Biden China Covid -- Crime of the century T. Carlson
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Truck Fump / h1b
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Jade Dragon
And I'm the one that jaded you.
Sawyerloggingon
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It's just coincidence this virus started in the same city in China that their only level 4 lab is in. Just a huge cosmic coincidence. Move along folks, nuthin to see here.
Carlson always looks like he is having a tough time taking a shit!
Shouldn't force things like he is doing.
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
yes. don't force it.
Wu wei means – in Chinese – non-doing or 'doing nothing'. It sounds like a pleasant invitation to relax or worse, fall into laziness or apathy. Yet this concept is key to the noblest kind of action according to the philosophy of Daoism – and is at the heart of what it means to follow Dao or The Way.
Thanks for that, AssHat. Interesting stuff.
"Do nothing" for short period of time seems almost beyond most people. Actually, though, "doing nothing" is doing something...the "something" being "nothing." Cleansing the mind even for a full minute is not easy.
Same with saying something...when one is with someone else. Maintaining periods of silence between people is probably a sign of great trust.
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
also wabi sabi
Wabi Sabi Your Life: Six Strategies for Embracing Imperfection
Understand the meaning of wabi sabi and how to incorporate it in your lifestyle.
By Whole Living
December 09, 2019
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Right now in my house, the wall that leads upstairs—which the previous owners unwisely painted in a matte finish—bears a trail of small fingerprints. This used to signal another to-do on my list: "Clean those fingerprints off the wall." Again. But lately, rather than sigh over the decay of my pristine home, I've been learning to embrace wabi sabi, the Japanese art of appreciating the beauty in the naturally imperfect world.
yoga-pose-getty
CREDIT: HERO IMAGES/GETTY
I no longer see those fingerprints as blemishes to be expunged from the wall on my daily roundup of chores, but as the story of my daughters' nightly treks up to bed. Wabi sabi is an ancient aesthetic philosophy rooted in Zen Buddhism, particularly the tea ceremony, a ritual of purity and simplicity in which masters prized bowls that were handmade and irregularly shaped, with uneven glaze, cracks, and a perverse beauty in their deliberate imperfection.
The Japanese philosophy celebrates beauty in what's natural, flaws and all. The antique bowls above are prized because of (not in spite of) their drips and cracks. What if we learned to prize the drips and cracks in our messy lives?
Humble Virtues
In the world according to Zen, words only hinder true enlightenment; reducing wabi sabi to mere language seems like sacrilege to its spirit. But loosely translated, "wabi" is simplicity, whether elegant or rustic; "sabi" means the beauty of age and wear.
Leonard Koren, author of "Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers," tried unsuccessfully to discover a precise definition while researching his book. He eventually coined his own, which has become standard for authors in the West: "Wabi sabi is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete, the antithesis of our classical Western notion of beauty as something perfect, enduring, and monumental."
To illustrate: Wabi sabi is asymmetrical heirloom vegetables and handmade pottery, crow's feet and the frayed sleeves of a favorite wool sweater, exposed brick and the first draft of a difficult letter.
You won't find wabi sabi in Botox, glass-and-steel skyscrapers, smart phones, or the drive for relentless self-improvement. It's a beauty hidden right in front of our eyes, an aesthetic of simplicity that reveals itself only when animated through the daily work of living.
In "The Unknown Craftsman," Japanese art critic Soetsu Yanagi writes, "We in our own human imperfections are repelled by the perfect, since everything is apparent from the start and there is no suggestion of the infinite."
As a wine writer, I am far less drawn to generic, technically correct wines than to wines with complexity—even if that complexity comes with a whiff of fault. A perfect wine is too obvious, while one with nuance ("bottled poetry," as Robert Louis Stevenson calls it) leaves room for exploration of the unknown.
Yet a badly made wine won't pass muster with my critical palate; nor are stained plastic dishes or a weed-infested garden wabi sabi in their defects. A wabi sabi approach to life isn't about giving way to carelessness or seeing a junk pile through rose-colored glasses. It's about appreciating, showcasing, and sustaining the beauty of what's natural.
Nothing about nature is linear or symmetrical or impervious to decay. And yet what could be more mesmerizing?
Related: Yoga and Wellness Retreats Perfect for Anyone Looking to Unwind
Abandoning "Perfect"
I think of the paraphernalia my young daughters pick up on our walks, things I stopped noticing long ago—discarded feathers, stones worn shiny by water. They're drawn to these treasures for their expressive textures, shapes, and colors, each thing unique in the world. So miraculous just the way they are, and yet so simple.
