True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self;

 but the point is not only to get out - you must stay out; 

and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.

 

the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

 

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, 

when thoroughly explored, it dispels it

 

If we wish to draw philosophical conclusions about our own existence, our significance, and the significance of the universe itself, our conclusions should be based on empirical knowledge.

 A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality, and not vice versa,

 whether or not we like the implications.

Bruce Lee

 

Be like water making its way through cracks. 

Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. 

If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. 

Shapeless, like water. 

If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.

 You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle.

 You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. 

Now, water can flow or it can crash. 

Be water, my friend.

 

When we get sick, our bodies launch a coordinated defense. 

It's called the immune response. Once a germ's detected, a team of white blood cells, proteins, and chemicals swarm to mount an attack. These cells catch up to the invaders and latch on, destroying them in their wake. 

Or at least that’s what they're supposed to do. 

The body's ability to come back depends on what you have to fight with and how strong you are.

 After we've been sick or hurt, our bodies remember. We learn from the past and develop tools to help us cope. 

Basically, the more we go through something, the better we can handle it if it happens again. Our bodies are prepared to bounce back.

 Or so we think. 

Sometimes an unknown throws the whole thing off.

 

Everybody does stupid things, 

it shouldn't cost them everything they want in life

 

We all make mistakes, 

and we all pay a price

There is no such thing as the last straw. There is only hay.

Unoccupied space will never cease to change simply because nothing forbids it to do so.

for as leaves are to limbs, so are your words to your soul.

 

she still cannot resist looking out the window every couple of minutes.

The sound of a passing truck causes her to glance away.

Even if there is no sound, the weight of a hundred seconds always turns her head.

 

Myth makes Echo the subject of longing and desire.

Physics makes Echo the subject of distance and design.

Where emotion and reason are concerned both claims are accurate.

And where there is no Echo there is no description of space or love.

There is only science.

 

Losing the possibility of something is the exact same thing as losing hope

and without hope nothing can survive.

 

For some reason, you will no longer be the person you believed you once were.

You'll detect slow and subtle shifts going on all around you, more importantly shifts in you.

Worse, you'll realize it's always been shifting, like a shimmer of sorts, a vast shimmer, only dark like a room.

But you won't understand why or how.

 

You shall be my roots and I will be your shade, though the sun burns my leaves. You shall quench my thirst and I will feed you fruit, though time takes my seed. And when I'm lost and can tell nothing of this earth you will give me hope. And my voice you will always hear. And my hand you will always have. For I will shelter you. And I will comfort you. And even when we are nothing left, not even in death,

I will remember you.

 

Little solace comes to those who grieve when thoughts keep drifting as walls keep shifting and this great blue world of ours seems a house of leaves moments before the wind.

 

Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience.

It is not about feeling good.

It is about endurance.

Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati.

It does not mean to flow with exuberance.

It means to suffer.

 

In a recent experiment, scientists observed that single human cells in a petri dish will actually seek each other out and adhere to each other to form new connections.

When cells team up, they become stronger. They thrive and evolve and eventually become something bigger than their single cells ever could have been.

We are an extension of our cells. Just like them, we are programmed to find others, to reach out for one another and find nourishment and love. Like our cells, we're not meant to be alone. 

So once we find each other, try not to let go.

 

But you're alive! 

It's beautiful! 

Fear, pain, lust, we've got to know all our feelings before we can come out the other side free men. 

Don't feel ashamed of yourselves, don't let society destroy your reality. 

Our freedom's the only thing worth dying for, it's the only thing worth living for!

 

God is crazy too. 

God is part insane as well as sane. 

Not in control all the time.

 Dionysus was the God of the wine. He made ecstasy but he also made madness. Madness is all right. 

That's what you want, isn't it, isn't it?

 The tree falling in the forest with nobody there to hear it. 

The cat with nobody able to see it. 

Would a blind man care if the cat was invisible or what colour it was supposed to be?

 Zen proverb 99 "your lantern has gone out".

Dark Tower film

 

was Idris Alba the right PERSON to play Roland. 

He is a fine UK actor and was outstanding in Luthor, loved his performance. But is Roland black here for the sake of it? With the "PC" thing of making a character "non white" or "no longer white", we have had rumours of Mr Elba set to play James Bond and Dr Who. Making the character black for the sake of it. Why not make him Chinese, Indian, or an Eskimo? 

Is Roland white in the books? The gunslingers in those towns, in the World Moved On, based on Wild West towns would have all been white Americans. Susannah/Detta/Odetta was black, and is stated as so.   Roland, Eddie and Jake are white. Mr Elba as Roland in this post apocalyptic world has a big dose of Denzel Washington as Eli about him. 

