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December 31st, 2003
 | 05:01 am - koan
today i had hummus+mozzerella sandwiches for dinner (and they were damn tasty). if someone had said yesterday "tomorrow dan will have hummus+mozzerella sandwiches for dinner" that would now be a true statement. but, was it already true before i had my dinner? in between it being said and it happening, was it already true, was it false, was it something else? what about before it was said? if i say "next week the moon will either explode or not explode" this is a true statement. as far as i know, it must and therefore will do one of those two things. because of that, if i instead say "next week the moon will explode" this is either a true statement or a false statement. either the moon will explode or it won't. so let us assume for now that the moon in fact will explode- in that case, is my statement already true, even though the moon has not yet exploded? [and if so, is the future already set (ie, fate)?] and if not, why is the statement not true if what it expresses is true?
now, to make up for being confusing, here is something fun to try: go outside, pick up a pebble, and toss it in the air. until that pebble lands, you all by yourself have managed to reduce the mass of the entire planet of earth. congratulations!
*i suppose it could be argued that the earth consists of everything in its atmosphere as well as well as the actual ball of matter. in this case, you'd better have a damn good throwing arm. of course in that case there is also no way to find any actual border for earth, so really perhaps no throw is good enough. or any throw is. either way- congratulations!
buddhism has some really wonderful insights, but then it turns them into incredibly baseless generalizations
http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/attachment.html
One afternoon, Nasruddin and his friend were sitting in a cafe, drinking tea and talking about life and love. His friend asked: "How come you never married?"
"Well," said Nasruddin, "to tell you the truth, I spend my youth looking for the perfect woman. In Cairo I met a beautiful and intelligent woman, but she was unkind. Then in Baghdad, I met a woman who was a wonderful and generous soul, but we had no common interests. One woman after another would seem just right, but there would always be something missing. Then, one day, I met her. Beautiful, intelligent, generous and kind. We had very much in common. In fact, she was perfect!"
"What happened?" asked Nasruddin's friend, "Why didn't you marry her?"
Nasruddin sipped his tea reflectively. "Well," he replied, "it's really the sad story of my life.... It seemed she was looking for the perfect man..."
state: other
np: Cab Calloway & The Blues Bros. - The Blues Brothers - 9 - Minnie The Moocher
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![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/4961953/968021) | | From: |  tygr28 |
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| Date: | December 31st, 2003 11:32 am (UTC) |
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but if you say "next week the moon will explode or not explode" and the moon explodes today, then there would be no moon to either explode or not explode next week. WHAT THEN? if it explodes today, then it won't explode next week, because it already did and it's all gone (unless it only partially explodes, in which case it FAILS AT EXPLODING and will be laughed at). by the same logic, i can pretty safely say that george washington will not breakdance tomorrow. unless someone pours disco milk in his grave, then all bets are off. ps: i added another milk ad after you went to bed, if you didn't see | | From: | tygr28 |
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| Date: | December 31st, 2003 03:12 pm (UTC) |
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(i did see and it rocks) when it comes to buddhism you can't get hung up on the words or the translations for that matter....kinda the point of the koans. It's all in the doing...or the not doing to be more buddhist idiom specific. of course, that's just my siu lum/zen perspective. ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/18576244/98229) | | From: | kingnixon |
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| Date: | January 6th, 2004 01:25 pm (UTC) |
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it's not the translations that bother me,i can get the general sense of them pretty well. but there is so much extraneous religious garbage to what is essentially a philosophy (from my perspective, at least). like reincarnation- there is no particular reason for that to be part of the belief that i saw,it's just kind of thrown in there ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/1910574/219938) | | From: | corsac |
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| Date: | December 31st, 2003 02:48 pm (UTC) |
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I started giving long, involved answers to your questions, but the more I wrote, the more I remembered why I hate philosophy (a Greek word, meaning "the art of making mountains out of molehills"). (Although Ambrose Bierce defined it as "A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.") So I stopped.
Believe this: You should thank me. if you take one of the roads with a nice scenic route, it can be a fun trip though ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/53441754/776493) | | From: | leyse |
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| Date: | December 31st, 2003 10:12 pm (UTC) |
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All statements are true until they are proven wrong by circumstance or action. |
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