Here is a small piece from my 'Gap-DGB Archives', written sometime in the early
2000s. It's called:
Personal Development Day
Every day is a personal development day that includes these five elements:
1. A vision that supports your passion, and a passion that supports your vision.
2. A game-plan that supports your vision.
3. A decision that supports your game-plan.
4. An action that supports your decision which supports your gameplan which supports your vision which supports your passion.
5. Five additional Friendly Reminders and Motivators
1. Every problem has a solution!
2. There is no obstacle too big for the person who wants something bad enough, and who is willing to tackle this obstacle head on, or find a way around it!
3. Only physical activity -- meaning action -- will get you the results you are looking for! No one is going to deliver your vision on a silver platter without you having to commit yourself to, and persevere through, much hard work, perspiration, discipline, and either figuratively and/or literally knocking on some or many doors...
4. Don't stop until you have succeeded in your goals, working step by step to the ultimate implementation and success of your passionate vision.
5. If your vision is live enough, passionate enough and important enough, you should be able to get other people excited by your vision so that it becomes their vision, their passion, too -- from a personal vision it now becomes a shared and/or community vision and passion.
This is the point at which wonderful things can be accomplished, wonderful things can happen, with everyone excited and pulling in the same direction.
-- dgb, Originally written in the early 2000s, slightly modified April 7th, 2009.
David Gordon Bain
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
A Message by George Carlin
This is a master piece. If you have not read it, take the time to read it now. If you have read it, take time to read it again!
GEORGE CARLIN (His wife recently died...and George followed her, dying July 2008)
Isn't it amazing that George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent...and so very appropriate.
A Message by George Carlin:
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
If you don't send this to at least 8 people....Who cares?
George Carlin
GEORGE CARLIN (His wife recently died...and George followed her, dying July 2008)
Isn't it amazing that George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent...and so very appropriate.
A Message by George Carlin:
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
If you don't send this to at least 8 people....Who cares?
George Carlin
The 'Fitting Game'
How are philosophy, epistemology, science and medicine, and psychology all connected -- aside from sharing the dialectic evolutionary process?
Let's start with Freud's 'life' and 'death' instinct from Freud's controversial essay, 'Beyond The Pleasure Principle', 1920.
Freuds' choice of the word 'instinct' is troublesome although that may have more to do with the interpretive translation from German to English than anything. But the word 'drive' is also troublesome. A 'life instinct or drive' is pretty easy to accept -- at least for me. But a 'death instinct or drive' -- that is harder to accept.
I prefer the DGB modified terminology of 'life' vs. 'death' process. This, I can easily work with dualistically and dialectically. Plus it is easily validated or at least supported by modern-day science and biology.
'Oxygenation' is a 'life process'. We need to breathe in oxygen to live, to survive.
In contrast, 'oxidation' (the formation of 'free radical molecules' that cause the decay and eventual destruction of 'non-living objects' as well as 'living organisms' is an automatic 'negative side effect' of oxygenation and is paradoxically -- a 'death process'. An example of this destructive and death process by oxidation is the 'rusting away of cars' that are not properly 'protected' from this 'destructive-death process' happening. 'Erosion' is another example.
And the same thing is happening within each and everyone of our minds and bodies with each and every breath we take. Oxygenation (a life process) is followed immediately by 'oxidation' (a death process).
So Freud -- even 90 years ago (1919-1920), long before Linus Pauling started to introduce to the world in I believe the late 1960s, early 1970s, the idea of 'oxidation', 'free radical theory' and the therapeutic measures of ingesting more 'anti-oxidants' like 'Vitimin C' to ward off this process (Pauling lived into his 90s, so I think he knew what he was talking about -- and his theories, as provocative and controversial as they were back in the 60s and 70s, are pretty well supported and at least partly accepted by the field of science and medicine today.
However, totally independent and yet paradoxically also totally connected to this paradoxical 'dialectical playoff' inside of us between life and death, are the ideas of 'perception', 'interpretation', 'epistemology', 'awareness', 'evaluation' -- and 'action' or ('non-action').
This is where I introduce the idea, borrowed from Fritz Perls of 'the fitting game'.
Life is a fitting game.
Life requires 'good epistemology and awareness'.
'Bad epistemology and awareness' and either or both of two things happen:
1. We fail at what we are trying to accomplish because our information/epistemology is wrong; And/or
2. We die if the consequences of our 'failure to get the epistemology and awareness right' are severe enough.
These ideas about epistemology and awareness -- even before I knew what epistemology was (i.e., the study of knowledge) -- go back to my 1979 Honours Thesis on this subject matter which was influenced by the work of Nataniel Branden, 'The Psychology of Self-Esteem', who in turn was influenced by Ayn Rand and what has more lately been labelled as her philosophy of 'Objectivism'. And these ideas also came from my work in General Semantics (Korzybski, 'Science and Sanity', and Hayakawa, 'Language in Thought and Action'. And these ideas were also influenced my my psychology work at the time in the area of Cognitive Therapy, Albert Ellis and 'Rational-Emotive Therapy', and Aaron Beck...)
There is a reason why 'getting it right' -- and the related subjective process of 'righteousness' which DGB Philosophy-Psychology, following in the footsteps of Freud and Eric Berne, has 'structuralized' into a portion of 'The Split Ego' -- and called 'The Righteous-Critical Topdog-Ego, or Superego' -- to repeat, there is a reason 'why getting it right' and 'righteousness' is a critical subjective-objective phenomenon in human affairs.
'Wrongness' can mean failure, separation, divorce, bankruptcy, dying -- or a fast or slow -- death. .
Again, I must emphasize the principle of homeostatic-dialectic-democratic balance here. Because sometimes -- indeed oftentimes -- 'righteousness' itself can be a problem especially when righteousness is either 'wrong' and/or it is connected to an area where 'individual differences, values and goals reign supreme -- and/or should be tolerantly allowed to reign supreme'. In other words, righteousness can reign supreme in areas which should be more amenable to individual tolerance, difference, taste, values and goals, flexibility -- as opposed to believing that everyone else should live their lives inside and only inside the 'tight box' of our own creation, our own consciousness, lifestyle, philosophy, politics, religion, etc.,
A good working homesotatic-dialectic balance needs to be maintained between 'epistemological righteousness' which is ideally connected to 'being existentially right' on the one hand vs. being 'flexible and tolerant enough' so as not to 'torture ourselves and/or someone else over mistakes that shouldn't matter as much as we make them matter in our own consciousness -- and the verbal/physical expression of this consciousness to whoever we are being 'righteous' towards.
I won't deny it. I can be very righteous at times. At the very least, I need to have a strongly based and accurate epistemology to support my righteousness about things that should matter; otherwise, I am not playing the epistemological fitting game well, or possibly I am making a mountain out of a molehill -- either way, I have no right to be righteous if or when I am wrong or being too intolerant and inflexible in areas where I should be more tolerant and flexible!
Still, being right vs. being wrong can be intimately tied to our individual and/or collective survival and/or destruction/extinction.
It is very important for me to connect my DGB philosophy with my personal experience -- and also to connect 'academic' philosophy with 'pragmatic, day-to-day philosophy' -- so I will relate to you a personal example that most 'philosophers' would not likely write about. (Even Freud hid his personal examples in his use of the 'anonymous third person' in his essays.)
About two years ago, at this time of year, I had what might be called either a 'liver attack' and/or a 'liver breakdown'. Important functions of my liver ceased to function. The 'normal route' of bile from the liver down to the intestines and out of the body -- or re-cycled back into the body -- backed up and started going the wrong direction through all other parts of my body. A 'toxification' of the body if you will which gives the classic symptom of serious liver problems -- 'jaundice' (a yellowing of the skin and eyes) -- which usually shows up about a day after a spherocytosis generated liver attack and/or breakdown and goes away after 2 to 3 days, longer if the problem is more than spherocytosis related.
Into the hospital I went. I was there for the better part of a month about two years ago this upcoming June. They needed to better diagnose what the problem was. To begin with, I have a genetic blood disorder called 'Spherocytosis' which puts extra stress on both my spleen and liver as my 'sphere-shaped red blood cells' (called 'spherocytes') are broken down every so many weeks as opposed to every so many months (because the spleen thinks that they are 'old, already beaten up cells'). My dad has lived to 80 with the disease and hasn't had an attack in about 25years. But he is a non-drinker. I can't say the same.
I have been a 'medium social drinker' for most of my adult life and I have obviously thrown more extra stress onto my liver over the years than I should have. There have been years when I basically didnt drink at all. But there have been other years back in my 30s when I was probably closer to 20 drinks a week than 10.
I don't do drugs, never have, but I do take 'herbs' and I wonder to this day whether there may have been an interaction between the herbs I took that night and the white wine. Herbs should be treated as being similar to drugs -- not usually as strong -- but still interactions between alcohol and some types of herbs may be suspect, maybe I took too much 'hawthorne' -- good for the heart and circulation, I was anticipating having some action with my girlfriend that night and might have overcompensated for the effect of the alcohol.
Three or four capsules was perhaps/probably too much for my already over-stressed liver. This remains a matter of 'epistemological speculation' by me about 'life vs. death processes' at work within my body' without our/my being able to empirically verify what actually was going on inside my liver at that time -- until it was too late, and the attack was under way.
The debate between drugs vs. herbs -- what should be pulled off the shelves and what shouldn't -- is a long and drawn out dialectic debate. Each individual drug or herb should be treated separately. We don't have the time to do it here.
Herbs are no different than prescription medications in that they have to be taken carefully and watched carefully for possible side-effects. And researched for their possible side-effects. If the number of 'drug-influenced' medical crises and even deaths was made truly transparent and democratically public -- I am not sure how many of our standard prescription drugs that we would still have left over or behind the counter. Again, food for more thought and debate on another day.
For me, two years ago, tests were done in the hospital, 'a couple of shady areas in my liver' were detected in the CT-Scan that they didn't know what they were. Two 'ERCPs' were done to make sure I had no 'stones blocking my liver passages'. (I don't think they found any also they said they found some small ones. I don't think that was the problem.)
I've been tested all my life in my previous brief stints in the hospital for one of the most obvious causes of jaundice -- hepatitis. Negative every time. Hereditary spherocytosis is more commonly known now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. But still doctors have to take their precautions before they zero in on my hereditary issue -- and its recent complications.
I am no doctor but I put my liver problem down as being simply a combined problem of 'too much stress on the liver' -- a combination of broken down blood cells to get rid of, the complicating effect of alcohol in the system, and a possible interaction of too many herbs that are putting additional stress on my liver -- all coming together and creating the end problem. There could even be the problem of too much 'iron overload' in the liver, a result of too many broken down blood cells for the liver to dispense of properly. Iron overload in itself can cause cirrhosis of the liver. I just read this off the internet. I will have to run this by the next doctor I see.
But I didn't want a 'liver biopsy' two years ago when they wanted to take a chunk out of my liver to see exactly what they were dealing with. I declined and left the care of my liver specialist and the hospital.
I returned to 'normal' very quickly on a careful diet of fruits and veggies, no coffee, no alcohol, beet juice, organic veggie juice, etc.
And then it is rather obvious now -- that I became too 'epistemologically arrogant or cocky with my improved condition back to feeling like normal again'. Back into the bars again that winter, another spring, summer, fall, and winter -- and on the advice of my family doctor -- another CT-Scan this spring.
Bad news. April 1st, 2009. I now have cirrhosis in the right part of my liver. So much for being 'epistemologically confident, even arrogant'. I was dreading the possibility of the other 'C' word when I went into see my doctor on April 1st. Then I quickly became re-aware that there are two dreaded 'C' words when it comes to talking about the liver -- 'Cancer' is probably the worst, but 'Cirrhosis' is not far behind. I'm working on something like 70 per cent of a 'good liver' right now. Cirrhosis is a 'sneaky disease'. You can feel fine -- symptom-free --through its early stages when you still have significant 'good liver' left to take up the normal functions of the liver. But according to my doctor, once you get down to about 30 per cent of a normal functioning liver -- with the rest 'non-functioning' because of the pathological scars of cirrhosis -- things can turn real ugly, real quickly. Obviously, I don't want to get there to find out.
So when I say that it is imperative in some cases to 'get our epistemology -- and our action -- right', this is the type of individual circumstance I am talking about. If I have another two years like my last two years -- even though I didn't miss a day of work in those two years -- I will probably either be hospitalized or dead within another two years.
Strike One was my last stint in the hospital.
Strike Two was my most recent visit to my family doctor on April 1, 2009.
There can be no Strike Three -- or I am out -- gone to meet the 'Grim Reaper'.
As I said, at times it is absolutely imperative that we get our epistemology -- and our action -- right.
God/Nature only gives us so many chances.
Perhaps I can only say that I have been lucky to be given the chances I have been.
Some people don't even get a 'Strike One' -- before a 'heart attack' or a 'stroke' or a 'traumatic accident' leads to absolute tragedy.
When we are given a second or third chance, we have to 'fully value' this gift from wherever.
Get our epistemology right. Get our action right. Get our lifestyle right.
The older we get -- and sometimes not even -- the more that time becomes a ticking timebomb.
Life, in essence, becomes a race between life and death.