There are many actors who could have portrayed this role more like the book. Not quite a Clint Eastwood way, but closer to that kind of world. In a way this "let's make the character black", "let's have a  white character played by a black actor" is the most offensive things of all. Offensive to blacks and white. Offensive to Chinese and Indians. 

And probably offensive to the Eskimos as well. Hell, if James Bond, originally taken to be a white Englishman, then altered to be half Scottish/half Swiss, why couldn't he be descended from Greenland inuits? Makes as much sense as making his ancestors from Africa.

The Matrix

 The trilogy was always meant to be a trilogy. 

The brothers refer to Reloaded as Matrix Squared and Revolutions and Matrix Cubed. 

The whole trilogy is about the Journey Of The One. 

Just as George knew Vader was Luke's father from that moment he first stepped out of the smoke and throttled the rebel before capturing (his daughter) Leia, the brothers knew the later revelations from the beginning. 

For an expanded story, you are meant to watch the Animatrix in between One and Two, especially Final Flight Of The Osiris, and play the Enter The Matrix game.

James Bond

 There is too much of this PC crap  about making Bond black, reverse  racism  so he is no longer white, just for the sake of it. Why not make him Chinese, Indian, or a fucking Eskimo?

 Same for Elba being Dr Who. 

Making a character who has always been a white Englishman black for the sake of it. In the books, Bond is a Naval Officer who becomes a spy post WW2, which is where Fleming drew his inspiration from, the SOE agents he knew during the War. There is no way, at the time of writing, could he be anything than white British. 

Yes, Bond is updated and rebooted over the years , however making him ethnic makes no sense and never has. After Connery's success in the films, in the later books, starting with the bio (M writes after his supposed death) in You Only Live Twice, he has a Scottish father and Swiss mother. 

 Making him ethnic, for the sake of visual appearance, would refute all that. It would be  a different character under the same name. The actor would portray him the same way, well spoken British gentleman, so only his external appearance would be different - literally skin colour and nothing else. 

The concept is actually  offensive and really rather pathetic.

 God does not rule the Earth. Satan does. 

God rules Heaven and Eden. 

In Luke, Satan tempts Jesus by offering him "all the kingdoms of the world". How could he offer these unless they were his to give? How could he offer them to the Son of God if God owned and controlled them. 

The world is run by money and power, self gain, corruption, kill or be killed. Evil. "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven".

Michael Jackson Trial

 The burden of proof  lies with the Prosecution. They have to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused is guilty. A jury of your peers "12 good men and true", meaning citizens of good character and with no criminal record, all unanamusly agree that the crime actually happened and that you are guilty. 

The case against Michael Jackson collapsed halfway through the trial. It did not get as far as the jury. Under scrutiny in open court the Prosecutions case fell apart.

 The man was NEVER guilty of ANY of the vile things he was accused of and there was NEVER any real evidence that he ever was.Michael Jackson was NEVER a pedophile and you could (and maybe should) be sued for slander for publicly calling him that.

 

the epically great decisions and the epically bad ones look exactly the same when you're making them. 

Looking back, it's easy to see when a mistake has been made, to regret a choice that seemed like a decent idea at the time, 

but if we used our best judgment and listened to our hearts, we're more likely to see that we chose wisely and avoided the deepest, most painful regret of them all

 -- the regret that comes from letting something amazing pass you by.

 

When something begins, you generally have no idea how it’s going to end. 

The house you’re going to sell becomes your home, the roommates you were forced to take in become your family and the one night stand you were determined to forget becomes the love of your life. 

We spend our whole lives worrying about the future, planning for the future, trying to predict the future, as if figuring it out will somehow cushion the blow. 

But the future is always changing. 

The future is the home of our deepest fears and wildest hopes.

 But one thing is certain when it finally reveals itself. 

The future is never the way we imagined it.

 

You never know the biggest day of your life is going to be the biggest. 

The days you think are going to be big ones, they are never as big as you make them out to be in your head.

 It’s the regular days, the ones that start out normal. Those are the days that end up being the biggest. 

You never know the biggest day of your life is the biggest day, not until it’s happening. You don’t recognize the biggest day of your life, not until you’re right in the middle of it. 

The day you commit to something or someone. 

The day you get your heart broken. 

The day you meet your soul mate. 

The day you realize there’s not enough time because you wanna live forever.

 Those are the biggest days. 

The perfect days.

 You know, it was a beautiful day.

Sorry

 

Remember when we were little and we would accidentally bite a kid on the playground. Our teachers would go, “Say you’re sorry”, and we would say it, but we wouldn’t mean it because the stupid kid we bit, totally deserved it. 

