HFD BOZOZSOB
KQOC TFUUHE.

KEZ RFCOG

Good luck.
DB
*********************