snappy quotes for Sunday Feb 7 2010
Posted on 7 February 2010 | 1 response
“..Republicans are stupid. Democrats are evil. It’s a distinction without a difference anymore.
Stupidity is evil, and evil is stupid.
I despair too easily. It gets easy with practice…”
-the Woodchuck of Penn’s Forest, papal contender, hacker, patriot, Marmot
“we are in the first phase of what is perhaps the penultimate revolution. Its next phase may be atomic warfare, in which case we do not have to bother with prophecies about the future. But it is conceivable that we may have enough sense, if not to stop fighting altogether, at least to behave as rationally as did our eighteenth-century ancestors.
The unimaginable horrors of the Thirty Years War actually taught men a lesson, and for more than a hundred years the politicians and generals of Europe consciously resisted the temptation to use their military resources to the limits of destructiveness or (in the majority of conflicts) to go on fighting until the enemy was totally annihilated. They were aggressors, of course, greedy for profit and glory; but they were also conservatives, determined at all costs to keep their world intact, as a going concern.
For the last thirty years there have been no conservatives; there have been only nationalistic radicals of the right and nationalistic radicals of the left. The last conservative statesman was the fifth Marquess of Lansdowne; and when he wrote a letter to the Times, suggesting that the First World War should be concluded with a compromise, as most of the wars of the eighteenth century had been, the editor of that once conservative journal refused to print it.
The nationalistic radicals had their way, with the consequences that we all know - Bolshevism, Fascism, inflation, depression, Hitler, the Second World War, the ruin of Europe and all but universal famine.
Assuming, then, that we are capable of learning as much from Hiroshima as our forefathers learned from Magdeburg, we may look forward to a period, not indeed of peace, but of limited and only partially ruinous warfare..”
- Aldous Huxley, in the Forward to the 1946 re-print of Brave New World (emphasis added)
link of the week, Anna in Cairo
Posted on 31 January 2010 | No responses
My friend Anna Kippervasser, artist and filmmaker, has a blog up detailing some of the magical coincidences and human connections she encounters in her five week trip to Cairo.
Anna is an awesome gal, a woman of many worlds, cosmopolitan, with an international soul able to find connections with, and meaning in, the remarkable souls that lurk underneath the veil of ordinary humanity
Anna in Cairo
http://onlookfilms-5weeks.blogspot.com/
One of the themes of her art is the interrelatedness of humanity, as a Jewish traveler in Muslim Egypt, from her childhood home of the Ukraine to the USA.
Anyway check it out
http://onlookfilms-5weeks.blogspot.com/
A project worth supporting
Posted on 27 May 2009 | 2 responses
My friend Anna Kipervaser, is an artist of great talent, who is working on a film with her partners at On Look Films.
The movie is called Voices of the Adhan: Egypt, and it aims to be a sensitive look at aspects of the culture and Islamic religion in Egypt involving the “adhan”, the daily call to prayer that is an ancient tradition.
Her work deals with issues of the underlying humanity we all share, exploring issues that she and her family faced as Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who experienced suppression for generations. She explores lessons from her past in moving to the United States at a very early age, integrating and trying to see beyond the issues of discrimination they faced as individuals.
Her work is focused on transcending and piercing cultural barriers, finding cross-cultural connections, and exploring with sensitivity that which is common, and unique, in the human condition. This is done from the perspective of a white US citizen, with an Eastern European Jewish background, with a love for the Arab culture. A belief that “uniting cultures can only occur when people put themselves on the line past the fear that has been created by popular media” is her ethos, and the ethos of her partners and associates at On look films.
I really believe this film is worth supporting . Good art helps melt the barriers between us, and open us up to or basic common humanity. Please consider visiting their websites at:
http://www.onlookfilms.com/
http://www.onlookfilms.com/donate.html
Are you… a betting man?
Posted on 23 January 2010 | No responses
“that’s a weak hypothesis…
So.. you’re probably a betting man.”
-Satan, as played by Tom Wait’s in the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnessus
“.There is no black magic, only cheap tricks..”
-Doctor Parnessus, in the same movie.
The old yarn “life imitates art” makes no logical sense, of course waking life cannot imitate art, the work of an imagination, the work of fantasy.
But let me ask you a question, is it not so that art and life intertwine, that both reflects each other and sometimes feeds off each other, that our societies, our cultures, are molded by our art which in turn molds our art as well? Is not art a mirror through which we see ourselves? Both the good of our selves, and the bad?
The power of the imagination is one of the most powerful things that mankind possesses.
