Ideas

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A sign of narrow mindedness is to defend ideas. Ideas are made to discuss, not to defend.

Tantra - physical vs spiritual

Based on online definition:

Look at these spiritual beings!

"Tantra is a Sanskrit word that means 'woven together.' Hindu and Buddhist meditation practitioners use sexual union as a metaphor for weaving together the physical and the spiritual: weaving man to woman, and humanity to the divine. The purpose is to become one with God."

Oh please, give me a break! Admit it, it's just physical! There might be some emotional and spiritual touch but, sex is sex. The so called "divine" or "spiritual" part is way too far fetched. To me, it only shows humans' lack of confidence in pursuing physical pleasure.

Intelligence vs. Smartness

Intelligence Failure (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It takes great intelligence to know that we ultimately know nothing, so it's not a surprise that this world is full of "smart" people who think we know everything.

Ignorance

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Never underestimate the power of ignorance. It can do great harm, disregard the so called "good intention".

Reason to Love

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Being loved is never the reason to love. Love is. And it's the only reason.

Unconditional Love and Self-esteem - A Psychological Study of Child Abuse Victims' Emotional Journey

unconditional. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We all need love. This is because that love make us feel connected to others, and this connection eases, or even eliminates our biggest fear: loneliness. Thus love becomes the greatest – sometime the only - reason for us to live.

But, unfortunately, love from others are not entirely secure. It comes and goes without warning. It's beyond our controls. This is because love from others usually is “conditional”, which means it happens only if we are in possession of certain conditions, such as physical beauty, wealth, social status, etc. So without these conditions, we are in danger of losing love. But, if one gains a type of love that is “unconditional”, he/she would feel the most secure in his/her life, because this love is provided regardless how he/she is, and stays with him/her as long as he/she lives. 

So where does unconditional love come from? I found that they mostly come from two sources: 1, parents; 2, one's own.

Individualism vs Generalization

Individualism doesn't necessarily mean to ignore the collective or general differences between groups, such as races, cultures, nations, etc., but only means to refuse to use them as guide to treat each individual.

"No I Can't" and by Saying That, I Know I Am One of the Most Positive Persons on The Earth

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"Yes I can!", or "No, I can't", seem to be the signs of positive and negative personality for most people to identify. Over stated? Just look at those overwhelmingly "liked" facebook posts, we get idea.

Long ago I told a by-then friend of mine that "I can't do" something due to my critical illness (oh yes I was all time ill for over a decade - a decade of NEGATIVENESS!), he "kindly" preached to me by saying: "Mei, I don't like to hear you say you can't", as if I said that just by a willful "choice" - another concept worshiped by freewill addicted culture. Without his explanation I knew why he said that, because it was my "upbeat" personality that drew him to me, so naturally my constant remarks of "I can't" really did not reflect his impression of me. Obviously we had "problem" with communication and friendship died soon after.

Physical Vs. Mental

It's so strange that it takes a person like me, who naturally doesn't enjoy much physical pleasure, to believe that the physical part of life is more essential, more decisive, thus more important than the mental part among our whole life existence. Most people don't realize this simply because they take their good physical health for granted.

Belief

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Faith/belief should only be the guide of our acts, not our understanding of universe.

From Ignorance To Stupidity

English: Bust of Socrates in the Vatican Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are all ignorant in some ways but not all stupid. So what's the "line" divides stupid and wise? Socrates put it quite brilliantly over 2 thousands ago, but let me add something to it so it can cover both ends: those who admit our ignorance are wise, those who don't stupid.

Defending Weakness

It seems (to me) that in most cases, to ignore the obvious only serves one purpose - to defend our weakness.

Apology & Evolvement

Those who do not apologize will not evolve.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Tragedy Unavoidable?

(spoilers)

Just finished reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the first Thomas Hardy I've ever read, will not be the last for sure. I wonder what made me to neglect this literature classic for so long. I watched movie "Tess" when I was a teenager, it somehow didn't strike me as hard as "Jane Eyre" or some other films adapted from literature masterpieces. Recently, for some obscure reasons I picked up the original book, found myself immediately drawn into the story.

There's not much I could say about this book that is not been already said by others. Tess - an astonishingly beautiful peasant girl, a "fine creature", yet unbelievably selfless even downtrodden, tries relentlessly to make a better life for her family and herself, ends up being hanged. Not even that, none of the miserable happenings befall her is her fault, but she endures them all nonetheless. The tragedy is simply beyond anyone can bare. Her ultimate sacrifice seems avoidable, as I myself already "designed" a dozen of different endings, however, I have to admit, what she does at the end - murdering Alec d'Urbervilles is completely understandable under the context. Basically, Thomas Hardy just created a flawless tragedy, let his readers continue to moan for her heroine for centuries.

Science And Industry - Problems Or Solution?

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Those who think science and industry are culprits for humans' misery in modern time just because of pollution and deadly weapons, forgot how miserably humans lived prior to industrial revolution, forgot that it was due to science and industry we could afford today's overloaded population. Sure, pollution and deadly weapons are bad, but unfortunately by getting rid of science and industry will certainly not solve the problem, instead, better science and industry will do. And of course, as population and science grow, new problems will be created. So to keep creating problems and to keep solving them, this seems to be a vicious cycle in which we humans are doomed, unless we stop our desire to live life.

Is It Really All About Perspective?

We often hear people saying "It's all about perspective", as if we are all equally ignorant, equally in the dark. While there's a grain of truth in this notion, I found it's not 100% true, because beside "perspective", there is are something called "dimension".

In this illustration two shadows on the walls are two dimensional shaped shadows (square and circle) resulted from viewing this cylinder from two 2-dimensional perspectives. The real "idea" of actually object - cylinder - needs to be seen from 3 dimensional view point, that is, not only looking at it from left and right, but also from "up" - a view point that breaks 2 dimensional surface.

True Morality

New Morality (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From certain perspectives, true morality comes from the quality of being able to resist cultural influences.

"Stranger Beside Me" - Ann Rule's Epic Tale Of America's Most Dangerous serial Killer

English: Ted Bundy in custody, Florida, July 1978. Florida Memory Project, Florida Photographic Collection, #N035653 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Some very light spoilers)

I had never heard of Ted Bundy's name until I saw part of his documentary on TV (20/20?) very recently. I was immediately drawn into the story and fascinated by his case for a conscious reason: his look. He didn't look like criminal, rather, he looked handsome, educated, sensitive and extremely charismatic. So I did some research and found a book to read: Ann Rule's Stranger Beside Me.

This is the first true crime book I've ever read and I found it extremely riveting. The most extraordinary part is the fact that Bundy was actually Rule's friend for many years. They both worked as partners in a suicide support center Crisis Clinic in Seattle, WA., and built a warm friendship since then. Rule had no slightest idea that at the time they worked together, Bundy already started his heinous killing. Rule always believed that her friend was a kind, friendly and intelligent young man whom she would want to marry if she was 10 years younger.

Overcome Weakness

The best way (or the first step) to overcome one's weakness is to accept - even embrace - it.

The Worst Misfortune

The worst misfortune one can get, other than natural disasters, wars, fatal diseases, is the misfortune created by the difference between what one wants and who he/she actually is - the greater the difference is, the more unfortunate one would be.