[sciborg2]

“I am drawn to the idea that relational properties do need an intrinsic ground, and this tends to lead towards a panpsychist picture because the only intrinsic nature we have access to is qualitative consciousness itself.”
- William Seager

[sciborg2]

“Anyone could say that a miracle is something impossible, but they say it thoughtlessly, mindlessly, because most people have such weak imaginations they couldn’t possibly understand what they’re saying when they say that a miracle is something impossible. Ask anyone what that means, what it means to see a miracle, and they will say that it’s something impossible, but they mean that a miracle is something formerly believed to be impossible that turns out not to be, not to be impossible, in other words, but possible after all. If this were really true, then miracles would be the most ordinary things in the world, the most uninspiring things in the world, and what can one expect from people who have never been anything but ordinary and uninspired.”
― Michael Cisco, The Traitor

[sciborg2]

“Anyone could say that a miracle is something impossible, but they say it thoughtlessly, mindlessly, because most people have such weak imaginations they couldn’t possibly understand what they’re saying when they say that a miracle is something impossible. Ask anyone what that means, what it means to see a miracle, and they will say that it’s something impossible, but they mean that a miracle is something formerly believed to be impossible that turns out not to be, not to be impossible, in other words, but possible after all. If this were really true, then miracles would be the most ordinary things in the world, the most uninspiring things in the world, and what can one expect from people who have never been anything but ordinary and uninspired.”
― Michael Cisco, The Traitor

'This man who has come, this stranger, this woman-stealer, this enemy of our rules and rites, this wanderer who loves the ashes of the dead, who speaks of things divine to the lowest of the low, this man who sometimes seems crazy, who has something obscene about him, who grows his hair long as a girl's, who bedecks himself with bones, who laughs and cries for no reason - Why should I give She-Who-Is to someone who, every time I see him, seems to me the opposite of everything I wanted to be myself, of everything I wanted life to be?

Why did I compose so many rites, so many words, why did I generate She-Who-Is, just to have everything stolen from me one day by the one who is its living negation?"
 -Daksha speaking of Shiva in Roberto Calasso's Ka

[sciborg2]

“Anyone could say that a miracle is something impossible, but they say it thoughtlessly, mindlessly, because most people have such weak imaginations they couldn’t possibly understand what they’re saying when they say that a miracle is something impossible. Ask anyone what that means, what it means to see a miracle, and they will say that it’s something impossible, but they mean that a miracle is something formerly believed to be impossible that turns out not to be, not to be impossible, in other words, but possible after all. If this were really true, then miracles would be the most ordinary things in the world, the most uninspiring things in the world, and what can one expect from people who have never been anything but ordinary and uninspired.”
― Michael Cisco, The Traitor

'This man who has come, this stranger, this woman-stealer, this enemy of our rules and rites, this wanderer who loves the ashes of the dead, who speaks of things divine to the lowest of the low, this man who sometimes seems crazy, who has something obscene about him, who grows his hair long as a girl's, who bedecks himself with bones, who laughs and cries for no reason - Why should I give She-Who-Is to someone who, every time I see him, seems to me the opposite of everything I wanted to be myself, of everything I wanted life to be?

Why did I compose so many rites, so many words, why did I generate She-Who-Is, just to have everything stolen from me one day by the one who is its living negation?"
 -Daksha speaking of Shiva in Roberto Calasso's Ka

KAPELA: Just look above you. Do you see? That is called the immense board of lights. And there is the Great Black and, strewn across it, small and surrounded and vulnerable and brave, there is the Great White.

COMMUTER: Oh. Oh, yeah. Of course. Hah. You know, that's perfect. That's really perfect. And the Great White... I mean, there's so much more black. A-are we losing?

KAPELA: No. Once there was only black. We are winning.
  -Alan Moore, Top 10

[sciborg2]

“Anyone could say that a miracle is something impossible, but they say it thoughtlessly, mindlessly, because most people have such weak imaginations they couldn’t possibly understand what they’re saying when they say that a miracle is something impossible. Ask anyone what that means, what it means to see a miracle, and they will say that it’s something impossible, but they mean that a miracle is something formerly believed to be impossible that turns out not to be, not to be impossible, in other words, but possible after all. If this were really true, then miracles would be the most ordinary things in the world, the most uninspiring things in the world, and what can one expect from people who have never been anything but ordinary and uninspired.”
― Michael Cisco, The Traitor

'This man who has come, this stranger, this woman-stealer, this enemy of our rules and rites, this wanderer who loves the ashes of the dead, who speaks of things divine to the lowest of the low, this man who sometimes seems crazy, who has something obscene about him, who grows his hair long as a girl's, who bedecks himself with bones, who laughs and cries for no reason - Why should I give She-Who-Is to someone who, every time I see him, seems to me the opposite of everything I wanted to be myself, of everything I wanted life to be?