Freud knew it. By the time he wrote 'Beyond The Pleasure Principle' in 1919-20, he was about 63-64. Ten years older than me right now. I have to check the timeline but I think Freud probably knew by this time that he had 'jaw cancer' -- caused mainly by his famous or infamous 'cigar smoking'. Maybe his cancer hadn't fully articulated itself yet because he didn't die til 1939, about 20 years later.
But whether it have been the influence of World War 1 -- and soldiers coming back with 'repetition compulsions' from 'war traumacies' and/or Freud's increasing awareness of the 'finiteness' of his own existence, Freud's 'life vs. death' principle didn't come out of nowhere.
It came out of the essence of existence.
I support this theory, not in its Freudian entirety, but in its paradoxical, dialectic and existential essence.
-- dgb, April 6th, 2009.
Let's start with Freud's 'life' and 'death' instinct from Freud's controversial essay, 'Beyond The Pleasure Principle', 1920.
Freuds' choice of the word 'instinct' is troublesome although that may have more to do with the interpretive translation from German to English than anything. But the word 'drive' is also troublesome. A 'life instinct or drive' is pretty easy to accept -- at least for me. But a 'death instinct or drive' -- that is harder to accept.
I prefer the DGB modified terminology of 'life' vs. 'death' process. This, I can easily work with dualistically and dialectically. Plus it is easily validated or at least supported by modern-day science and biology.
'Oxygenation' is a 'life process'. We need to breathe in oxygen to live, to survive.
In contrast, 'oxidation' (the formation of 'free radical molecules' that cause the decay and eventual destruction of 'non-living objects' as well as 'living organisms' is an automatic 'negative side effect' of oxygenation and is paradoxically -- a 'death process'. An example of this destructive and death process by oxidation is the 'rusting away of cars' that are not properly 'protected' from this 'destructive-death process' happening. 'Erosion' is another example.
And the same thing is happening within each and everyone of our minds and bodies with each and every breath we take. Oxygenation (a life process) is followed immediately by 'oxidation' (a death process).
So Freud -- even 90 years ago (1919-1920), long before Linus Pauling started to introduce to the world in I believe the late 1960s, early 1970s, the idea of 'oxidation', 'free radical theory' and the therapeutic measures of ingesting more 'anti-oxidants' like 'Vitimin C' to ward off this process (Pauling lived into his 90s, so I think he knew what he was talking about -- and his theories, as provocative and controversial as they were back in the 60s and 70s, are pretty well supported and at least partly accepted by the field of science and medicine today.
However, totally independent and yet paradoxically also totally connected to this paradoxical 'dialectical playoff' inside of us between life and death, are the ideas of 'perception', 'interpretation', 'epistemology', 'awareness', 'evaluation' -- and 'action' or ('non-action').
This is where I introduce the idea, borrowed from Fritz Perls of 'the fitting game'.
Life is a fitting game.
Life requires 'good epistemology and awareness'.
'Bad epistemology and awareness' and either or both of two things happen:
1. We fail at what we are trying to accomplish because our information/epistemology is wrong; And/or
2. We die if the consequences of our 'failure to get the epistemology and awareness right' are severe enough.
These ideas about epistemology and awareness -- even before I knew what epistemology was (i.e., the study of knowledge) -- go back to my 1979 Honours Thesis on this subject matter which was influenced by the work of Nataniel Branden, 'The Psychology of Self-Esteem', who in turn was influenced by Ayn Rand and what has more lately been labelled as her philosophy of 'Objectivism'. And these ideas also came from my work in General Semantics (Korzybski, 'Science and Sanity', and Hayakawa, 'Language in Thought and Action'. And these ideas were also influenced my my psychology work at the time in the area of Cognitive Therapy, Albert Ellis and 'Rational-Emotive Therapy', and Aaron Beck...)
There is a reason why 'getting it right' -- and the related subjective process of 'righteousness' which DGB Philosophy-Psychology, following in the footsteps of Freud and Eric Berne, has 'structuralized' into a portion of 'The Split Ego' -- and called 'The Righteous-Critical Topdog-Ego, or Superego' -- to repeat, there is a reason 'why getting it right' and 'righteousness' is a critical subjective-objective phenomenon in human affairs.
'Wrongness' can mean failure, separation, divorce, bankruptcy, dying -- or a fast or slow -- death. .
Again, I must emphasize the principle of homeostatic-dialectic-democratic balance here. Because sometimes -- indeed oftentimes -- 'righteousness' itself can be a problem especially when righteousness is either 'wrong' and/or it is connected to an area where 'individual differences, values and goals reign supreme -- and/or should be tolerantly allowed to reign supreme'. In other words, righteousness can reign supreme in areas which should be more amenable to individual tolerance, difference, taste, values and goals, flexibility -- as opposed to believing that everyone else should live their lives inside and only inside the 'tight box' of our own creation, our own consciousness, lifestyle, philosophy, politics, religion, etc.,
A good working homesotatic-dialectic balance needs to be maintained between 'epistemological righteousness' which is ideally connected to 'being existentially right' on the one hand vs. being 'flexible and tolerant enough' so as not to 'torture ourselves and/or someone else over mistakes that shouldn't matter as much as we make them matter in our own consciousness -- and the verbal/physical expression of this consciousness to whoever we are being 'righteous' towards.
I won't deny it. I can be very righteous at times. At the very least, I need to have a strongly based and accurate epistemology to support my righteousness about things that should matter; otherwise, I am not playing the epistemological fitting game well, or possibly I am making a mountain out of a molehill -- either way, I have no right to be righteous if or when I am wrong or being too intolerant and inflexible in areas where I should be more tolerant and flexible!
Still, being right vs. being wrong can be intimately tied to our individual and/or collective survival and/or destruction/extinction.
It is very important for me to connect my DGB philosophy with my personal experience -- and also to connect 'academic' philosophy with 'pragmatic, day-to-day philosophy' -- so I will relate to you a personal example that most 'philosophers' would not likely write about. (Even Freud hid his personal examples in his use of the 'anonymous third person' in his essays.)
About two years ago, at this time of year, I had what might be called either a 'liver attack' and/or a 'liver breakdown'. Important functions of my liver ceased to function. The 'normal route' of bile from the liver down to the intestines and out of the body -- or re-cycled back into the body -- backed up and started going the wrong direction through all other parts of my body. A 'toxification' of the body if you will which gives the classic symptom of serious liver problems -- 'jaundice' (a yellowing of the skin and eyes) -- which usually shows up about a day after a spherocytosis generated liver attack and/or breakdown and goes away after 2 to 3 days, longer if the problem is more than spherocytosis related.
Into the hospital I went. I was there for the better part of a month about two years ago this upcoming June. They needed to better diagnose what the problem was. To begin with, I have a genetic blood disorder called 'Spherocytosis' which puts extra stress on both my spleen and liver as my 'sphere-shaped red blood cells' (called 'spherocytes') are broken down every so many weeks as opposed to every so many months (because the spleen thinks that they are 'old, already beaten up cells'). My dad has lived to 80 with the disease and hasn't had an attack in about 25years. But he is a non-drinker. I can't say the same.
I have been a 'medium social drinker' for most of my adult life and I have obviously thrown more extra stress onto my liver over the years than I should have. There have been years when I basically didnt drink at all. But there have been other years back in my 30s when I was probably closer to 20 drinks a week than 10.
I don't do drugs, never have, but I do take 'herbs' and I wonder to this day whether there may have been an interaction between the herbs I took that night and the white wine. Herbs should be treated as being similar to drugs -- not usually as strong -- but still interactions between alcohol and some types of herbs may be suspect, maybe I took too much 'hawthorne' -- good for the heart and circulation, I was anticipating having some action with my girlfriend that night and might have overcompensated for the effect of the alcohol.
Three or four capsules was perhaps/probably too much for my already over-stressed liver. This remains a matter of 'epistemological speculation' by me about 'life vs. death processes' at work within my body' without our/my being able to empirically verify what actually was going on inside my liver at that time -- until it was too late, and the attack was under way.
The debate between drugs vs. herbs -- what should be pulled off the shelves and what shouldn't -- is a long and drawn out dialectic debate. Each individual drug or herb should be treated separately. We don't have the time to do it here.
Herbs are no different than prescription medications in that they have to be taken carefully and watched carefully for possible side-effects. And researched for their possible side-effects. If the number of 'drug-influenced' medical crises and even deaths was made truly transparent and democratically public -- I am not sure how many of our standard prescription drugs that we would still have left over or behind the counter. Again, food for more thought and debate on another day.
For me, two years ago, tests were done in the hospital, 'a couple of shady areas in my liver' were detected in the CT-Scan that they didn't know what they were. Two 'ERCPs' were done to make sure I had no 'stones blocking my liver passages'. (I don't think they found any also they said they found some small ones. I don't think that was the problem.)
I've been tested all my life in my previous brief stints in the hospital for one of the most obvious causes of jaundice -- hepatitis. Negative every time. Hereditary spherocytosis is more commonly known now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. But still doctors have to take their precautions before they zero in on my hereditary issue -- and its recent complications.
I am no doctor but I put my liver problem down as being simply a combined problem of 'too much stress on the liver' -- a combination of broken down blood cells to get rid of, the complicating effect of alcohol in the system, and a possible interaction of too many herbs that are putting additional stress on my liver -- all coming together and creating the end problem. There could even be the problem of too much 'iron overload' in the liver, a result of too many broken down blood cells for the liver to dispense of properly. Iron overload in itself can cause cirrhosis of the liver. I just read this off the internet. I will have to run this by the next doctor I see.
But I didn't want a 'liver biopsy' two years ago when they wanted to take a chunk out of my liver to see exactly what they were dealing with. I declined and left the care of my liver specialist and the hospital.
I returned to 'normal' very quickly on a careful diet of fruits and veggies, no coffee, no alcohol, beet juice, organic veggie juice, etc.
And then it is rather obvious now -- that I became too 'epistemologically arrogant or cocky with my improved condition back to feeling like normal again'. Back into the bars again that winter, another spring, summer, fall, and winter -- and on the advice of my family doctor -- another CT-Scan this spring.
Bad news. April 1st, 2009. I now have cirrhosis in the right part of my liver. So much for being 'epistemologically confident, even arrogant'. I was dreading the possibility of the other 'C' word when I went into see my doctor on April 1st. Then I quickly became re-aware that there are two dreaded 'C' words when it comes to talking about the liver -- 'Cancer' is probably the worst, but 'Cirrhosis' is not far behind. I'm working on something like 70 per cent of a 'good liver' right now. Cirrhosis is a 'sneaky disease'. You can feel fine -- symptom-free --through its early stages when you still have significant 'good liver' left to take up the normal functions of the liver. But according to my doctor, once you get down to about 30 per cent of a normal functioning liver -- with the rest 'non-functioning' because of the pathological scars of cirrhosis -- things can turn real ugly, real quickly. Obviously, I don't want to get there to find out.
So when I say that it is imperative in some cases to 'get our epistemology -- and our action -- right', this is the type of individual circumstance I am talking about. If I have another two years like my last two years -- even though I didn't miss a day of work in those two years -- I will probably either be hospitalized or dead within another two years.
Strike One was my last stint in the hospital.
Strike Two was my most recent visit to my family doctor on April 1, 2009.
There can be no Strike Three -- or I am out -- gone to meet the 'Grim Reaper'.
As I said, at times it is absolutely imperative that we get our epistemology -- and our action -- right.
God/Nature only gives us so many chances.
Perhaps I can only say that I have been lucky to be given the chances I have been.
Some people don't even get a 'Strike One' -- before a 'heart attack' or a 'stroke' or a 'traumatic accident' leads to absolute tragedy.
When we are given a second or third chance, we have to 'fully value' this gift from wherever.
Get our epistemology right. Get our action right. Get our lifestyle right.
The older we get -- and sometimes not even -- the more that time becomes a ticking timebomb.
Life, in essence, becomes a race between life and death.
Freud knew it. By the time he wrote 'Beyond The Pleasure Principle' in 1919-20, he was about 63-64. Ten years older than me right now. I have to check the timeline but I think Freud probably knew by this time that he had 'jaw cancer' -- caused mainly by his famous or infamous 'cigar smoking'. Maybe his cancer hadn't fully articulated itself yet because he didn't die til 1939, about 20 years later.
But whether it have been the influence of World War 1 -- and soldiers coming back with 'repetition compulsions' from 'war traumacies' and/or Freud's increasing awareness of the 'finiteness' of his own existence, Freud's 'life vs. death' principle didn't come out of nowhere.
It came out of the essence of existence.
I support this theory, not in its Freudian entirety, but in its paradoxical, dialectic and existential essence.
-- dgb, April 6th, 2009.
An Quick Synopsis On the DGB Upcoming Writing Agenda....
So much to write about...so little time...
My fellow baby-boomers can perhaps appreciate more and more with me the 'ticking away of time'...
Here are some of the things I want to write about in the near future...in no particular order because I have to stay within myself each morning and write what I want to write about that morning because otherwise, Hegel's Hotel goes down in flames...or simply doesn't get finished. Writing has to come upward from The Self, not downward from the conscience, the censor, the Superego, the Topdog...