Think about it for a moment, look at our humanity. Does not every man and woman, of every race, from 40,000 years ago when our species first walked an earth as Man, as homo sapiens, and not some ape like beast, up till today, have an imagination? Does this not distinguish us from every other animal on our planet? Not so much our intelligence, or the fact that we make and use tools, but our imagination - by the fact that we possess an imagination so powerful that we can create in our minds, in our intellects, things that do not even physically exist. We can create entire worlds, times, objects, and beings, epochs through the ages, all inside our little heads.
The most private and intimate of spaces, and though it may have some chemical analogs, electrical signals and reactions inside a lump of mundane looking, but utterly remarkable beyond comprehension, fatty tissue inside of our thick little brain cases, in truth, something we all know, the imagination and mind are intangible, entire worlds and epochs that never even exist are created inside our heads, every time we sleep and dream, when we daydream, when we drift into a reverie while driving, when we see an attractive stranger and imagine in our heads an entire seduction, from wooing to consummation, when we sit before a drafting table or CAD tablet, and pour out, from sight unseen, entire skyscrapers, fortresses, homes, and bridges, to the most minute detail.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnessus is a most interesting movie.
Do see it, it is quote good.
There are some critics who thought the movie made no sense. Perhaps it is not for everyone, however I assure you that the movie made complete sense, if you watch it with open eyes and an open mind.
Movie critics tend to sadly lack imagination and foresight, which oddly enough is one of the points of the movie.
The movie has many morals and lessons, beyond being a more sophisticated example of an essentially classic Monty Python movie, Terry Gilliam’s imagination loads this movie with an intensely symbolic aspect. But at the root of it are some common sense ideas about mankind’s good, and evil. We should not give away the cat with the cart, see it for yourself, it is a creative, imaginative, powerful and subtle movie. Two common sense take home lessons from it.
One, If you find a man trussed up and hanging beneath a bridge, it is possible that he is there for ..
a very
very
good reason.
Two, making bets with the devil is not a bright idea, even if you win the bet. In particular if you win the bet.
Three, stealing is a bad thing.
Espescially if you steal from children.
Espescially if it’s organs that you steal.
Movies are often potent in their ability to use imagination and symbolism to teach us lessons about our own human nature, both good and evil. Art is a mirror through which we see our own banal and yet magical souls. We are capable of so much, individuation and becoming who we truly are, instead of hankering after a false idea of what we should or could be. We are also capable of monstrosities greater than any beast walking on four legs. We can choose many paths in life, and ever so often
We choose the gilded shiny path leading to a gilt and glittering bridge
built with dry rotted timber.
Pithy quote from Rene Guenon, on modern Western civilization
Posted on 23 January 2010 | No responses
“..most extraordinary of all is perhaps the claim to set up this abnormal civilization as the very type of all civilization, to regard it as Civilization with a capital letter, and even as the only one which deserves the name…”
- Rene Guenon, in East and West
Muhammad Abduh, Egyptian Freemasonry, and the British Mandate
Posted on 20 January 2010 | 1 response
A list of sources, and commentary:
I first heard rumors of Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Ridha, and their ideological father - Jamal al-din al-Afghani, having been high degree Freemasonic initiates about 16 years ago. Initially I dismissed the idea, it seemed to make little sense at the time, but I ran into this historical bugbear now and then more often and decided to dig deeper into it.
Well, lo and behold, Academica has actually beat this issue into the ground, it seems. There was, in the Fin-de-sicle Egyptian revolutionary millieu, an active presence of Freemasonry and the Lodge formed a common ground where middle and professional class Christian British, Egyptian Jews, and Egyptian Muslims, could meet and interact in a fraternal manner, and discuss in confidentiality issues concerning Egypt, Ottoman governance, and British Imperial Governance. It also gave a free and confidential podium in which radical and revolutionary ideas, even those contrary to official policy, were circulated, debated, and discussed.
In researching the friendship of Shaykh Muhammad Abduh, al-Afghani, The Lord Cromer Evelyn Baring of the Baring banking House and several other personages Christian, Muslim, and Jewish, I have found certain sources listed below to be useful and of interest. Some are directly related to this historical question, in my mind, whilst others are of ancillary interest as background information.
This theme is popular idea in Traditionalist Muslim circles, basically that the currently revolutionary ferment in many “Islamist” groups is not an artificat of normative Traditional Islam, but has more in common with ideological imports from the Western world, initially through Freemasonry and later through more modern Socialist and Communist streams of thought.
It is also popular in a few circles, the argument that Freemasonry and Socialism are fifth collumns deliberately introduced into the middle east to weaken the Islamic world. These sort of themes are speculative and many condemn them as paranoid.
