Mein thoughts

“Whoever commits to paper what he suffers becomes

a melancholy author; but he becomes a serious

 author when he tells us what he suffered and why

he now reposes in joy”- Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Earnest Satow said “I’m going to write it all down Saburo. Nobody will read it, but what does that matter”. Not that I’d compare myself with initially ignored works like Thus Spake Zarathustra or [Schopenhauer's work], nor pathetically act humbleness as an attempt to exhibit virtue. At 26 years old I’ve started writing my ideas down after reading the Albert Camus’ The Fall (I never finished it).

 1. Without researching I nonetheless suspect few anti-abortion protestors adopt unwanted children or that refugee-advocates live in the refugee neighbourhoods.

2. I’m neither right, nor left, nor centrist. Man loves creating concepts; can I call myself a northist? No, that’s been snatched too. What word should I create and how long until it becomes mainstream, like ‘introvert’ and ‘extrovert’? It’s not to do with intelligence as I’ve read the bible.

3. Grass sways by the wind. A moment passing. Like my presence.

4. When the answer is ‘no answer’, why do people pay to go on 10 day vipassana meditation retreats to figure this out? Are they just aiming to provide a word-less, intangible answer to replace their current ‘false answers’ they had in their minds, or is the vipassana experience really a ‘no answer’ without being an answer at all?

5. I feared the truth of my mother’s statement, that “you’ve never seen a dead person so you can’t realise how different the person looks. Something’s missing, it must be the soul”. Fear of the unknown is indeed fearful. Two deaths later threw me to atheism; I saw just a body with no energy or life. How does a lifeless person evidence loss of soul any more than a lifeless bird or dog? It doesn’t.

6. The fragility of human life is realised by thinking what would be of the next person you meet if you randomly shot them. What meaning is there to that? It happens. Life doesn’t necessarily have a meaning, and lack of meaning doesn’t mean there’s no point. The theist statement that if the wicked aren’t punished then there’s no justice. Justice need not exist, and lack of justice doesn’t indicate a failure of reality; if anything it strengthens reality.

7. If Pascal’s logic works, can’t I just be a muslim-christian as a full indemnity?

8. If listening deep within your heart and soul you knew the truth, how reliable was it when it told you to marry your now ex-wife?

9. ‘You want to be happy, right?’ I don’t know anymore. How can a person not know? You don’t look like a massochist. A massochist does what she does out of pleasure. I think I always sought happiness. But now it seems like just a high. How is happiness different from heroin? The bus bell rings. It’s not raning tonight, so fewer people are standing, eyeing the next space someone’s arse has been warming seemingly just for them. How is happiness different from other pointless addictions? See, they’re happy. You on the other hand, are not. And you cannot be, for obvious reasons.

Engline was talking about picking up the kids today. Her gold bangle hides her wealth. True. But what if bam! Her child died in an accident, or committed suicide at this moment. Would she be smiling then, or would she break down? She’s only human. Would she give all her everything just to have Lu back? Of course. Then she’s ‘truly’ happy? Yes she is. Her smile shows it. So does mine, just before I stand so that I don’t misfire and hit the floor instead. Is there a point to a smile? Ustasi smiled in photos were orthodox priests had their heads sawn off.

10. Man is in a natural state of confusion. Thus, differences arise in man’s opions, both within himself and among fellow men.

11. ‘Trhuth’ is possible to be known, but about as likely as the ultimate 747 situation. If we’re digging for the truth, who’s to say we won’t keep digging once we’ve found it? Miners do it all the time.

12. Nonsense. A philosopher hides his answers as a question.

13. My nature started as a dedication and devotion to knowing, especially through god. The more I came to know, the more I dedicated to thought itself. Eventually, the only rational answers were questions.

14. Philosphers love learning other philosophers’ ideas. They acquire, compare and develop their thoeires an dthis makes life more meaningful. Theism is the antithesis os philosophichy, for theism is like learning one single philosophy  and sticking to it at all costs, even when you know it makes no sense.

