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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (142505)	8/4/2004 4:22:33 PM
From: spiral3	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Perhaps I will break out a deck for whist. That may be a good idea. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th- century. Blake was a victim of circumstance, he couldn’t help dividing things up, but he made a good effort imo. As did René Descartes, as did Siddhartha Gautama. Unfortunately due to circumstance they both became God, except for a few other chaps as well of course. The scientific way is about the way used to find the truth. It is not The Truth itself, except when it is. We need to find a new paradigm to cross this goddammed chasm, between all of this, which in reality doesn't exist, or does it. We need to find the middle way, where is that faultline in all of this. The middle way, or the line that runs straight through the center of us imo is about self government, jmho. Unfortunately that means that CB is out of a job, which means moving on. Descartes said I think therefore I am. Siddartha Gautama thousands of years earlier had already heard and responded to that Eternal question, he turned to Descartes and asked him who he thougt it was that was doing the thinking. Descartes said "I am", Siddartha asked him to point to "I", that magic elixir at the center of everything that made things go boom. Descartes pointed at his body and said here, yes said the buddha but where does it start. He thought that there was no beginning, which must mean no end. Siddartha knew that the dudes body existed, but that it didn't have any inherent existence, so he asked Descartes to go a bit deeper to pull out the "I". Siddartha thought he was self less, so he devised the practice to resolve this paradox. Some folks took it up, it is powerful stuff, we're now a ways down the road, the end of Suffering arose as a cultural artifact, but actually Descarte couldn't produce this "I" that this confounding ancient fellow demanded, even though he was standing right there, so the rest of the world moved on. And so on.