But as we get older, making amends isn’t so simple. 

After the playground days are over you can’t just say it, you have to mean it

 as human beings we can always try to do better, to be better, to right a wrong even if it feels irreversible. 

Of course, “I’m sorry” doesn’t always cut it. 

Maybe because we use it so many different ways: as a weapon, as an excuse. 

But when we are really sorry. When we use it right. When we mean it. When our actions say what words never can. When we get it right, “I’m sorry” is perfect.

When we get it right, “I’m sorry” is redemption.

 

Doesn't matter how tough we are, trauma always leaves a scar. 

It follows us home. It changes our lives. 

Trauma messes everybody up, but maybe that's the point. 

All the pain and the fear and the crap. 

Maybe going through all of that is what keeps us moving forward. It's what pushes us. 

Maybe we have to get a little messed up before we can step up.

 

I believe in heaven. I also believe in hell. 

I’ve never seen either, but I believe they exist.

 They have to exist because without a heaven, without a hell, we’re all just headed for limbo.

 Heaven, hell, limbo, no one really knows where we’re going or what’s waiting for us when we get there. 

But the one thing we can say for sure, with absolute certainty, that’s there are moments that take us to another place, moments of heaven on earth. 

And maybe for now, that’s all we need to know.

Wish

 

We all get at least one good wish in a year over the candles on our birthday. 

Some of us throw in more, on eyelashes, fountains, lucky stars. 

And every now and then, one of those wishes come true. 

So what then? Is it as good as we hoped? Do we bask in the warm glow of our happiness or do we just notice we’ve got a long list of other wishes waiting to be wished. 

We don’t wish for the easy stuff. We wish for big things. Things that are ambitious, out of reach.

 We wish because we need help and we’re scared and we know we may be asking too much.

 We still wish though, because sometimes they come true.

 

When you're little, night time is scary because there are monsters hiding right under the bed.

 When you get older, the monsters are different. 

Self doubt, loneliness, regret.

 And though you may be older and wiser, you still find yourself scared of the dark. 

Sleep. Its the easiest thing to do. You just close your eyes. 

But for so many of us, sleep seems out of grasp. We want it, but we don't know how to get it. 

But once we face our demons, face our fears and turn to each other for help, night time isn't so scary because we realize we aren't all alone in the dark.

 

 life, is a team sport...and eventually, you've gotta get off the bench and decide... which team are you batting for. 

The thing about choosing teams in real life.. It's nothing like it used to be in gym class.. being 1st picked can be terrifying And being chosen last...isn't the worst thing in the world. 

So we watch from the sidelines...clinging to our isolation...

because we know as soon as we let go of the bench...someone comes along and changes the game completely.

 

We all remember the bed time stories of our childhoods. 

The shoe fits Cinderella, the frog turns into a prince, sleeping beauty is awakened with a kiss.

 Once upon a time and then they lived happily ever after. Fairy tales, the stuff of dreams. 

The problem is, fairy tales don't come true. 

It's the other stories, the ones that begin with dark and stormy nights and end in the unspeakable. 

It's the nightmares that always seem to become reality. - 

The person that invented the phrase "Happily ever after" should have his ass kicked, so hard!

 

people are constantly asking you to tell them how you're doing. 

How the hell are you supposed to know? Y

ou don't even know how you're doing. 

Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't. 

In the face of all we can lose in a day, in an instant, wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together.

 

In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the earth, at least that’s what they say. 

He created the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, and he looked at his creation and he saw that it was good. 

And then God created man,

 and it’s been downhill ever since. 

The story goes on to say that God created man in his own image, but there’s not much proof of that. After all God made the sun and the moon and the stars, and all man makes is trouble.

And when man finds himself in trouble, which is most of the time, he turns to something bigger than himself. 

To love or faith or religion to make sense of it all. 

 the miracle of life itself; why people live and die, why they hurt or get hurt is still a mystery. 

We want to know the reason, the secret, the answer at the back of the book…because the thought of our being all alone down here is just too much for us to bear. 

 

There comes a point in your life when you're officially an adult. 

Suddenly, you're old enough to vote, drink, and engage in other adult activities. 

Suddenly, people expect you to be responsible, serious... a grown up. 

We get taller, we get older. But do we ever really grow up? 

In some ways we grow up. We have families, we get married, divorced, but for the most part, we still have the same problems that we did when we were fifteen. 

No matter how much we grow taller, grow older, we are still forever stumbling, forever wondering, forever.. 

Young.

 

You ever hear the term "honor amongst thieves." 