I remember many years ago in my early adulthood driving down the Don Valley Parkway (DVP)from Don Mills to downtown, Toronto, and as I was turning the corner of the DVP to head into the downtown corridor of Toronto, around about Thorncliffe Park, there used to be what they called this big 'White Elephant'. It was a fairly tall white building overlooking the DVP on the hill that stood empty and unfinished for years and years. The story I heard was that the owner had built the main framework and structure of the building but that he had 'forgot' to get a municipal permit to build a driveway into his building. When he went to get this permit, the city said 'no', and there was nothing the builder could do to change the city's mind. Thus, the building was never finished. It stood there, overlooking the DVP -- its main structure in place -- but totally unfinished and abandoned inside -- to eventually become nicknamed 'The White Elephant'.
We don't want Hegel's Hotel to become a White Elephant.
So let us press on -- and press on with passion -- until we have the inside Hegel's Hotel finished, and finished with substance and style -- a 'Five Star Wellness Hotel' complete with fully functioning telephones at a decent hotel price where you can call anywhere in the world at a moment's notice (that is a little sarcastic jab at my girlfriend of ten years who just spent a week in The Dominican Republic without calling me; she said the phones in the Hotel didn't work properly and/or they were too expensive; she bought a phone card and it didn't work. And they were charging her something like $2 a second to use it. She said she didn't phone anyone while she was down there -- not even her mom and dad -- although she tried phoning me until the phone card thing screwed up. How does that sound for a reason/excuse? Do I buy into it? Or say its Sophism and Hogwash? Or somewhere in between? Do I drop it or continue to give her the cold shoulder for a week like she just did to me?)
Incidently, here is my '5 Step Recipe for Marital and/or any Relationship Disaster':
1. Instigation (One side provokes a confrontation.)
2. Retaliation (The other side strikes back, usually verbally, rhetorically, with or without the beginning of 'trash-talk'.)
3. Escalation (More back and forth 'verbal bashing' that is leading nowhere positive, everywhere negative.)
4. Explosion (Completlely out of control trash-talking that may or may not result in 'physical aggression and violence').
5. Implosion (Impasse. Loss of contact. Loss of passion. Alienation. Separation. Divorce.)
This formula can be applied to my only partly written section at this point: 'DGB Dialectic Theory, Domestic Violence, and The Law.'
So where do we go from here? What do I want to write about?
1. I want to finish to my satisfaction my work on epistemology. The problem is that my goal here -- to re-write my Honours Thesis, 'Evaluation and Health', which was largely a work on epistemology and it relationship to psychology -- is partly boring work unless I can somehow breathe new life into an old paper. However, this paper is important because it gives the strongest connection between epistemology, General Semantics, and Psychology, more partcularly Psychotherapy, and most particularly Cogntive Therapy.
2. I want to write more about Freud and my DGB interpetive evaluations of the different theories contained in the evolution of Freud's work and the different dimensions and offshoots of Pre-Classical Pscyhoanalysis (Traumacy-Seduction Theory), The Evolution of Classical Psychoanalysis (Screen Memories, The Interpretation of Dreams, Infantile and Childhood Sexuality, The Oedipal Complex, Freud's evolving ideas on Transference Theory, Freud's Theory of Narcissism, Beyond The Pleasure Principle, The Ego and The Id,), Object Relations (that is foreshadowed by Freud's paper, 'The Splitting of The Ego' right at the end of his career and life...), Object Relations (Klein, Fairbairn...) Self-Psychology (Kohut), Transactionsal Analysis by Eric Berne (an offshoot of Object Relations and 'The Splitting of The Ego')...
3. I want to start writing about DGB Dialectic Theory in relation to the evolving 'co-operative-competitive' relationship between the evolution of Orthodox Western Prescription Medicine and the more recent Western evolution of Alternative/Natural/Nutritional Health Science and Medicine -- and how they best can be integrated...
I have one essay in mind that is capable of introducing all three different subject matters at the same time. You see, epistmeology is intimately connected to Science and Medicine. And epistemology is also intimately connected to Freud's 'life' and 'death' principle which is also connected to Science and Medicine (as well as Psychology and Philosophy).
The paper I have in mind is called 'The Fitting Game' -- an idea that I am borrowing and extrapolating from Fritz Perls and Gestalt Therapy.
After I write 'The Fitting Game', then I will decide which way DGB Philosophy-Psychology will build next: 1. Epistemology; 2. DGB Post-Freudian/Psychoanalytic Theory; and/or 3. DGB Dialectic Theory vs. Science and Medicine.
-- dgb, April 6th, 2009.
-- David Gordon Bain.
My fellow baby-boomers can perhaps appreciate more and more with me the 'ticking away of time'...
Here are some of the things I want to write about in the near future...in no particular order because I have to stay within myself each morning and write what I want to write about that morning because otherwise, Hegel's Hotel goes down in flames...or simply doesn't get finished. Writing has to come upward from The Self, not downward from the conscience, the censor, the Superego, the Topdog...
I remember many years ago in my early adulthood driving down the Don Valley Parkway (DVP)from Don Mills to downtown, Toronto, and as I was turning the corner of the DVP to head into the downtown corridor of Toronto, around about Thorncliffe Park, there used to be what they called this big 'White Elephant'. It was a fairly tall white building overlooking the DVP on the hill that stood empty and unfinished for years and years. The story I heard was that the owner had built the main framework and structure of the building but that he had 'forgot' to get a municipal permit to build a driveway into his building. When he went to get this permit, the city said 'no', and there was nothing the builder could do to change the city's mind. Thus, the building was never finished. It stood there, overlooking the DVP -- its main structure in place -- but totally unfinished and abandoned inside -- to eventually become nicknamed 'The White Elephant'.
We don't want Hegel's Hotel to become a White Elephant.
So let us press on -- and press on with passion -- until we have the inside Hegel's Hotel finished, and finished with substance and style -- a 'Five Star Wellness Hotel' complete with fully functioning telephones at a decent hotel price where you can call anywhere in the world at a moment's notice (that is a little sarcastic jab at my girlfriend of ten years who just spent a week in The Dominican Republic without calling me; she said the phones in the Hotel didn't work properly and/or they were too expensive; she bought a phone card and it didn't work. And they were charging her something like $2 a second to use it. She said she didn't phone anyone while she was down there -- not even her mom and dad -- although she tried phoning me until the phone card thing screwed up. How does that sound for a reason/excuse? Do I buy into it? Or say its Sophism and Hogwash? Or somewhere in between? Do I drop it or continue to give her the cold shoulder for a week like she just did to me?)
Incidently, here is my '5 Step Recipe for Marital and/or any Relationship Disaster':
1. Instigation (One side provokes a confrontation.)
2. Retaliation (The other side strikes back, usually verbally, rhetorically, with or without the beginning of 'trash-talk'.)
3. Escalation (More back and forth 'verbal bashing' that is leading nowhere positive, everywhere negative.)
4. Explosion (Completlely out of control trash-talking that may or may not result in 'physical aggression and violence').
5. Implosion (Impasse. Loss of contact. Loss of passion. Alienation. Separation. Divorce.)
This formula can be applied to my only partly written section at this point: 'DGB Dialectic Theory, Domestic Violence, and The Law.'
So where do we go from here? What do I want to write about?
1. I want to finish to my satisfaction my work on epistemology. The problem is that my goal here -- to re-write my Honours Thesis, 'Evaluation and Health', which was largely a work on epistemology and it relationship to psychology -- is partly boring work unless I can somehow breathe new life into an old paper. However, this paper is important because it gives the strongest connection between epistemology, General Semantics, and Psychology, more partcularly Psychotherapy, and most particularly Cogntive Therapy.
2. I want to write more about Freud and my DGB interpetive evaluations of the different theories contained in the evolution of Freud's work and the different dimensions and offshoots of Pre-Classical Pscyhoanalysis (Traumacy-Seduction Theory), The Evolution of Classical Psychoanalysis (Screen Memories, The Interpretation of Dreams, Infantile and Childhood Sexuality, The Oedipal Complex, Freud's evolving ideas on Transference Theory, Freud's Theory of Narcissism, Beyond The Pleasure Principle, The Ego and The Id,), Object Relations (that is foreshadowed by Freud's paper, 'The Splitting of The Ego' right at the end of his career and life...), Object Relations (Klein, Fairbairn...) Self-Psychology (Kohut), Transactionsal Analysis by Eric Berne (an offshoot of Object Relations and 'The Splitting of The Ego')...
3. I want to start writing about DGB Dialectic Theory in relation to the evolving 'co-operative-competitive' relationship between the evolution of Orthodox Western Prescription Medicine and the more recent Western evolution of Alternative/Natural/Nutritional Health Science and Medicine -- and how they best can be integrated...
I have one essay in mind that is capable of introducing all three different subject matters at the same time. You see, epistmeology is intimately connected to Science and Medicine. And epistemology is also intimately connected to Freud's 'life' and 'death' principle which is also connected to Science and Medicine (as well as Psychology and Philosophy).
The paper I have in mind is called 'The Fitting Game' -- an idea that I am borrowing and extrapolating from Fritz Perls and Gestalt Therapy.
After I write 'The Fitting Game', then I will decide which way DGB Philosophy-Psychology will build next: 1. Epistemology; 2. DGB Post-Freudian/Psychoanalytic Theory; and/or 3. DGB Dialectic Theory vs. Science and Medicine.
-- dgb, April 6th, 2009.
-- David Gordon Bain.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
An Update On The Progress Of Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy-Psychology...
As of April 1st, 2009, I consider the main structure or foundation of Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy-Psychology...' to be in place.
The finishing piece of this main structural foundation of Hegel's Hotel was my essay of April 1st/09 on the similarity and dialectic connection of: 1. Ancient, Pre-Socratic Western Dialectic Philosophy (led by Anaxamander and Heraclitus) with; 2. Ancient Eastern Dialectic Philosophy (led by Lao Tse and The Han Philosophers)with; 3. the main centrepiece of Hegel's Hotel: the work of the main German Idealists -- Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel (mainly Hegel); with 4. the anti-Hegelians and post-Hegelians (who are too many to count but include): Schopenhauer, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida, and DGB Philosophy; 5. the biologists and evolution men and women, most notably: Darwin; 6. the clinical psychologists and psychotherapists: Freud, Jung, Adler, Klein, Fairbairn, Kohut, Berne, Perls...; 7. the medicine men and women: mainly Walter B. Cannon (The Wisdom of The Body, homeostasis) and the current 'dialectical playoff' between orthodox Western Prescription Medicine and Alternative/Natural/Nutritional Medicine; and 8. the implications and extensions of Dialectical Philosophy into Epistomology; 9. Ethics; 10. Business and Economics; 11. Regional, National, International Politics, and Law; 12. Religion, Spirituality, Mythology, and Pantheism; 13. The Arts; 14. Romantic Philosophy, Environmentalism, and Humanistic-Existentialism; 15. Community Altruism; and if I get time to do this last job properly: 16. The DGB Interpretation and Evaluation of The Dialectic Evolution of The History of Western Philosophy.
That is basically the long and the short of what I have been building here for the last two or three years; and God willing, will be finishing off over the next two to three years.
I would say we are now at about the half way point of building Hegel's Hotel.
I have sworn off alcohol as of April 1st/09 (before my liver takes me to meet the 'Grim Reaper') but for those of you who are interested and like the work I am doing here, I would like to raise a collective toast with you,
Say, 'Cheers',
And in a day or so,
Let's get going again.
-- dgb, April 5th, 2009.
David Gordon Bain
The finishing piece of this main structural foundation of Hegel's Hotel was my essay of April 1st/09 on the similarity and dialectic connection of: 1. Ancient, Pre-Socratic Western Dialectic Philosophy (led by Anaxamander and Heraclitus) with; 2. Ancient Eastern Dialectic Philosophy (led by Lao Tse and The Han Philosophers)with; 3. the main centrepiece of Hegel's Hotel: the work of the main German Idealists -- Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel (mainly Hegel); with 4. the anti-Hegelians and post-Hegelians (who are too many to count but include): Schopenhauer, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida, and DGB Philosophy; 5. the biologists and evolution men and women, most notably: Darwin; 6. the clinical psychologists and psychotherapists: Freud, Jung, Adler, Klein, Fairbairn, Kohut, Berne, Perls...; 7. the medicine men and women: mainly Walter B. Cannon (The Wisdom of The Body, homeostasis) and the current 'dialectical playoff' between orthodox Western Prescription Medicine and Alternative/Natural/Nutritional Medicine; and 8. the implications and extensions of Dialectical Philosophy into Epistomology; 9. Ethics; 10. Business and Economics; 11. Regional, National, International Politics, and Law; 12. Religion, Spirituality, Mythology, and Pantheism; 13. The Arts; 14. Romantic Philosophy, Environmentalism, and Humanistic-Existentialism; 15. Community Altruism; and if I get time to do this last job properly: 16. The DGB Interpretation and Evaluation of The Dialectic Evolution of The History of Western Philosophy.
That is basically the long and the short of what I have been building here for the last two or three years; and God willing, will be finishing off over the next two to three years.
I would say we are now at about the half way point of building Hegel's Hotel.
I have sworn off alcohol as of April 1st/09 (before my liver takes me to meet the 'Grim Reaper') but for those of you who are interested and like the work I am doing here, I would like to raise a collective toast with you,
Say, 'Cheers',
And in a day or so,
Let's get going again.