15. Ideas are endless. So long as man has ideas, he will never be unanimous, for each certainty brings the possibility of a conflicting view. No? America exists. Oh? In a millenia will America exist, or a trillion years? No. What is impermaent is real?

16. Renoir made black clothing in the rain beautiful and uplifting.

17. If there truly is a devil, he probably wrote the bible. What did the children and animals do wrong to deserve drowning in Noah’s flood? I won’t mention the quran; to put it mildly, the ‘religion of peace’ has a habitual tendency of being non-peaceful.

18. Many of us fear what would happen if our soul did exist, and if it does exist then you have some fear of what might happen to it. This really is quite natural biologically but has nothing to do with god or the soul. An ordinary man harnessed will still fear climbing down the outside fo a tall building. Logically there’s no reason to fear beause you’re harnessed and know you’ll be lowered down to the bottom, yet the fear is there. Is this fear real, and does it reflect accurately? It’s simply biological need for self-presevation misfiring when it confuses reality for what it perceives it to be.

18. It’s said that if cats were to write about history, history would revolve around the existence of cats. Beyond history, it’s clear that god’s temperament reflects the society and culture of time he was revealed. No sane human being will condone slavery today, though god does in all the major religions. How funny that god should state that heaven will be full of gold when in some societies jade is more valuable than gold. Coincindentally, their god is called the jade ruler.

19. Love has no inherent meaning or purpose. I life based on illusion is lovely. How great it is to think one has their soul-mate, some pre-ordained match approved by the heavens themselves! What could be lovelier than loveliness; could happiness be letting go of happiness itself?

20. Whether I’m bitter or not is hard to say. Stupidity and ignorance are deserving of what? Rehabilitation or punishment was been debated by philosophers for centuries and ther eis no right answer. Religious rituals are indeed strange; I haven’t seen tacky trees with dollar bills pasted on them. While the Buddha said his monks couldn’t touch money, it is odd that it’s paraded in circumambulation this Kattina. Allah never said how to do salat; it is indeed odd, though less odd than a statue of a european woman named the Virgin Mary with dollar bills taped to her torso.

21. When the only two beliefs condeming me to eternal torment for unbelief have clear errors and inconsistencies, what fear am I to replace it with? This world must have some kidn of sadism, otherwise how do we feed our masochistic desires against those we don’t like, or have a goal of what to avoid after death?

22. I’m not a fan of religious rituals. I like the music though, it makes me feel good. Keeps me occupied too. Ding boom DING! Ding boom DING! Da da da da DING! Ding boom DING! I’m closer already.

23. I didn’t get The Fall. Should it be got? Noone just has sex and reads the papers. They watch TV, even TV’s becoming passe.

24. Some say the past cannot be changed and tomorrow is yet to arrive, so only now is real and only now is what matters. However, what we did this morning or last night remains real in this present moment. It is real by our having personally experienced it. We do not feel the happiness or pain of an animal we see in the present moment, yet the experience is real. For if things are real based on our perceptions, which we do not feel, and do not personally experience, how much more so what we do perceive, we do feel, and do personally experience. Otherwise, what we experience in this very moment is not real and therefore does not ultimately exist.

25. Being in love makes no sense. I look forward to throwing sense away.

26. We admire philosophers who themselves were failures in their personal lives. They are the apex of the ‘love of wisdom’.

27. Life is a moral challenge only if you choose to think so. Life is a challenge only so much as you perceive and experience such a challenge. Moral challenges are for infants; higher challenges await us, which we find in philosophy.

28. The stupid need belief. Some belief.

29. It’s such an insh’allah situation.

30. Humanity finds itself in the unlikeliest of places. Theists cry when their babies die, despite the gaurantee the baby will be in heaven. Suggesting they celebrate with a party would be considered poor taste. If there’s only a 1% chance of a hell existing for disbelief it’s apparently worth not taking the chance, yet when the tables are turned the suddenly become all human.

