kaizenin21stcentury

[kaizenin21stcentury]

Only the limited understanding of man sees imperfection that isn't perfect for its purpose.

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Between good and evil there is therefore no difference in type, but only in degree.

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"Strong is a fruit of weak

Weak is a seed of strong."

- Mei, from the anime/manga Hell's Paradise

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On our earth we can only love with suffering and through suffering. We cannot love otherwise, and we know of no other sort of love. I want suffering in order to love.

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

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"To one man lonesomeness is the flight of the sick one; to another, it is the flight from the sick ones."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra.

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Stiletto

Storm-tossed seas swiftly fizzled out,

Overlong slumber of abyss now broken;

Novel trifles and dark ciphers dug out

By relentless waves, bobbing to the isles.

My isles harbored few such drifting ideas;

That which whipped up chaos within

I was ordained to tend the battered isles;

Trifles garnered and ideas deciphered.

One dark cipher provided cruel comfort

Stiletto plunged in the chest was the idea;

For the mute and bloodless war within

Tis’ this idea that breaks the curse of pain.

For the isles amidst sly murky waters,

For the isles infested with vile creatures,

For the isles put up with bog soiled terra,

For the isles in mercy of unforgiving sky;

Idea that begets unwavering troth and

Stiletto that begets vibrant red is solace.

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“ Man the machine—man the impersonal engine. Whatsoever a man is, is due to his make and to the influences brought to bear upon it by his heredities, his habitat, his associations. He is moved, directed, commanded by exterior influences—solely. He originates nothing himself—not even an opinion, not even a thought.”

A rather radical idea. Nonetheless, reading the dialogue got the gears turning in my head.

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"The body favours a straight line, the soul hankers for the circle. This mythic, circular time, (which is really no kind of time at all) laughs at the straight line." - Plotinus

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Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled. Forever I shall be a stranger to myself.

- Albert Camus, Myth of Sisyphus

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One day, Earth smiled at Sky

Sky poured love onto earth

Earth received with smile

Sky shone brighter onto earth

Earth was laden with warmth

One day, Earth felt a growth

Sky drew closer in curiosity?

Earth brimmed crimson to it

Sky puzzled, marbled colours

Earth delighted in art unveiled

Next day, Sprout came to be

Sky knew nothing of its nature

Earth knew nothing of its face

Both knew nothing of future,

Knew nothing but to cherish it

Next day, Sprout beckoned both

If I fail to grow, am I wrong?

If I grew crooked, am I wrong?

If I am not useful, am I wrong?

Great ones, I need thy answers

Everyday, I am thy Sky

I know not about thy future

I know only to exist with thee

Present or not, precious is all

Of thy being here till end

Everyday, I am thy Earth

Burden not with yourself

For it is mine, for all of time

I have made space for all

To carry weak and strong alike

All day, Sprout reflected on

Now I know, worry are naught

O! Great Sky! Prithee radiate

O! Great Earth! Prithee shoulder

Life full of my Will, will be present.

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Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! “Have courage to use your own understanding!”--that is the motto of enlightenment.

Immanuel Kant

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Jean Baudrillard

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'It's all meaningless'. No matter what dreams or hopes you had... No matter how blessed a life you've lived... It's all the same if you're shredded by rocks. Everyone will die someday.

Does that mean that life is meaningless? Was there even any meaning in our being born?

Would you say that of our fallen comrades? Their lives—were they meaningless?

No, they weren't!

It's us who gives meaning to our comrades' lives! The brave fallen! The anguished fallen!

The ones who will remember them are us the living. We die trusting the living who follow to find meaning in our lives! That is the sole method in which we can rebel against this cruel world!

My soldiers, rage! My soldiers, scream! My soldiers, fight!

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShingekiNoKyojin/comments/xew26k/transcript_of_erwin_smiths_last_speech/

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From the story titled 'Golden time' (Webtoon/Manhwa)

This is the memory a of conversation between a father (king of a country) and his daughter (heir/princess of that country/protagonist). She is reminded of her late father's words amidst naval warfare between two countries and one of which is commanded by her. After remembering her dad's words she gives an important command and eventually makes them victorious.

Aside from the fact that his words of wisdom are enlightenment worthy, the entire conversation between a parent and a child is pure gold and the fact that she is reminded of the past and her father's wise words when she's in a pickle, simply.. warms my heart.

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Famous quote by Master Oogway from the movie Kung Fu Panda ☯️

Zen Buddhism at its finest 🪷

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Commonplacing

Commonplacing refers to the practice of collecting and compiling significant or interesting passages, thoughts, quotations, and information from various sources into a personal notebook or commonplace book. People jot down excerpts from books, lectures, conversations, and other sources, organizing them thematically for easy reference.

The purpose of commonplacing is to create a personalized resource that gathers valuable insights, knowledge, and reflections. These books became a way for individuals to create their own intellectual and philosophical repositories.

Famous historical figures, including thinkers like John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, were known to keep commonplace books. The practice has evolved over time, and some contemporary note-taking methods or digital tools can be seen as modern iterations of this age-old tradition.

John Locke Index for commonplace books

This channel has videos regarding anything related to journaling, commonplacing, book reading and related topics. I will recommend her videos which are concise and beginner friendly for anyone wanting to explore this domain.

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Genesis of Interdisciplinarity

Historically, some argue that the term 'interdisciplinarity' dates right back to the ideas of greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle who have been associated with the term 'interdisciplinary thinkers'.

Others say that it is from the 20th century, borne from educational reforms, research and transfer of knowledge across subject boundaries. This was mostly due to the post World War I problems, such as population shifts, housing, social welfare, war, labour and crime, that needed to be addressed by a range of different disciplines rather than through the lens of just one, to work towards the 'unity of knowledge'.

In 1959, C. P. Snow delivered an influential lecture titled 'The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution' at the University of Cambridge. Snow argued that 'the intellectual life of the whole western society' was split into two cultures - the sciences and the humanities - and that this was a major hindrance to solving the worlds' problems.

"Literary intellectuals at one pole - at the other scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists....... the non-scientists have a rooted impression that the scientists are shallowly optimistic, unaware of man's condition. On the other hand, the scientists believe that the literary intellectuals are totally lacking in foresight, peculiarly unconcerned with brother men, in a deep sense anti-intellectual, anxious to restrict both art and thought to the existential moment." - C. P. Snow

Snow argued that practitioners in both areas should instead build bridges to further the progress of human knowledge and to benefit the society.

Snow, C. P., & Collini, S. (1993). THE REDE LECTURE (1959). In The Two Cultures (pp. 1–52). chapter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The works of Leonardo da Vinci is a perfect embodiment of this argument.