There can be, however, discerned a certain degree of influence of certain thoughts, groups, and themes, in what appears to be an organic way. many people experiment with multiple ideologies in their youth, in particular if they are students and intellectuals in inclination. An active thinker may pass through many phases. Since struggles with colonialism and foreign domination loomed large in the early 20th century history of the middle east, it’s natural that secret societies and brotherhoods would attract individuals trying to formulate questions as to why and how an alien civilization has extended hegemony over his homelands. In Masonic Lodges such students would have interacted with not only his compatriots but also colonial civil and military officers, and be able to debate issues of his homeland with foreign individual representing the government of the empires dominating his people.
The Traditionalist argument for fifth column subversion of Traditional Islam does feed from the fact that many current crop of Political Islamists seem focused first on Islam as an ideology and means of social justice first, and only marginally as a path of spiritual rectification and cultivation.
This does suggest a certain origin of ideas. Though from the literature you really can’t say much that is solid. Also the fact that many in the crop of islamists in the 80s were disillusioned former Socialists and Communists is not, in itself, an argument. but everyone is influenced by their origins, for example many have pointed to the Trotskivist origins of older neo-conservatives as a factor explaining their current quirks of behavior and policy.
Correlation is not causation. It is a mistake also to assume that similarity implies common origins.
Why is this relevant?
Need you even ask, turn on the evening news for God’s sake. The middle east and the western world are interlocked in a sets of crisis and conflicts that are profoundly affecting the histories and destinies of both spheres. There are some who frankly might be a bit too simple to see relevance in such themes, but the simple fact that you’ve read this far and have not yet given up out of boredom (yet) does strongly suggest that you are not among such people. Pat yourself on the back.
Such history is confusing, but when you dig into it, it becomes very interesting.
A. Albert Kudsi-Zadeh, “Afghani and Freemasonry in Egypt,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol.92, no.1, 1972. A. Albert examines the clandestine activities of Jamal al-din al-Afghani and how his presence in the Egyptian Freemasonic millieu affected his operations.
A. L. MacFie, British Intelligence and the Turkish National Movement, 1919-22. Middle Eastern Studies, vol.37, no.1 Jan., 2001
Karim Wissa, “Freemasonry in Egypt 1798-1921″. The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Bulletin, vol.16, no.2, 1989
Byron D. Cannon, “Nineteenth-Century Arabic Writings on Women and Society: The Interim Role of the Masonic Press in Cairo - al-Lataif, 1885-1895)”. International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol.17, no.4 1985
Serif Arif Mardin, “Libertarian Movements in the Ottoman Empire 1878-1895″ Middle East Journal, vol.16, no.2 Spring, 1962, pp. 169-182
Jacob M. Landau, “Prolegomena to a Study of Secret Societies in Modern Egypt”.Middle Eastern Studies, vol.1 no.2 1965
Jacob M. Landau, “The Dönmes: Crypto-Jews under Turkish Rule”. Jewish Political Studies Review, Spring 2007
Hamid Algar, “An Introduction to the History of Freemasonry in Iran”, in Journal Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.6 No.3 October 1970
Elie Kedourie, “Young Turks, Freemasons and Jews”. Middle Eastern Studies, vol.7, no.1 Jan., 1971
Sephr Zabih, Reviewed work(s): The Political Elite of Iran by Marvin Zonis. The Journal of Developing Areas, vol.7, no.2 Jan., 1973
Nikki R. Keddie, “Intellectuals in the Modern Middle East: A Brief Historical Consideration” Daedalus, vol.101, no.3, Intellectuals and Change, Summer, 1972
Eliezer Tauber, “Secrecy in Early Arab Nationalist Organizations”, Middle Eastern Studies, vol.33, no.1 Jan., 1997
Erik J. Zurcher, “The Qttoman Legacy of the Turkish Republic: An Attempt at a New Periodization”. Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Bd. 32, Nr. 2 1992
Mehrdad Kia, “Pan-Islamism in Late Nineteenth-Century Iran”. Middle Eastern Studies, vol.32, no.1 Jan., 1996
Nikki R. Keddie, “Iranian Politics 1900-05: Background to Revolution: III”. Middle Eastern Studies, vol.5, no.3 Oct., 1969
Bernard Wasserstein, “Clipping the Claws of the Colonisers’: Arab Officials in the Government of Palestine. 1917-48″. Middle Eastern Studies, vol.13, no.2 May, 1977
Donald M. Reid, “Political Assassination in Egypt, 1910-1954″. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol.15, no.4 1982
_EOF
Melancholia, and random thoughts, on the CD deck is Death in June
Posted on 18 January 2010 | 2 responses
When walking in Melancholia, I tend to listen to Death In June’s NADA! on a repeat loop. Something about that record is kind of soothing to me.