31. The more the assume god to have done, the more can assume god to have failed.

If god’s greatness is limited to how we are to behave and nature operates, I see no reason to afford greater awe for god than humans or the natural order.

Whilst tales of god’s greatness and the self-evident awe of the universe may be used in praise, it is the taintedness of his creation that fails to give god an honour of true greatness. Introduce hell into the matter and we have a monster, below even the lowest of humans.

32. As an atheist I have no dislike of god. I have no particular like either. Things are as they are. But is it appropriate to take a bare minimalist approach to god’s reponsibility the way Al Sharpton did in his debate with Christopher Hitchens? For a minimialist view that god does nothing good could also be valid, which would make god a deist. It is rational to assume only good comes from god, but it is illogical because as a creator of all he creates all that is bad. I view god with minimalism; he may have created the universe, with no life and therefore no need for much praise. He then creates the animal kingdom which is ruthlessly cruel and amazing, then humans who are also  a failure if you are ot use a high standard. A lifeless universe, a cruel animal kingdom and a flawed humanity is not something entirely awe-inspiring; a hell is abominable. Heaven is the only matter that seems worthy of unadulated praise, but it may not exist.

33. Our failure to understand past conditions distorts our view of the past. Revelation is folly if it is to be read in the past context, and there is plenty of evidence in the great religions to prove this is just the case. Quran relates to specific battles war verses which are to this day read ‘out of context’; the forbidden fabrics of Judaism do not make sense in this day and age, as does the mysogyny of the new testament that states women aren’t to speak in church and keep their heads covered.

34. Little point do I see in hating or being angry with god. In all likelihood it doesn’t exist, and to conjure up the negative consciousnesss over myths is foolish. Whilst bad things happen to good people, so do good, and all people suffer. We’re left to ourselves to handle it, this is a reality. God is uknowable; to argue with it is to shout at a wall with no reaction other than what your own mind conjures up from the futile exercise.

35. I was alighting at the 17^th floor and a couple got of at the 12^th. I stepped forward to press the ‘door close’ button though I was in no hurry to be somewhere. Earlier I wouldn’t and couldn’t understand how saving one-and-a-half seconds was worth it. But I do it now anyway.

36. If man’s laws are inferior to god’s, it is percular Allah never made a punishment or mention of rape, or the use of jails or sentencing guidelines. The substance is quite limited and narrow with room to manoevere, an ironic fact of an excessive belief countering the West’s paucity of beliefs.

37. I have lost my mind. Could spend the whole day looking at this desk thinking what’s happened to me, as no answer comes up.

38. I’ve looked deep into my soul. So deep that I found, there is no soul. A soulless existence, and I’m to make sense of existence itself.

39. There are no meanings to ethics or morals in terms of the meaning of life. Better that we pretend as if there were firmly grounded.

40. To life with faith- any old faith, perhaps- is to infuse one’s life with significance… the meaning of life is a question of the style in which you live it, not of its actual content (Tery Eagelton, ‘The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction’.

41. The meaning of life is to live it rather than think of it.

42. There are no meanings to the concepts, values and ideals as a foundation to the purpose of life. Better that we pretend as if they were firmly grounded to keep things going. To life with faith- any old faith, perhaps- is to infuse one’s life with significance. What we believe isn’t as important as the sheer fact of our faith, whereby the fact of being commited can be the key to an authentic existence. The meaning of life is a question of the style in which you live it, not of its actual content. A person who died valiantly for the Habspburg Empire against the Venetians is as nonsensical as an American who dies valiantly against the Spaniards- for their time it was relevant and it gave them meaning, even though there was inherently none. I haven’t achieved the subjective meaning I’ve created for myself, not that it matters. I will later this year- Burma here I come!

