Pain

Pain is a preacher protecting our will,
not to be ignored by the use of a pill
Finding the source is a matter of course
for inside the chaos of "must" and "should"
hides a hopeful "would if I could"
The options are many, and you can choose any!

Pain is there with a purpose to teach
us as students of life to reach
an existence in health and no disease,
and if we really listen - inner peace.

Listen we must, and in pain trust
to guide our way from the path of prey
to avoid it as hell, and hence get well
Liberation from all disturbance and anguish!
A state of ataraxia is well worth a wish!


Sonja Bunes © 2001

Only in silence - the word

"In naming the shadow of his death with his own name, he had made himself hole: a man: who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life´s sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark. Only in silence - the word, only in dark - light, only in dying - life."

Ursula LeGuin’s EARTHSEA

Love Of All Things

To commend is one thing; to formulate its path is another. For one to seek after effectively the gospel of love, entails first to understand the reasons why this is the best choice for living ones life. Briefly put, the person who loves all things has a greater portion of inner tranquility and happiness. The Greek philosophers called the happiness from inner tranquility ataraxia (a term which in English means calmness of mind).

Click the heading "Love Of All Things" and let JK present the ancient Greek philosophers’ chain of logic as to how to obtain inner tranquility, because they didn’t just say, “do this and that” (which would be a set of homilies), but presented a web of convincing arguments in support of their conclusions. Logic moves people.

JK, thinker@skeptically.org

- inner silence

"The cat is a cultivated and elegant animal that stalks with such grace while human beings despair of stress in their daily lives - this beautiful animal is a shining example for the inner silence I try to reach."
...
"I really don’t remember the context in which I uttered the term "inner silence" - probably I meant a condition of inner calmness that can be achieved with a certain peace within oneself. That’s a virtue which has very often been discussed in philosophical treatise - this condition of inner silence is called “ataraxia” to mention the technical term."

"Life is an intellectual path..." this statement analysed through the lyrics written for his Band (ex-Of Trees and the Orchids). Simona Vinati, thought-cathedral@gmx.de

Ataraxia

Ataraxia (Ἀταραξία) is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for a limpid state, characterized by freedom from worry or any other preoccupation.

For the Epicureans, ataraxia was synonymous with the only true happiness possible for a person. It signifies the detached and balanced state of mind that shows that a person has transcended the material world and is now harvesting all the comforts of philosophy.

For the Pyrrhonians, owing to one's inability to say which sense impressions are true and which ones are false, it is a pleasant place that arises from suspending judgment on dogmatic beliefs or anything non-evident and continuing to inquire. The experience was said to have fallen on the painter Apelles who was trying to paint the foam of a horse. He tried and failed so many times that in a rage he threw a sponge he was cleaning his brushes with at the medium and thus produced the effect of the horse's foam.

The Stoics, too, sought mental tranquillity, and saw ataraxia as something to be desired and often made use of the term, but for them the analogous state, attained by the Stoic sage, was apatheia or absence of passion.

Wikipedia.org (15 October 2008, at 20:56)

Ancient Skepticism, and ataraxia

...
Mates has criticized this aspect of Pyrrhonism, writing that “It is hard to find much plausibility in the general claim that the person who, on a given occasion, thinks "this appears to me to be very, very bad” will be any less upset than if he thought “this is very, very bad” (63). The Pyrrhonean might answer that their acceptance of appearances is more powerful than this suggests, for it takes place within the context of equally convincing arguments for and against the view that things are as they appear. When faced with the thought that “This is very, very bad,” the Pyrrhonean will, therefore, combat this thought by trying to develop a set of compelling arguments for the conclusion that “This appears bad, but I have equally convincing reasons for thinking it may not be so.” In such a context, it is the compelling arguments which the Pyrrhonean produces that are supposed to provide a psychological basis for the detached and distant “following” of appearances which characterizes Pyrrhonian equanimity (isostheneia). The equal force of opposing arguments is thus the key to Pyrrhonian ataraxia).
...
Given the practical goals of Pyrrhonism, one might argue that the psychological force of Pyrrhonian arguments was as important as their logical force, for it was designed to constrain a Pyrrhonean's attachment to appearances. The psychological implications highlight one of the fundamental differences that separates ancient and modern arguments for skepticism, for the ancient skeptics (and especially the Pyrrhonians) used skeptical arguments as psychological tools designed to break down their own and others' psychological attachment to belief. It is in this way that their arguments were meant to foster ataraxia.

Copyright © 2008 by Leo Groarke, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Silence is so accurate

Silence is so accurate.

Marc Rothko

Silence flows like poetry

Worrying is the incessant chattering of the over-active mind that is fueled by your fears.

...

Silence helps you evolve and grow. It helps your wisdom blossom. It teaches you to trust your inner self. Silence flows like poetry. Silence is the dance of discernment. Silence is the language of communication with God.

Uzma Mazhar © 2001

The attitude of silence

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.

Mahatma Gandhi

...the noisiest era ever.

Now we live in the noisiest era ever. There never was a time when we needed silence and quiet and calm more. But we worship speed for its own sake, and sheer sound for its own sake, and power for its own sake.

Harold Brown

Soon silence will have passed into legend

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.

Jean Arp

Hjertets stillhet

"Når lyset kommer inn i hjertet, vil det gjenspeile seg og bli utvidet, Det betegner seg som løsrivelse fra det begrensede selvet og som hjertets stillhet." Profeten Mohammad (fvmh)

... silent about things that matter

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Martin Luther King

Silence, Love, Pain, Darkness

But you love to let me go into a cloud where knowledge does not dwell and where all things are still and wrapped in love and you.

I love the cloud, the silence, the love, and you; and I love the pain, the darkness, and the strange rain of things that happen by your will to me when you desire that I should retire from the cloud and go to search for your footprints in the dark of men’s souls....

The cloud of “not knowing,” the dark, the rain, the pain, the cold, the tempter’s laugh, his loathsome touch, the slimy things of hell, the dank rivers of pride, so still, so black, the pains that come and go, the wood that holds me tight—oh, Love, for you and souls, give those to me and I will call them joyous ecstasies.

Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Children Learn What They Live

• If a child lives with criticism,

• he learns to condemn.

• If a child lives with hostility,

• he learns to fight.

• If a child lives with ridicule,

• he learns to feel shy.

• If a child lives with shame,

• he learns to feel guilty.

• If a child lives with tolerance,

• he learns to be patient.

• If a child lives with encouragement,

• he learns confidence.

• If a child lives with praise,

• he learns to appreciate.

• If a child lives with fairness,

• he learns justice.

• If a child lives with security,

• he learns to have faith.

• If a child lives with approval,

• he learns to like himself.

• If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,

• he learns to find love in the world.

Coping.org is a Public Service of James J. Messina, Ph.D. & Constance M. Messina, Ph.D.
©1999-2007 James J. Messina, Ph.D. & Constance Messina, Ph.D.

The Force, by Stuart Wilde

Your power comes from understanding that where others are is where they need to be, and whatever they are doing is for their highest growth, and you should not judge it. By totally accepting other people's reality, you express true universal love, and you invigorate your own progress, because judgement does not hold you back to the baser physical level.

from The Force, by Stuart Wilde