That's a myth. 

Fear amongst thieves, maybe.

 Basic relationship is, "You stab my back, I'll stab yours." 

 

Leo Tolstoi , he once observed that 

'All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

 

A patriot poet, Walt Whitman, once sang, 

'Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.' 

This from a guy who was in love with his own smell

. He contained multitudes of stank.

 

motto for goodbye was always, "Faster is better." 

Kind of like tearing off a Band-Aid. 

Of course, if the wound beneath isn't healed yet, nothing helps except time

. And time leaves a big, nasty scar we call the past.

 

All that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade
can be confiscated in one fell night.

 

You give but little when you give of your possessions.

For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

Ghosts

 

The lingering dead are those who are destined for a better world than this one, if they are willing to receive it.

They resist moving on for a variety of reasons. None of them rational.

Those whose lives have included insufficient acts of kindness and goodwill to outweight the evil they have done, or who had done nothing but evil, do not linger here after death. Those that manage it, manage only days or hours, never years.

Because they never believed in hope while they were alive, their hopelessness lingers with them after death. They travel into eternal darkness without protest because they lack the imaginatuion to do anything else.

Not forgetting, on death, they have a debt to pay.
And the collector has no patience for lingering debtors.

 

The Bible is supposed to be The Word Of God.

It is, of course, the edited World of God.

The Catholics had the book locked away in Rome for a thousand years.
How much do you think they chopped up? Changed? Made up?

Holy Men?
The screwed everything that moved, killed anyone who messed them about and fed off the people they preached to.
What would have stopped them doing a quick re-write on the thing?

And they couldn't even do it properly!

Ever wondered why He's a God of vengeance in the Old Testament and a God of Love in the New one?
Why "an eye for an eye" becomes "turn the other cheek"?

And what about the end of it?
"Love me or you'll burn in Hell!"

Sounds like a spoilt kid, doesn't it?

 

What are your personal beliefs on life after death/the hereafter? 

a combination of Buddhism and Christianity.

Positive- If you live a good life you go to the place known as Heaven for an X amount of time could be forever or just for a certain number of years before being reincarnated. During this time you are reunited with god, lost loved ones and your ancestors.

Negative- You simply get reincarnated again and again knowing full well that something better exist that you are being excluded from. 

In conclusion the world in which we live could very well be the negative afterlife for many people. Depending on how bad you actually are you may be given a chance at redemption or you may eternally be trapped in a never ending cycle of deaths and rebirths.




 a Zen Christian.

follow the teachings of both Christ and Buddha to find the path to enlightenment - the path back to God.

Darkness - Song by The Human League

 

Where my dreams are all too clear
Darkness, darkness
Filled with all the sounds of fear
I hear voices (don't turn out the light)
Calling faraway
I see shadows (don't turn out the light)
Moving, changing shape
And the clock stops
As darkness closes in
I hesitate but it's too late
I scream and scream again
I hear colours black and red
I see sounds that fill my head
I'll never read those books again
In darkness
Where my dreams are all too clear
Darkness, darkness
Filled with all the sounds of fear
I hear voices (don't turn out the light)
Calling faraway
I see shadows (don't turn out the light)
Moving, changing shape
Don't turn out the light (don't turn out the light)
Or I'll go over the edge
Don't turn out the light (don't turn out the light)
Or I'll go over the edge
In darkness
Where my dreams are all too clear
Darkness, darkness
Filled with all the sounds of fear
I hear voices (don't turn out the light)
Calling faraway
I see shadows (don't turn out the light)
Moving, changing shape
I hear voices (don't turn out the light)
Calling faraway
I see shadows (don't turn out the light)
Moving, changing shape

The Sound of Silence - Song by Simon & Garfunkel

 

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming

And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"

Darkness

 

In this world there are too many who are willing to see only the light that is visible, never the Light Invisible.

We have a daily darkness that is Night.
We encounter another darkness from time to time and that is Death.
The deaths of those we love.

The third most constant Darkness, that is with us every day, at all hours of every day, is the darkness of the mind. The pettiness and meanness and hatred which we have invited into ourselves, and which we pay out with generous interest.

 

Accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

 

It would not do to tell other people, 

not just because they wouldn't believe 

but because they wouldn't care

 

Atonement was powerful;

 it was the lock on the door you closed against the past

 

Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not. 

Time takes it all, time bears it away, and in the end there is only darkness. 

Sometimes we find others in that darkness, 

and sometimes we lose them there again

 

that's what people most always do with the stuff they can't make out - just forget it.

 

Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.

 

 yesterday is today's memory 

and tomorrow is today's dream