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  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:04 am on January 17, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , ,   

    Body Meets Soul; Science Meets Religion; (with a quark or two for the road, ol’ buddy)… 

    IMG_1660

    Buddhist Temple in Laos

    Reconciling religions shouldn’t be too hard, really, theoretically at least, except (especially?) for the monotheistic mother religions that all diverged from a common Abrahamic/Ibrahimic source, only to themselves go forth and divide according to the fashions of the day and the ideas at play. But essentially they’re all very similar, except perhaps for a few small innovations that each made to what came before: they emphasis on love and forgiveness for the Christians as opposed to Jews, the emphasis on equality and a faceless deity for the Muslims as opposed to Jews…

    Eastern religions had a similar evolution, multi-deistic Hinduism spinning off into Jainism and going more monotheistic with Buddhism, later to mix with Taoism, especially, in China, and other sects and philosophies according to local tastes and proclivities. The Zoroastrians had (and have) their own rites and rights, but likely influenced the eastern sub-continental face of Islam.

    Reconciling Science with Religion is a bit trickier. The problem is not with the religionists. The problem is with the atheists, who want to claim science as their own, not willing to allow metaphors and analogies to stand as symbols of reality, instead preferring to ‘believe’ in Science in a way that no ‘real’ scientist ever would, carrying the materialistic model of the Universe to absurd extremes in an attempt to celebrate their own superiority, deny their lingering suspicions of spirituality, or—whatever… (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:46 am on January 11, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    R.I.P. David Bowie: Starman, Gay Man, Hero, etc… 

    Oh well, no need to check Facebook today, I guess, just put David Bowie on auto-loop and sit back and enjoy the star-man, waiting in the sky.  In addition to some ground-breaking music, he also helped break down some social roadblocks, too, especially for LGBTQA’s, etc…

    First, I guess I should ‘come out’: I’m not gay. I’m philosophical. There, I said it: I’m a straight white male, which, according to one recent Facebook post, makes me (and I quote) a ‘coward and a bully’, sight unseen—ouch. There’s a word for that in my language—prejudice. But I prefer no rush to judgments, as I’d like to think I can do better than that, even in this era of self-styled rank and rancor that passes for social media, hopefully put the ‘A’, if no longer the ‘Q’, back in LGBTQA. Are we good now? (More …)

     
    • Dave Kingsbury's avatar

      davekingsbury 4:58 am on January 12, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      Amen to your final sentence. Seem to recall Bob singing something about ‘don’t follow leaders’ … and I’m not a big fan of the word ‘iconic’ as used nowadays … Bowie was a cultural influence, no doubt, but musically a bit retrograde … maybe I’m still mourning the death of 60s ideals, though.

    • hardie karges's avatar

      hardie karges 8:46 am on January 12, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      Dylan WAS my fave, back in the day, as they say… to see what I listen to now, please check out my other other other blog: http://thailand-to-timbuktu.blogspot.com/….. 🙂

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:29 am on January 10, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    Love is Religion, Love is a Drug… 

    To love or help family is an obligation, to love or help friends is a pleasure, to love or help your partner is reproduction, but to love and help complete and total strangers is religion. Accepting a certain risk for no uncertain reward is the fruit of forgiveness and the essence of religion, participating in the universality of truth, beauty and goodness and propagating its continued existence and florescence. The only reward is itself. Everything else is business, politics. Everything else is trivial.

    Love is not the only worthwhile activity to engage in here in this world, but almost. Doesn’t almost every other worthwhile activity ultimately come down (up) to love, e.g. faith, hope and charity? Trust is another matter. Trust is an act of possession disguised as love, involving a transaction ultimately reducible to numbers. Trust is a contract; love is not. I try to love everyone, but I’m not sure I trust anyone. There’s no reason to. (More …)

     
    • Dave Kingsbury's avatar

      davekingsbury 1:54 pm on January 11, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      Didn’t Plato say you move through attraction to one towards love for all? Not a fan normally, but reckon he (or was it Socrates?) got that right. You could call it personal evolution, I suppose, though age-related testosterone die-back helps! Thanks for the thought-provoking post …

      • hardie karges's avatar

        hardie karges 2:10 pm on January 11, 2016 Permalink | Reply

        Plato definitely said that you love what you don’t have, re: from attraction to love, I’m not sure. Thank you!

