Have you ever wondered why Philosophy is love of wisdom instead of love of knowledge? Let me compare them and you will undesrtand, why? Knowledge increaeses fears. For example learning about diseases and their symptoms increase fear of diseases. Learning about fallibility of human experiences, reasoning and generalizations increase the fear of becoming wrong and makes one cynic. Learning about human impacts and limits of non- renewable reources increase fear of disastrous future. In short knowledge increase fear and it is the fear of losing that drive men for more knowledge in an effort to stop the losses. In other words men who learn knowledge live in state of fear and hope at same time.
OK, what about wisdom? Wisdom does not come from knowledge but from a thirst and an appetite for truth and of course knowledge is a tool for it. To elaborate it; the difference between a philosopher and a teacher is, a teacher teaches and a philosopher makes one thirsty. A thirsty seeks everywhere and enjoys on finding. So one gets knowledge from a teacher and become inspired from a philosopher.
How we know, whether we are seeking merely knowledge or wisdom? That is really simple, when one set goals, he is looking for knowledge and when one seeks because he can't live in dark, he is seeking wisdom. Of course, we all set goals but then have to face the fear linked to it, fear of not acheiving the goals or better to say, failure and even fear of setting wrong goals or fear of value; whether the goals really worth of our times and efforts?
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
We are moving towards age of intuition.
Whenever men wanted to step in a new or unwalked land, they have fancied about it. What men fancy may not match with reality but can't survive, if they aren't logical. Philosophers have used and called it thought experiment.
With the birth of classical Science, started the age of reason. A world quite predictable so long mythical traditions left the arena to give space for rapidly growing sciences. It was the time of dominance of "left hemisphere". Though both hispheres are connected and work side by side but the relationship were never have been of equal partners. Just as right handed people use dominantly left hemisphere and left handed people more of right hemisphere so is true about ages in human history. The period of reason or classical science was the period of left hemisphere but it seems and it seems very clear and strongly that we are heading towards age of intuition. So now we are heading towards dominance of right hemisphere.
Principle of uncertinty was one of the biggest challenge for scientists but now by having more in depth understanding of subatomic world, "chaos theory" and "entaglement" are taking root in the aciences. By rapid changes in technology, creativity is getting the biggest shares of market whether it is fictions, games, designs or movies. So unpreditictability is limiting the space for reason to make space for rapidly growing intuition.
The age of reason brought with it economical, social and political revolutions. The systems that have born out of these revolutions competed fiercely against each other. Two world wars and following cold war were bitter consequences of these competitions.
Now that we are entering into a new era, based on our historical experiences, the economical, social and political revolutions are expected. The Arab Spring, London riots, Occupy Wall Street movements and an overwhelming feeling of uneasiness over global economic melt down are preface of these revolutions. The most interesting thing about these new changes is that, unlike age of reason, they do not have intellectual backing. There is Marx nor the gang of Liberterian Philosophers to divide the world for their systems. There is two possibilities, either it is the nature of age of intuition to be anarchic and without any of its own system (unpredictable as it's nature is) or it is too young to have intellectual backing. Let see.......
With the birth of classical Science, started the age of reason. A world quite predictable so long mythical traditions left the arena to give space for rapidly growing sciences. It was the time of dominance of "left hemisphere". Though both hispheres are connected and work side by side but the relationship were never have been of equal partners. Just as right handed people use dominantly left hemisphere and left handed people more of right hemisphere so is true about ages in human history. The period of reason or classical science was the period of left hemisphere but it seems and it seems very clear and strongly that we are heading towards age of intuition. So now we are heading towards dominance of right hemisphere.
Principle of uncertinty was one of the biggest challenge for scientists but now by having more in depth understanding of subatomic world, "chaos theory" and "entaglement" are taking root in the aciences. By rapid changes in technology, creativity is getting the biggest shares of market whether it is fictions, games, designs or movies. So unpreditictability is limiting the space for reason to make space for rapidly growing intuition.
The age of reason brought with it economical, social and political revolutions. The systems that have born out of these revolutions competed fiercely against each other. Two world wars and following cold war were bitter consequences of these competitions.
Now that we are entering into a new era, based on our historical experiences, the economical, social and political revolutions are expected. The Arab Spring, London riots, Occupy Wall Street movements and an overwhelming feeling of uneasiness over global economic melt down are preface of these revolutions. The most interesting thing about these new changes is that, unlike age of reason, they do not have intellectual backing. There is Marx nor the gang of Liberterian Philosophers to divide the world for their systems. There is two possibilities, either it is the nature of age of intuition to be anarchic and without any of its own system (unpredictable as it's nature is) or it is too young to have intellectual backing. Let see.......
