"Intention"

There comes a time in one’s youthfulness that an internal necessity to express and reveal his intentions becomes self evident. Thought, in attempting to understand its self-awareness must always deal with the issues of language. There is a sense and experience of transcendence-beyond-language that must be overcome. In all of thought’s modes of experiences, logically there is a spectrum of pure passivity and pure activity. It is hard to be aware of either experience in its essence due to the nature of thought. Upon meditation, self-awareness and intention unify thought, in which passivity and activity become one. Yet, the laws of human nature are such that thought in the form of pure passivity becomes isolated in such a way that it must rely on its ability to “extend” itself in the form of thought/language in active terms. However, human nature and the laws of self-development or lack thereof leads most autonomous individuals to lose sight of experiencing and coming to understand the essence and the nature of oneself in its fullest experience. We are lead by our environment to assume the investigation of nature on corporeal terms, in which underdeveloped-thought must by nature extend itself to feel any social inclusion. “Modernity” and its aspirations have focused itself on positivist thinking and the virtues of autonomy and utility to such a degree that thought is lead to the experience of isolation before maturation. The modern individual averts its underdeveloped isolation becoming overtly active without investigating the essence of itself in its purest isolated form. To express myself in more “simple” words and phrases – the modernity project in Europe, from its birth in the 16th century “culminating” in the near future, in the American and the English speaking sphere has lead to a quantitative problem of mass proportions in which there are an over abundance of qualitatively underdeveloped autonomous “I’s”, on close to sub-atomic levels in which even the best physicists in the future may have a hard time being able to understand the nature of the physical world in all its manifestations especially on moral grounds. Youthful self-isolation to passively approach and understand the essence of things while conscious of the natural world, leads an individual to actively extend and reveal his will, in an attempt to transcend the boarders of modern isolation to come to terms with thought as a “we.”

The future necessity to understand the universe in a unified/moral way must be taken as a “present” imperative. I hope to elaborate on this topic in further detail later in my studies, but for now I believe it is important to define “intention.” One of the difficulties I have been taught to struggle with is the “amorality” of natural observations in modern society in the form of “science”. Not only has modernity created a world of creatures who are reduced to simple mechanisms of psychological control, the value or the lack there-of of “moral” obligation to nurture collective humanity, has sprung subconscious and at times unforgivable evil. I do not care to reflect on the topic of “justice” until the end of my studies, and upon further reflection there may not be a need to devote much attention to this topic, especially because forgiveness in loving-kindness is essential to redemption. But to forget the facts of historical development with a blind-eye is not the intention of my thinking. My intention is to understand the essence of modernity, in its positive and negative aspects, to move towards a new synthesis for a new enlightenment. In this blogI hope to develop a rational, scientific picture of our recent past, to appreciate “the freethinkers” who felt the ever present “Thou” of there revolutionizing secular project that has somehow collapsed into an “It” of grandiose proportions, a tremendum with certain roots that seem to be dormant still in the present.

Dialectical thinking is a natural process of thought that requires a thesis and antithesis to move towards a future. To be able to fully grasp the intention of the essence/prime-movers of the modern project in the 16th century, it is important to understand their negation of the medieval religious worldview. I do not find dialectical thought as having to slavishly follow events in some temporal linear ordering and that it is a process of dialogue between the thesis and antithesis that happens to cultivate a refined, avant-garde approach to the future. It is certainly ironic to be using a French phrase in this current expression of pure will. I must admit that “intention” in its purest form never exists in the human world and that if it did it would be worthy of “the divine.” However impure the human moral experience can be in the immutable laws of the physical world, to reduce and only study “selectively” without a willful, moral attempt in the form of “the” categorical imperative – imitatio Dei, leads to the pure disillusionment unworthy of being called the product of the Enlightenment. To even approach “the divine” or for there to be a reemergence of the divine imminence “in” the secular world, the individual must self-contemplate the definition of “divine” and “intention” on unitive terms. Only then can we judge with pure moral intention the worth of science, religion and its historical manifestations.