43. It is only because I imagined that the world was meaningful that I’m so devastated to now realise that it is not.

44. Anxiety over a lack of meaning to life is like anxiety over not having been born wearing a hat. There is no need to find meaning in having been born bald.

45. I’m tempted to be religious, again. It’s tempting to fool one’s self, but how?

46. We’re all against a blank wall. We argue over who’s looking at the wall properly- some stand! Some sit! Some prostrate! Some do as they wish! How the wall should feel by how you face it!

47. Continue talking to the white wall. It’s not going to respond to you.

48. The exhilerated feeling of the wall speaking back. The blank wall beats the void any day. The void. That deep nothingness; how terrifying it is when the white wall is slide aside.

49. I thought so much that I walked down the stairs to the ticket machines only to realise I got off at the wrong place. I take the same day after day.

50. If the true nature of reality were known to a thinking person, their mind would feel like collapsing.

51. I have no doubt religion in specific areas offers purpose and reduces anxiety to its devotee. I disagree with the believers wh osay that this peace should be an indicator of truth of the religion. If anything it reveals religion’s untruth, since contradictory religions offer the same peace and comfort.

52. Anxiety is also inherent to religion. Faith is promoted because it serves as a blanket and a shield against forces that would shuffle or mess the certainty that repetition provides. When a person begins shuffling themselves, it’s not unlikely they will re-arrange the table to finally say that the table as was laid out was not perfect and this personal re-arrangement works better. The clergy may feel threatened.

53. The body is a prison. The mind is a life sentence from which one can never escape. An anxious mind is a prison within the prison. People fear incarceration when their own mind is incarcerated in a body, and the mind does not take a holiday from itself. Ironically if it does it ceases to exist. We must therefore wait patiently in our cells, never to exit even if we desire it. Religion does an effective job of convincing us if we talk out the wide-open window we will regret it in a painful retribution, and our instinct sufficiently prevents us from looking out this cave. We must and we shall continue to watch the shadows of the cell. 

54. I know the soul doesn’t exist, yet I hesitated at the thought of selling my soul over the internet. Deep down maybe I believe there is a soul, or I hope there is a soul. I wish there was a soul if I believed it’ll go somewhere nice after death. But this isn’t reality. There probably isn’t a soul and there is no afterlife; this is terrifying. Reality crushes us in its reality. I’m torn.

The frequent image of a sword swiping off all problems of life in a split-second action haunts me. I do not see the sword, I only touch my neck and realise all problems may have been gone by that moment.