In our culture, "simplicity" is often code for a life that's meticulously organized or for spare, boutique perfection. We're brought up to strive for the best, the brightest, and most extraordinary. It may not be natural to us to seek pleasure in the quotidian, let alone a Japanese concept that celebrates rust.
But what could be more radically simple than acceptance? As Richard Powell, author of "Wabi Sabi Simple," told me, "Accepting the world as imperfect, unfinished, and transient, and then going deeper and celebrating that reality, is something not unlike freedom."
I find the idea of abandoning "perfect" and even "good enough" irresistibly tempting. Life—the fingerprints, scars, and laugh lines—is itself perfectly imperfect, and I can embrace the beauty in that.
Wabi Sabi in Action
By its very nature, the philosophy of wabi sabi can't be packaged into six foolproof tips, but its spirit can simplify every aspect of the way we live.
Relationships
The Meaning
When the samurai entered a teahouse, they removed their swords, leaving behind their conflicts and pretensions. Similarly, Powell says, a wabi sabi relationship is one in which you deliberately accept each other where you are—imperfect, unfinished, and mortal.
"Appreciation for imperfections in others, and even in yourself, is the essential wabi sabi frame of mind," Koren says. "Deep down you know perfection can be rather dull. As singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen poetically put it, 'There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.'"
The Action
A person is brimming with engrossing sensory details. "If we're able to find the act of drinking tea engaging, fascinating, and absorbing, how much more engaging can a human be?" asks Simon Brown, author of "Practical Wabi Sabi." "Try shedding expectations and assumptions, and focus on the sensations of the other person."
Accepting someone else's faults, rather than taking them on as a project to be fixed, leaves you the time and emotional energy for enjoying that person.
Young black female collecting vine tomatoes from community allotment
CREDIT: MIKE HARRINGTON/GETTY
Food
The Meaning
"Wabi sabi principles suggest our food should be natural, simple, and prepared from intuition," Brown says. Making a meal should be a creative, joyful act, not a test you can fail.
That means improvising with a recipe when you have basil but not tarragon; reveling in the textures of a homemade dish that's a bit more splattered than a professionally plated version in a magazine; and appreciating nourishing, whole ingredients. It's about savoring your food.
Fruits and vegetables from your own garden or the farmers' market are an elemental expression of wabi sabi. Lumpy, irregular, and imperfect, a juicy, ripe heirloom tomato is more compelling to look at and to eat than a perfectly formed hothouse version shipped in from another state.
The Action
Don't just taste flavors but inhale the richness of smells, hear the sounds your food makes, feel the textures (wet, chewy, crunchy) in your mouth. "Part of the wabi sabi approach is training ourselves to appreciate the simplest things in life and using them to engage our senses," Brown says.
Choose dishes, silverware, and cooking utensils with heft and texture to deepen the sensory experience of eating.
"Show me the wood in the pepper mill, let me see the cracks in the glaze on the old serving plate," Powell says. "Listen to the tinkling of silverware and the settling of ice in tumblers—all reminders that we depend on the world, the earth, the soil and sea."
Related: Foods You Should Eat to Fight Stress
Home
The Meaning
A wabi sabi home is full of rustic character, charm, and things that are uniquely yours, says Robyn Griggs Lawrence, author of "Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House," to be published next spring.
If an old chest has significance to you, for example, a missing drawer pull doesn't have to be an eyesore. It can also be a sign that the piece has been used and enjoyed. Utsukushii, a Japanese word for "beautiful," evolved from the original meaning, "being loved."
The Action
Wabi sabi celebrates what's handmade. Instead of settling for mass-market junk, furnish your home with unique, quality pieces. A lovingly thrifted kitchen table has more value than a gleaming new piece of particle board.
Using materials that weather beautifully, like wood, stone, and metal, will let you just sit back and appreciate what you own as you grow old with it, rather than fretting over cracked plastic or warped vinyl.
Think about a color palette that mimics what's found in nature: greens, grays, earth tones, and rusts. This creates an atmosphere of tranquillity and harmony. Wabi sabi doesn't mean embracing clutter, Griggs Lawrence explains. "There is thought and work behind it, not neglect." An exquisite teapot can't shine if it's wedged into a crowded china cabinet; clear the space so you can give it a shelf of its own and truly appreciate it each time you pass by. Every object in your home should be beautiful, useful, or both.