The complexity of my future investigation requires a haven to a degree. But there is no necessity in my isolation to request or desire changes of any sort. In time, I will, will myself in all hardship to amass “food and water” for my pursuit for survival. It is in this blog that I will elucidate, in an incomplete shape, my interests for study. Before I “reveal” my intentions of interest of further investigation, it is important that my intention is truly recognized. I do not want to contradict thought making itself a hypocrite. To avoid this, I must state that “utilitarian” ideals although novel to a degree is and cannot affect my intention. No matter how novel or base my thought maybe, my intentions are not for utility from others. No matter how hard thought tries, our humanness will go through a state of corruption in which the “Thou” of life becomes an “It”. Yet, this does not mean that revealing my intent is for a purpose that can be identified will an “it.” There is then an infinitesimal obligation for thought to understand the purpose to understand itself. In contemplation to understand itself and the why of its project to extend itself is how we begin to think philosophically. Philosophy does not begin with the fear of death and the need to transcend. Humans are by nature, like all living things in the natural world beings in the category of generated and corrupted things. There comes a time when we realize the state of corruption and this realization produces a call to love. Love not for the sake of trying to transcend the experience of corruption, and not for the sake of trying to fix the problems at hand, but because life is in its fullest when we experience and express our love. Philosophy begins in Love.

Birth of Love

Love. We all by nature desire to love. Aristotle begins his metaphysics with: “all men by nature desire to know.” To imagine a world, in which our individual pursuits revolve around the desire to know for the sake of knowing without a purpose beyond knowing, creates a vacuum within the world that is infinitely divine. The essence of thought in its self-awareness may think itself to be transcendent, liberated and above the rules of “earthly passions,” but I am moved to bring to light that this idea not only is dishonest it is the cause of the chaos and darkness. Before an individual begins to desire to know, this individual must have a cause for its desire, and since he does not know what he desires to know, the cause cannot be the knowing. For how can we have the desire to know, when we do not know what it is that we desire? And if we know what we desire, then is there even a need to desire it?

We are born at the precise moment of conception. First, “moment” – implies a specific time in which there was a time before our birth. It is quite “simple” to conclude from hindsight that we were born into the world out of our mother’s womb, and that we can infer that there was a world before our existence into this world. We can define “conception” as the moment when fertilization occurs and the embryo forms in the mother. However, this answer and its language (as extension of our thinking) seem to be cold, detached and indifferent to the divine. The process of becoming, before our being born into the world necessitates a desire to understand not for the sake of knowing but to appreciate and recognize the mysteries of life and the question of free will and determinism. Must we “moderns” limit ourselves to the narrow definition of our individual self as some autonomous creature devoid of the past having free will? If we liberate and unshackle the chains of heartless, “secular” thinking, and approach the question posed by love and the lived-in experience of life by trying to comprehend what it means to live and to love, then the mysteries dissolve into the beautiful. It is with this intuitive experience that I have chosen to start with the word “Love”.

Birth, can be defined by the first moment of existence. Our existence in the womb from this first moment is represented and experienced in pure passivity. We are the recipient of love without any awareness. Even during this state of pure passiveness, there is a determinate expression of pre-infantile love in the process of growth. The pure selfless expression characterized by the mother giving birth to a child is an act that bares upon the child the first and only true responsibility – the duty to fulfill and reciprocate the love in active terms. This first decisive moment as an existent being in the world is coupled with our intuitive need to become lovers, if not for the sake of oneself, for the sake of the infinite. Yet, even birth into the world begins in pure passiveness. We are dependent on all of our needs for survival and are the passive recipient of our parents’ love in our process of growth. Although, awareness to respond to our parents’ love does not occur in the beginning, and in some cases never occurs, intuitively we respond to our parents’ love, however passive it maybe, by our ability to communicate our appreciation of love. The process of growth and the becoming of active agents in this world can be characterized by our ability to speak through the extension of language. By “speaking” and “language”, I do not mean solely the ability to use our vocal cords, but the ability to communicate in its fullest expression, at times represented in complete silence. As infants in the world, we by nature speak in the simplest of tongues, first by showing simple emotions such as contentment and discontentment in the form of smiling and crying progressing as we mature to formulate specific actions and speech. It is such then that our development in the world is represented not just by our physical growth, but our growth in our ability to communicate. Through trial and error of becoming we learn how to use the appropriate language for the purpose of expressing our love, to approximate the divine.