Why did I compose so many rites, so many words, why did I generate She-Who-Is, just to have everything stolen from me one day by the one who is its living negation?"
 -Daksha speaking of Shiva in Roberto Calasso's Ka

KAPELA: Just look above you. Do you see? That is called the immense board of lights. And there is the Great Black and, strewn across it, small and surrounded and vulnerable and brave, there is the Great White.

COMMUTER: Oh. Oh, yeah. Of course. Hah. You know, that's perfect. That's really perfect. And the Great White... I mean, there's so much more black. A-are we losing?

KAPELA: No. Once there was only black. We are winning.
  -Alan Moore, Top 10

Yajnavalkaya said: I know that for many of you the real torment is that you must abandon your dear bodies. You imagine, not unreasonably, that the happiness of a disembodied spirit has something dreary about it. But that is not the case. After death, you will find yourself wandering through a haze, shouting without being heard, but all at once it will be you who hear. You will become aware that someone is following you, like an animal in the forest, only now in the darkness of the heavens. The person following you is your oblation, the being composed of the offering you made in your life. In a whisper, he will say to you: 'Come here, come here, it is I, your Self.' And in the end you will follow him.
 -Calasso, Ka: Stories of Mind & the Gods of India

[Francis Buck]

Want to take over the world?
Think again.
The world's a holy place.
You can't just fuck around with it.
Those who try to change it destroy it.
Those who try to possess it lose it.

~Lao Tzu

[sciborg2]

The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell. For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at the tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt. This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.

But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid. If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.

For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narow chinks of his cavern.
-William Blake

But once one finds oneself in the cavern, escape is only viable if one accepts that, whilst in it, one must act by the rules of the cavern; by the terms of Urizen, the guarding demiurge, for as long as he calls the shots and is looking; for ignoring the reality of the cavern's dominance only ensures that one remains locked in it forever, banging one's heads against the rocks. The path to breaking the incantation -- to Blake's freedom -- entails a form of sincere cooperation that precedes the final betrayal; the betrayal that brings meaning back to absurdity. But since Urizen polices from within, one's left hand must not know what one's right hand is doing, and one must sincerely feel loyalty towards the demiurge.
 -Benardo Kastrup

[Francis Buck]

I once asked the lama of Enche what would be the post-mortem subjective visions of a materialist who had looked upon death as total annihilation.

"Perhaps," said the lama, "such man would see apparitions corresponding to the religious beliefs he held in his childhood, or to those, familiar to him, held by the people among whom he has lived. According to the degree of his intelligence and his post-mortem lucidity, he would, perhaps, examine and analyse these visions and remember the reasons which, during his life-time, made him deny the reality of that which now appears to him. He might, thus, conclude that he is beholding a mirage. "A less intelligent man in whom belief in total annihilation was the result of indifference or dullness, rather than of reasoning, will, perhaps, see no vision at all. However, this will not prevent the energy generated by his past actions from following its course and manifesting itself through new phenomena. In other words, it will not prevent the rebirth of the materialist."

-Alexandra David-Neel

[sciborg2]

-Alexandra David-Neel

Nice!

Time dependent limerick from PK Dick, as recounted by Tim Powers ->

The version for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays was:

Determinist forces are wrong,
And irresistibly strong;
While of God there's a dearth,
For He visits the Earth
But not for sufficiently long.

And the version for Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays differed in the last three lines:

Determinist forces are wrong,
And irresistibly strong;
But of God there's no dearth,
For He visits the Earth,
But just for sufficiently long.

[sciborg2]

Thought I already posted this but Search says, "Not yet" ->

“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it.

The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.”

― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

[TaoHorror]

Thought I already posted this but Search says, "Not yet" ->

You did post this before ( you are most memorable  ), but that's ok, this is a good one and deserves repeating.

[H]

It is good enough to be worth two whole Db entries, 

[Madness]

Don't trust our search function, sci. Also, I searched "Italo Calvino" who has apparently come up a number of times on the forum. Interesting.

[sciborg2]

Don't trust our search function, sci. Also, I searched "Italo Calvino" who has apparently come up a number of times on the forum. Interesting.

If I can't trust Search...how I can trust anything my senses tell me?!

"You've become lost in Game disguised as Everything...try to Remember."
   -Grant Morrison, Invisibles

=-=-=

Stone whispers
Patience
But we take chisel in hand
Child begs
Not yet
But the sands have run out
Sky cries
Fly
But we hold our ground
Wind sings
Free
But roots bind us down
Lover sighs
Stay
But we must be gone
Life pleads
Live
But death is the dream
We beg
Not yet
But the sands have run out
Stone whispers
Patience…
 -Steven Erikson

[Francis Buck]

What if we posit that “Things-in-themselves” emerge against the background of the Void of Nothingness, the way this Void is conceived in quantum physics, as not just a negative void, but the portent of all possible reality? This is the only true consistent “transcendental materialism” which is possible after the Kantian transcendental idealism. For a true dialectician, the ultimate mystery is not “Why is there something rather than nothing?” but “Why is there nothing rather than something?”

-Slavoj Žižek