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Beyond persuasion
In ancient Greece, the difference between a sophist and a philosopher was;
a sophist was aimed to persuade and win debate while philosophers were aimed to go beyond persuasion to find truths. It was how sophists were distinguished from philosophers in ancinet Greece. The sophists were making money to teach the art of persuasion and rhetoric to people who were interested in politics and power.
Recently we have witnessed and are witnessing a widespread and global dissatisfaction with both ruling political system as well as economical systems. In fact these systems are winning systems of our time. Just hardly two decades earlier they were proudly declared the ultimate system for humanity and each nation had to evolve culturally and economically to become able to adopt them.Sooner the better. Even the nations were ranked based on their timing in adaptation of these systems and cultures are blamed for slow adaptation. In other words nations with poor culture were slow in adapting these systems. So sometimes "civilized nations" were feeling the need to help in civilizing nations that were inept and showing rigidity in adaptations. Of course sometimes doctors need to do surgery to help the patients. Well that was quite convincing and persuaded very well a lot of nations to westernize rather than to modernize.
Cambridge and Harvard as leading institutions of 'high cultures' were beating their chests for triumphant end of both sleepy spritual East and highly cynical Marxism. And then economical crises of US and Europe burst out of nowhere just to shock these leading institutions.
What they were doing all these years, busy to prove wrong Marxism (to win the debates) and to persuade world for liberterian system (politics and power).....it was all what ancient sophists were doing. Silently but with vigor we are seeing a lot of people are rereading Marx and are trying to prove that he was right (see still people tend and are interested in job of sophists to find reasons to prove who is right and who is wrong).
Isn't it time that these "highly civilized" and "elite scholars" wake up of their dreamful braggings and instead of insisting and wasting time for proving right and wrong think and look seriously to real problems? I think it is time to stop acting like sophists and lead like real philosophers. If you don't like the word philosophers then replace it by economists, political scientists and all those titles that one could brag louder with.
a sophist was aimed to persuade and win debate while philosophers were aimed to go beyond persuasion to find truths. It was how sophists were distinguished from philosophers in ancinet Greece. The sophists were making money to teach the art of persuasion and rhetoric to people who were interested in politics and power.
Recently we have witnessed and are witnessing a widespread and global dissatisfaction with both ruling political system as well as economical systems. In fact these systems are winning systems of our time. Just hardly two decades earlier they were proudly declared the ultimate system for humanity and each nation had to evolve culturally and economically to become able to adopt them.Sooner the better. Even the nations were ranked based on their timing in adaptation of these systems and cultures are blamed for slow adaptation. In other words nations with poor culture were slow in adapting these systems. So sometimes "civilized nations" were feeling the need to help in civilizing nations that were inept and showing rigidity in adaptations. Of course sometimes doctors need to do surgery to help the patients. Well that was quite convincing and persuaded very well a lot of nations to westernize rather than to modernize.
Cambridge and Harvard as leading institutions of 'high cultures' were beating their chests for triumphant end of both sleepy spritual East and highly cynical Marxism. And then economical crises of US and Europe burst out of nowhere just to shock these leading institutions.
What they were doing all these years, busy to prove wrong Marxism (to win the debates) and to persuade world for liberterian system (politics and power).....it was all what ancient sophists were doing. Silently but with vigor we are seeing a lot of people are rereading Marx and are trying to prove that he was right (see still people tend and are interested in job of sophists to find reasons to prove who is right and who is wrong).
Isn't it time that these "highly civilized" and "elite scholars" wake up of their dreamful braggings and instead of insisting and wasting time for proving right and wrong think and look seriously to real problems? I think it is time to stop acting like sophists and lead like real philosophers. If you don't like the word philosophers then replace it by economists, political scientists and all those titles that one could brag louder with.
Love and lust
Love is a subject talked by all and yet undestood lest or better to say misunderstood the most. Love is the cornerstone of spirituality and intellectuality, doesn't matter the source . Buddhism, Christianity, Philosophy and others do not have much in common in terms of origin but none can stand without notion of love. So where lies the problem? Why it is lest understood? The reason is that emotions are blind and we think of love as formless and dimensionless feelings while it is not true. Were it true we wouldn't have the categories of liking, loving and falling in love. And we wouldn't have the division between lust and love. I want to make clarify here that lust is not just physical but also intellectual. Intellectual lust become integrated almost in all major industries through media and it has silently addicted people.
I was saying that emotions are blind. You can attach it to anything and it will stick well to it. I don't think that it needs an illustration but still one is good in case needed. Gambling for example is something irrational but if one invest emotions in it, it will stick very well. Animosity is another example. All know the consequences, doesn't matter how weak is the enemy, but investing emotions let you go to irreversible exteremes.