Through the observation of the natural laws governing all animate existents we exist to reproduce. What characterizes the different existents in this process of maturation to reproduce is the complexity of language and communication involved in finding a way to love. It is hard to characterize and judge through some form of hierarchical standards what is involve for an existent’s natural necessity to “be fruitful”. We can observe that there is a sliding spectrum of “selectivity” for all animate reproduction of love. Although we can study the patterns of the different types of selectivity represented to us through our observation of nature, the actual human experience can be the only one that we can truly comprehend. Our thought and our ability through language, an extension of our thinking, allow us to become not just passive agents who receive love, but as active lovers who participate in the journey within the narrative of life.

Philosophy and its tradition does not begin with the fear of death or to transcend adversity in the physical world, to reach some metaphysical truth or to become an agent of pure thought beyond the material world, but begins through the awareness of the lived-in experience of the infinite, to come to accept our existence in this world and to become movers who actively express and approximate the divine. We traverse beyond the boundaries of the possible, not just the boundaries of the physical, to learn and to express the infinite love of the divine. Philosophical thinking and the encounter produce a desire first to understand, preceded by a need to become characterized by the extension of language in the form of expression.

The Lover of Love

How do we begin to express in language our experience of Being. The obliteration of all boundaries of self with nature in which we are left in total awe of existing – a process of self actualization in its most pristine state unworthy of a mortal’s “words.” We are left to ponder and contemplate the unfathomable experience of consciousness on such a subtle beatific vision, where everything infinite makes sense in perfect harmony while in unison with pure confusion of what any and all of Being and existing truly entails. Let me begin by stating: “Life is Beautiful!”

Art is an expression of the different modes of being in the infinite particularities of finite beings in a futile attempt to transcend the experience of autonomy in one’s own realization of self-isolation. The artist reveals his art as pure expression for an abstract telos, where to interpret and appreciate the art is to redeem the essence of the artist in his being-extended in the form of creation. Art abstractly defined then, is all expression in the form of appreciating and communicating the experience of existing and the radical departure and rejection of dualism for an immanent appreciation of being-“in”-the world expressed and interpreted. Dualism characterized as a separation of the domain of the transcendent intellect-soul and the material-physical-phenomenal, and the production of art to unite the two with the medium at hand.

Beauty and our aesthetic taste for subjective particularism must come to terms with the task of finding a standard beyond some hypothetical abstraction such as “the” beautiful in the realm of transcendent form. To fully appreciate beauty in all of its infinite expressions in nature, interpretation of the “is-ness” of experience is crucial. To create boundaries or parameters on “what is beautiful” and “what is not” without close scrutiny of ones inherited tradition of aesthetic categories then is counter intuitive of being able to experience “life-being” as it truly manifest itself. Yet, one can argue even in our liberation of judging with subjective standards and categories of aesthetics, we are still left to reconstruct and develop our own appreciation of beauty. Can anyone, even a nihilist, dare to argue that the angelic are more beautiful than the beasts, or that the philosophers are in someway more pleasing than the politicians? It is as if there is some intuitive realization that a (thirteen-petal) rose in its eternal becoming is pleasing to the soul of the mystic than a field of weeds in its chaos. To create then, a subjective standard based on qualitative-aesthetic judgment, to refine oneself towards the “aristocratic” cannot be rejected, for rejection is to blindly appreciate the perverse standards of oligarchic and tyrannical. [Even these subjective standards of beauty can be argued against for the alternative view that everything is beautiful in its own way no matter how we judge from our own aesthetic taste.]