1. My eyes start to hurt a little. I use the computer in the darkness to limit my time on it so that I sleep earlier. I stay up longer each night regardless, but do not switch on the light.
2. If I came up with just one original thought that cut through what others haven’t cut through, perhaps my life was worth living. Actually is just another fall into the hero complex, needing to make something out of nothing.
3. Ie. one disproves someone else’s statement by way of a counter-question that invalidates their statement. I’ve noticed that when some questions seem damaging to some ideas they attract fewer answers.
4. Whilst rejecting society I must nevertheless find a way to live in it. Complete isolation is a prison. Society provides benefits so one cannot divorce from it. A middle-way must be sought.
5. I may make my own noble truths. They are thus far: the root of all existence is death, which is the only certainty in existence. We exist based on a hero complex; we must be heroes in some shape or form; when we fail at this we fall into depression. Suffering is caused by the sense/the feeling of helplessness. These three factors are what lead people to god or religion, who is the invisible antedote.
6. To a theist you have attacked his god and what he believes in. In truth you have attacked his security blanket, his antedote to anxiety. For if you were right, all his foundations would crumble, leading him to be in a state of senselessness unless he sees a viable replacement.
7. Hero complex- Fulfilling the meaning of life is more important than life itself. This is what makes it so difficult to combat sociopathic ideologies. Even if an atheist not believing in an afterlife gives it up to save another, he does so to fulfil his hero complex.
8. The neurotic is more sensitive to the cultural lie. The neurotic has trouble witht he balance of cultural illusion and natural reality; the possible horrible truth about himself and the world is seeping into his consciousness. The average man is at least secure that the cultural game is the truth, the unshakable, durable truth. He can earn his immortality in and under the dominant immortality ideology, period. It is all so simple and clear-cut. But for the neurotic the mechanisms of illusion are known and destroyed by self consciousness. He can no longer deceive himself about himself and delusions even hi sown ideal of personality. He perceives himself in mankind’s true nature, as Oedipus discovered in the crash of his herioc fate (Becker), p188). The caricature aspect of life appears whenever the drunkenness of illusion wears off (Anais).
9. When Darwin strips theism of its special wonderousness, theists are as good as dead (Becker, p191).
10. To see others like oneself is to believe in oneself.
11. In order for something to seem real to man, it must be visibly supported in some way. Men need an external object of obsession- calendars with special days of the year, pilgrimage places, festivals, people- something to give form and body to internal fantasy. Otherwise the neurotic is brought to his point of departure of lonely specialness.
12. The custom and myth of traditional society provide a whole interpretation of the meaning of life- all we have to do is live it accepting it as true. The neurotic must find an illusion to live up to.
13. I think clearer and bravery in periods of anxiousness and mental darkness. Being in a state free of these I feel like nothing is happening. No wonder religions based on anxiety keep their followers in deeper consciousness about the belief.
14. When I try to write and nothing comes to mind, it seems that I’m somewhat happy or without problems. What a cursed existence if I were deprived the chance to write for a long period. Let me not confuse it with happiness, for not thinking or writing clearly when in love or similar happiness is no missed problem.
15. A leap of faith to spirituality is an effort to transcend the body and physical limitation. What makes the muslim god so powerful is its absolute transcendentalism by not being seen, heard, felt or observed. When your truth is based on complete nothingness you’ve reached a higher reality, but what’s misguided is that nothingness really is nothingness but anxiety causes nothingness to be some form of power. OR The power of the abrahamic god is in its complete nothingness. Some view nothingness as complete transcendence to something higher, which is akin to seeing imagination as complete truth because it is beyond physical reality. The more transcendental the more powerful.
16. Excessive religiosness is a defence mechanism for handling the anxiety of death.
17. Deliberate ignorance of religiousness is a defence mechanism for handling the anxiety of death.
18. Belief in god or non-belief in god. Both require a level of madness.
19. Death fears are not conscious to most individuals but must be inferred by disguised manifestions: for example, excessive religiosity, an all consuming accumulation of wealth, and blind grasping for power and honours, all of which offer a counterfit version of immortality (p78, Yalom).
20. Epicurus taught three interesting views: the morality of the soul, the nothingness of death, and the argument of symetry.