NADA is, I’m convinced, one of the best Industrial and dark synth-pop records of the 80’s, and one of Death In June’s own masterpieces. Though the collaborations with Albin Julius in the late 90’s were also pretty well done.
If they play this stuff at the Dock I just might pop down there on Goth night some time, the last time I was there things were too.. eh.. Wumpscutish for me. I like my dance music melancholy and not prone to inducing adult ADD…
Most music evokes things out of me that I do not want evoked.
It is possible in life and in love for two people to do things in utter sincerity and good will, but constrained by fear and lacking mutual understanding and empathy, we can do things to each other, our bodies, the bodies of those unborn, and the bodies of those already born - things done out of fear, out of self hate, things that once we realize their enormity we not only regret, but that cause us to suffer a bleeding heart through the rest of our lives.
Wallowing in guilt and sadness is an evasion, an evasion of agency, and responsibility. It gives us an easy out, mope, cry, scream, bewail, feel, experience, but do not act and do in the here and now what will free you from making similar mistakes in the future.
To rip-off Douglas Pierce “The guilty have no pride.”
Indeed. Indeed…
This is my favorite song off Nada, The Calling. It brings back memories of youthful love, and friendship, relaxing with co-workers in the kitchen between shifts, catching her eye of and her smile as she turns around the corner back into the dining hall. A touch on the shoulder and waist, a knowing and kind smile, sitting in the back of the restaurant and her shapely form sitting on my lap, laughing during lunch break, a caressed thigh and knee, and then an opportunity given, but never taken. A door left open, but whose passing was never taken. And wondering what if, what if.
Memories of a love so intense and pure and true, almost destroyed, of new life’s potential weighed and lost, of fear and anger, and passion. Of friendship that has survived all of this, and grown more pure. Hours exploring the bones of houses left to dry by the roadsides in America’s heartland, two explorers amidst mason jars never opened again, and crumbling newspapers from the depression.
Memories of another beauty, with a soul more fiery than her hair. Walks around Harrison’s tomb, night time trysts against the cool marble, furtive, looking out for guards. Pleasures shared and guiltily indulged in, walks through pioneer cemeteries, sitting on the pier. Witnessing the first overdose, memories of anger mixed with love and fear. Two bright eyes full of sadness, and despair, and adoration, and lust, and fear, all at once. Of incredible needs no man could fulfill, of the phone call, of a gift of a single remaining lock of hair, and an urn, of burnished brass,, and nothing more.
Or memories of a young bright thing, more coarse than a sailor, almost a girl, and yet still a woman. Of fresh flowers in her hair, and later crushed on a pillow. Of a few encounters without love, simply desire, and, or at least I thought, friendship.
Memories of prayers and bowing, prostrations and vigils, fasts and insights, the glimmerings of gnosis and a soul and body too frail, and slothful, to do what we know we must do once we know that the truth is the truth.
Memories of a father holding a plastic boat with a string tied, the string unloosing and the boat floating away, upon the reservoir. A single tear in a young boy’s eye. The first of many losses, the most minor of them, and yet the most dreamlike.
Of a grandfather’s tombstone, carved in Army marble. Stories told to me of a War few even remember. And next to it a father’s plot, grass beginning to settle after these few years, and yet still no stone.
The danger of music lies in it’s power, to arouse nostalgia, and to stir beneath the steps of Reason’s temple forces older, more primal, and less understood. Those who know of music’s power to evoke, to compel, and at times to control, the pied piper and his calling to the youth. In fairy tales lies food for us to contemplate, the symbol is not identical with the reality, but the symbol may be a warning. Usually one unheeded, a calling given, heard by many, but ignored by most, and puzzled over by a few.
“The Calling” by Death In June
Clear your tears
And dry your eyes
We live in fear
And drunken lies
Douse the flames
Of devil dawning
The cold blade falls
On misty morning
And for their sins
We live and die
The angel cowers
In blackened skies
So take my hand and walk again
We’ll take a walk through yellow rain
She’s calling, just calling…
So now’s the time
We hear the calling
While lovers feast
By mirrored pools
A million cries
From shattered faces
We dance in tune
To the pipes of gold
She’s calling, just calling…
Lyrics copyright Death In June/Douglas Peirce
Quotes of the day for 12, January 2009
Posted on 12 January 2010 | 2 responses
“..Most practitioners of the ‘hard’ sciences look down their noses at what they refer to as the ‘fuzzy’ sciences–those domains that are limited to passive observation, with no or only limited application to the real world. This is an understandable chauvinism; when they look around them, they see bridges, skyscrapers, automobiles, airplanes, cellular phones, CAT scanners, synthetic fibers, all the fruits of their labors. What could compete with all that?