So just loving is not enough but knowing what to love is also very important. Now that it is somewhat clear let's categorize love so we distinguish it from others.
To me selfishness stand at one end and selflessness stands at other end. Selfishness is lust and selflessness is love. We are mostly confused because we are mostly lying somewhat in between. As much as one is close to selflessness that much one is clear that what he does and what he wants and as much as one is close to selfishness that much one think and act under urgencies, fear and immediate needs and benefits. Liking is not always lust but mostly it is. So going from liking to loving (in loving selflessness dominates but it is still fragile because selfishness is still there and fear is ready to take advantage of any developing circumstance) and to falling in love is a long process of character building in which one overcome fears and become a person who is daring enough to stand selflessly for what he understands clearly.
I was saying that emotions are blind. You can attach it to anything and it will stick well to it. I don't think that it needs an illustration but still one is good in case needed. Gambling for example is something irrational but if one invest emotions in it, it will stick very well. Animosity is another example. All know the consequences, doesn't matter how weak is the enemy, but investing emotions let you go to irreversible exteremes.
So just loving is not enough but knowing what to love is also very important. Now that it is somewhat clear let's categorize love so we distinguish it from others.
To me selfishness stand at one end and selflessness stands at other end. Selfishness is lust and selflessness is love. We are mostly confused because we are mostly lying somewhat in between. As much as one is close to selflessness that much one is clear that what he does and what he wants and as much as one is close to selfishness that much one think and act under urgencies, fear and immediate needs and benefits. Liking is not always lust but mostly it is. So going from liking to loving (in loving selflessness dominates but it is still fragile because selfishness is still there and fear is ready to take advantage of any developing circumstance) and to falling in love is a long process of character building in which one overcome fears and become a person who is daring enough to stand selflessly for what he understands clearly.
Only self stands to suffering
Whether you take the path of Buddha or a pathless way of Jiddu Krishnamurthi, there is no escape from suffering. Whether you engage actively in social life or choose an ascetic life style again suffering is there. If you are looking a way to escape from suffering, it is as you try to live without food or work without any break. This desire is basically foolish as it contradicts with an existing fact. A better desire is to build a capacity for absorbing suffering or foraking it easy to take ad it comes and that is nothing else as accepting it openly as part of life. Sufferings to spirit is as pain to body. Pain, though is unpleasant but is an alarm system to protect the body. Similarly suffering is an alarm system to spirit and your personality. But keep mind that anything that goes out of your control will control you. So responding to suffering when it is under control is key to it's acceptability. Self is a truth bigger than reality of body. It is the only healer of self so during suffering, looking outward for heals is just looking for immediate solutions while leaving the causes at place. Let the self grow from what it like to fall in love with them and it will grow strong enough to endure all suffering. It requires time and care. While going through process one needs to be careful that one can't fool the self. Self is the most cruel judge so while going from liking to loving one needs to consider the main factors; rationality, ethics and aesthetics.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
گرعشق زبانی داشتی
این خموشی را نبین
که غوغایی است در کمین
مستی با نا گفتنی هایش
زخمی زده بسا شیرین
گر هیچ نگویی زحال دل
بسیارم گفت اخم جبین
گشتم همکلام ستارگان
که مهتابم ننگرد به زمین
حرفی زن که این قافله گذراست
بعد ما جماعت بیخبر است آن و این
گرعشق زبانی داشتی
بسیارت میگفت اسراررحزین
این خموشی را نبین
که غوغایی است در کمین
که غوغایی است در کمین
مستی با نا گفتنی هایش
زخمی زده بسا شیرین
گر هیچ نگویی زحال دل
بسیارم گفت اخم جبین
گشتم همکلام ستارگان
که مهتابم ننگرد به زمین
حرفی زن که این قافله گذراست
بعد ما جماعت بیخبر است آن و این
گرعشق زبانی داشتی
بسیارت میگفت اسراررحزین
این خموشی را نبین
که غوغایی است در کمین
Friday, October 7, 2011
ما را جز شهود چیزی ناید پسند
چون او شنفت صدای این دردمند
سبکبال آمد تا رهایی ام دهد زبند
تا که خواستم حسابخواهی کنم
لبخندی بزد، گفتا نکن چون وچند
تو بگردی که یابی عالم وجود
ما را جز شهود چیزی ناید پسند
تماشایی بیش نیست این برو بیا
که تو را پیش ماست نشیمن بلند
ناله مکن، این حجاب باریک است
که کمی شنیدند وبسیار گفتند
آرام باش چون پیکر گل در دل شب
و با شبنم روحت به صبح بزن لبخند
سبکبال آمد تا رهایی ام دهد زبند
تا که خواستم حسابخواهی کنم
لبخندی بزد، گفتا نکن چون وچند
تو بگردی که یابی عالم وجود
ما را جز شهود چیزی ناید پسند
تماشایی بیش نیست این برو بیا
که تو را پیش ماست نشیمن بلند
ناله مکن، این حجاب باریک است
که کمی شنیدند وبسیار گفتند
آرام باش چون پیکر گل در دل شب
و با شبنم روحت به صبح بزن لبخند
Saturday, October 1, 2011
After International Day of Protest…
In response to call of Hazara Democratic Party for an “International Day of Protest against Hazara Killings in Quetta, Pakistan, today (October 1st, 2011) Hazaras in New York, USA,… Sydney, Melbourne, Perth , Adelaide and other cities of Australia,…. , Toronto, Canada, Vienna, Austria,… Stockholm, Sweden,…. Istanbul, Turkey,…. Rome, Italy,…. Oslo, Norway,… Quetta and Islamabad cities of Pakistan took to streets to protest and have appealed to UN for action to stop massacre of Hazaras. Hazaras of Karachi in a press conference demanded for an international probe into Hazara killings in Quetta, Pakistan as the government is showing no interest for protecting its citizen.
