CAESAR:
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.--
Sunday, September 30, 2007
"Julius Caesar" - Shakespeare
A drop of water
Kaso (1352-1428) , Zen master, abbot of Daitoku-ji
A drop of water freezes in midair.
My seventy-seven years
All used up!
Spring water bubbles up from the flames.
Plato, Protagoras
Education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood, and last to the very end of life.
Mother and nurse and father and tutor are vying with one another about the improvement of the child as soon as ever he is able to understand what is being said to him: he cannot say or do anything without their setting forth to him that this is just and that is unjust; this is honourable, that is dishonourable; this is holy, that is unholy; do this and abstain from that.
And if he obeys, well and good; if not, he is straightened by threats and blows, like a piece of bent or warped wood. At a later stage they send him to teachers, and enjoin them to see to his manners even more than to his reading and music; and the teachers do as they are desired.
And when the boy has learned his letters and is beginning to understand what is written, as before he understood only what was spoken, they put into his hands the works of great poets, which he reads sitting on a bench at school; in these are contained many admonitions, and many tales, and praises, and encomia of ancient famous men, which he is required to learn by heart, in order that he may imitate or emulate them and desire to become like them.
Then, again, the teachers of the lyre take similar care that their young disciple is temperate and gets into no mischief; and when they have taught him the use of the lyre, they introduce him to the poems of other excellent poets, who are the lyric poets; and these they set to music, and make their harmonies ana rhythms quite familiar to the children's souls, in order that they may learn to be more gentle, and harmonious, and rhythmical, and so more fitted for speech and action; for the life of man in every part has need of harmony and rhythm.
Then they send them to the master of gymnastic, in order that their bodies may better minister to the virtuous mind, and that they may not be compelled through bodily weakness to play the coward in war or on any other occasion.
This is what is done by those who have the means, and those who have the means are the rich; their children begin to go to school soonest and leave off latest.
When they have done with masters, the state again compels them to learn the laws, and live after the pattern which they furnish, and not after their own fancies; and just as in learning to write, the writing-master first draws lines with a style for the use of the young beginner, and gives him the tablet and makes him follow the lines, so the city draws the laws, which were the invention of good lawgivers living in the olden time; these are given to the young man, in order to guide him in his conduct whether he is commanding or obeying; and he who transgresses them is to be corrected, or, in other words, called to account, which is a term used not only in your country, but also in many others, seeing that justice calls men to account.
Now when there is all this care about virtue private and public, why, Socrates, do you still wonder and doubt whether virtue can be taught?
Cease to wonder, for the opposite would be far more surprising.
Mother and nurse and father and tutor are vying with one another about the improvement of the child as soon as ever he is able to understand what is being said to him: he cannot say or do anything without their setting forth to him that this is just and that is unjust; this is honourable, that is dishonourable; this is holy, that is unholy; do this and abstain from that.
And if he obeys, well and good; if not, he is straightened by threats and blows, like a piece of bent or warped wood. At a later stage they send him to teachers, and enjoin them to see to his manners even more than to his reading and music; and the teachers do as they are desired.
And when the boy has learned his letters and is beginning to understand what is written, as before he understood only what was spoken, they put into his hands the works of great poets, which he reads sitting on a bench at school; in these are contained many admonitions, and many tales, and praises, and encomia of ancient famous men, which he is required to learn by heart, in order that he may imitate or emulate them and desire to become like them.
Then, again, the teachers of the lyre take similar care that their young disciple is temperate and gets into no mischief; and when they have taught him the use of the lyre, they introduce him to the poems of other excellent poets, who are the lyric poets; and these they set to music, and make their harmonies ana rhythms quite familiar to the children's souls, in order that they may learn to be more gentle, and harmonious, and rhythmical, and so more fitted for speech and action; for the life of man in every part has need of harmony and rhythm.
Then they send them to the master of gymnastic, in order that their bodies may better minister to the virtuous mind, and that they may not be compelled through bodily weakness to play the coward in war or on any other occasion.
This is what is done by those who have the means, and those who have the means are the rich; their children begin to go to school soonest and leave off latest.
When they have done with masters, the state again compels them to learn the laws, and live after the pattern which they furnish, and not after their own fancies; and just as in learning to write, the writing-master first draws lines with a style for the use of the young beginner, and gives him the tablet and makes him follow the lines, so the city draws the laws, which were the invention of good lawgivers living in the olden time; these are given to the young man, in order to guide him in his conduct whether he is commanding or obeying; and he who transgresses them is to be corrected, or, in other words, called to account, which is a term used not only in your country, but also in many others, seeing that justice calls men to account.
Now when there is all this care about virtue private and public, why, Socrates, do you still wonder and doubt whether virtue can be taught?
Cease to wonder, for the opposite would be far more surprising.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Blasphemous Words
Discipline, Practice, State <Κράτος> & (...God forgive me) Obedience.
Close your eyes.
Think about these words and their meanings, the Ideas they represent.
Tell me the truth, you felt something negative when you read them (especially "Obedience" & "State"). It almost feels like your human rights are being violated, eh?
We live in times where the main Message is "Life is to short to be miserable", "Enjoy as much as you can" and the sort...
Try to talk (especially to young people) about discipline (!), practice (!!) and obedience (&^%$!)...
I am trying to imagine a pianist who doesn't practice scales, an aikidoka who never does ukemis, a painter who doesn't spent infinte hours experimenting with colours.
Anyway, it's always easier to drink a coffee, isn't?
Our times are dark and we think it's sunshine. Not only we don't master our selves in order to achieve goals, we make it seem bad, we judge the ones that do and at the same time we have embarked in a campaign to destroy all the people (in history) who serve as paradigms for this.
It's easy, political correctness requires for us to be the same (NOT equal as we ought to be), the same but downwards not upwards...
If we all sit down our bare naked ass willl be covered.
Goodnight.
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