-- dgb, April 5th, 2009.
David Gordon Bain
Thursday, April 2, 2009
April 2nd, 2009: My Dad's 80th Birthday: Hegel's Hotel is A Tribute To My Dad and His Business, Political, Community, Democratic and Romantic Idealism
Congratulations to my dad who just turned 80 years old today!
He has much to feel proud about. Son of a farmer, but with different ambitions to make it as a businessman in the city, my dad started out completely from scratch, and created a million dollar Canadian business which was at least partly a precursor to the internet.
My dad cut a niche in the Canadian -- and the worldwide -- market for 'teaching and advertising machines' that combined two parts of the business: the hardware; and the software. Sound familiar? To be sure, the technology was rather archaic compared to what we enjoy today, but still, the concept was there, and some of the more 'earthbound' parts of the technology were there before the technology exploded upwards and outwards into 'cyberspace'.
If you are old enough, you might remember the days when a teacher might turn out the lights in a classroom, turn on a Carousel slide projector and show slides that would project onto a screen that was pulled down over the wall.
Well, my dad's business went one step further than the Carousel slide projector and converted the slides into what looked like a VCR cartride before I believe there were VCRs. (I will have to check to see when VCR were invented and how long they were in business.) The cartridge was then inserted into one of my dad's teaching/advertising machines with both parts being sold to my dad's retail customers (much like a VCR and a VCR machine)and that was the essence of my dad's business. Sometimes the customer would have their own slides that could be converted; other times, my dad's business would either delve right into, and/or contract out part of the work, to complete the actual 'film-making' part of the business.
The two products -- the teaching/advertising machine (the hardware) and the slide cartridge (software) were 'married' together and sold to the retailer who wanted to either show 'advertising' to his or her customers (they used to be in hardware stores and the like) -- the predecessor of what you can now see in more sophisticated HD technicolour at gas station pumps as you are filling up your gas, or in washrooms as men and women are taking care of their personal business.
In the mid-1970s, while I was working at my dad's business during the summer between my different years at The University of Waterloo (1974-1979), it was not unusual to hear my dad talking about 'building an information highway'....to 'create a software library' of different 'generic' educational films such as 'learning French' or 'learning the metric system' or any of a thousand other educational and/or advertising possibilities (try 'millions' of exploding possibilities as we watch the internet unfold today and expand at an exponential rate faster than any of us -- or a thousand of us -- can come close to keeping up with).
At the height of his business, my dad was going on trade missions all over the world, building his business in England, doing his 'thing' in the boardroom of McMillan Publishers, England, if my memory serves me right, he was selected to go on a Canadian trade mission to Japan, he was on a trade mission to Brazil...he was constantly doing business with his main U.S. supplier... and I am sure there are many trade missions elsewhere I am forgetting.
On the community level, my dad as President of The Don Mills Baseball Association, in conjunction with Kiwanas, around the late 60s, early 70s, with the help of important people who were working with him, built the baseball side of Bond Park from the bottom up...putting in new diamonds, a food concession booth, baseball stands, baseball lights, and baseball fences...
Some of my fellow baseball team mates there went on to establish strong careers in sports or elsewhere...Mike Palmateer, goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs; Dan Hill, folksinger; Rob Bowman, one of my best friends at the time, now a professor in music history at York University. Rob introduced me to Bob Dylan and 'Highway 61, Revisted' -- 'Like A Rolling Stone', 'Ballad of A Thin Man', 'Desolation Row'... in my townhouse basement, as we played 'ping pong' together. And he introduced me to the 'roots of the blues' in our late teens as he was interviewing the blues masters for the rock magazine...'Beetle Magazine'...and together, on the second floor, overlooking the rail, we watched the fabulous shows of...Muddy Waters, 'Howlin' Wolf', John Lee Hooker, John Hammond, Buddy Guy...and more...
There were some great individual and team performances that came out of this time period. My brother threw a very rare 'no hitter' at The CNE 'Tyke' or 'Atom' Baseball Tournament one year. When I was in my late teens, I coached a 'tyke' or 'atom' allstar baseball team (kids that were a year younger than my brother) with my dad. With all due respect to everyone else who went through Bond Park, this was probably the most talented group of very young athletes that I have ever seen pass through Bond Park (and their were some very talented teams at older age levels with Mike Palmateer playing shortstop, pitching, and catching.) Most of tykes my dad and I coached that year (9, 10 and/or 11 year olds) were playing all star hockey during the winter for one of the most talented hockey teams in Toronto at that time -- The Don Valley Hockey Club. (With connections, they practised at Maple Leaf Gardens early Sunday mornings.)
Anyway, one of our baseball tournaments that year was in Brantford, Ontario. We ended up in the finals against the Brantford team. In the best pitching duel that I have seen at that age group, we lost a nail-biter in the finals, 1-0. Wayne Gretzky was pitching for Brantford.
In politics, my dad, during these years, was a political and community activist, involved with politicians and their campaigns at the municipal level of Don Mills, and Toronto, the provincial level, and the federal level. At different times, he has supported both Liberal and Conservative Politicians. My dad has always liked Stephen Harper. (I have usually had mixed feelings about him.) Perhaps my father's biggest disappointment was not seeing Preston Manning voted Prime Minister of Canada. His basic opinion was that the Liberal Party and the Canadian media stereotyped and 'trashed and destroyed' The Reform Party as a 'right wing extremist, and religiously based Political Party. (Almost sounds like the Bush-led Republicans although I don't think Preston Manning was that far right wing. I am not sure. I still want to read his biography.) It might have been interesting to see where Preston Manning and The Reform Party might have taken Canada. Would it have been a better or worse place than we are today?
My father is now retired (and healthier than I am). He is also a very good Canadian, Romantic Poet. You can find his work on the 21st Century Romanticism blogsite of Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy.
I dedicate Hegel's Hotel to my dad -- when he said he liked the name 'Hegel's Hotel', I kept it -- Hegel's Hotel is dedicated to my dad's visionary idealism and to his community activism, to his many achievements in the business world, the community and political world, and to the romantic idealism in his Canadian poetry.
I will include below us here, a collection of twelve of my favorite poems of his...
Thank you, Dad, for all you have given me in terms of a tremendously intelligent, passionate, and caring role model to follow:
-- dgb, April 2nd-3rd, 2009.
............................................................................
'The Big Bang'
This is the anniversary
Of my world,
The big bang
When everything began.
The stars looked new
And wonderful,
My universe spun around you.
What began so simply,
Grew,
And so did I,
Like life itself.
How weak I was,
And you so strong to see,
Deep within my soul
And in your wisdom,
Set me free.
Of this our day,
We pause our climb,
And look around;
So high,
Yet still your feet
Stand anchored
There upon the ground.
I think my thoughts,
And go my way,
And dream of what might be.
You smile and soothe
My worried brow.
I look around, and see you,
Everywhere
In flowers that bloom,
And birds that sing,
In air I breathe,
In everything.
When I look back,
I see you there;
When I look forward,
You're also there.
My pal,
My friend,
My love,
My wife.
-- Gordon William Bain
......................................................................
For A Bag of Coal
The winds had blown snow over roads and the fence,
The days had passed slowly, the cold was intense.
A family sat huddled to preserve any heat,
The mother sat rubbing her children's small feet,
The father was working a job far away,
No help could he bring to the family that day.
The frost made cathedrals seem real on the panes,
Nothing was moving, not even the trains.
From the edge of the huddle, a boy slipped away,
Outside in the snowbanks he looked for his sleigh.
Scarcely nine the young boy heard a voice to him say,
"Go out and get coal. I will show you the way."
Across the deep banks he pulled his small sleigh,
Through wind driven snow, the boy found his way,
He rapped on the window of the one grocery store,
The owner came rushing and opened the door.
"Hello Mr. Barkley," said a voice in the coat,
"Its coal that I need sir, We're in a bit of a boat."
The kindly old man brought the boy in the store,
Put him close to the stove, his clothes on the floor.
"A fifty pound bag sir; can you make it a loan?
I'm in a hurry you see, I need to get home."
With a rope from the store the coal tied to the sleigh,
A wave and a thank you, and the boy was away.
"Well," said the man, his hair tinged with gray,
"I somehow got back with the coal on that day.
I knew from that moment, I could be my own man,
So long as my Lord kept hold of my hand."
I've come back from away where riches I've found,
In far away forests, and from rocks in the ground.
This was the house; it's here that I see,
The faces I long for to look back at me.
He smiled from his seat in the room he was born,
Looked at the stove that had once kept them warm.
"I've been my own person, strong in heart and in soul,
By remembering the day I went looking for coal."
-- Gordon Bain, October, 2008.
..........................................................................
The Orchestra Played A Love Song
When I was young, I dreamed my dream,
As I turned a handle that made the cream,
While feeding cows, and cackling hens,
Grunting pigs in smelly pens.
I dreamed of you, imagined your face,
The way you would walk with queenly grace.
While in the fields, wheat sheaves to stack.
Long flowing gowns, men dressed in black,
Of concert halls, with kings and queens,
Were all a part of my childhood dreams.
I grew. One unsuspecting day, I saw you,
Walking tall, elegant, and in my heart, I knew.
On my arm, you danced; softly, as a feather falls.
To my mind came visions of concert halls.
Cymbals crashed, the drum roll grew,
The percussionist stood, and it was you.
The maestro turned, baton in hand,
As though the score had all been planned,
The spotlight paused, then moved along,
The orchestra played a love song.
We walk now, where once we ran,
A pause to celebrate where it all began,
A pride in our children; their children too,
Lives we have shared while each of us grew.
The places we've been, the people we've known,
Our love for each other, and what it has grown.
We celebrate the past, but reach out to the new.
Listen my darling, can you hear it too?
The orchestra is playing
a love song for you.
-- gordon william bain, Thursday September 4th, 2008.
...................................................................................
A Stake Of Gold
I crouched in the door of The Last Drop Cafe,
When out of the freezing cold,
Came a man of strength, who took my arm,
And spoke of finding gold.
'Come', he said, 'Stand tall my friend.
Look north with eyes that see.
If it is only the past you live,
Then the future can never be.
You can die as quick on a southern beach,
As under a frozen tree.
It isn't the beach that warms the soul,
It's God's love for you and me.'
I looked in his face as he spoke my name,
I felt warmth instead of cold.
By looking at things in a different way,
I found my stake of gold.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
February, 2002.
.......................................................................
Growing Up With Dad
Father image of stories told,
Arms that would not give.
I was young, and he was old,
I wanted free to live.
No matter the place, nor what I did,
His shadow followed me.
To him, I would always be a kid.
He could not set me free.
Sadly then, I rang the bell
And we began to fight.
I slipped away from his magic spell
And into my silent night.
I didn't know that when we fought
It would all turn out so bad.
I know now that what I sought
Was to be just like dad.
GWB, Gordon William Bain
October, 2003.
.........................................................................
The Dog That Climbed The Tree
There is a story told
By young and old,
Of a dog that climbed a tree.
The old and wise,
With failing eyes,
Say that could never be.
But children smile,
And all the while,
Retell it as thought the truth,
It happened they say,
On a sunny day,
In a tree of ripening fruit.
Buddy barked long
At the birds of song,
And all that would steal the fruit.
Until a flash of red
From the forest bed
Shrilled like a piper's flute.
With the gauntlet down,
They crowded around,
Forest people wanted to see,
How Buddy would fare,
From up in the air,
If a dog can't climb a tree.
'Oh no,' said the badger,
And shook his head,
'Dogs can't climb,
Buddy will soon be dead!'
'Ah,' said the rabbit,
'If I were him,
I would run away,
At the slightest whim!'
'No,' said the fox,
'He must use his mind,
If ever an answer,
He's going to find.'
The squirrel leaped high,
In a move to fly
Past Buddy the mighty pup.
The threat was huge,
As the predator moved,
But the dog would not give up.
The wind had blown,
When the tree had grown,
In time it had learned to lean.
Buddy just glared,
His teeth were bared,
He ran with a mighty scream.
Buddy ran the slant,
Althought dogs just can't,
He was suddenly up the tree.
And there was his foe,
With nowhere to go,
Just as surprised as he could be.
People say,
That on that day,
The enemies made a deal.
For a total reprieve,
The squirrel could leave,
If he never again would steal.
The story here
Is one of mirth,
But the moral is there to see.
Face up to trouble,
And don't give up,
Because dogs can climb a tree.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
2002 or 2003? Precise date unknown
.....................................................................
An Ode to a Cook Stove
Pause gentle stranger, and stay a spell.
Imagine the story I have to tell.
You see my door, and note its name.
And wonder if it is one of fame.
The richness here is what I've baked,
And the happy people who sat and ate.
For I was a part of a hundred lives.
Ten thousand times,
I worked for them, and heard their sighs.
A life begins, another dies.
They are the people you now call old.
For them I strived to break the cold.
I cooked their meals
And warmed their night.
When all else failed,
I brought them light.
Pause gentle stranger and shed a tear,
For the forgotten memories buried here.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
February 2002.
.................................................................
Trains, Trails, and Creosote Stains
Long swaths cut through a forest green.
Railroad engines powered by steam.
But no rails now in wait for trains,
Charging through with wood and grains.
Occasional trestle, overgrown ties,
Creosote stains where memory dies.