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 2:20 pm on January 6, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Air BnB, hostel,   

    Sharing Economies, Kiln-fired Vanities and the Sound of One Drain Snaking… 

    IMG_0339Backstory: I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Hombre al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, soon to be a major motion picture and coming to a theatre near you. As a latter-day participant in the Air BnB so-called ‘sharing economy’, I’m at my wit’s end. People will say and do anything to spend a night in my superzonafragilistic turn-of-last-century digs at the Old (Mexican, ssshhh!) Boarding House and Hypertravel Hostel in Tucson… then when they get here, they proceed to get drunk and trash the place (fortunately that’s ‘trash’ as in trash, not destroy)…

    It’s like: not only do they want to sleep, and be content to snuggle up in those big fluffy pillows, but they want to f*ck, too, and multiple times with multiple payback options.  The problem is that this place has not been f*ck-proofed (that’s a technical term), and so retains many of the beauty marks and much of the fragile charm that attracted me to it in the first place.  Sex should be reserved for your spouse, not the house–that’s my motto. (More …)

     
    • kc's avatar

      kc 8:48 pm on January 6, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      ha ha, this is right on time for us, thank you, as our old pipes are clogged as well. we’ve been snaking and snaking and snaking some more, to no avail. tomorrow we will try the good old plunger and see if we hear that very satisfying suck of which you speak. Actually, we’re pretty lucky, as it’s just the dishwasher that is not draining, so far. who knows what tomorrow will bring. In a 120 year old house, there is very little way of knowing just what has gone down the drains before you acquired ownership. peace to you. Kiss Tang.

    • hardie karges's avatar

      hardie karges 8:11 am on January 7, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      Definitely worth taking the big plunge first…

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 10:18 am on January 3, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , resolution   

    New Year Resolution: Get Religion—Quickly… 

    I only have a few years on this planet—we all do—what with mortality and all that jazz, inevitability and all that rap, just a few seasons to sow and reap and sock away the harvest, for somebody’s grandkids, if not our own, making hay while the sun shines, making love while the sap rises, win or lose or learn how to draw; and the question always arises, especially at this time of year: what have we accomplished? What have we done? What does it all mean, if anything, when the scores have been tallied and the races all run?

    If you’re like me, then maybe you’re too often thinking: not much. But should it? Is anyone keeping score? The Eternal Now human contingent likes to maintain that life is not meant for meaning, anyway—tautology noted—but for enjoyment: constant eternal infinite bliss. Sounds good, but is it really any more accurate? It might just depend fundamentally on whether you’re a rationalist or an empiricist, a thinker or a doer, Latino or Germanic, tranquilo or a bit manic… (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 1:03 pm on December 30, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    The Other Human Wave: Yanqui Si, Cuba No… 

    Somewhat lost in all the hubbub over the refugee wave flooding Europe from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan (sound familiar?) is the fact that we’ve got our own little refugee problem right here in the USA. Remember those child immigrants washing up on the beaches of Texas from Central America last year, Guatemaltecos, Hondurenos, Salvadorenos, et al?

    Nasty spot of bother that, breaking the rules by turning themselves in on arrival to the waiting arms of police and gendarmes, begging for food and some succor, Yanqui suckers, hard to call them ‘economic migrants’ when they aren’t even working age, anchor babies born a decade too soon.

    We can add to that list now Cubanos, de tal, up until now content in their status as exiles-in-waiting, Guantanameros without benefits, now ready to bolt at the moment their island opens up for Gringo-turismo, get on board or get lost, serving mojitos and daiquiris, frijoles con arroz, everything but Batista and San Juan, Jesus and Little John…

    The deal is that they get residency on arrival in the US, no waiting no fuss, so easy path to legality for Rubio and Cruz, presidency optional if you got the (foot) balls or the bucks; so now Cubans with means take a flight to mainland America, Central or South, then work their way up by hooks and crooks, then declare themselves Cubans to the pinche migra in Laredo, easier than a ninety-mile swim… American dream on the half-shell… Welcome!

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:41 am on December 27, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , freesom, responsibility   

    Free Will and Freedom, Surviving Christmas… 

    Well, we all survived the most difficult day of the year—Christmas, aka the Royal Gorge—so I suppose that life goes on and we will live to see another day. This is good, I think, considering the options. I generally try to avoid sharp objects on that day. To say that Christmas has ‘lost its way’ would be an understatement, of course, but then: isn’t that true of all religions and holidays?

    The challenge as always is to make this world as perfect as we humanly can, in terms of truth beauty and goodness, as a reflection of that more perfect world of spirit. That means a world that is clean green and serene, with an interesting cast of characters displayed upon the green screen, for eventual release in a theatre near you. And on a personal level that means that each of us has the freedom—and responsibility—to do good. Let’s get started.

    Of course we Westerners—including Americans, especially Americans—believe in freedom like nothing else, absolute and inviolable, in yo’ face and reliably profane, seldom profound. You score points in Western culture by showing skin, by showing balls, by being offensive and downright insulting. Aggression is our calling card and massive armies our stock in trade.