Smiling mature woman applying moisturizer to face at bathroom mirror
CREDIT: HOXTON/SAM EDWARDS/GETTY
Beauty
The Meaning
Yes, the beauty of youth is almost universally revered. But in wabi sabi, as in life itself, change is the only constant, and Brown encourages us to embrace it.
"The starting point of cultivating a wabi sabi beauty is to appreciate the process of aging," he says. "Try not to get caught up in wanting to stagnate in one part of your natural progression through life."
Powell adds that it's unrealistic to change our hardwired preference for smooth skin and firm bodies, but it's possible to broaden our perspective and open up to seeing new kinds of beauty.
After all, our stories lie in our imperfections: the scar we got from doing a sport we love, the chipped nails after a day spent in our beloved garden.
The Action
Wabi sabi beauty is not about relinquishing self-care, which can be a form of attention and presence in your life. The Japanese tea masters took exquisite care of their pottery, cracked and imperfect as it was. Likewise, you can pamper your body without nipping and tucking it into submission.
True beauty, in a wabi sabi sense, is about taking care of yourself, not turning your face into a blank canvas. If we stop spending the time to spackle over every freckle or cover up every gray hair, we can be more fully engaged with the world—which gives us real charisma.
Instead of an arsenal of products targeted to your every perceived flaw, stick to a few tried-and-true favorites. When you shine through, that's beautiful.
Closet
The Meaning
A wabi sabi clothing philosophy is about appreciating what you already have—a well-worn bag, for instance. "Appreciating what you already have is more important than acquiring new things," Koren says.
Instead of spending energy each season on the treadmill of wardrobe updates, revisit what you love and remember why you love it. What do these clothes say about who you've become?
A carefully mended patch in this scarf, for example, turns it into something only one person owns—which makes a greater (not to mention simpler) fashion statement than any pristine thing pulled straight from the rack.
The Action
You don't need to hang on to soiled, stained, frumpy old things that make you feel unkempt and out of sorts, or engage in a quest for the perfect Ten Timeless Pieces.
But don't throw away a favorite sweater just because it's grown faded with time. Your cherished standbys become unique expressions of you when they're charmingly combined with your fresher pieces, Koren says.
When choosing new clothes, Powell suggests seeking out natural, sustainably made garments of wool, cotton, hemp, bamboo, or leather.
"Wool has become a favorite of mine because of its natural durability and how wholesome it looks," he says. "Leather, while frowned upon by some who embrace wabi sabi, is both natural and eminently disposed to improve with age. Leather coats and shoes become even more beautiful as they wear over time."
Work
The Meaning
Most workplaces—which are dedicated to excellence, even perfection—don't seem the ideal arena to apply wabi sabi. But "on the deepest level, wabi sabi at work is being valued fully for who and what you are," says Whitney Greer, coauthor of "Wabi-Sabi at Work."
"Align your actions and words to your values, and you'll reflect your best self. Authenticity goes a long way toward eliminating power struggles in the workplace," which is probably the most significant thing most of us could do to simplify our lives at the office.
The Action
"Uncover what's distinctive about you as a person and highlight that," Greer says. If you're a natural collaborator but all your coworkers are huddled in their cubes, you'll shrivel up and may not even understand why.
Powell believes it's helpful to remember the bigger picture of your work, the transience of both the job and your product or service. A little perspective also helps you step back from the small frustrations that aren't worth the complexity they add to your workday.
"Everything eventually wears out and is discarded," Powell says. "Knowing this allows you to find beauty in the entropy." And there is nothing more wabi sabi than that.
This story originally appeared on Whole Living by Gretchen Roberts.
https://www.marthastewart.com/2225027/wabi-sabi-strategies-tips
Truck Fump / h1b
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yes from "the protocols of zion" to "martha stewart living", there is some truth in all things.
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
it saddens me to see japan and china fight, as there is such beauty too in their comutual amalgams.
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
I've read some Alan Watts...and have enjoyed it. R. D. Laing and Richard Bach come to mind at this moment. Not directly related, but peripheral to. Interesting ideas come from writers like that.
I deem myself a utilitarian rather than an aesthete...which puts me at odds with many on some things. The item I thought about while reading your post was my fish pond. I have a fish pond with carp and koi; it really is great in my mind. I have a brother-in-law who thinks I should spruce it up more. I tell him that the fish pond I have is for the fish...not for me or my wife. A bit of wild growth around it...some plants dipping into it...are for the fun of the fish...and bother me not a bit. Some of the fish have been in the pond for 20+ years, with some of the goldfish are as large as the koi.
