Today,
Let Go
This week our cat, Emerson Adam Jones was struck by a car. This gave me an unique opportunity to practice detachment. Detachment, in the Buddhist sense, is not an expression of heartlessness or contempt. Detachment from life and death is the state of acknowledging that when a body or vessel dies, the being doesn't go anywhere. Ram Dass told an anecdote about a master of his. He said that when the master told the monks that he was going to die the students became sad. They said "No master! Don't leave us! " and the master replied, "But where will I go?" The monks then realized that their worry was needless for it was their relationship with the master that made the master what he was. When people, or cats, leave us they don't actually go anywhere. Things come and go, the tide ebbs in and out, but the beauty of the ocean is what matters. So, I will grieve for my cat friend, I will miss my cat friend; that is the human animal within me. However, I know that he hasn't gone anywhere. Yes, his body is buried and he won't be rubbing against my leg anymore but it's our relationship that matters, and that is timeless. Memories don't die as long as there is someone left to care.
-Eric St. Pierre
"People don't let you down when you don't build them up."
-J. Reid
The fool thinks one has won a battle
when one bullies with harsh speech,
but knowing how to be forbearing
alone makes one victorious
"If they can get you asking the wrong question, they don't have to
worry about the answers"
-- Thomas Pynchon
The good renounce (attachment for) everything.
The virtuous do not prattle with a yearning for pleasures.
The wise show no elation or depression
when touched by happiness or sorrow.
From Kat:
Discovery Communications -- the parent company of The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC and others, and known for their wildlife-focused programs -- is planning to produce an 8-part TV show on Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Discovery says it regards Palin as being “one of [Alaska’s] proudest daughters.” The former governor was an unabashed champion of Alaska’s brutal and bloody aerial wolf-slaughter program. According to reports, she’ll earn about $1 million per episode from the nature-focused series.
Send a powerful message to Discovery Communications expressing your outrage at their action and urging them to drop Sarah Palin’s new show from their programming schedule.
Robots aid teachers in English Class
This is another example of technology relieving humanity of wage slavery.
From Energy Consumers to Energy Producers, the Future of Humanity's Energy Use
What is Healthy?
As the demand for healthy food rises, shady advertising practices get shadier. Can we believe everything we are told about our food? What is healthy?
The Post Script Society newsletter is a sometimes weekly newsletter that covers topics such as health, spirituality, technology, the monetary system, issues related to The Zeitgeist Movement, religion, esoteric knowledge, and general activism. Its purpose is to spread awareness and information and to serve as a platform for expression. As the maintainer of this newsletter, I hope to encourage others to be self explorative, inquisitive, and motivated to change the world for the better. I also extend an invitation to all readers to submit art, poetry, news articles, journal-like pieces, videos, or anything else for inclusion in the newsletter.
-Eric St. Pierre
Let Go
This week our cat, Emerson Adam Jones was struck by a car. This gave me an unique opportunity to practice detachment. Detachment, in the Buddhist sense, is not an expression of heartlessness or contempt. Detachment from life and death is the state of acknowledging that when a body or vessel dies, the being doesn't go anywhere. Ram Dass told an anecdote about a master of his. He said that when the master told the monks that he was going to die the students became sad. They said "No master! Don't leave us! " and the master replied, "But where will I go?" The monks then realized that their worry was needless for it was their relationship with the master that made the master what he was. When people, or cats, leave us they don't actually go anywhere. Things come and go, the tide ebbs in and out, but the beauty of the ocean is what matters. So, I will grieve for my cat friend, I will miss my cat friend; that is the human animal within me. However, I know that he hasn't gone anywhere. Yes, his body is buried and he won't be rubbing against my leg anymore but it's our relationship that matters, and that is timeless. Memories don't die as long as there is someone left to care.
-Eric St. Pierre
"People don't let you down when you don't build them up."
-J. Reid
The fool thinks one has won a battle
when one bullies with harsh speech,
but knowing how to be forbearing
alone makes one victorious
"If they can get you asking the wrong question, they don't have to
worry about the answers"
-- Thomas Pynchon
The good renounce (attachment for) everything.
The virtuous do not prattle with a yearning for pleasures.
The wise show no elation or depression
when touched by happiness or sorrow.
From Kat:
Discovery Communications -- the parent company of The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC and others, and known for their wildlife-focused programs -- is planning to produce an 8-part TV show on Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Discovery says it regards Palin as being “one of [Alaska’s] proudest daughters.” The former governor was an unabashed champion of Alaska’s brutal and bloody aerial wolf-slaughter program. According to reports, she’ll earn about $1 million per episode from the nature-focused series.
Send a powerful message to Discovery Communications expressing your outrage at their action and urging them to drop Sarah Palin’s new show from their programming schedule.
Robots aid teachers in English Class
This is another example of technology relieving humanity of wage slavery.
From Energy Consumers to Energy Producers, the Future of Humanity's Energy Use
What is Healthy?
As the demand for healthy food rises, shady advertising practices get shadier. Can we believe everything we are told about our food? What is healthy?
The Post Script Society newsletter is a sometimes weekly newsletter that covers topics such as health, spirituality, technology, the monetary system, issues related to The Zeitgeist Movement, religion, esoteric knowledge, and general activism. Its purpose is to spread awareness and information and to serve as a platform for expression. As the maintainer of this newsletter, I hope to encourage others to be self explorative, inquisitive, and motivated to change the world for the better. I also extend an invitation to all readers to submit art, poetry, news articles, journal-like pieces, videos, or anything else for inclusion in the newsletter.
-Eric St. Pierre
Polite Society Folks,
ReplyDeleteSome thoughts about morality and magnets article at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125304448
Very interesting neuroscience article Gina and Eric found. So my thoughts About the morality being "just a brain process.." There is no human experience that would be possible without the 3.5 pound lump of tissue doing the job that it does. Students, upon their initial exposure to the field of neuroscience, often react with abject terror at the idea that every last bit of their experiences, memories, emotions, and everything possible subjective experience is "merely" the result of billions of neurons firing together. I don't know if everyone reacts that way, but this was certainly how i reacted when i first became interested in brain science. I even experienced lots of existential angst over this. However, I am no longer frightened by this. Although i still have moments of "looking into the abyss," I have become much more accepting of the possibility that the most precious things in life are the result of neurological activity. (I haven't completely dismissed the idea of their being some kind of "soul." i simply don't know. but that's a whole other but related conversation.) I now feel that the fact that all experiences have a neural basis, doesn't devalue or make those experiences less meaningful. I have trouble articulating why i feel that way, but its simply a change that has occurred in me. If everything we cherish rests upon the transitory, temporary phenomena of the brain, doesn't that make the love and experiences we have other beings even more precious? Why do we have to say, Oh thats JUST a neural process." or "love is JUST a set of chemicals coursing through our brains."How does a natural basis for these experiences make them any less significant or meaningful for the person???
-Richard-