For some who walk and remember when
Steam engines pounded the wood and glen.
Nostalgia comes, old eyes form tears
Happy memories of former years.
Beautiful island of reddened shale,
Now boasts long miles of nature trail.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
October 2003.
A Blade of Grass
I sat on a bench as the world rushed past.
Aware of the dew, and a blade of grass.
The warming sun had begun its climb.
The grass, the dew and a need for time.
From out of the morning, a sudden breeze.
Played hide and seek among the trees.
The grass blade trembled, the wind went slack.
Dewdrops were moving along its back.
Then down they went along the stem.
Where thirsty roots were awaiting them.
High in the sky the sun looked down.
Dewdrops now safely underground.
It stood there proudly in its cloak of green.
I was in awe of what I had seen.
How infinitely wonderous is nature's task.
The sun, the dewdrops, and a blade of grass.
GWB, Gordon Bain
October, 2002.
.........................................................................
Permission to Dream
White clouds in my window, a backdrop of blue.
The scent of red clover, the shimmer of dew.
I breathe deeply, and watch; purple finch are at play.
I'm in love with the picture. It's a beautiful day.
A far distant rumble, I turn with a start.
Blackness is tearing my picture apart.
Flashes of yellow cut through a dark sky.
Two forces move closer, so like you and I.
Rain begins falling, the threatening storm.
Now a canvas on which a new picture is born.
Beautiful rainbow of gold, red and green.
Symbol of hope, permission to dream.
Framed by my window, now etched in my mind.
Mother Nature the painter -- one of a kind.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
September, 2003.
............................................................................
Lure of The Spider
I walked in the morning, my feet wet with dew,
The gardens in splendour with things that they grew.
Respite from big business, its smiles made of paste,
No tolerance in nature for chameleon waste.
I smiled with thought, then stopped at a bed.
At my feet was a spider, she was building a web.
Three silken lines were first put into place,
Circular strands made a hammock in space.
Around and around went the weave and the wrap,
She crossed in the middle and finished the trap.
The sun glinted down, the wait then began,
To lure the unwary at the heart of her plan.
Breathtaking beauty, gentle wind and the sky,
From out of the bushes along came a fly.
It casually landed, then tried to move,
Advantage the spider, its victim would lose.
How close seem the life games of nature and man,
Was my thought as I turned, my briefcase in hand.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
November, 2003.
......................................................................
The Happy Waitress
"My life is quite ordinary, not exciting at all,"
Said the young waitress as we spoke in the hall.
"But surely," I asked, "that cannot be true,
The room comes alive when you do what you do.
Many times we have watched you without being seen,
At home with the rich, or with those in between.
An old man seems friendless, he comes in all alone,
Moves to "his" table, you welcome him home.
Two people sit down, one is ill and in pain,
Your smile is contagious, you call them by name.
We watch as you move, the room comes to life,
Love of job, like white linen under food, fork and knife.
But it is your love of people that sets you apart,
And makes you so special, I speak from the heart.
Each day touching lives, in what you say and you do,
Using gifts and a talent that comes to but few."
-- Gordon Bain, October, 03, 2008.
...................................................................................
My Valentine
There was this close encounter with death,
On the road through a trillion trees.
A frigid cold like none on earth,
The two of us in a place where all things freeze.
One moment was all it took to feel,
The crush of eighteen tires.
God's hand reached down and found us,
Among the metal, glass, and wires.
In New Brunswick, the wind and snow still blows.
From the mountains come frozen air.
Brave travellers pass the snow filled ditch,
No sign that we were there.
On this day when lovers proclaim in verse,
Their love to sweetheart or wife.
I raise a brandy and toast our love,
My darling, you saved my life.
You smile and love is there,
And here, inside my heart.
You are my soul, and so it is
From day to day, throughout my space and time,
You are my valentine.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
February, 2005.
.................................................................................
He has much to feel proud about. Son of a farmer, but with different ambitions to make it as a businessman in the city, my dad started out completely from scratch, and created a million dollar Canadian business which was at least partly a precursor to the internet.
My dad cut a niche in the Canadian -- and the worldwide -- market for 'teaching and advertising machines' that combined two parts of the business: the hardware; and the software. Sound familiar? To be sure, the technology was rather archaic compared to what we enjoy today, but still, the concept was there, and some of the more 'earthbound' parts of the technology were there before the technology exploded upwards and outwards into 'cyberspace'.
If you are old enough, you might remember the days when a teacher might turn out the lights in a classroom, turn on a Carousel slide projector and show slides that would project onto a screen that was pulled down over the wall.
Well, my dad's business went one step further than the Carousel slide projector and converted the slides into what looked like a VCR cartride before I believe there were VCRs. (I will have to check to see when VCR were invented and how long they were in business.) The cartridge was then inserted into one of my dad's teaching/advertising machines with both parts being sold to my dad's retail customers (much like a VCR and a VCR machine)and that was the essence of my dad's business. Sometimes the customer would have their own slides that could be converted; other times, my dad's business would either delve right into, and/or contract out part of the work, to complete the actual 'film-making' part of the business.
The two products -- the teaching/advertising machine (the hardware) and the slide cartridge (software) were 'married' together and sold to the retailer who wanted to either show 'advertising' to his or her customers (they used to be in hardware stores and the like) -- the predecessor of what you can now see in more sophisticated HD technicolour at gas station pumps as you are filling up your gas, or in washrooms as men and women are taking care of their personal business.
In the mid-1970s, while I was working at my dad's business during the summer between my different years at The University of Waterloo (1974-1979), it was not unusual to hear my dad talking about 'building an information highway'....to 'create a software library' of different 'generic' educational films such as 'learning French' or 'learning the metric system' or any of a thousand other educational and/or advertising possibilities (try 'millions' of exploding possibilities as we watch the internet unfold today and expand at an exponential rate faster than any of us -- or a thousand of us -- can come close to keeping up with).
At the height of his business, my dad was going on trade missions all over the world, building his business in England, doing his 'thing' in the boardroom of McMillan Publishers, England, if my memory serves me right, he was selected to go on a Canadian trade mission to Japan, he was on a trade mission to Brazil...he was constantly doing business with his main U.S. supplier... and I am sure there are many trade missions elsewhere I am forgetting.
On the community level, my dad as President of The Don Mills Baseball Association, in conjunction with Kiwanas, around the late 60s, early 70s, with the help of important people who were working with him, built the baseball side of Bond Park from the bottom up...putting in new diamonds, a food concession booth, baseball stands, baseball lights, and baseball fences...
Some of my fellow baseball team mates there went on to establish strong careers in sports or elsewhere...Mike Palmateer, goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs; Dan Hill, folksinger; Rob Bowman, one of my best friends at the time, now a professor in music history at York University. Rob introduced me to Bob Dylan and 'Highway 61, Revisted' -- 'Like A Rolling Stone', 'Ballad of A Thin Man', 'Desolation Row'... in my townhouse basement, as we played 'ping pong' together. And he introduced me to the 'roots of the blues' in our late teens as he was interviewing the blues masters for the rock magazine...'Beetle Magazine'...and together, on the second floor, overlooking the rail, we watched the fabulous shows of...Muddy Waters, 'Howlin' Wolf', John Lee Hooker, John Hammond, Buddy Guy...and more...
There were some great individual and team performances that came out of this time period. My brother threw a very rare 'no hitter' at The CNE 'Tyke' or 'Atom' Baseball Tournament one year. When I was in my late teens, I coached a 'tyke' or 'atom' allstar baseball team (kids that were a year younger than my brother) with my dad. With all due respect to everyone else who went through Bond Park, this was probably the most talented group of very young athletes that I have ever seen pass through Bond Park (and their were some very talented teams at older age levels with Mike Palmateer playing shortstop, pitching, and catching.) Most of tykes my dad and I coached that year (9, 10 and/or 11 year olds) were playing all star hockey during the winter for one of the most talented hockey teams in Toronto at that time -- The Don Valley Hockey Club. (With connections, they practised at Maple Leaf Gardens early Sunday mornings.)
Anyway, one of our baseball tournaments that year was in Brantford, Ontario. We ended up in the finals against the Brantford team. In the best pitching duel that I have seen at that age group, we lost a nail-biter in the finals, 1-0. Wayne Gretzky was pitching for Brantford.
In politics, my dad, during these years, was a political and community activist, involved with politicians and their campaigns at the municipal level of Don Mills, and Toronto, the provincial level, and the federal level. At different times, he has supported both Liberal and Conservative Politicians. My dad has always liked Stephen Harper. (I have usually had mixed feelings about him.) Perhaps my father's biggest disappointment was not seeing Preston Manning voted Prime Minister of Canada. His basic opinion was that the Liberal Party and the Canadian media stereotyped and 'trashed and destroyed' The Reform Party as a 'right wing extremist, and religiously based Political Party. (Almost sounds like the Bush-led Republicans although I don't think Preston Manning was that far right wing. I am not sure. I still want to read his biography.) It might have been interesting to see where Preston Manning and The Reform Party might have taken Canada. Would it have been a better or worse place than we are today?
My father is now retired (and healthier than I am). He is also a very good Canadian, Romantic Poet. You can find his work on the 21st Century Romanticism blogsite of Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy.
I dedicate Hegel's Hotel to my dad -- when he said he liked the name 'Hegel's Hotel', I kept it -- Hegel's Hotel is dedicated to my dad's visionary idealism and to his community activism, to his many achievements in the business world, the community and political world, and to the romantic idealism in his Canadian poetry.
I will include below us here, a collection of twelve of my favorite poems of his...
Thank you, Dad, for all you have given me in terms of a tremendously intelligent, passionate, and caring role model to follow:
-- dgb, April 2nd-3rd, 2009.
............................................................................
'The Big Bang'
This is the anniversary
Of my world,
The big bang
When everything began.
The stars looked new
And wonderful,
My universe spun around you.
What began so simply,
Grew,
And so did I,
Like life itself.
How weak I was,
And you so strong to see,
Deep within my soul
And in your wisdom,
Set me free.
Of this our day,
We pause our climb,
And look around;
So high,
Yet still your feet
Stand anchored
There upon the ground.
I think my thoughts,
And go my way,
And dream of what might be.
You smile and soothe
My worried brow.
I look around, and see you,
Everywhere
In flowers that bloom,
And birds that sing,
In air I breathe,
In everything.
When I look back,
I see you there;
When I look forward,
You're also there.
My pal,
My friend,
My love,
My wife.
-- Gordon William Bain
......................................................................
For A Bag of Coal
The winds had blown snow over roads and the fence,
The days had passed slowly, the cold was intense.
A family sat huddled to preserve any heat,
The mother sat rubbing her children's small feet,
The father was working a job far away,
No help could he bring to the family that day.
The frost made cathedrals seem real on the panes,
Nothing was moving, not even the trains.
From the edge of the huddle, a boy slipped away,
Outside in the snowbanks he looked for his sleigh.
Scarcely nine the young boy heard a voice to him say,
"Go out and get coal. I will show you the way."
Across the deep banks he pulled his small sleigh,
Through wind driven snow, the boy found his way,
He rapped on the window of the one grocery store,
The owner came rushing and opened the door.
"Hello Mr. Barkley," said a voice in the coat,
"Its coal that I need sir, We're in a bit of a boat."
The kindly old man brought the boy in the store,
Put him close to the stove, his clothes on the floor.
"A fifty pound bag sir; can you make it a loan?
I'm in a hurry you see, I need to get home."
With a rope from the store the coal tied to the sleigh,
A wave and a thank you, and the boy was away.
"Well," said the man, his hair tinged with gray,
"I somehow got back with the coal on that day.
I knew from that moment, I could be my own man,
So long as my Lord kept hold of my hand."
I've come back from away where riches I've found,
In far away forests, and from rocks in the ground.
This was the house; it's here that I see,
The faces I long for to look back at me.
He smiled from his seat in the room he was born,
Looked at the stove that had once kept them warm.
"I've been my own person, strong in heart and in soul,
By remembering the day I went looking for coal."
-- Gordon Bain, October, 2008.
..........................................................................
The Orchestra Played A Love Song
When I was young, I dreamed my dream,
As I turned a handle that made the cream,
While feeding cows, and cackling hens,
Grunting pigs in smelly pens.
I dreamed of you, imagined your face,
The way you would walk with queenly grace.
While in the fields, wheat sheaves to stack.
Long flowing gowns, men dressed in black,
Of concert halls, with kings and queens,
Were all a part of my childhood dreams.
I grew. One unsuspecting day, I saw you,
Walking tall, elegant, and in my heart, I knew.
On my arm, you danced; softly, as a feather falls.
To my mind came visions of concert halls.
Cymbals crashed, the drum roll grew,
The percussionist stood, and it was you.
The maestro turned, baton in hand,
As though the score had all been planned,
The spotlight paused, then moved along,
The orchestra played a love song.
We walk now, where once we ran,
A pause to celebrate where it all began,
A pride in our children; their children too,
Lives we have shared while each of us grew.
The places we've been, the people we've known,
Our love for each other, and what it has grown.
We celebrate the past, but reach out to the new.
Listen my darling, can you hear it too?
The orchestra is playing
a love song for you.
-- gordon william bain, Thursday September 4th, 2008.