Contemplation or pure thought, when expressed in the form of language, to paint the picture one comes to be represented in the mind must come to terms with the process of actualizing the vision. Before we will the representation of thought’s vision, the internal dilemma arises – for what purpose is any and all of expression/art? Why extend myself at all? Have I not, through toil earned the freedom and right to my own existence? To offer my words to the most wise and distinguished as if to not realize my youthfulness is to transcend boundaries too daring even for my own standards, while to offer my words as some prescription as if I were already a distinguished physician of the soul is to glory in an arrogant delusion. To extend my thoughts for my own sake, although novel, seems to be an effort not worth embarking on. Can I not exist trying to fully actualize my full potentialities by learning to refine my portrait as an idealization in contemplating my eternal becoming? The infinitesimal task of appreciating the other as a manifestation of nature, to appreciate the “thou” of life can be best, in my own judgment be best accomplished in passivity and being a student of the moment at hand. But the impulse for the artist to shed all vestiges of corporeality, to undress himself and recreate the finer moments of his process to actualize his freedom beyond all costumes that may identify his own being as something “this worldly” is then a process worth embarking on beyond any simplistic explanation. To show himself in pure expression, absorbed in the moment, as if to say “here I am” knocking at the gates to the kingdom of thought, I believe is worthy beyond any need of explanation.

The artist creates “out-of nothing” from the void and chaos that exists in himself, a representation of the world that he comes to behold. Of course, out-of nothing is also symbolic of his own existence from nothing that has culminated in something not definable as chaos or a perfect systematization of anything “specific.” Why should the Monarchy of Beauty be defined and categorized as something distinctly definable by the inherited categories of human language? Is it not an imaginable possibility for the soul of the artist to transcend all boundaries of existence as if to leave behind even his own citizenship in the simplistic “given” political order that modernity has produced for a more aesthetically pleasing existence as a “created being” in the truth of the revealed world? With this self-refined view of the artist’s ideal place in the world comes the realization of a responsibility to uphold imperatives to the transcendent standards (abstractions they maybe) that have come to be embodied in the artist’s soul, the ought to the true, the good and the beautiful – “The lover of love!”

Thoughts and the American-global situation

Life experiences in the west both as individuals in relation to the collective and the collective in relation to the individual and the indefinable dialogue between the two are recorded through rational rigor (Athens) and mythological narratives (Jerusalem) [(western foundational categories/tradition)]. Like most life experiences to try to see which precedes the other contradicts my own logical interests. But there are values to both – the rational more systematic investigation of nature provides “knowledge,” while narratives/myths can teach “wisdom.” These are fuzzy categories of separation due to the human experience as a social creature in the immanent world of material and formal domains. Just wisdom is not wisdom without knowledge and even worse just knowledge is not wisdom. Synthesis of the two towards a harmonious whole ought to (in my opinion) be pursued through the experience/journey of life both for the individual and for the collective.

The western cultural-intellectual global hegemony brought about by the rational scientific rigor of modernity was to a degree a necessity out of which the free thinkers of the 15^th-17^th century emerged. The mythological narratives to idealize wisdom and the virtues of life had been corrupted to such an extent that, at the time, morally responsible intellectuals probably justifiably felt that “rational enlightenment” was the best means to mend the malaise of irrational formulas of interpretation of Sacred Scriptures. A revival of atomism in science and Democracy via governments in political organization and the freedom to autonomous thinking brought about a new conception for egalitarian ideals of human self identification beyond the limits of strict feudalism and the downfall of the political-church. This new more materialist/positivist approach and the scientific methods produced superior interpretive methods of investigating and coming to “know” the natural world. The ability to transform new knowledge into technology brought about the values of a new class of inventors. The use of superior technology brought about western European secular socio-cultural hegemony (unfortunately, but not always, through the use of superior military technology). At least through the lens of military, political, economic superiority the western European tradition in the last three centuries has shown to be the dominating force. The global world has to different degrees harmonized the values and characteristics of the modern western-European enterprise. Rational knowledge universal in orientation coupled with unimaginable efficiency in creating new technology along with the rules of capitalism has brought about a more level playing field in which the modern game of culture building for global dominance through secular western-European rules no longer is a game dominated by the west. The “wild card” of America is the reliance on the current “military-political” dominance of America. China (and other Asian cultures such as Japan and Korea), India, Babylonian to only name a few of the “deep rooted” traditions are beginning to reemerge as cultural-intellectual “forces” that no military technology can overcome. Different cultural civilizations have different mechanisms and advantages once the western-European molded non-monoethnic America held together by the thin string of military power and the remaining vestiges of the secular government and modern myth of prosperity fall short of “dominance.” Life ought not to be a game in which the best pity those who cannot play their game and subject their superiority forcefully by flaunting their self indulgent make-believe status. Some will learn to compete, others will create new rules, and some may even fancy a new game altogether.

