..."emptiness" and "suchness" are very closely related, and are not as different as some might think. You can only find yourself in your suchness if you are first "emptied" of everything and all of your conditioning. Everything in nature is in its suchness; it is the way that it is, and in this suchness its emptiness, and the way that it connects with all other things, can be found in the same way as it can be found in human beings. In the beginning of The Heart of Understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh gives us the definition for a word, a word not yet in the dictionary. This word is “interbeing”. In his explanation of this word he describes how everything that we see here depends on something else to be what it is. To use his example: without the logger, the sunshine, or clouds, the paper upon which we read would not be able to exist. At the end of this description of the word “interbeing”, Thich Nhat Hanh states that “The Heart Sutra seems to say the opposite. Avalokiteshvara tells us that things are empty.” (p. 4) Thich Nhat Hanh continues to speaks of the piece of paper, and how if we only look at it from the outside, we are separate from it and we will not fully comprehend how everything is interconnected: “If we only look at the sheet of paper as an observer, standing outside, we cannot understand it completely”. (p. 9) The idea that speaks to me from this is that if we are transcendent to this idea of interbeing then we will not truly understand emptiness or suchness, and along with this...
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...Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. Swami Vivekananda Success, Alone, Live All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark. Swami Vivekananda Before, Eyes, Dark You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself. Swami Vivekananda Religion, God, Yourself All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. Swami Vivekananda Everything, Kind, Secret If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better. Swami Vivekananda Money, Help, Better Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin; to say that you are weak, or others are weak. Swami Vivekananda Greatest, Anything, Others You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. Swami Vivekananda Spiritual, Teacher, Soul Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth. Swami Vivekananda Truth, Live, Struggle ...
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...or answer. Clear rational thought and the ability to engage in reflective and independent thought. Not everything that you hear or see is what it seems. Sometimes there are hidden meanings, nonfactual statements that you must determine if valid or not. Questioning the statement or researching a topic may bring truthful facts to your attention. Critical thinking takes everything you know and feel and throws it away. Now you must look at everything with an open mind and soul. The idea is not something that is perfect, evaluating the idea from every possible point is necessary. Strip yourself of everything that you know and be curious about everything. What are the most significant things that you learned about critical thinking during this course? The most significant thing that I learned from this course is that critical thinking involves learning. Instead of taking things for granted you need to ask questions and investigate things that you do not know about. When someone is speaking or writing pay attention to what they are trying to say. If you do not get it then ask questions. Every idea or statement must be backed up with facts, not just someone's opinion. How has your critical thinking changed since starting this course? To be honest I never thought that I was using critical thinking in my everyday life. After this class, I learned that I do use some critical thinking. What has changed? Well, I plan on implementing many of the exercises from the...
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...The Modern American Dream The American Dream is a belief that if you worked really hard, you will achieve your goals. It worked that way because back then there wasn’t a lot of advanced technology that made everything easier for people. The American Dream still exist today, but everything needs money now. You have to be wealthy to achieve the American Dream. If you want to go to college, you need to take the SAT and do other curriculum, which needs money to take the test and the class. It’s a lot harder now because there’s a lot of corporate companies now. You can’t start your own company without being sued or bought by another company. Those corporation have a lot of money to do almost anything they want. The reason why they exist because they came up of the idea first. Back then, it was a very different time and nobody thought that everybody will have a computer in their homes and it was easy to access to one now. The real American Dream would have worked back then, but it is different now. The American Dream is not dead, it’s doesn’t apply to everyone nowadays. If you have an idea, you need money to start it. You can ask your friends and family to fund your project, but it won’t be enough. Today, you...
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...structure of the Milky Way and how dark matter influences it. When was dark energy discovered? How has that discovery changed people's view of the universe? Fourth and lastly, What is a theory of everything? What does it aim to do to people's understanding of the universe as a whole? It is said that there are three founding fathers to what we call Modern Cosmology. Father one was Nicholas Copernicus. Copernicus brought forth the idea that it was not the earth that was the center of the universe, but the Sun instead and that everything, the moon, the planets, everything evolved around it. Second was Johannes Kepler. It was Kepler who made the discovery that the earth, the moon and all the other planets were indeed in orbit about the sun in ellipses. According to Counterbalance Foundation (1995), "This was the first of his three famous laws of planetary motion, which describe mathematically how the planets move through the sky. Moreover, with truly prescient insight, Kepler suggested that the planets were kept in orbit by a force emanating from the sun itself. This radical idea was eventually demonstrated by Isaac Newton later in the century. ” And lastly Issac Newton, whose laws of gravity and theory upon gravity was the nail that hammered it all in. Because of these three, the idea...