...................................................................................
A Stake Of Gold
I crouched in the door of The Last Drop Cafe,
When out of the freezing cold,
Came a man of strength, who took my arm,
And spoke of finding gold.
'Come', he said, 'Stand tall my friend.
Look north with eyes that see.
If it is only the past you live,
Then the future can never be.
You can die as quick on a southern beach,
As under a frozen tree.
It isn't the beach that warms the soul,
It's God's love for you and me.'
I looked in his face as he spoke my name,
I felt warmth instead of cold.
By looking at things in a different way,
I found my stake of gold.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
February, 2002.
.......................................................................
Growing Up With Dad
Father image of stories told,
Arms that would not give.
I was young, and he was old,
I wanted free to live.
No matter the place, nor what I did,
His shadow followed me.
To him, I would always be a kid.
He could not set me free.
Sadly then, I rang the bell
And we began to fight.
I slipped away from his magic spell
And into my silent night.
I didn't know that when we fought
It would all turn out so bad.
I know now that what I sought
Was to be just like dad.
GWB, Gordon William Bain
October, 2003.
.........................................................................
The Dog That Climbed The Tree
There is a story told
By young and old,
Of a dog that climbed a tree.
The old and wise,
With failing eyes,
Say that could never be.
But children smile,
And all the while,
Retell it as thought the truth,
It happened they say,
On a sunny day,
In a tree of ripening fruit.
Buddy barked long
At the birds of song,
And all that would steal the fruit.
Until a flash of red
From the forest bed
Shrilled like a piper's flute.
With the gauntlet down,
They crowded around,
Forest people wanted to see,
How Buddy would fare,
From up in the air,
If a dog can't climb a tree.
'Oh no,' said the badger,
And shook his head,
'Dogs can't climb,
Buddy will soon be dead!'
'Ah,' said the rabbit,
'If I were him,
I would run away,
At the slightest whim!'
'No,' said the fox,
'He must use his mind,
If ever an answer,
He's going to find.'
The squirrel leaped high,
In a move to fly
Past Buddy the mighty pup.
The threat was huge,
As the predator moved,
But the dog would not give up.
The wind had blown,
When the tree had grown,
In time it had learned to lean.
Buddy just glared,
His teeth were bared,
He ran with a mighty scream.
Buddy ran the slant,
Althought dogs just can't,
He was suddenly up the tree.
And there was his foe,
With nowhere to go,
Just as surprised as he could be.
People say,
That on that day,
The enemies made a deal.
For a total reprieve,
The squirrel could leave,
If he never again would steal.
The story here
Is one of mirth,
But the moral is there to see.
Face up to trouble,
And don't give up,
Because dogs can climb a tree.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
2002 or 2003? Precise date unknown
.....................................................................
An Ode to a Cook Stove
Pause gentle stranger, and stay a spell.
Imagine the story I have to tell.
You see my door, and note its name.
And wonder if it is one of fame.
The richness here is what I've baked,
And the happy people who sat and ate.
For I was a part of a hundred lives.
Ten thousand times,
I worked for them, and heard their sighs.
A life begins, another dies.
They are the people you now call old.
For them I strived to break the cold.
I cooked their meals
And warmed their night.
When all else failed,
I brought them light.
Pause gentle stranger and shed a tear,
For the forgotten memories buried here.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
February 2002.
.................................................................
Trains, Trails, and Creosote Stains
Long swaths cut through a forest green.
Railroad engines powered by steam.
But no rails now in wait for trains,
Charging through with wood and grains.
Occasional trestle, overgrown ties,
Creosote stains where memory dies.
For some who walk and remember when
Steam engines pounded the wood and glen.
Nostalgia comes, old eyes form tears
Happy memories of former years.
Beautiful island of reddened shale,
Now boasts long miles of nature trail.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
October 2003.
A Blade of Grass
I sat on a bench as the world rushed past.
Aware of the dew, and a blade of grass.
The warming sun had begun its climb.
The grass, the dew and a need for time.
From out of the morning, a sudden breeze.
Played hide and seek among the trees.
The grass blade trembled, the wind went slack.
Dewdrops were moving along its back.
Then down they went along the stem.
Where thirsty roots were awaiting them.
High in the sky the sun looked down.
Dewdrops now safely underground.
It stood there proudly in its cloak of green.
I was in awe of what I had seen.
How infinitely wonderous is nature's task.
The sun, the dewdrops, and a blade of grass.
GWB, Gordon Bain
October, 2002.
.........................................................................
Permission to Dream
White clouds in my window, a backdrop of blue.
The scent of red clover, the shimmer of dew.
I breathe deeply, and watch; purple finch are at play.
I'm in love with the picture. It's a beautiful day.
A far distant rumble, I turn with a start.
Blackness is tearing my picture apart.
Flashes of yellow cut through a dark sky.
Two forces move closer, so like you and I.
Rain begins falling, the threatening storm.
Now a canvas on which a new picture is born.
Beautiful rainbow of gold, red and green.
Symbol of hope, permission to dream.
Framed by my window, now etched in my mind.
Mother Nature the painter -- one of a kind.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
September, 2003.
............................................................................
Lure of The Spider
I walked in the morning, my feet wet with dew,
The gardens in splendour with things that they grew.
Respite from big business, its smiles made of paste,
No tolerance in nature for chameleon waste.
I smiled with thought, then stopped at a bed.
At my feet was a spider, she was building a web.
Three silken lines were first put into place,
Circular strands made a hammock in space.
Around and around went the weave and the wrap,
She crossed in the middle and finished the trap.
The sun glinted down, the wait then began,
To lure the unwary at the heart of her plan.
Breathtaking beauty, gentle wind and the sky,
From out of the bushes along came a fly.
It casually landed, then tried to move,
Advantage the spider, its victim would lose.
How close seem the life games of nature and man,
Was my thought as I turned, my briefcase in hand.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
November, 2003.
......................................................................
The Happy Waitress
"My life is quite ordinary, not exciting at all,"
Said the young waitress as we spoke in the hall.
"But surely," I asked, "that cannot be true,
The room comes alive when you do what you do.
Many times we have watched you without being seen,
At home with the rich, or with those in between.
An old man seems friendless, he comes in all alone,
Moves to "his" table, you welcome him home.
Two people sit down, one is ill and in pain,
Your smile is contagious, you call them by name.
We watch as you move, the room comes to life,
Love of job, like white linen under food, fork and knife.
But it is your love of people that sets you apart,
And makes you so special, I speak from the heart.
Each day touching lives, in what you say and you do,
Using gifts and a talent that comes to but few."
-- Gordon Bain, October, 03, 2008.
...................................................................................
My Valentine
There was this close encounter with death,
On the road through a trillion trees.
A frigid cold like none on earth,
The two of us in a place where all things freeze.
One moment was all it took to feel,
The crush of eighteen tires.
God's hand reached down and found us,
Among the metal, glass, and wires.
In New Brunswick, the wind and snow still blows.
From the mountains come frozen air.
Brave travellers pass the snow filled ditch,
No sign that we were there.
On this day when lovers proclaim in verse,
Their love to sweetheart or wife.
I raise a brandy and toast our love,
My darling, you saved my life.
You smile and love is there,
And here, inside my heart.
You are my soul, and so it is
From day to day, throughout my space and time,
You are my valentine.
GWB, Gordon William Bain,
February, 2005.
.................................................................................
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
DGB Philosophy Traces the Roots of Western and Eastern Dialectic Philosophy To Their Tiangulation in German Idealism (Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Marx)
In previous essays I have criticized Nietzsche for separating from Hegel's 'Dualistic-Dialectic Philosophy' after Nietzsche's creatively brilliant first book -- 'The Birth of Tragedy (BT)' -- took 'Hegelian Dialectic Thinking' to a higher evolutionary plateau, combining Hegel's dialectic philosophy with the human drama, passion, and the beginning of 'dialectic-humanistic-existentialism' which Nietzsche traced back to the pre-Socratic writings of Homer, Greek theatre, and other ancient renditions of Greek Tragedy -- brought up to date and 'dialectically analyzed' by Nietzsche.
The ripeness of Nietzsche's combined 'old and new philosophical fruit' -- the product of a cross fertilization of early Greek dualistic-dialectic philosophy (Apollo vs. Dionysus) and later Hegelian dualistic-dialectic thinking (thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis) was so 'nutritional' that the 'intellectual and humanistic-existential value' of this cross-fertilized fruit is still exploding off the BT fruit tree some 200 years later, first through the work of Freud and Jung in the early 1900s, then in the therapeutic work of Perls and Gestalt Therapy, and Berne and Transactional Analysis in the 1960s and onward, and finally, right up into the 21st century through the work of DGB Philosophy-Psychology-Politics-Religion-Science-Medicine...which is still evolving in 2009.
Indeed, it is partly too bad that Nietzsche ventured away from BT or he could have almost 'created' Psychoanalysis himself. Indeed, in this one little book -- BT -- Nietzsche almost did create Psychoanalysis. The details just needed to be filled out a bit more through Freud and Jung in their clinical and theoretical work to soon come...BT, in my opinion, remains a much overlooked piece of work in terms of its mega-influence on Freud, Jung, and eventually Perls and Gestalt Therapy. BT was the 'integrative bridge' between Greek Tragedy, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Freud.
But what happened is what happened -- a matter of Nietzsche's own personal and philosophical evolutionary development -- and Nietzsche had other 'fruits he wanted to grow off of other philosophical trees...'.
Nietsche's later 'Will to Power' Theory, his 'Cliff, Abyss, and Tightrope' Theory relative to 'Being and Becoming', and his 'Superman' Theory would do much to lay the groundwork for Heidegger, Sartre, and 20th Century Humanistic-Existentialism.
In this regard, Hegel once again led the way in the evolution of 19th and 20th century Humanistic-Existentialism with his theories of 'The Master-Slave Relationship' and 'Alienation' (to be jumped on by Marx) and then Kierkegaard in his rebellion against 'Hegel's 'Absolute' Abstactionism and Universalism' with his own counter-philosophy of 'Existential Concretism' (albeit Kierkegaard could and did write very abstractly as well).
Schopenhauer, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche all had a hugely important impact on the growth of 19th, 20th, and even 21st century philosophy -- and all of their ideas sprang from arguably the most important philosophical work in Western history -- Hegel's 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' (1807). Even Darwin's later 19th century work in biology and evolutionary theory can be seen -- directly or indirectly -- to have a Hegelian foundation.
And if we really want to fully understand that Hegel's dualistic-dialectic philosophy did not just 'spring out of nowhere', then we must give proper credit to the previous German Idealistic philosophical work of all three of Kant, Fichte, and Schelling -- and furthermore, we need to go right back to the very philosophical roots that Nietzsche did -- back to the roots of Greek -- and all -- mythology, back to the mythological 'dualism' of 'Apollo' vs. 'Dionysus', back to the second oldest philosopher in Western history -- Anaxamander -- and his patriarchal 'power and conquest dialectic theory'; and also back to Anaxamander's indirect student -- Heraclitus -- and the latter's more 'matriarchal philosophy' -- a philosophy of 'opposite things, opposite processes, opposite ideas all coming together 'for the good of the whole dialectic-democratic harmony'.
However, perhaps the most important 'dialectic connection' to be made in the history of dialectic philosophy is the one I am just about to make now. I have been searching on the internet for an answer to a question that needed to take me into the deepest depths of Chinese philosophy -- or at least as deep as anyone else on the internet could take me.
The question that I started asking myself about 2006-2007 in one of my first introductory essays in Hegel's Hotel ran something like this:
Where did the Chinese philosophical concepts and symbols of 'yin' and 'yang' originate from?
I had the symbols traced back to 'The Han Philosophers' -- a group of very important Chinese philosophers who were trying to 'integrate China' back in The Han Dynasty' by 'integrating a number of different important philosophies and philosophers' who had greatly influenced the evolution of China -- before and until 'The Ch'in Dynasty, a totalitarian Chinese government that existed from 221-207BC -- did much to start tearing the philosophical foundations, and the spirit, of the Chinese people apart through their totalitarian, anti-humanistic, anti-democratic measures.
Even this following piece from the internet on 'The Han Synthesis' I am reading this morning for the first time. Sometimes -- like now -- I shake my head to realize that not only is my own philosophical work constantly evolving, but so too is the work of other philosophers and writers on the internet, and information that was just not available to me two or three years ago is clearly available now. These following two pieces greatly help the evolution of my own work in Hegel's Hotel here:
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From the internet....
Ancient China: The Han Synthesis
After the disastrous period of totalitarian government during the Ch'in dynasty (221-207 B. C.), the early Han dynasty (207 B.C.-9 A.D.) returned to older forms of imperial government. However, they adopted from the Ch'in the idea of an absolutely central government and spent most of their period in power trying to regain the same level of centrality that the Ch'in and the Legalists had so ruthlessly accomplished. This ideology of central government, along with the Legalists' attempts to standardize Chinese culture and Chinese philosophy, led thinkers of the Han to attempt to unify all the rival schools of Chinese thought and philosophy that had developed over the previous three hundred years. This unification of Chinese into a single coherent system is the most lasting legacy of the Han dynasty. Earlier, the Legalists attempted to standardize Chinese thought by burning the books of rival schools and by making it a capital crime to speak of Confucius, Lao Tzu, or Mo Tzu. The Han thinkers, who thoroughly despised the Legalists and their methods while adopting many of their goals, took a different approach. Rather than reject alternate ways of thinking, they took a syncretic approach and attempted to fuse all the rival schools of thought into a single system. This syncretic project of the early Han is known as the Han synthesis. In many ways it was similar to the larger project of unifying Chinese government.