21. The rippling effect is the most beautiful teaching of Yalom. It adds another practical dimension to a tangible mortality effect.
22. The problem with immortality is that we’ve been approaching it the wrong way! It’s not about living forever; the ripple effect is suffient and lasts forever anyway. Whilst it may apply in the negative too, at least it gives us an impetus to be good. Eg. Kurosawa’s Ikuru.
23. Your suffering will continue to exist after you have found the meaning of life.
24. “Your satisfaction is our aim”. Yeah right, money is your aim, followed by a need for a sense of achievement. You most likely wouldn’t be working this job if you had money. Superficiality is overbearing when you develop a distaste for it and its aftertaste remains, until you wash it away with a new thought.
25. The further I go on the less resistance I feel towards taking my own life. It doesn’t seem that it’ll be a struggle as it felt before. More like a passive throwing in the towel. Each day I near my destination on the train to work I wonder ”what if I stayed and just kept on going?” Life is a bit like that: you stay still while simultaneously pushed forward (16 March 2009).
26. Like fantasising about what one would do if they won the lottery, I escape by imagning what if someone were to shoot me in the head or swipe me with their samurai sword in one swift blow. To have it done while sleeping is ideal as I wouldn’t realise it. I think about it throughout the day, every day but most accutely on work days (16 March 2009).
27. It’s become a habit of mine to brush my index finger across my throat as though it were a knife. It’s a reminder that if it were something sharper, and I somhow felt no pain, there would be no more stress or helplessness. I do these strokes in my chair and sometimes in public too.
28. Death is what we fear most but it’s also the greatest liberation. If people contemplated that consciousness can be a prison, then imagine that prison to be eternal, it is devastating enough to feel physically sick just thinking about it. The beauty of death is that it ends an eternal prison sentence, because consciousness is a prison.
29. Like being caught in a wave I tumble and turn, twist and sunder. Thoughts are shaped by events outside my control, pulling me to extremes of melancholy or at best insight.
30. One of the best ways to ruin a quote is to quote it as a quote.
31. If one conquers the mountain of celebacy, will one be any happier? It’s a matter of the journey itself rather than the goal. Seeing celebacy as a goal in itself is to reach the top of a mountain and look at the ground upon which one’s feet are standing. To have done so with wisdom, by observing the surroundings on the way, knowing what it would feel like remaining at the base having indulged in a river but ultimately feeling no better, and taking in the full landscape at the summit; this is how celebacy may be viewed rewardingly.
32. Venerable Khimminda stated there are various levels of love, with love between spouses and family members one of the base, unrefined forms. When you have genuine love for your enemies, and those dear to you, then you see the value of the wisdom of loving-kindness theory and meditation.
33. God is not an anthropologist. Anthropology is far too advanced.
34. How much thinking is required to decide if it’s better to be happy ignorant farmer or an unhappy professor?
35. Prettiness is petty. Beauty is supreme. Prettiness has no room for error, for contradictions or for what doesn’t match a travel agent’s brochure. Beauty knocks barriers down to embrace what is in its entirety with warm intensity.
36. To some extent Buddhism is working. I recognise what I could, possibly should, be feeling but do not. I recognise what I can, and should, be feeling and I do. I control the reins.
37. The intention is to record any insightful thought that appears. The temptation to indulge into a personal diary takes over at times.
38. Even the asshole is pretty if it’s that of a woman and the right woman. Such is the power of the female and the nature of man.
39. Mind should not struggle to exclude the body. Body should not struggle to exclude the mind. Struggles of duality are against the natural flow; we may bend it but it will not break. Acceptance, as by the tao or buddha, seems to be an appropriate approach.
40. I am attracted to short women or tall women. Somehow the ordinary doesn’t appeal to me. The pity of ignorance is not knowing why we think what we think.
41. There is much stupidity in this world. I am fortunate to have worked with bright, brilliant minds so as to not let my ego think I am of much greatness, as I am less intelligent than they are. But there is so much stupidity in the world, it feels odd to pretend it’s not there or not be affected by it.
42. Emptiness is bliss or horrible. It itself is empty. You took the effort to get out of bed, to eat a meal; you cannot escape the necessity to decide what the emptiness will be to you.