The deck I built on the back of my home is a great platform with built-in benches. It could use some prettying up right now (35 years old)...but it functions. I can walk on it; it's solid; it holds some chairs and tables; one section has a hot-tub/spa build in; and the "imperfections" speak to the limits of my construction ability. I treasure it as-is.
A well-placed iron-on patch works perfectly for me to keep a favored pair of pants.
I guess there is some wabi sabi at work in me.
I deem myself a utilitarian rather than an aesthete...which puts me at odds with many on some things. The item I thought about while reading your post was my fish pond. I have a fish pond with carp and koi; it really is great in my mind. I have a brother-in-law who thinks I should spruce it up more. I tell him that the fish pond I have is for the fish...not for me or my wife. A bit of wild growth around it...some plants dipping into it...are for the fun of the fish...and bother me not a bit. Some of the fish have been in the pond for 20+ years, with some of the goldfish are as large as the koi.
The deck I built on the back of my home is a great platform with built-in benches. It could use some prettying up right now (35 years old)...but it functions. I can walk on it; it's solid; it holds some chairs and tables; one section has a hot-tub/spa build in; and the "imperfections" speak to the limits of my construction ability. I treasure it as-is.
A well-placed iron-on patch works perfectly for me to keep a favored pair of pants.
I guess there is some wabi sabi at work in me.
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
yes.
utilitarianism is slavery. and evil.
On Being Useless: A Daoist Reflection
Our obsession with productivity works against us.
old tree
27th February 2019
cite
Edward McDougall | Philosophy Tutor at Durham University, UK
1,474 words
Read time: approx. 7 mins
Utility, or usefulness, is an invisible thread that runs through and organises every aspect of our society. It is a basic, universal and inescapable measure of all worth in modern lives.
This is obvious in our attitudes to work and education. Economics treats utility as a measurable quantity which serves, and even dictates, decision-making. Many academics, particularly in the sciences, now need to justify their research in terms of “impact”, a quantifiable indicator of economic or social contribution. The governments of the US and the UK have cut down on their funding for liberal arts subjects, for lacking an obvious and measurable use. The assumption is that education should be a means to produce future workers.
But even beyond work, leisure is presented as the means to recharge our body and mind so we can keep on working, and is turned into a commodity, to be bought or sold, in the tourism industry.
This has repercussions on our moral discourse too, implying that being useful equals to being good. Anything without use value will be treated as luxury and indulgence, or dismissed as laziness or a moral complacency.
Indeed, in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, sociologist Max Weber argued that utility, as an approach to life, may have its historical foundations in the Protestant work ethic.
The use driven approach to life fundamentally denies anything that is not a means to an end. If we really take utility as the only meaningful value, our lives would be merely parts of a never-ending production line – we function as long as we last and then can be replaced. This has been presented as progress, but the endpoint is uncertain: we may arrive at the utopia of economic or technological advancements, or we may come to understand that this is actually a myth of modernity, a distant and never realised promise.
Perhaps going back to the lessons of ancient Chinese Daoism might help us see the limits of our modern and contemporary fixation with usefulness.
The Story of a Useless Tree
In his work The Inner Chapters, the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi tells the story of a tree which enjoys being useless. This tree has grown to a vast size and is worshiped in the village. Its branches are “too twisted and gnarled to be used for beams or pillars”, while its trunk is “too splotched and split to be used for a coffin” (translated by Brook Ziporyn in his Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings). So one day when a carpenter encounters the tree, he believes the tree to be “worthless lumber”. Yet, the tree responds to the carpenter’s criticism by appearing to him in a dream and asking him:
“What do you want to compare me to, one of those cultivated trees? The hawthorn, the pear, the orange, the rest of those fructiferous trees and shrubs – when their fruit is ripe they get plucked, and that is an insult…Thus do their abilities embitter their lives. That’s why they die young…They batter themselves with the vulgar conventions of the world.” (Ziporyn’s translation)
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In this story, the carpenter’s view is in modern western terms utilitarian. Regardless of the size of the tree or its being worshipped, to the carpenter the tree is nothing more than a waste of space. The existence of the tree serves no purpose. However, the tree feels blessed by its uselessness: it survives, while other “useful” trees are cut down, to be used as wood, or damaged by such violence.
In a quirky and humorous manner, Zhuangzi conveys the basic point that the tree’s very life is saved by its being useless, while its fellow trees that produce things of use are destroyed. In other words, in viewing something simply in terms of its usefulness, we have denied its right to be.
___
"The principle of utility has fundamentally undermined the individual, who is supposedly at the heart of our society."