Chinese Philosophy
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Confucius
Legalism
Mo Tzu
Taoism
The Han philosophers concentrated specifically on the Five Classics, attempting to derive from them, particularly the I ching , or Book of Changes, the principle of the workings of the universe, or Tao. This new theory of the universe they appended to the I ching ; this appendix explains the metaphysical workings of the entire universe. Once the overall workings of the unverse were understood, then every form of thought could be directly related to each other by appealing to the basic principles of the universe.
Chinese Philosophy
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Pre-Confucian China and the Five Classics
The essentials of the Han synthesis are as follows: the universe is run by a single principle, the Tao, or Great Ultimate. This principle is divided into two opposite principles, or two principles which oppose one another in their actions, yin and yang. All the opposites one perceives in the universe can be reduced to one of the opposite forces. In general, these forces are distinguished by their role in producing creation and producing degeneration: yang is the force of creation and yin the force of completion and degeneration. The yin and yang are further differentiated into five material agents, or wu hsing , which both produce one another and overcome one another. All change in the universe can be explained by the workings of yin and yang and the progress of the five material agents as they either produce one another or overcome one another. This is a universal explanatory principle. All phenomena can be understood using yin-yang and the five agents: the movements of the stars, the workings of the body, the nature of foods, the qualities of music, the ethical qualities of humans, the progress of time, the operations of government, and even the nature of historical change. All things follow this order so that all things can be related to one another in some way: one can use the stars to determine what kind of policy to pursue in government, for instance.
Chinese Philosophy
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Wu-hsing
Yin/Yang
Since the Han thinkers had come up with a tool to explain historical and political events, the writing of history took off exponentially during the early Han and later. History became more than a repository of good and bad examples of government, as it had for the ancient Chinese, it became the working out of the yin-yang or five agents system as it applied to human affairs. This meant that the writing of history demanded accuracy, that the facts be laid out with great precision and indifference so that the workings of yin-yang could be followed precisely. The Han, then, developed a rigorously factual approach to history at a very early time in Chinese history. In government, the Han thinkers essentially adopted the Legalist attitude that human beings fundamentally behave badly, but they changed the doctrine significantly. The Han thinkers believed that people behaved in a depraved way because they had no choice; economic and social conditions forced them to behave badly. For at heart, all human beings desire only material well-being; in order to make people behave virtuously, the government should make it possible that the ends of virtue (the well-being of others) and the pursuit of individual well-being should be coterminous, that is, material benefits should accrue to virtuous acts (that's one-half of the Legalist formula). The emperor would bring this about through two means. First, the emperor and the government is responsible for setting up conditions in which people can derive material benefit from productive labor; the stress on productivity, of course, is derived from the Legalists and Mo Tzu. Second, the emperor can provide an example. It is the job of the emperor to care for the welfare of his people (Confucianism), yet at the same time, the Emperor should withdraw from active rule (Taoism). How did the Emperor rule then? By providing a living example of benevolence. This model of Chinese government would remain dominant well into the twentieth century.
Chinese Philosophy
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Mo Tzu
China Glossary
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DGB Philosophy...cont'd...
So the final name that I have been looking for in the past two or three years turns out to be not who I thought it was afterall -- Confucious -- but rather a man of equally or even greater real or perhaps mythological importance: Lao Tse, one of the chief philosophical architects of Taoism or Daoism.
Let's read a bit about Lao Tse -- again, information that was not available to me on the internet about 2 or 3 years ago (or at least I couldn't find the complete 'answer to the puzzle' I was looking for back then. It's not that the information wasn't out there -- somewhere. After all, there are millions and millions of 'Taoists' out there who were practicing this philosophy thousands of years ago, with ancestors who are still studying and practicing it now.
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From the internet...yin and yang...Taoism (Daoism)...Lao Tse....
Taoism (a.k.a. Daoism)
Western traditions
The Taoist Ying Yang symbol:
Quotations:
"Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river." Lao Tse.
"Without going out of your door, You can know the ways of the world. Without peeping through your window, you can see the Way of Heaven. The farther you go, The less you know. Thus, the Sage knows without traveling, Sees without looking, And achieves without struggle." Lao Tse.
"Different Chinese philosophers, writing probably in 5-4 centuries B.C., presented some major ideas and a way of life that are nowadays known under the name of Taoism, the way of correspondence between man and the tendency or the course of natural world." Alan Watts, from his book: "Tao: The Watercourse Way."
"We believe in the formless and eternal Tao, and we recognize all personified deities as being mere human constructs. We reject hatred, intolerance, and unnecessary violence, and embrace harmony, love and learning, as we are taught by Nature. We place our trust and our lives in the Tao, that we may live in peace and balance with the Universe, both in this mortal life and beyond." Creed of the Reform Taoist Congregation 1
"For more than two thousand years, Daoism has evolved in close interaction with the other major traditions of China--Confucianism, Buddhism, ethnic creeds, and popular religion--and adapted many of their features. To the present day, Daoism consists of a multiplicity of beliefs and practices, and continues to develop, as it has for the past millennia, through the interaction between differentiation and integration--the move to change in accordance with political, cultural, and economic developments versus the urge to create stability through belief systems, lineage lines, rituals, and myths." From the Amazon.com review of the book "Daoist Identity: History, lineage and ritual.
History of Taoism:
Tao (pronounced "Dow") can be roughly translated into English as path, or the way. It is basically indefinable. It has to be experienced. It "refers to a power which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)" 2
The founder of Taoism is believed by many to be Lao-Tse (604-531 BCE), a contemporary of Confucius. (Alternative spellings: Lao Tze, Lao Tsu, Lao Tzu, Laozi, Laotze, etc.). He was searching for a way that would avoid the constant feudal warfare and other conflicts that disrupted society during his lifetime. The result was his book: Tao-te-Ching (a.k.a. Daodejing). Others believe that he is a mythical character.
Taoism started as a combination of psychology and philosophy but evolved into a religious faith in 440 CE when it was adopted as a state religion. At that time Lao-Tse became popularly venerated as a deity. Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, became one of the three great religions of China. With the end of the Ch'ing Dynasty in 1911, state support for Taoism ended. Much of the Taoist heritage was destroyed during the next period of warlordism. After the Communist victory in 1949, religious freedom was severely restricted. "The new government put monks to manual labor, confiscated temples, and plundered treasures. Several million monks were reduced to fewer than 50,000" by 1960. 3 During the cultural revolution in China from 1966 to 1976, much of the remaining Taoist heritage was destroyed. Some religious tolerance has been restored under Deng Xiao-ping from 1982 to the present time.
Taoism currently has about 20 million followers, and is primarily centered in Taiwan. About 30,000 Taoists live in North America; 1,720 in Canada (1991 census). Taoism has had a significant impact on North American culture in areas of "acupuncture, herbalism, holistic medicine, meditation and martial arts..." 3
Taoist concepts, beliefs and practices:
Tao is the first-cause of the universe. It is a force that flows through all life.
"The Tao surrounds everyone and therefore everyone must listen to find enlightenment." 4
Each believer's goal is to harmonize themselves with the Tao.
Taoism has provided an alternative to the Confucian tradition in China. The two traditions have coexisted in the country, region, and generally within the same individual.
The priesthood views the many gods as manifestations of the one Dao, "which could not be represented as an image or a particular thing." The concept of a personified deity is foreign to them, as is the concept of the creation of the universe. Thus, they do not pray as Christians do; there is no God to hear the prayers or to act upon them. They seek answers to life's problems through inner meditation and outer observation.
In contrast with the beliefs and practices of the priesthood, most of the laity have "believed that spirits pervaded nature...The gods in heaven acted like and were treated like the officials in the world of men; worshipping the gods was a kind of rehearsal of attitudes toward secular authorities. On the other hand, the demons and ghosts of hell acted like and were treated like the bullies, outlaws, and threatening strangers in the real world; they were bribed by the people and were ritually arrested by the martial forces of the spirit officials." 3
Time is cyclical, not linear as in Western thinking.
Taoists strongly promote health and vitality.
Five main organs and orifices of the body correspond to the five parts of the sky: water, fire, wood, metal and earth.
Each person must nurture the Ch'i (air, breath) that has been given to them.
Development of virtue is one's chief task. The Three Jewels to be sought are compassion, moderation and humility.
Taoists follow the art of "wu wei," which is to let nature take its course. For example, one should allow a river to flow towards the sea unimpeded; do not erect a dam which would interfere with its natural flow.
One should plan in advance and consider carefully each action before making it.
A Taoists is kind to other individuals, in part because such an action tends to be reciprocated.
Taoists believe that "people are compassionate by nature...left to their own devices [they] will show this compassion without expecting a reward." 5
The Yin Yang symbol:
This is a well known Taoist symbol. "It represents the balance of opposites in the universe. When they are equally present, all is calm. When one is outweighed by the other, there is confusion and disarray." 4 One source explains that it was derived from astronomical observations which recorded the shadow of the sun throughout a full year. 5 The two swirling shapes inside the symbol give the impression of change -- the only constant factor in the universe. One tradition states that Yin (or Ying; the dark side) represents the breath that formed the earth. Yang (the light side) symbolizes the breath that formed the heavens.
One source states: "The most traditional view is that 'yin' represents aspects of the feminine: being soft, cool, calm, introspective, and healing... and "yang" the masculine: being hard, hot, energetic, moving, and sometimes aggressive. Another view has the 'yin' representing night and 'yang' day. 5
Another source offers a different definition: A common misconception in the west is that "...yin is soft and passive and yang is hard and energetic. Really it is yang that is soft and yin that is hard, this is because yang is energetic and yin is passive. Yin is like a rock and yang is like water or air, rock is heavy and hard and air is soft and energetic." 8
Allan Watts, describes the yin and yang as negative and positive energy poles: "The ideograms indicate the sunny and shady sides of a hill....They are associated with the masculine and the feminine, the firm and the yielding, the strong and the weak, the light and the dark, the rising and the falling, heaven and earth, and they are even recognized in such everyday matters as cooking as the spicy and the bland." 9,10
However, since nothing in nature is purely black or purely white, the symbol includes a small black spot in the white swirl, and a corresponding white spot in the black swirl.
Ultimately, the 'yin' and 'yang' can symbolize any two polarized forces in nature. Taosts believe that humans often intervene in nature and upset the balance of Yin and Yang.
About the name: Taoism or Daoism:
There are two commonly used systems for translating the Mandarin Chinese language into Roman letters:
Wade-Giles: This system is commonly used in Taiwan and the U.S. The Chinese character for "Way" becomes "Tao," which leads to the English word "Taoism."
Hanyu pinyin or Pinyin: This system was developed by the Chinese people and is now finding increased use worldwide. The "Way" becomes "Dao," which leads to the English word "Daoism." The "Dao" is pronounced like the "Dow" in "Dow-Jones Index."
We have chosen to emphasize the "Taoism" spelling. A Google search for "Taoism" returned 245,000 hits, whereas a search for "Daoism" returned only 35,000.
Tai Chi:
There is a long history of involvement by Taoists in various exercise and movement techniques. 6 Tai chi in particular works on all parts of the body. It "stimulates the central nervous system, lowers blood pressure, relieves stress and gently tones muscles without strain. It also enhances digestion, elimination of wastes and the circulation of blood. Moreover, tai chi's rhythmic movements massage the internal organs and improve their functionality." Traditional Chinese medicine teaches that illness is caused by blockages or lack of balance in the body's "chi" (intrinsic energy). Tai Chi is believed to balance this energy flow.
Taoist Texts:
These include:
Tao-te-Ching ("The Way of Power," or "The Book of the Way") is believed to have been written by Lao-Tse. It describes the nature of life, the way to peace and how a ruler should lead his life.
Chuang-tzu (named after its author) contains additional teachings.
Taoist web sites:
Taoist course, books and objects: Lao Tzu and Taoism Revealed: A 40-day course delivered by email. You may learn more about the life and philosophy of Lao Tzu, including the study of Tao Te Ching, and concepts like tao, wu-wei, wu, and more. Register here. More information
The LaoZi Academy in Sydney, Australia, teaches "... the fundamentals and secrets of ancient Daoist life. The Academy delivers clear and concise principles and practice methods used by ancient Daoist masters in the pursuit of health, happiness and longevity many thousands of years ago." See: http://www.laoziacademy.com/
MoreLight.net publishes a number of books from the Taoist canon, including The Primordial Breath, Volumes 1 & 2, and Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams). See: http://morelight.net/
Mr. Sage's Philosophical Taoist Homepage's intent is to give a more scientific, astro-physics, philosophical, as well as traditional esoteric view on Taoism. See: http://members.aol.com/
Sacred Mountain Press publishes Taoist works. Their "... goal is to make interesting, beautiful, and reliable Taoist information as accessible to the general public as that of any other major religious or spiritual tradition." See: http://www.smpress.com
"Tao Resource" is a web site that imports authentic Taoist products to help people improve their "personal or sacred space, to build a small Taoist shrine or even to construct a large Taoist temple." This site is well worth perusing. It has sections showing altar tables, bells & chimes, jewelry, statuary, personal altars, etc. See http://www.taoresource.com/
Tai Chi: "Is Tai Chi the Ultimate Exercise?," an essay on Tai Chi at:
http://www.utah.edu/
"The International Taoist Tai Chi Society" � is the largest non-profit Tai Chi group in the world. See: http://www.taoist.org
Taoist message board, discussion forum, etc: The "real Tao" message board is a "brand new Taoist Forum" at: http://pub18.ezboard.com/
A Taoist discussion forum named in the spirit of Jack Keroac and the Dharma Bums, is at http://www.TheTaoBums.com It is a "Friendly, active, nonsectarian discussion forum for Taoism, qigong, tai chi, yoga, meditation and much more!"
