Weez Blog

Is it possible to live our lives in such a way that joy and wonder prevail without the use of hope* as a device to rescue us from despair?

*for 'hope' you may also substitute 'religion', superstition', 'magic', etc...

Just wondering - I certainly don't have an answer to this, but the question did occur to me.

In the end we can't separate out those "motivating" emotions, can we? Joy and love and wonder and hope -- it's only the "mind" that separates them (see, among other writings, the book, "Buddhism Is Not What You Think" to see the problems with mind).

I see Hope as a basic motivator. Read Primo Levi to understand how one can keep hope (and humanity) alive in a joyless, inhuman situation.

I'd always thought that Duane Allman's solo in the Derek and the Dominos version of "Little Wing" took that song soaring into the land of hope and glory.

I'm sure some people do. But I like the notion that what we sense isn't all there is. When I'm feeling like a mote (and in the grand scheme of the universe, I am), a belief in magic* is helpful.

A fellow a long time ago told me he thought of me when he heard the song. So the Hendrix version has a nice connotation for me for that reason.

I like Sting's version, myself.

And while I'm at it...

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
-Emily Dickinson

Is there a way that a 'mote' can consciously live a life of full joy and wonderment without having to 'believe' in anything?

We 'believe' in things until we know for a certainty that they exist. Once that is determined, we 'know' rather than 'believe'.

What is it that we don't 'know'? That we have to have a 'belief' in in order to lift us from despair?

And, if we could 'know' it, would there be any further need for 'belief'?

And if we 'found it out' would we be satisfied, or would we have need of a 'new' 'belief'? If so what does it say about that 'need'? About us?

I guess what I want to know is, "Do we have to have knowledge or beliefs in order to live a life of joy and wonderment?

And Ray Orkwis, I have a difficult time with your statement:

"In the end we can't separate out those "motivating" emotions, can we? Joy and love and wonder and hope -- it's only the "mind" that separates them."

"We" can't separate them, only the "mind" can???

You have just made the definitive statement that "we" are NOT our "mind".

Who the hell are we then?

If "I" can't separate them, but my "mind" can then is my mind an entity separate from "me"?

I need a clue...

signed:
clueless

"How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not the 'thing with feathers.' The thing with feathers has turned out be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich."

-- Woody Allen

...

g: Nope, I don't believe we are our minds. (And of course I'm answering your mind by courtesy of my mind, but set that aside for the time being). Two places where we see this: 1) in coming to understanding beyond knowledge, the zen acceptance of the impermanence of what exists. Mind is what we think about what we understand, which is how zen differs from Western (middle Eastern) religion, why there's a zero at the center, rather than a word at the beginning, why a koan rather than a parable. I'm only a novice when it comes to reading in the Buddhist tradition but I know that however we define things is not how they are and that separating out parts of our mind is just a convenience, to allow us to speak about them, that hope and joy and wonderment are just our words for what really happens. There's no one on one connection.

The second example where I see that we are not our minds is in the building up and disintegration of the mind, the former in infants, and the latter in the aged, especially with those people who suffer from Alzheimer's disease. When their minds go, when they are childlike, infantile, even, they are still who they are, still expressive of a living soul.

g -- I tried to address your honest question, and wasn't trying to facilely avoid it. In the end, my belief that "we" (our essence)are not our minds but much more, just as the universe is much more than science defines it as, that's just something I believe and live outward from.

Fivcecats, you beat me to the Woody Allen punch. I remember reading that book in '75 and laughing hysterically.

I now wonder about Woody's new take on Hope?

If H.O.P.E. were an acronym (Head Out Past Endlessness, eh?)...

-g asked "Is it possible to live our lives in such a way that joy and wonder prevail without the use of hope* as a device to rescue us from despair?"

I think so. By being sceptical, one's life gets the necessary piquant to make a little restlessness that leads to a bit of exploration that produces those wow effects of wonder. And joy comes from that little joule of energy expended by the a body to achieve that wonder effect. Wonder is connected to surprise as joy is connected to movement. Who needs hope to be surprised? Who needs hope to move in the moment?
Being sceptical is about asking the appropriate question *wink*

I find myself applying the question of possible living without to the two items mentioned in the entry http://weez.oyzon.com/archives/000020.html June 24, 2004 "the take away line". The items? CSS and crack. Well actually a statement about the connection between CSS and crack. Statements morph.
Jill Walker's writing and entry about rereading of Foucault's Death of the Author essay coupled with Weez's May 8 meditations on Varied Tones brought me back to Foucault from The Archeology of Knowledge: "the statement as it emerges in its materiality, appears with a status, enters various networks and various fields of use, is subjected to transferences or modifications, is integrated into orperations and strategies in which its identity is maintained or effaced. Thus the statement circlates, is used, disappears, allows or prevents the realization of a desire, serves or resists various interests, participates in challenge and struggle, and becomes a theme of appropriation or rivalry." trans. A.M. Sheridan Smith.

statements, drugs, hope, CSS -- morph morph -- woof woof

What's Crackin! - Just need to go Play Bingo - for my Online Bingo Habit! But I cannot Find a Good Bingo Online website to cover my bingo addiction!

Hello there,

Iwas browsing the web and found this blog. Some interesting quotes. Keep them coming!

Alice
propolene

Hi, You should check out Hygroton

Good job

Found your site from another blog and wanted to see where I could find more info

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to
do and always a clever thing to say.
-- Will Durant
Mortgage Refinance http://www.refinance-mortgage-com.com

Guten Tag - Hier ist ein sehr schooner Site. Cheap Staples

Danke!
Bob Staple