Of course, it was a turning point for Hazaras to show solidarity with their brothers and sisters beyond the bounds of international borders and their ideological affiliations. After formation of the Hizb E Wahdat, when first time in their history, Hazaras practically showed their oneness, this was the second milestone event in history that Hazaras have showed their oneness. Hazaras showed that nothing can break their national identity, neither geographical borders nor ideological affiliations. For long, I was hearing the voices that were showing concerns about immigration of Hazaras. The main concern was the loss of identity and Hazaragi. Today’s protest was a practical answer to these concerns and Hazaras showed that history can drag them anywhere and ideologically they can be secular or conservative (Or what some like to joke as Babu/roshanfikar Or Akhond/Hozai )but they will always remain HAZARA….
I take this opportunity to appeal to Hazaras who are drawing lines based on their ideological differences that ……Please open your eyes and ears, watch and hear that Hazaras across the world wishing for oneness of you all and Please do not make your ideological differences an excuse to not extend a hand of brotherhood towards each other. If you are a conservative/religious stick to your ideology and if you are a secular, stick to your secularity but you both can’t refuse of being Hazara. I am sure you all stand on these two points,
- While I am ideologically conservative/secular but I am a Hazara
- When it comes to my national interests, I put aside my ideological affiliations and stand for my national interests….
Before ending, I want to thank from depth of my heart, all those Brothers and Sisters who came to streets and showed their solidarity…. And besides I want to give a message to my young brothers and sisters,
Laura Lopez, was the former Vice President of Coca Cola Company and she says, “Leadership is not a role. It doesn’t matter where you sit (in your organization), you could be a leader”…….. Extending her message, I would say, it doesn’t matter, what you do and where you are living, you could be a leader when you take action….So, please do not complain for lack of leadership as you are a leader. Just come forward……………
Of course, it was a turning point for Hazaras to show solidarity with their brothers and sisters beyond the bounds of international borders and their ideological affiliations. After formation of the Hizb E Wahdat, when first time in their history, Hazaras practically showed their oneness, this was the second milestone event in history that Hazaras have showed their oneness. Hazaras showed that nothing can break their national identity, neither geographical borders nor ideological affiliations. For long, I was hearing the voices that were showing concerns about immigration of Hazaras. The main concern was the loss of identity and Hazaragi. Today’s protest was a practical answer to these concerns and Hazaras showed that history can drag them anywhere and ideologically they can be secular or conservative (Or what some like to joke as Babu/roshanfikar Or Akhond/Hozai )but they will always remain HAZARA….
I take this opportunity to appeal to Hazaras who are drawing lines based on their ideological differences that ……Please open your eyes and ears, watch and hear that Hazaras across the world wishing for oneness of you all and Please do not make your ideological differences an excuse to not extend a hand of brotherhood towards each other. If you are a conservative/religious stick to your ideology and if you are a secular, stick to your secularity but you both can’t refuse of being Hazara. I am sure you all stand on these two points,
- While I am ideologically conservative/secular but I am a Hazara
- When it comes to my national interests, I put aside my ideological affiliations and stand for my national interests….
Before ending, I want to thank from depth of my heart, all those Brothers and Sisters who came to streets and showed their solidarity…. And besides I want to give a message to my young brothers and sisters,
Laura Lopez, was the former Vice President of Coca Cola Company and she says, “Leadership is not a role. It doesn’t matter where you sit (in your organization), you could be a leader”…….. Extending her message, I would say, it doesn’t matter, what you do and where you are living, you could be a leader when you take action….So, please do not complain for lack of leadership as you are a leader. Just come forward……………
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