    “The best defense is a good offense,” or so the story goes. We ‘liberate’ peoples around the world, giving them their ‘freedom’ and wishing them good luck, with a pat on the back and a Starbucks coffee coupon, worth a couple bucks. Welcome to America. Real freedom is nothing like that, though. Real freedom is a metaphysical necessity, a metaphysical reality, nothing to do with the chains around your heart or your ankles.

    Real freedom is a freedom of the will, the freedom to do good or bad, and to be called to answer for your actions and your decisions. This is the essence of morality, to do good or bad, of your own volition. There is a tendency in popular societal narratives to avoid and evade this responsibility but it is real, and disallowing it only perpetuates it, presumably so that no one’s feelings get hurt.  For example, it is often said that alcoholism is a disease, implying not only that it isn’t your fault, but that there is a cure. I’d say that there is more likely a cure if the onus is placed squarely on the shoulders of the free agent.

    Likewise no one should get credit for his moral actions if nothing is truly given. For some rich bloke to act like he’s moral because he threw the bums a dime in his prime is pathetic and ridiculous. Better you should cross the street to help a handicapped person open a door—for no money or even thanks. That is an act of kindness and charity that confers merit upon the bearer regardless of any financial importance.

    Our rush to put a monetary value upon everything, acts of kindness included, is a sign of our own poverty, not those of the so-called ‘poor’. We have only mastered money when we can live without it. And the hypothetical ‘freedom’ involved in portraying various religious prophets in various acts of sex, distress or undress is not freedom. That’s something else. I am NOT Charlie what’s-his-name…

    Freedom is all about responsibility, the responsibility to do good, not purchase mass quantities of consumer goods. Let’s add another tenet to our hypothetically perfect religion—moderation in consumption and strict recycling and extreme non-wastefulness. Christmas needs to take a different direction. Maybe the best offense is a good defense. Sounds good to me.

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 7:43 am on December 26, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Buddhist in training… 

    When you start ENJOYING meditation, rather than struggling with it, then I think you’re getting somewhere…

     
    • Sven Johnson's avatar

      Sven Johnson 10:43 am on December 26, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Hardie,
      I have been a couple of times to the Farang Buddhist meditation meetings here in Chiang Rai. Nice people and a great place. But I found out after a couple of times, hearing the discussions about suffering etc etc that I am probably too happy to be able to get something from this meditation. We will see, maybe try it ater a couple of years. Merry Christmas and have a Great New Year!

      • hardie karges's avatar

        hardie karges 11:47 am on December 26, 2015 Permalink | Reply

        There are worse problems to have than that, Sven, to be one of the lucky ones… 🙂

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 11:25 am on December 25, 2015 Permalink | Reply
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    Merry Kerygma (Disgust for Dogma), I Am Furious (Mellow): Fugue State in 3 Parts… 

    (There comes) that feeling that you get when victimized by the wannabes, lackeys and lapdogs of late-era capitalism who feel their futures to be threatened, so busy themselves building bunkers and moats, walls and bridges; bankers salesmen agents middle-men and their sons and daughters working commissions tighten the screws holding back proletarians and progress, especially in America the most Communist of all countries…

    …a communism of the mind, brutalist structures strictures and constructions, multiple male-enhanced skyscraping erections, filling post-apocalyptic city centers long vacated for the necessities of parking, crumbling rusty dusty rotting hulks, beauty sacrificed to convenience, with female submission to financial straits and straighteners for the benefit of comfort; souls slathered with gadgets and gizmos and widgets and whatchamacallits; freedom falls flattest and fastest when and where the wallets are fattest, lives battered and fried, looking for existential catsup… (More …)

     
    • Dave Kingsbury's avatar

      davekingsbury 3:46 pm on December 27, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      Letting go of the preconceptions and mass deceptions … great line! This has inspired a new year resolution. 2016 will be the year I satirise the clichés we all live by …

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 4:57 pm on December 21, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: 'Hello' song, Adele   

    Continuity Errors: Adele's 'Hello'… 

    I seriously listened to the lyrics of Adele’s ‘Hello’ today for the first time:

    “But when I call you never seem to be home?”

    Huh?  What?

    What year  is this?

    If her ex-heartthrob is one of the population’s eight percent that has only a landline, then she has no need to fight back the tears.

    No, she should be rejoicing to be rid of that loser, just sayin’…

     
    • kc's avatar

      kc 5:56 pm on December 21, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      not all people w landlines are losers, i know many people w a landline and cell, like us. plus, her love may recognize her number and choose not to answer.

    • Dave Kingsbury's avatar

      davekingsbury 2:52 am on December 22, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      Maybe she’s the kind of masochist who enjoys leaving plaintive little messages on answerphones …

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