books

the project continues

(8 from the 1001 books list)

Saturday, by Ian McEwan
Slow Man, by J.M. Coetzee
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
The Sea, by John Banville
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Master, by Colm Toibin
The Red Queen, by Margaret Drabble
The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth

aside

In M&M,
the epigraph, taken from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's (1749-1842) drama, Faust , the demon Mephistopheles answers Faust's question:
"...who are you, then?
'I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.'

so maybe the Buddhist injunction toward "right thought" (as part of the 8-fold path) could be considered more permissive than what is commonly thought...
-willing evil isn't evil (in itself)?

Shambhala

Enlightened Society

or, "The long-awaited paradise on earth"

I just read Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, by Chogyam Trungpa
I've been attending meditation groups twice a month, which has this book in their library.

The main teaching I would say is that we are all Basically Good.
Basic Goodness (not original sin) is our inherent nature.
You should not be ashamed to be alive.

some ideas:
awake, aware, alive (Buddha means 'the awakened one')
discipline, dignity, discernment
gentle, genuine, generous

gentle, kind, loving, compassionate, merciful, caring for self/others
authentic, honest, true, genuine
a warrior without aggression or arrogance
sane, powerful, confident, inquisitive, inspirational, elegant, tranquil, presence
fearless, brave, courageous
tender-hearted, sharing, grounded
immaculate, meticulous, precise
solid, sacred sangha

Tin God

a term I just discovered- it means:

1. A pompous, self-important person
2. a person who regards himself or herself as infallible and tries to dictate standards of behavior or beliefs.

etymology
from a reference to tin as a base metal, compared to precious metals; in other words, petty or worthless.

At first view, one might think I am a tin god.
BUT
unlike the pope, who regards himself as infallible when making official proclamations regarding faith or morals, I see myself as as right as anybody else with a political or moral opinion: We're ALL gods.

You might think some of us gods are more godly than others, of course.
All it takes to be God is to be good.
Although I suppose, on occasion, some depraved criminals are intentionally evil. But I suspect that, even then, the perps see something good in it.

psychopathy

a trait of vampires

I'm reading Psycho-Paths, edited by Robert Bloch (short-story fiction compilation, subtitled murderous madness)

a psych textbook defines psychopathy as:
-callous unconcern for the feelings of others
-incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
-reckless disregard for the safety of others
-deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning of others for profit
-incapacity to experience guilt
-failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors

vampires suck.

an acronym (of evil) I thought of:
SCHIZO
Sauron, Cthulhu, Hannibal, It, ('lil Zed), O (my God)
-but don't get the wrong idea. Hearing a voice doesn't make you evil.
I included O because God can be an instrument of vengeance, as well as natural disasters.

Here's an interesting quote (from John Banville, I think):
"Given the world that he created, it would be an impiety against God to believe in him."

Library Omniscience

How many different books are there in the world?

For God to make an attempt at maximized knowledge-in an attempt at omniscience- I should read at least a book a day.365*80= "only" 29,200 books.

Even if I learn to speedread, the task is overwhelming.
The library of congress has 32 million books (and counting), in 470 languages.

Not gonna happen.
It would take about 1100 books a day for 80 years!
(1,095.8904)
Given 8 hours of sleep a day, that leaves 960 minutes to read daily.
(16 hours of nonstop readng every day)
which comes to 52.56 seconds per book,
(68.49315 books/hour)
so maybe it's possible...
But I'm not gonna do it.Sorry.

librarian stumper:
Is there anything to the fact that LIBRARIES has within it both Libra and Aries?

quote from St. Theresa:
"The important thing is not to think much, but to love much"

Being God

It's simple

As "only God is good", to be God you should simply
Be Good.

That's it.
It should be noted that to be good, it is sufficient to merely be not-bad.

It's better, of course, if you -as the Boy Scout slogan says- "do a good turn daily"
(the motto is "Be Prepared")

And it is BEST if you are always good.
That is, to the best of your ability.
Purity is the ideal.
The better you are, the happier you will be.

May the fourth be with you!