Because of this chauvinism (by definition, in fact), a fusion, synthesis, or synergy, take your pick of terms, combining very powerful aspects of certain hard (mathematically malleable) sciences and soft (non-quantifiable), has been seriously overlooked.
This may in fact be a good thing; if the repercussions of such a blend of domains are as powerful as they seem, the practitioners of such a new field will, quite literally, wield considerable influence…” -’Atreides’ (Michael Wilson) of Seven Pillars Partners and The Nemesis Group, Security and Information warfare consultant.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” - William Blake
“90% of Communication is just presentation. You should think that over, why speak in the first place if no one can understand you. You are communicating for a listener, for them, not for yourself. So you should make sure they at least understand. This is why academics cannot easily affect any significant direct change in the world when dealing with the general public, it is their style, they are talking to specialists, not to common people. But somehow they expect common people to understand them ? You don’t do this, you should consider this. Are you trying to communicate or do you just like to hear the sound of your gas” - Abu Abdullah of Clifton
Thoughtful Quotes of the day, 12/22/2009
Posted on 24 December 2009 | No responses
Quotes I found thought provoking
“Every fear is an unconfronted weakness.” - Kurt Saxon in the essay “Survival and the Paranoid” 1977
“Intellectual understanding in the strict sense is found at the highest pinnacle of human selfhood, what the philosophers call the “actual intellect.” When such understanding leaves the realm of pure intelligence and descends to the level of thought and language, we are dealing with its expression, which will always be inadequate. To begin with, expression is simply transmitted knowledge, not actual understanding. Nonetheless, we can still appreciate that a distinction has always been drawn between these two sorts of knowledge in Islam and other traditions. It is this distinction that I need to clarify at the outset.. ignorance of the foundational importance of intellectual understanding has contributed to the crises faced not only by Muslims, but also by the human community in general.” - William Chittick, Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul
“..an objection will undoubtedly be raised here: Is it possible to go beyond nature? We do not hesitate to answer plainly: Not only is it possible, but it is a fact. Again it might be said, is this not merely an assertion; what proofs thereof can be adduced? It is truly strange that proof is demanded concerning the possibility of a kind of knowledge instead of searching for it and verifying it for one’s self by undertaking the work necessary for its acquisition. For those who possess this knowledge, what interest can there be in all this discussion? Substituting a “theory of knowledge” for knowledge itself is perhaps the greatest admission of impotence in modern philosophy..
..all certitude contains something incommunicable. Nobody can truly attain to any knowledge other than by a strictly personal effort; all that one can do for another is to offer him the opportunity and indicate the means by which to attain the same knowledge. That is why it would be vain to attempt to impose any belief in the purely intellectual realm; the best argument in the world could not in this respect replace direct and effective knowledge..” -Rene Guenon, in his essay “Oriental Metaphysics”
“In the light of what we have recently learned about animal behavior in general, and human behavior in particular, it has become clear that control through the punishment of undesirable behavior is less effective, in the long run, than control through the reinforcement of desirable behavior by rewards, and that government through terror works on the whole less well than government through the non-violent manipulation of the environment and of the thoughts and feelings of individual men, women and children. Punishment temporarily puts a stop to undesirable behavior, but does not permanently reduce the victim’s tendency to indulge in it. Moreover, the psycho-physical by-products of punishment may be just as undesirable…
..impersonal forces over which we have almost no control seem to be pushing us all in the direction of the Brave
New Worldian nightmare; and this impersonal pushing is being consciously accelerated by representatives of commercial and political organizations who have developed a number of new techniques for manipulating, in the interest of some minority, the thoughts and feelings of the masses..” -Aldous Huxley, in his “Brave New World Revisited’, 1958
“the more allies you have, the better your chances. But if all you see now are enemies, that’s all you’ll see when you need friends the most.” - Kurt Saxon in the essay “Survival and the Paranoid” 1977
To relax in strength
Posted on 13 December 2009 | 4 responses
Tension generated as the coil is pressed down. It quivers and is sprung. Released in a direction it exerts force. The coiled spring, the tensed muscle, the panther on its haunches waiting to leap.
