Asian Philosophy is Eloquent

[InfiniteNow]

"It is not God that is worshipped but the group or authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity."

 

- Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

 

 

"Faith must be enforced by reason. When faith becomes blind it dies."

 

- Mahatma Gandhi

[Turtle]

Sun Tzu said:

 

One who knows when he can fight, and when he cannot fight, will be victorious;

 

one who knows how to use both large and small forces will be victorious;

 

one who knows how to unite upper and lower ranks in purpose will be victorious;

 

one who is prepared and waits for the unprepared will be victorious;

 

one whose general is able and is not interfered by the ruler will be victorious.

 

These five factors are the way to know who will win.

[Michaelangelica]

Sun Tzu said:

 

One who knows when he can fight, and when he cannot fight, will be victorious;

 

.

It worked for him/them in Vietnam.

 

I wonder about Iraq?

[maikeru]

Like a fossil tree

From which we gather no flowers

Sad has been my life

Fated no fruit to produce.

 

...

 

At the time Tadamori came up to the capital from the province of Bizen, the abdicated emperor, Toba, asked him: "What of Akashi Beach?"

 

Tadamori replied in the form of a poem, which deeply impressed the abdicated emperor:

 

Before the sunrise

The moon hung like a bright stone

And waves lapped the beach.

I saw only these night signs,

As I rode through Akashi.

 

 

Both poems are from the Heike monogatari, one the great works of Japanese literature.

 

Concerning the war, Sun Tzu said:

 

If one who finds that the majority of factors favor him will be victorious while one who has found few factors him will be defeated, what about someone who finds no factors in his favor?

[Michaelangelica]

"The only true guardian of peace

 

lies within a sense of concern and responsibility for your own future

 

and an altruistic concern for the well-being of others"

 

His Holiness the Dali Lama

[hallenrm]

Meditation is not to escape from society,

But to come back to ourselves and see what is happening,

Once there is seeing, there must be acting,

With Mindfulness, we know what to do

And what not to do to help.

 

Thich Nhat Hanh

[Turtle]

Bhagavad-gītā

 

Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of false ego; the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; detachment; freedom from entanglement with children, wife, home and the rest; even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary place; detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth — all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance.

 

Turtle's Purport: A genuine mix of common sense (in regular type) and selfish controlling authoritarianism propped on irrational superstition (in bold). These I declare I have so marked regular & bold. :hihi:

[Kriminal99]

Asian philosophy seems to rely too much on vague unconnected metaphors as a medium for communication. Eloquent might be an adequate word to describe it - however useful in any way probably is not - such tactics simply try to take advantage of glitches in the way the mind work in order to decieve others.

 

IE If I say if the glove don't fit you must aquit to a jury of OJ Simpson's peers, what I am trying to do is divert their attention from reasoning logically regarding what impact the fact that the glove doesn't fit might have on OJ innocence or guilt, and rather consider that because fit and aquit rhyme and therefore go together well in a sentence, that not fitting and aquitting should go hand in hand in a trial. However in reality the fact that the two words went well in the sentence has nothing to do with how much more or less likely OJ was to have done it given that the glove doesn't fit.

 

Think thats rediculous but don't see how asian philosophy does that? Look at the following previous post in this very thread:

 

Lao Tze said:

Who understands does not preach;

Who preaches does not understand.

 

Here the truth of the 2 statements are not defended logically or founded in any practical way - rather the novelty of being able to simply switch two words in a sentence and have a second sentence with a related message is supposed to convince us that both statements are true. We are to believe that because the two statements go together well in a poem they go together well with life.

[Turtle]

Asian philosophy seems to rely too much on vague unconnected metaphors as a medium for communication. Eloquent might be an adequate word to describe it - however useful in any way probably is not - such tactics simply try to take advantage of glitches in the way the mind work in order to decieve others.

 

 

Lao Tze said:

When beauty is abstracted

Then ugliness has been implied;

When good is abstracted

Then evil has been implied.

 

Clearly you have not read the entire thread, else your abstract would have the glove on the other foot.:cup:

[Turtle]

Sun Tzu said:

Disorder came from order, fear came from courage, weakness came from strength.

 

Disorder coming from order is a matter of organization, fear coming from courage is a matter of force, weakness coming from strength is a matter of formation.

[Boerseun]

A wise man once said:

 

If you're unsure of your destiniaton, any road will take you there.

[Turtle]

Lao Tze said:

When government is lazy and informal

The people are kind and honest;

When government is efficient and severe

The people are discontented and deceitful.

[Kriminal99]

Kriminal99 said:

 

WHO da F#*$ is Lao Tze and whats mo who gives a FLIP

[Turtle]

Kriminal99 said:

 

WHO da F#*$ is Lao Tze and whats mo who gives a FLIP

 

Don't worry yourself; he wrote TaoDeChing and you eschew reading books. :D

[Kriminal99]

Don't worry yourself; he wrote TaoDeChing and you eschew reading books. :D

 

Especially crap like that...

[Turtle]

Especially crap like that...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Tze

[Kriminal99]

He believed "simplicity" to be the key to truth and freedom.

 

The more people disagree with you, the more is needed to reconcile your belief set with his. That you can use small responses to successfully address such differences in opinion is fallacious.

 

Rather, such statements are designed to feel empowering to the people who ALREADY agree with you such that they might be more likely to attempt to physically stop those with opposing beliefs rather than try and understand them. As such it encourages disagreement, and consequently violence.