Aphorisms IV
I. They deny the world to sustain the illusion of their beliefs -- that is
worse than what Stoics and Buddhists do.
II. Relevance is better than truth in its self-solving. It may be true
that someone threw a ball through a hoop several times in accordance
with arbitrary rules, but of no consequence.
III. Imperfect information is usually good enough for taking decisions and
avoids the death spiral stall of waiting for what is unlikely to arrive.
IV. To consider: All of which you might be doing could be wrong and not what
the centuries created you to do, and yet life is short, of unknown end,
and arrives but once, so we must attempt, search, savor, and pour ourselves
into what seems to call us.
V. The beautiful and the profound unfold before me; the wretched and wicked
crumbles. Both fade away into echoes and eventually nothingness after making
their brief appearance.
VI. "It is hot and burns me." So it does! Affirming only simple truth,
temporary sensation remains unimportant. What is more crippling than
concern over sensation, especially temporal comfort and bliss reached
by consumption?
VII. Do not scream out in discomfort or pain, but persevere without drama,
as you must continue onward in any case and hysterical outbursts are a
poor companion.
VIII. There is only one truth, but pursuing even the most convoluted path will
eventually get you there.
IX. Telling someone something they can't sense will not cause them to grasp it.
X. All things going in the wrong direction against themselves will in
time collapse from their division and can be ignored rather than
corrected or treated seriously.
XI. To Deny Thyself
A: |
I am mad at what you have said. |
B: |
Do you think it false or wish me to deny it? |
A: |
It appears true, but I do not like it. |
B: |
My powers are great, but cannot make the true become false. Perhaps I
can help you accept truth instead of clinging so fiercely to
antagonizing opinions. |
A: |
I think you have purposefully showed me difficult things for which
I was not ready, when you should have been more careful. |
B: |
Dear friend, I showed you only what was there. I do not wish to hide
the world, but rather to reveal it as it is and show its inner workings,
tides, winds, and cycles. |
A: |
If it promises me a storm of distress, that is of no benefit and
I would rather not know. I desire calm and peace and a place away from
everything before and around me. |
B: |
The distress is your tension from wanting to harbor illusion that
cannot be sustained when truths appear. The best calm comes
from plainly accepting things as they are, inventing nothing about them
and ascribing no false motives or imaginary future. |
A: |
Perhaps that simplicity is enjoyable, but at what cost? We would
have to discard everything customary that we rely upon. |
B: |
All life is short, squeezed between an infinite forward that is
untouchable and eclipsing, and an infinite back that is quickly
degrading, forgotten, misunderstood, and lost. I would be a poor
companion if I did not show you what was remarkable in our view,
but merely discussed the inane. |
A: |
My ideal companion believes in other worlds, greater worlds. This
one is a farce, and I have my own true life in my heart and mind. |
B: |
We need not play games my friend. In the nights alone we know we are here
and our honesty distinguishes between promised fairy tale lies we pretend
to believe for feigned piousness, and the way of the actual world and its
fate -- true for everyone, as it has been for all time. You agree I would
not lie to you, yet you wish for others to honor fantasy and proclaim
belief in falsehood, calling such behavior respectable and moral rather
than childish, harmful, and deluding. That way is too cruel, and I will
not participate in your narcotic addiction.
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