With the tension unleashed, the energy is transferred. The spring is sprung. The fist, it flies forth. The cat leaps through the air. The dagger descends with increasing speed. The stone is pushed, and gives way
Shortly before he died, my dad offered a piece of advice - that a man’s life, the entirety of it, is a pecking order.You are pecked up, or down, the order. At the right time your moment arrives, how you react, or act, determines much, When opportunity’s door opens do you even recognize it for what it is? Are you patient enough to wait, to prepare, and then to see things for what they are and do what you must do?
Man’s life is often conditioned by tension and stress. Inwardly we are coiled up by society’s demands. We un-tense and do what we must, or what we are told. Some tensions remain, some coils remain un-sprung, no mode of release is found, and constantly the toll is taken.
The coil’s metal fatigues and cracks. The stress fractures spread.
Our society winds us up like springs. We are fed, from childhood on, a diet of fears and anxieties. We are told contradictions and lies, as to our roles, obligations and duties. The carrot dangled before our noses, we are promised love, and promised friendship, promised shelter, if we but conform, buckle under, and plough on through. The reward is the relaxation, the release promised to be forthcoming.
Tension is managed, the stress sublimated.
In a muscle strength is tension. Each muscle motor unit is told by our minds how tightly to tense itself. Microscopic units in our muscle tissue attenuate the signals our mind sends to tell our muscles to contract. Our muscles can contract with greater force than our sinews and connective tissues can withstand. We can literally rip our own muscles off our bones.
Strength is will. Strength is power, power is the ability to use force to accomplish a task.
Strength can be as mental as it seems physical. And by exerting constant and increasing tension against heavy objects, or against our own muscles, or against immobile objects, we can condition the link between our minds and our muscles, making them more efficient, even causing our bodies to create more neural connections.
Our muscles with work and time grow denser, our tendons grow tougher, and better able to handle loads we place on them. Our muscle fibers themselves grow more mitochondria, more furnaces to stoke and provide energy.
Constant and progressive effort makes us stronger. In all things.
Any faculty of man can be strengthened. Our overly materialistic minds only focus on the symbol of coiled striated muscles, the proportional rippled figure of an Adonis statue. We then loose sight of a bigger picture.
What of our minds? What of our reason, our eyesight, our hearing, our more subtle modes of perception. Do we know what they are? A man can exercise his eyes, his ears, his reason, his intellect. A man can exercise his sex, his touch, his feelings and emotions. A man can and should exercise his will, because the will is where strength truly lies.
To exercise tension and strength is one thing, but what of relaxation and release? The coil, too tightly wound, can break or spring in an unfocused direction. To practice precision and form is essential. To practice relaxation on demand, and tension on demand, is essential. When a man wills overmuch, and undertakes to do that which is greater than him, two things can happen. He can man up to the task, grow stronger, and accomplish his aims.
Or he can break.
If we only know how to tense up, and not how to release, where does this leave us?
The key in strengthening muscles is progressive overload, just a little bit outside your range. You add extra reps, extra sets, extra weight, but with common sense never outstripping your capacity by too far.
You constantly place tasks to accomplish, directions into which you can grow, goals ahead of your nose. They must be realistically close enough at first to accomplish with some effort, because you will be learning to use long dormant faculties. With time you can make the goals more remote, as the confidence of achieving simple tasks just slightly out of reach grows.
When you know that you own your strength, you no longer need to remain constantly wound up and tense. The small dog quivering in rage becomes the larger wolf, relaxed and watchful.
What we were told to fear, we can accept, and swallow, and thus conquering it relaxed.
Pay attention to what others tell you to fear, do not fear these things, but pay attention to them. Some advice is golden and well meant, but some advice is distraction. By understanding what is presented to you, you can glimpse at what it is that you are being distracted from.
It is possible to trap a wary man in just this way. If you are on the look out for a trap then a truth may be presented to you in the knowledge that you will reflexively simply do or seek the opposite. In this way your healthy paranoia can be subverted.
Discretion in all things matters. Listen to all, and weight it. Take the best, leave the rest. Many an ostensible friend is actually an enemy, many a present enemy can become a useful friend and ally. Iago appears honorable and a sincere well wisher. By man a Desdemona is innocent, if you but have the eyes to see, and the mind to perceive.
A man must learn to relax before judgment, before striking, before action. To perceive, and weigh, before he acts.
Haste is not a sign of strength, it is a sign of weakness. The wolf stalks and measures his prey. You must learn to do the same. To do otherwise is stupidity and potentially can shorten your life and prevent you from accomplishing what you ought to.
Relax, sniff the wind, perceive all things before you, and strike at your moment, and no one else’s. IF they tighten the spring, and increase the tension, relax yourself accordingly. Never let them dictate the terms of your engagement. Move at your time, and your pace, having prepared yourself accordingly.