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...this point you will begin to put your work together. There are a few steps to think about when doing this also. These steps are used in both business and academic writing. 1. Planning. You have already accomplished a good deal of this with the above steps but now you have to decide how you want to put your ideas together. How to start you work, how to set it up and how to finish. Ask yourself which idea will best be described in which section of the work. How do you want to wrap up the work? You want to leave the audience without questions. 2. Writing. Put your words on paper or on screen. This is probably the easiest step of writing shockingly enough. You have plenty of steps to make your perfect but just getting them on paper or screen is easy. 3. Revising and editing. I put these in the same step because they are basically the same thing. You edit and then revise your work so that it is final and what you were trying to say. Step 4: Talk to your audience. When you are writing an essay for a group of people, you have to know “who” those people are. If you do not know who they are then you will lose them. They will be left with questions and won’t have received the information they were meant to interrupt. This will help you understand what tone you will need to use and it will also help you know how to word your work. You have to know what relationships are among your audience. The more you know the better you will do. Step 3: Clustering. Take your main idea and put...
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...around you and finding understanding as well as opening yourself to new experiences and possibility. Since I started this class my view on learning has changed because I now have a better understanding of how I learn and what I need to do to become a better student. My first thought of learning was very narrow and I didn’t realize that it was more complex than I ever thought, but after going through this course, reading the material and doing the assignments I have a better understanding and a more open view of the world. My learning patterns are Sequance-29, Precision-24, Technical reasoning-19, confluence-19. I have a very organized way of learning, I like making list and sticking to them. When I’m learning my sequence is used first, I put the tasks in order, make a list of what needs to be done and make sure I have everything written down before I start. The next thing I do is examine and identify what is excerpted from me to do so I can get it done the right way; this is where my precision takes over. After I have my lists done and I know what needs to be done I start brainstorming different ideas and try different ways to put my ideas together, this is the part where I use my technical reasoning and confluence to put my assignments together. When I’m done putting things together I review my work a few times and make the needed changes, my precision and technical reasoning at work once again. My learning patterns work together for me by arranging what I see and do into...
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...really. In college you develop critical thinking skills because, many theories and ideas are presented, and you are made think about these theories and ideas, it allows are to agree or disagree with them, which shows that you are becoming a critical thinking. How being a strong critical thinker helps us, is we can link different bits of information together to get a better understanding of the topic, you are researching about. It helps you see if there is faults or inconsistencies with the information that you are reading, you can create arguments and have evidence to back it up, you...
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...quote ostensibly covers the whole idea of this essay. We as humans have had rough time through our evolution; we have gone through much as a race that it has affected us to our core. Goulish explains it in his essay that it is our nature to complicate things. “Irreducible complexity seems to characterize the late twentieth century itself” (Goulish 557). Goulish seems to have a pretty good idea of what complexities are and how this trait of human beings has been us for as long as we can remember. Goulish does not hesitate to explain to his readers that making things complex is our nature. Goulish hits this spot right from the beginning of his essay, “Each time we experience a work of performance, we start over almost from nothing” (Goulish 557). Why does he say that? Goulish tells us that when we experience an act of performance we tend to look at it from the fresh eye instead of using our previous encounters in similar situations. He tells his readers that, come what may, we will look at things with the thought in our head that we have never encountered it before. Goulish mentions it multiple places in the essay that we are critics but “Why do we engage a critical mind?” Throughout the whole essay he has one purpose, “To try and explain to his readers why we engage a critical mind.” He does not fail to mention that this side of humans is not just limited to an act of performance but all endeavors of human life. It is applicable to everything that...
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...If there is any book out there that can influence oneself intellectually, physically, and mentally if would primarily be Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah written by Richard Bach. This book reveals many different viewpoints from both Western and Eastern societies. These are indeed concepts that are usually questioned and reviewed. Along a spiritual journey two men meet and so much knowledge is exchanged. Richard is a pilot on a spiritual journey who gets involved in a one on one student-teacher relationship with Messiah in which he learns how illusions are a substitute for reality and he ideally questions what is the point of living then if everything is an illusion. There are initially two viewpoints that are well known around...