___
Zhuangzi sees uselessness as something the tree has to cultivate. As the tree states, “I have been working on being useless for a long time. It almost killed me, but I’ve finally managed it.” (Ziporyn’s translation) Before being cut down, a tree is already only judged for its use value. This is the “insult” Zhuangzi’s tree speaks of. It is unable to remain as it is. The tree has to go out of its way to avoid being caught up in this, in order to just be a tree.
This is how Zhuangzi carries out a project of resistance to utility, which he clearly sees as praise-worthy. Ziporyn continues to translate: “This is the worthlessness [uselessness] that the Spirit Man relies on.” Zhuangzi refers to the Spirit Man as both an exceptional figure and exemplar who we can all aspire to be like. He means that the way of the tree, like the way of the Spirit Man, is something we should follow. Although the useless tree appears to only be taking care of itself, Zhuangzi develops the cultivation of uselessness with two key notions, i.e. wu wei and ziran, in Daoist philosophy:
Wu wei is generally translated as action-less action. It was expressed by the Daoist philosopher Laozi as a principle for government by the sage, who “conducts affairs on the principle of take-no-action [wu wei].” (Keping Wang’s translation of Dao De Jing in his Reading the Dao: A Thematic Inquiry) On the surface, this principle might appear as an excuse for laziness, passivity or inaction. Zhuangzi further develops it to be more accurately understood as a call to let beings be. As an ethical principle, action-less action requires us not to force our will or impose utility onto others.
Ziran, as a Daoist principle, is often understood as naturalness, or more specifically, as spontaneity. An entity is said to be ziran if it is allowed to be itself. This thus calls on us to allow both ourselves and other beings to be. Zhuangzi’s understanding of uselessness, which refuses judgement or manipulation of any entity based on its utility, contextualises the meaning of ziran. Thus, he challenges other schools of thought in his time, such as the Confucians and the Mohists, who held that the aim of education should be to produce scholars who could be of use to the state.
Zhuangzi also frequently presents the figure of the Spirit Man or Daoist sage, who is associated with the approach to life of the useless tree, as an eccentric figure. An example is “the madman Jieyu”. Zhuangzi is not asking people to copy these eccentrics in every conceivable way. Precisely because their eccentricities are thought of by many as useless, they do not fit in the conventions of the society nor are they demanded to conform. Thus, these eccentrics show different ways of being.
Are We Free?
Can we make anything out of this story? Is it a paradox to, as Zhuangzi does, consider that uselessness may have a part to play in life? Zhuangzi’s useless tree may seem distant to us. His eccentric sages, on the contrary, may be more understandable because they somehow echo with the individualist values of western society. Yet, the Daoist approach is still in many ways quite different.
The idea that as a liberal society, we value the individual, is indeed nominal. This individuality, in contemporary western society, is always treated as commodity. Hence, today it is frequently said that “one has to market oneself”. The marketing of oneself above all else has become a cultural and practical obsession. We might have overtly done it, for example, on CVs and social media, or in other subtler ways throughout our life. One’s individuality is viewed effectively as a means to present oneself. And presenting oneself in such a way often implies that one is of use. Sometimes, this is even done to the extent that one’s whole identity is being defined through one’s usefulness.
The basic cruelty and alienation of life based around marketing one’s usefulness can be seen in the use of language. For example, incongruous terms like “human resources” are omnipresent in casual thinking. Such language callously lumps humans together with other resources, such as coal, steal, timber, etc.
This condition is at odds with the humanism underlying western thought since the enlightenment. It reflects the strange double-think of modern life and alleged individualism. The principle of utility has fundamentally undermined the individual, who is supposedly at the heart of our society.
There may be no hope for ever changing the way we think about utility. Zhuangzi’s story of a useless tree at the very least helps to rediscover a place for uselessness. It presents an alternative way to think of freedom – we must stop feeling that we have to be useful all the time, or seeing that there is no more to life than utility. We need to challenge the destructive aspects of the tyranny of utility in contemporary culture. In this way, perhaps we can just be ourselves again.
https://iai.tv/articles/uselessness-as-life-affirmation-a-daoist-reflection-auid-1217
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
the eugenics depopulation cabal call themselves utilitarians too.
so. lay down with the cabal, get up with eugenics nazi fleas.
so. lay down with the cabal, get up with eugenics nazi fleas.
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
so you're back to being a slaver then?
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
so ya, back to slavery and the Utilitarian worldview tyrants and slavers espouse.
Fuck you!
Truck Fump / h1b
Verified User
look at yourself and the odiousness of your beliefs.