Society tells you what you must do. Allow this to flow by, decide when to fight your battles, against whom, and for what reasons.
_EOF
Wisdom, intellect, and authority: Aqli vs. Naqli knowledge
Posted on 13 December 2009 | No responses
What is knowledge, and how do we know? How do we come to know what we know.
Each civilization has arrived to conclusions on these matters, some give weight to certain answers over others.
To understand the intellectual atmosphere in the world of Classical Old Islam you should understand a basic distinction between two modes of knowledge recognized in the Islamic world. Otherwise it will be difficult to grasp much about the intellectual past and history of Islamic civilization.
Why should I bother writing this? Not for intellectual masturbation or self aggrandizement. How we know what we know is important. Islam plays a certain role in the world today and its conflicts, and has helped mold the world today, so to better understand the world today, its conflicts and tensions, you have to understand where and how Islam has conditioned, and been conditioned by, history.
Not only is a basic grasp of Islam’s intellectual history, and its intellectual interaction with the West, important and fascinating, but the questions and tensions raised in this intellectual history echo in Western Civilization’s intellectual-scape. The unique conclusions of the former, may be interesting to look at from the later. Without such understanding one can hardly be taken seriously if one tries to speak on connected topics. By our looking at a distinction defining Islamic intellectuality, we see things that are reflected in Western Civilization (Christian and post-Christian) and Eastern Civilizations. Epistemology is universal because knowledge is universal.
Classical Islam saw two types of knowledge and sciences (ulum) - “transmitted” and “intellectual” - in Arabic “naqli” and “aqli“. This distinction is based on their modes of acquisition.
In arguments there are two types of proofs, “adilat naqli” and “adilat aqli“. A dalil naqli derives from a textual source, taught and transmitted to the one making the argument, a dalil aqli derives from formal or informal logic, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, or other modes of intellection.
Aqli theorems ultimately rest on basic assumptions and premises that may have been transmitted in a naqli way, however what distinguishes the two is the locus of authority.. for a naqli theorem the source is the authority itself, for an aqli theorem the process of induction or deduction from the basic assumption, and the soundness of the logic used, is the source of authority.
Some branches of knowledge displayed both naqli and aqli sides. For example, poetry, or the arts of love-making. The martial arts, and physical culture are mixed arts, partial transmission and partial intellectual and physical self-cultivation
Most, however, fit into one or the other category.
Naqli:
A Naqli science or knowledge is thus known because it needs to be transmitted from one generation of scholar to student. The only possible way to learn it is to receive it from someone else, or as the phrase goes “from heart to heart, from breast to breast”.
In actual practice it is possible to receive a naqli branch of knowledge through self-study and erudition, however it is very difficult to do so because, at the lowest levels the complexity of the subject matter and the subtle nuances involved require an experienced master to impart the finer subtleties of this knowledge. The self-studying student will always be deficient unless he or she be possessed of a monstrously strong intellect and a sort of willpower that tends to be rare.
History, grammar, verbal morphology, general language, Sharia and law were all examples of transmitted knowledge. Also knowledge of Scripture - Quran and Hadith (traditional narrations) is naqli since the subtleties in their interpretation were taught by the Prophet and passed down in an unbroken chain to fit recipients who were rigorously examined and tested. This chain of narration and transmission (sanad) is a guarantee of authoritative mastery of the material.
More Secular branches of knowledge were regarded as somewhat exempt to this.
You could, bysupreme act of will master a language with access to enough dictionaries and textbooks on grammar, morphology, and rhetoric. It would take years but self study is possible. being taught is easier. History as well, though a mastery of the sources and knowing which sources to weigh and accept, which to reject, and being able to discern between propaganda presented as historical fact and actual fact in narrations, knowing where subtle contradictions lay in source material, etc., really required several good instructors.
Sure, you could sit around and read books all day long but at the end of the day, put a decade of self-study into it and you will still be deficient in many ways to a student who spent a couple years of intense study with a competent instructor. Less secular materials, such as Quran and hadith, were a different matter. Anyone can read the Quran, but your interpretation of its verses would not remotely be accepted unless you had been well schooled directly.
“I read the Quran” is not a valid base upon which to use it in an argument.
In religion, too much monkey business is possible by wily nily interpreting scripture left and right. Since education and literacy were more widespread in the Islamic middle ages than in the Christian middle ages and generally anyone moderately schooled had enough Arabic to be able to read the Quran for her own private devotions, the necessity to put a damper on multitudes of wily nily self-interpretations was dire.