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...actions and that we therefore, have free will. According to Judeo-Christian teachings, God is omnibenevolent, omniscient and omnipotent. For theological determinists God’s omniscience means that he has foreknowledge of everything that will happen in the future. This would mean that our paths are predestined and that we are unable to choose any other action than the one God has already seen, or planned for us. This would remove any sense of free will we have, as we could not make any choice other than the one god has already seen and chosen for us, so we could therefore not be responsible for our actions. This is very similar John Calvin’s beliefs, which sparked from his rejection of the catholic church and the idea that you could earn your way into heaven. Calvin believed that humans are predestined as to whether they go to hell or heaven. This would mean that no amount of good deeds or repentance could get you to heaven as you are predetermined and have no free will about the choice. Although these theories bring up valid points to the idea of free will and how it fits in with our understandings of God, there are major problems with both of these theories. Firstly the idea that God knows what will happen before it does means that he is responsible for everything happening in the world. This would mean that God is responsible for the...
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...TOPIC 1: Do you really know anything? With reference to Descartes’ first meditation justify your answer in full and respond to possible objections. A belief is any opinion or any view whether you are committed to the view or not. Thus, if you know something, you are entitled to believe in it. The subjective nature of knowledge partly is based on the idea that beliefs are things that individuals have and those beliefs are either justified or not justified (Pardi, 2011). However, Descartes notices that over the course of his life, he has from time to time accepted false beliefs and the falsity of these beliefs have influenced other beliefs. Thus, Descartes aim in his first meditation is to find out if what we know is truly correct (Blackburn, 1999:15). Once we have figured out what beliefs are beyond any possible doubt, it is suggested that we can use reason to deduce the rest of what is knowable (Pardi, 2011). There are three conditions when one can say they know something is true (Pardi, 2011). Firstly, you believe in something, secondly, it is in fact true and lastly you are justified in believing a statement is true. Of course it is possible that there are no complete unshakeable truths, it is also possible that we might discover that our prejudices cannot be detached or that the beliefs we think are our grounds for all our other beliefs are not really ultimate at all. For this reason, it is why rationalist say that knowledge comes from within, the only beliefs we can...
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...invented today were not even planned; they just happened. Everything may not go as intended, but the outcome can be rewarding. There is a fine line between a brilliant invention and absolute failure. Some of the best inventors had discovered this theory. As exploration of thinking outside the box expands, good things can start to accumulate and invent something useful. The feeling of these happy accidents can feel good once they are accomplished. The feeling of self worth takes over and confidence boosts. When the...
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...philosophy assignment. I had to do a dialogue between Plato and Aristotle. I call onto all experts, and those that enjoy the subject to read it and tell me what you think. Here it is…. Epitaphs Plato v.Aristotle Plato: Aristotle, may I ask you why you disagree with my theory of forms? Can you explain, or reveal your thoughts as to why? Better yet, express a theory you could replace my theory with. Aristotle: Sure, do you mind answering some questions for me? Just to confirm my understanding of your theory. Plato: Certainly. Aristotle: Is it safe to assume that the way you define the word ‘form’ in your theory of forms is synonymous with the word ideas? Plato: Yes. Aristotle: Ideas are perfect as long as they are in your mind. Would you agree with that statement? Plato: Yes, I would agree with that statement. Aristotle: This could be taken a step forward, a step so far that even you will disagree with it. Would you like to hear my progression based on your theory? Plato: Sure. Aristotle: According to your theory of form every idea a person has is perfect, and every attempt to bring life to that idea is imperfect. Is that right? Plato: Yes it is. I’ve said this before. Aristotle: Do you realize that someone could very well take your theory and assume you are insulting the Gods, or at the very least someone could interpret it in that way. Plato: What do you mean? You believe that I imply that God’s are flawed? You think that my theory of form...
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...be possible when considering truth-value, regardless of the fact that we as humans discuss things that do not “exist” to the eye on a regular basis. Although it seems as though making statements such as these would come off as straight-forward and simple, existence is a philosophical outrage amongst many scholars that currently study the sort. We speak of many non-existent people, places, and things, yet seem to do so without disarray. But, what is not considered is the language of which we speak it, and that the idea that we are discussing something that seemingly is true by describing it with adjectives, yet we are using true descriptions to describe something that entirely does not exist to begin with. A common example of this is Santa Claus. A pot-bellied, white bearded man that has an extremely descriptive background story known amongst many. We as a culture have nurtured this alleged man into the “hero of christmas”, who brings toys and presents to even the poorest of children. Yet, we forget the original idea that he derived from. He does not exist. In more generic terms, a negative existential can simply be described as “X does not exist.” What Russell fails to acknowledge is the fact that, in order to conclude that something does not exist, you have to first accept the existence of the idea. In point, an example of “X does not exist,” must be true, because the idea immediately becomes true once discussed. So the problem lies in, how can something that is non-existent...
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