43. Perhaps alcholism can be compared to a vagina. Being male the male view predominates in me, ‘my’ reality. The bottle is lifted, it essence is the hole. The smell hits the drinker shortly before the bottle brings to the mouth; of course, it is not always realisable, but to the unaccustomed alcoholic as to the infrequent pracitioner of cunninglingus the nose senses new sensations with sensitivity. The taste. It is not palattable in the normal sense, yet the drinker/pracitioner likes the difference and hopes for more. The drinker/practioner feels a high of sorts, a chemical imbalance in body and adjustment of mind that is pleasant and was desired the entire time. At a more sober moment perhaps the thought of the intensity of taste and effect may seem unfounded, even strange, but in this moment the one in experience is caught up in the ecstasy of escape they have so subconsciously longed for. Give me malibu, give me vagina, give me the escape I want, and I want it now.
44. One of the silliest ieas to cross my mind was of a MA (Buddhism). Firstly, there’s no ‘I’ to receive it. Secondly, it’s impermanent. Thirdly, it’s inherently empty.
45. From His writings, God is obviously not a sociologist, psychiatrist, anthropologist, scientist, historian, rational thinker or possessing qualities that a rational being would be expected to have. Most disappointing is his lack of love or mercy, despite His claims to the contrary which his herd blindly adhere to. Most positive is His non-existence, even though collective minds by way of fear, desire, hope and more seem to give it to Him.
46. God exists, but He is not real.
47. An hour of prayer to a non-existent God is better spent than an hour spend doing something more harmful.
48. Have love for your enemies; if not out of compassion, then for your own sanity.
49. When a Christian and Muslim batte it out theologically, I agree with both of them, only I agree with what they say about each other rather than themselves.
50. Don’t take financial avice from a poor man. Don’t take spiritual advice from a man who doesn’t smile.
51. You can smile, no matter how bad the situation may seem.
52. Your thoughts exist, but they’re not real. We’re quick to dismiss dreams as just dreams, but are ignorantly conditioned to think that thoughts are much different.
53. Money doesn’t lead to happiness, but either does poverty.
54. I feelsad to be travelling without a camera, yet I never heard this comment from any traveller before the 19th century.
55. Technology changes so fast, as do our standards for apparent happiness.
56. France has a reputation for ‘love’, but you’llsee it more in Italy, and none of it in Asia.
57. If all we are are body and mind, then if a perfect identical clnone with the identical memory of us were made, would that being be ‘me’.  How would we know which one we are, as both perceive the other to be the copy. If it were more than duplicated and and again, to result in millions, then which one would ‘I’ be? If they then took on new physical forms- as trees, animals etc.- would it still be ‘me’?
58. Ignoring widsom is foolish, says the prisoner.
59. Too often the ascetic tells himself he is happy when he is not, while the common man experiences hapiness without telling it to himself.
60. ‘The ignorant man seeks new lands, experiences, ideas to find happiness’ said the stage. His disciple asked ’so why did you leave your house today today, and why did you leave your homland the other day?’
61. The sage said ‘the ignorant think that comfort and conforming with society will is needed’. So the disciple ripped off the sage’s robe and threw his sandals off the cliff, saying ‘the ignorant think that comfort and conforming with society is needed’. The sage then went looking for something to cover his feet.
62. As an immature 22 year old I said “if it doesn’t fit in my backpack then I don’t need it.” At 26 I read that Al=-Ghazali said the same thing a milenia ago- “you possess only whatever will not be lost in a ship wreck”. I then thought I wasn’t so mature after all.
63. Al-Ghazali said ‘i should like to know what a man who has no knowledge has really got, and what a man who has knowledge not gained’, to which I say ‘I should like to know what a man who has knowledge has really got, and what a man who has knowledge has gained’.
64. Each night the smoon speaks to the stars, without realising those stars are long dead and their shin is but a shadow.
65. Don’t mourne the loss of one orange when tomorrow your box of oranges will have spoiled. By tomorrow evening you will wish you were back to where you are right now.
66. Happiness lies within  your own mind. Don’t blame outside circumstances, no matter how alluring it seems at the time. oison is poison regardless of why you drink it, and a flame is ignorant of who it burns as it only has a purpose to burn.
67. DFo we really love people, or do we love what they conjure within us- be they physical, emotional, mental and what not?
68. To the ascetic, the diamond remains a stone. To the householder it is worth so much more. Both are right in their own way.
69. Man rushes to a finishing line clled ‘happiness’ without seeing where the line is. Little does he realise the line is non-existent.
70. Justice and fairness, not religion or atheism, are needful for the protection of the state (Hakim Jamij)
71. Life’s meaning doesn’t sustain its nature by itself, instead it acquires it nature by its… wth other things.
72. The meaning is found in nature, something all humanistic endeavours tend to do.