Aqli:
Intellectual knowledge cannot, by contrast, be fully passed on by an instructor. it requires the active use of the intellect, at the lowest levels by rigorous employment of conventional logic and reason, by induction and deduction, reflection, and rigorous contemplation, and at the highest levels a degree of intellection that is best described as “enlightenment” or “illumination”
In other words, only by rigorous training of the mind can one discover the subtleties of these types of knowledge by self-discovery and intellection. Scholars and instructors can at best point the way to such knowledge, or their books could serve as mnemonic devices, helping the student remember important points. The bulk of the intellectual work, however, has to be done by the seeker. If this is not done, then your mind will remain permanently crippled and dependent on others and their formulations.
Aqli knowledge is, essentially, “DIY” - Do It Yourself, after of course, a suitable basic foundation in the brief outline of the sciences and knowledge had been obtained.
Mathematics is a prime example of an Aqli knowledge, the classical Muslims believed that you could not competently be taught mathematics, you must work out a comprehensive understanding of higher mathematics yourself, through rigorous exercises, deduction, and logic - the entirety of one’s intellect had to be honed and trained. Since the intellect is able to recognize truth, by God’s justice and will, the ability to understand math must be innate to the human mind and only need rigorous exercise. You cannot depend on authority, rather authority can teach basic postulates and premises but the mind must develop the ability to work out its own proofs as guided and shepherded by scholars.
Logic is another example, related to mathematics. I separate logic “mantiq” from philosophy “hikmah” or “falasifa” because formal logic as a methodology is part of philosophy, but ultimately derives from mathematics and language itself. Philosophy is built on top of logic and reasoning, they are, however, two distinct sciences.
Philosophy is another, related, example. They are related through logic. You cannot be taught philosophy, philosophy is an exercise of the mind. The teacher points the direction, teaches you the past masters (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) and teaches you the contemporary understandings of their teachings and methods, but then you were expected to intellect, to quite literally think. Hard. Often while walking. And to discourse, to argue, to defend, and to arrive to your own conclusions. With some of the philosophers forms of mental and physical exercises - types of acesis - were used to hone and develop the discipline and mind.
Purification of the Mind and “Heart” and cleansing both of their diseases, acquiring praiseworthy attributes and virtues, and ridding oneself of blameworthy and despicable habits and attributes, is the “science” known as “tassawuf” or “sufism“, or with the Shia, “irfan” (gnosis). A master can teach the basics of these sciences but it is up to the student to apply and exercise and the unfolding of subtle knowledge and awareness of an inner nature, “illumination” or “enlightenment” cannot be taught, it must be acquired by the exercise of your own intellect. The basic foundations of this knowledge, however, MUST be taught and transmitted for if not you have no real basis to proceed forward. After all if you knew where to go, would your life be the shambles of unhappiness, discontent, and disappointments that it is?
The teacher points the direction to the way and teaches you basic tools, usually formulations and meditations upon the Quran or Hadith, and specific exercises designed to develop intellectual and spiritual discipline. Memorizations, recitals, fasts, forms of acesis. Then the rest is up to you
In Mathematics, Philosophy, and Spiritual wayfaring, and other similar disciplines, the mind was expected to be used rigorously after a small foundation of basic knowledge and practices were acquired. The observation of the world and its phenomena were the props upon which observation and cultivation of the inner properties of the intellect (aql) proceeded. The study of the external world and its phenomena was done to understand the world as a method of understanding the self, and then through the self arriving at a deeper understanding of the world again.
Phenomena are signs (ayat) behind which meaning (mana) resides. All are regarded as props, meanings set up in images and forms, one who could understand the abstract behind the formal and concrete was regarded as a man of discernment, one who could only understand the concrete and not the abstract as well is a half educated one, and half simpleton. Perfection (Kamaliyat) comes in understanding both the abstract and concrete, and in the wedding of the two.
This attitude is concisely and tersely articulated by William Chittick: “all phenomena point to noumena .. noumena can only be accessed at the root of the knowing self.” (from Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul)
Those studying naqli knowledge were not taken seriously and were generally ignored or derided if they had not put in the work to acquire the knowledge from teachers of known competence.
Those claiming aqli knowledge were not taken seriously unless it was known that they had undertaken rigorous development of the mind and self and - in the case of mathematics - could bloody well demonstrate that they knew how to add 2 plus 2, and then some.
Both naqli and aqli knowledge, proofs, and theorems, have their places. Knowing where and when to employ one or the other is regarded as a part of intellectual maturity and discernment one who realizes this and acts accordingly is regarded as “Hakim” – wise. In other words.
To each tool its place and role.
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