The rise and the passing of the torch of the western-European secular cultural tradition and modern protestant hegemony of socio-economic-political world-views into the American-centric sphere after the end of WWII, in my opinion, is in the near future culminating, if not has already culminated depending on the cultural lens one wears. Economically speaking (in modern terms) the quantitative value of Americans citizens in relationship to the global populace have and continue to depreciate beyond imaginable calculations and the masses are blinded by the simple fact that the perceived psychological value of American capital is “held together” (the veil has not been lifted) by a complex mixture of: benevolence (and the appreciation for some of the shinning values and monumental achievements of American culture and future innovations); world-community investors in American capitol (such as Chinese-Japanese bond purchases) and the international global network of major stock markets fearful of American socio-political-ethical premature implosion; and finally American military hegemony.

The cause of such a decline in the quantitative value of American citizens can be attributed to specifically three variables: first, the rise of a more educated working class in hugely populated nations such as China and India on the one hand; second, the other more industrial nations with the psychological necessity to rebuild economically after WWII vigorously motivated around social organization built around principles of efficiency that produce qualitatively better products of modern needs (such as car’s, TV’s and cell phones) have out paced the American citizenry (such as the Germans and Japanese); and finally the lack of wisdom and effort behind the recent educational system that are producing quantitatively less qualitatively competitive citizens (on all fronts including the game of economics). The cause of the decline in the value of American capitol can also be view and simply stated as over consumption and the perceived necessity to consume imported products to our own demise while not being able to export “enough” (relationally speaking to how much America imports). These causes along with infrastructural problems in investment, such as the lack of planning and foresight of the newer cities have produced many inefficient cities (the suburban sprawl) that are bound to the necessity of an automobile to a degree that over consumption of petroleum is by nature an essential component of many of the cities, or the laissez-faire attitude of the government towards corporate enterprises for the profit motive, or even more troubling in recent years is the rise of psychological fear that has lead many infantile investors to value gold more than its own American capitol, has in my opinion lead to the demise of American “freedom.” It is the military force that America at least during the Bush administration relied so heavily on, in keeping the American hegemony, but in doing so, exploited even bigger economic future disadvantages (such as financing the education of the next generation, or creating new more constructive opportunities to generate wealth).

