Aphorisms1

Felt like bringing 2 of my many countless pages of aphorisms to the daylight of cousin consideration. Comment em up. more to come

On Morality
The purest morality comes not through love of neighbor because of God or societal mores. It comes through the question of what is the meaning of life. We do I do with my life? Morality through God is based more on fear than the desire to do “good.” When we realize that the only pillow that comforts our death-bed is the people we have helped, that is pure morality.

On Utopia
The incredible amount of unfulfilled potential in our society makes anyone who has thought it through either quite depressed or quite motivated. The next step toward utopia is organization.

On Work Vs. Play
It seems this decision, like most, has only one correct answer. We look for the right balance, but it is quite possible that one is more important than the other in every situation, and maximizing it should be behind every single decision.

On Senses
We discriminate among our senses. We devote so many nights to touch, we sacrifice health for taste, music is central to most events, but smell gets no credit. It’s the easiest to please, no health or real monetary price for pleasing it…just smell that candle. Perhaps a part of enlightenment is considering every input from every sense beautiful. At first it makes sense with just sight, see it all like abstract art, colors, shadows, good….but it could work for the rest of ‘em too.

On Judgment
We get offended by comments like “I hate those pants.” But all judgment basically comes down to saying, “That’s not my taste.” “I would never wear those pants” etc. These aren’t threats or insults. They’re comparisons, no different than saying “we’re different in pants-tendencies.” So anyone who values individuality should take the I hate your ____ as a compliment. Thank you sir. It’s because I’m not you.

On Determinism
In the past, many proponents of determinism(the belief that everything is pre-determined) would mostly argue that it is all seen and therefore determined by an omnipotent God. Today, more believe in evolution than creation, but science has a grasp on the decision making process and theorizes that it can be reduced to an equation. So the whole future could be this complex equation (Credit: Waking Life) So it was determinism through God, now it’s determinism through math.

On Masks
When a person acts in a way that is inconsistent with their true self, it’s like wearing a mask. When someone acts a way and receives negative consequences, they wore the wrong mask, and lose self-esteem due to their mistake in examining situations and determining the right behavior. Some keep working, harder, studying, paying more attention to detail, sculpting their masks and practicing their behavioral repertoire until they have the perfect mask/act for every situation. So it is often those that are most skilled at evaluation, understanding people, playing this game of life, are those that wear the thickest masks. Those that are the sickest.

On Sexual Prospects
A man gets close to a butterfly on a leaf and quickly snatches out a hand to try to catch it. If successful, the never-to-be-focused-on-satisfaction human man finds himself with another possession, that’s perhaps wounded during the catch. If failed, the man sees the butterfly even more wantingly as it flies away, and tells himself that next time he will act quicker and harder, although knowing that this will likely damage the creature even more. Thus the most skillful catchers are those that have the least caring for the butterfly. They do the most grabbing, the most catching, the most damage. So we see that the most beautiful are those that must learn to fly the fastest.

On Power
One current way to bring power to the poeple is to bring people to the powerful.