If the “economic” factors of quantitative decline of the American citizens together with the decline in the value of the capitol was the only issue at hand then pulling the plug (or to use my parents’ words: “we’re cutting you off, except for food and shelter and books”) maybe the best, most organic way for America to redefine itself socio-culturally and grow-up. But curtailing hedonistic tendencies that at least for my generation has been the staple for happiness (due to the affluence of the previous generation) “abruptly” coupled with a lack of moral training due to unwise and capitalistically motivated/funded “myth making” media conglomerates may produced potentially devastating outcomes on socio-political levels both domestically and internationally. If the American citizenry were an monoethnic people and had deeper-rooted traditions then domestically the intelligent would in times of distress slowly emerge to create an organic reorganization (such as Germany after the 1929 great depression [but hindsight of the horrors of WWII non-monoethnic cultural identification of America has its values {but then again it was the issue of non-monoethnic together with extreme ethnocentrism in secular western Europe through the “science” of race that emerged that created the horrific outcome that it did}]). But, (in my opinion) the beauty of the American cultural-historical-tradition as a place of “freedom” and the emergence of one of the first global communities composed of different generations of migrants from around the world in the pursuit of the American dream, the essence of capitalism, has turned into an repulsive consumer based capitalistic non-monoethnic slave state motivated by greed on hedonistic principles. America has at least during my life/generation thus far become exponentially worse to the point that “cutting America off” if not done wisely can unravel the harmony of America and the rest of the nation-states as a diverse community made up of many ethnic-cultural-religious groups. Signs of disharmony internationally can be seen in the rise of Christian belief that Islam is Satanic, or secular anti-Semitism in Islamic garb in hostility towards Israel’s presence in the Middle East can be seen for example already escalating. Domestically in America signs of disharmony can be seen in the attitudes of political disunity (emphasis on deeply conservative views of people with more “liberal” attitudes towards the freedom of choice and thought). As the veil is removed to uncover the mirror, I deeply worry that the hedonist beast of modernity will react at the sight of its own reflection of the self and pursue morally irrational an unforgivable actions such as a new world war. Of course this is only a potential outcome, but if the statistics of the rise in population for resources, or the rise in white supremacist groups, or the rise in right wing Christian evangelical bloc are signs of social unity in one respect it is also a sign of American and world disunity and chaos. If the diverse global community and  America was held together by the prosperity of capitalism as its essential nature (and consumerism lead by the principles belief that one can “buy happiness” have lead to the current “immanent” situation, together with bad mythology) and capitalism is removed “so-to-speak” as the essential nature of America to the minds of the masses too quickly as new(old?) ideologies replace them, unpredictable and potentially devastating outcomes maybe unavoidable without the presence of global lighters working harmoniously towards a smoother transition. All (and infinitely more that are not considered here) are variables that lead me to believe that America’s future along with some of the global westernized communities of nation-states that have assimilated the what used to be the “thus of modernity” if not handled with intellectual and moral care can find themselves chained in the “darkness” of the cave.  

My own aesthetic appreciation for life viewed as an interpretation and/or game is a collective effort of contemplation best dominated by passive extreme self critique of “everything” and the responsibility towards being able to synthesizethe present situation harmoniously with the organic developments of life. Winning then is being able to appreciate and interpret the other (whether an individual or a collective or just “nature”) to learn how to be a better creature for oneself but more importantly to realize the responsibility towards family, community, earth and the future – in the end I always lose, but win the opportunity to try again. To use Taoist logic/thinking on western Aristotelian categories the game is to become a mover by never accepting the self-status of the unmoved-mover, to appreciate the infinitesimal process of life as a mysterious journey of always trying to move without moving. Or in the Shakespearian improvisational logic using Zen and Judaic categories the stage is set for actors to be in zazen, opening the hand of thought to the innumerable characters and the essence of each experience one feels responsible to meditate on – to be still and creative on the stage of life.

Wisdom, in my present state of being, is to recognize that life is too short to just focus on one tradition or one aspect of one lifestyle, while also realizing that life is too long not to focus on a tradition. It is to go beyond linear thinking and finding new ways of interpreting time in which harmony of self contemplation about past experiences of life and the values of what we learned to help idealized a more realistic hopeful future-to-come, while always trying to improve on the ability to “be” in the moment conscious though of the task of paving our road toward individual and collective redemption is always in need of refinement. It is to idealize an ascetic monk-like life, a serenity of simplicity beyond the chaos of civilization, but to intuitively realize that I have innumerable reasons both self-created goals and aspirations and more importantly ancestral responsibility to the contribution towards internal and external familial harmony that ought to be pursued before I can peacefully meditate in silence.

Japanese Mysticism

和

HARMONY

"the world of harmony unit!!"