Taoist web sites: The Center TaoTaoist Thought and Fellowship in Santa Cruz, CA provides monthly meetings and an extensive forum. See: http://www.centertao.org/
Daoist Arts contains essays on Daoist History, Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan), Qigong and other Taoist matters. They have a free newsletter. See: http://www.daoistarts.org/
Bill Mason's Taoism Page is at: http://www.taoism.net This web site emphasizes the practical application of the Tao to everyday life.
Maury Merkin, "Daoism in brief," is at: http://www.his.com/ This website offers a brief introduction to Taoism and a glossary of terms.
This website is dedicated to Purist Taoism in the tradition and wisdom of Lao-Tzu.
Jeff Rasmussen's Tao Te Ching web site features an illustrated Tao Te Ching, an introduction to Taoism, and links. See: http://www.symynet.com/
Reform Taoism has an excellent web site which publishes their creed and beliefs on dozens of important topics. See: http://www.reformtaoism.org
" The Taoist Canon: A guide to studies and reference works" at: http://weber.ucsd.edu/
The "Taoism Depot" contains a Taoism discussion forum, live chat and a wide range of resources. See: http://www.edepot.com/
The "Taoism Information Page" is at: http://www.religiousworlds.com/
The "Taoism Depot" contains a Taoism discussion forum, live chat and a wide range of resources. See: http://www.edepot.com/
The Taoism Initiation Page has a great deal of information about Taoism and a Taoism course that leads to initiation. is at: http://www.taopage.org
The Taoist Restoration Society (TRS) is "a U.S. nonprofit corporation dedicated to the rehabilitation and rebirth of China's Taoist tradition." See: http://www.taorestore.org/ Offline as of 2007-AUG-29
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Now -- to use a Freudian metaphor -- 'We have reached the source of The Nile.' (And it is not 'The Oedipal Complex'.)
As of this moment -- Hegel's Hotel -- in its most basic and firmly entrenched structure is in place, solidly grounded with its foundations solidly based in pre-Socratic Greek Philosophy (Anaxamander and Heraclitus) and, at the same time, ancient Chinese Daoist Philosophy (Lao Tse, 'yin' and 'yang' Eastern Dialectic Philosophy).
So the question remains how best to represent the rest of the structure of Hegel's Hotel.
Let us say that the combination of Plato and Aristotle (Plato's 'rational idealism' vs. Aristotle's 'empirical realism') holds up the next segment of Hegel's Hotel.
Now at this point in time, we have not discussed in any significant detail any or many aspects of Roman (Skepticism, Stoicism, Cynicism, Epicureanism...) or Scholastic Philosophy (Aquinas, St. Augustine, Ockham's Razor...) or Early Scientific (Galileo, Copernicus, Sir Francis Bacon) so I will simply say that we need to do significant work at a later point in time in these time periods of Western Philosophy.
We haven't discussed Descartes 'subjective rationalism' to any significant degree. Later to come.
Spinoza holds a special spot in the evolution and structure of Hegel's Hotel. Although Spinoza was a 'mono-theorist' meaning that he believed in the principle of 'wholism' and 'unity' which partly contradicts Hegelian dualistic and dialectic philosophy, still Schelling probably represents the best 'synthesis' between Spinoza and Hegel with Schelling's romantic idea of 'dialectic unity and wholism'. In this regard, both Spinoza and Schelling remain important philosophers in Hegel's Hotel, and in DGB Philosophy's version of 'Multi-Dialectic-Democratic (Multi-Cultural) Evolution, Wholism, Unity and Spiritual Pantheism'.
Then there are the 'Rational-Empiricists' and the 'Enlightenment Political-Economic Philosophers: Epictetus, Bacon, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Adam Smith, Diderot, Voltaire, Montesque, Tom Paine, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, let's even include Lincoln...and right up to Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Korzybski, S.I. Hawakawa, Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis, Ayn Rand...
Then there are the Romantic Philosophers and the German Idealists who probably represent the central focus of Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy. These include: Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, and Marx (although Marx requires his Scottish 'polar-brother' -- Adam Smith -- to work through the Capitalist-Socialist Democratic-Dialectic to its best evolutionary potential).
Then there is Darwin who needs to be integrated with Hegel, Schelling, Spinoza, Anaxamander, Heraclitus, Einstein...in DGB fashion...to make up a 21st century rendition of post-Hegelian, post-Darwinian Evolution Theory.
Then there are the 'Competitive Narcissistic-Power Philosophers' who more or less follow the path started by Anaxamander who need to be properly respected and taken into account for their work: Hobbes, Machiavelli, Schopenhauer...
Then there are the post-Hegelian 'Humanistic-Existentialists': Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Erich Fromm...who hold up another important part of Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy.
Then there are the 'dialectic' clinical psychologists: Freud, Adler, Jung, Reich, Ferenczi, Fairbairn, Kohut, Berne, Perls
And finally, there are 'The Post-Modernists and Power-Deconstructionists' which I will go back through all of Western History to include in this group: Socrates, Hume, Voltaire, Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida...
No, let us mention one more contemporary 'natural philosopher' in the Spinozian-Schelling-Einstein' mold: David Suzuki.
I've missed out on a number of different layers of Western Philosophical History including: Utilitarianism, Pragmatism, Structuralism...
These we may or may not attend to in the distant future...
Without as much overlap, let us count up the different 'levels' of Hegel's Hotel that we are working on here:
1. Anaxamander, Heraclitus, Lao Tse (Daoism, yin/yang);
2. Plato and Aristotle
3. Roman Philosophy (Skepticism, Stoicism, Cynicism, Epirureanism...)
4. Scholastic Philosophy (Aquinas, St. Augustine, Okham's Razor...)
5. Early Scientific Philosophy (Galileo, Copernicus, Bacon...)
6. Rational Idealism (Descartes, Spinoza)
7. Empirical Philosophy (Locke, Berkeley, Hume)
8. Narcissistic Power Philosophy (Hobbes, Machiavelli, Schopenhauer)
9. Darwinian Evolution Theory and its Post-Hegelian, Post-Darwinian Integration
10. Enlightenment Philosophy (Smith, Diderot, Voltaire, Monteque, Tom Paine, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin...)
11. Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill...)
12. Romantic Philosophy and German Idealism (Rousseau, Goethe, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Marx...)
13. Humanistic-Existentialism (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Fromm...)
14. American Pragmatism (William James, John Dewey...)
15. Linguistic-Semantic-Epistemological Philosophy (Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Korzybski, S.I. Hayakawa, Beck, Ellis, Kelly, Ayn Rand...)
16. Post-Modernism, Power Philosophy and Marginalization, and Deconstruction(ism) (Foucault, Derrida...)
17. The Dialectic Psychologists (Freud, Jung, Klein, Fairbairn, Berne, Kohut, Perls...)
18. 21st Century Environmental Romanticism (David Suzuki...)
19. Communitarianism
20. DGB Dialectic-Democratic, Humanistic-Existential Philosophy
We leave Hegel's Hotel for today.
Have a good 'dialectic-democratic-humanistic-existential' day!
Live the life of a 'Apollonian-Dionysian Superman(woman)'!
Balance your 'yin' and 'yang'!
Cheers!
-- dgb, April 1st, 2009, modified June 23rd, 2009.
The ripeness of Nietzsche's combined 'old and new philosophical fruit' -- the product of a cross fertilization of early Greek dualistic-dialectic philosophy (Apollo vs. Dionysus) and later Hegelian dualistic-dialectic thinking (thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis) was so 'nutritional' that the 'intellectual and humanistic-existential value' of this cross-fertilized fruit is still exploding off the BT fruit tree some 200 years later, first through the work of Freud and Jung in the early 1900s, then in the therapeutic work of Perls and Gestalt Therapy, and Berne and Transactional Analysis in the 1960s and onward, and finally, right up into the 21st century through the work of DGB Philosophy-Psychology-Politics-Religion-Science-Medicine...which is still evolving in 2009.
Indeed, it is partly too bad that Nietzsche ventured away from BT or he could have almost 'created' Psychoanalysis himself. Indeed, in this one little book -- BT -- Nietzsche almost did create Psychoanalysis. The details just needed to be filled out a bit more through Freud and Jung in their clinical and theoretical work to soon come...BT, in my opinion, remains a much overlooked piece of work in terms of its mega-influence on Freud, Jung, and eventually Perls and Gestalt Therapy. BT was the 'integrative bridge' between Greek Tragedy, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Freud.
But what happened is what happened -- a matter of Nietzsche's own personal and philosophical evolutionary development -- and Nietzsche had other 'fruits he wanted to grow off of other philosophical trees...'.
Nietsche's later 'Will to Power' Theory, his 'Cliff, Abyss, and Tightrope' Theory relative to 'Being and Becoming', and his 'Superman' Theory would do much to lay the groundwork for Heidegger, Sartre, and 20th Century Humanistic-Existentialism.
In this regard, Hegel once again led the way in the evolution of 19th and 20th century Humanistic-Existentialism with his theories of 'The Master-Slave Relationship' and 'Alienation' (to be jumped on by Marx) and then Kierkegaard in his rebellion against 'Hegel's 'Absolute' Abstactionism and Universalism' with his own counter-philosophy of 'Existential Concretism' (albeit Kierkegaard could and did write very abstractly as well).
Schopenhauer, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche all had a hugely important impact on the growth of 19th, 20th, and even 21st century philosophy -- and all of their ideas sprang from arguably the most important philosophical work in Western history -- Hegel's 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' (1807). Even Darwin's later 19th century work in biology and evolutionary theory can be seen -- directly or indirectly -- to have a Hegelian foundation.
And if we really want to fully understand that Hegel's dualistic-dialectic philosophy did not just 'spring out of nowhere', then we must give proper credit to the previous German Idealistic philosophical work of all three of Kant, Fichte, and Schelling -- and furthermore, we need to go right back to the very philosophical roots that Nietzsche did -- back to the roots of Greek -- and all -- mythology, back to the mythological 'dualism' of 'Apollo' vs. 'Dionysus', back to the second oldest philosopher in Western history -- Anaxamander -- and his patriarchal 'power and conquest dialectic theory'; and also back to Anaxamander's indirect student -- Heraclitus -- and the latter's more 'matriarchal philosophy' -- a philosophy of 'opposite things, opposite processes, opposite ideas all coming together 'for the good of the whole dialectic-democratic harmony'.
However, perhaps the most important 'dialectic connection' to be made in the history of dialectic philosophy is the one I am just about to make now. I have been searching on the internet for an answer to a question that needed to take me into the deepest depths of Chinese philosophy -- or at least as deep as anyone else on the internet could take me.
The question that I started asking myself about 2006-2007 in one of my first introductory essays in Hegel's Hotel ran something like this:
Where did the Chinese philosophical concepts and symbols of 'yin' and 'yang' originate from?
I had the symbols traced back to 'The Han Philosophers' -- a group of very important Chinese philosophers who were trying to 'integrate China' back in The Han Dynasty' by 'integrating a number of different important philosophies and philosophers' who had greatly influenced the evolution of China -- before and until 'The Ch'in Dynasty, a totalitarian Chinese government that existed from 221-207BC -- did much to start tearing the philosophical foundations, and the spirit, of the Chinese people apart through their totalitarian, anti-humanistic, anti-democratic measures.
Even this following piece from the internet on 'The Han Synthesis' I am reading this morning for the first time. Sometimes -- like now -- I shake my head to realize that not only is my own philosophical work constantly evolving, but so too is the work of other philosophers and writers on the internet, and information that was just not available to me two or three years ago is clearly available now. These following two pieces greatly help the evolution of my own work in Hegel's Hotel here:
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From the internet....
Ancient China: The Han Synthesis
After the disastrous period of totalitarian government during the Ch'in dynasty (221-207 B. C.), the early Han dynasty (207 B.C.-9 A.D.) returned to older forms of imperial government. However, they adopted from the Ch'in the idea of an absolutely central government and spent most of their period in power trying to regain the same level of centrality that the Ch'in and the Legalists had so ruthlessly accomplished. This ideology of central government, along with the Legalists' attempts to standardize Chinese culture and Chinese philosophy, led thinkers of the Han to attempt to unify all the rival schools of Chinese thought and philosophy that had developed over the previous three hundred years. This unification of Chinese into a single coherent system is the most lasting legacy of the Han dynasty. Earlier, the Legalists attempted to standardize Chinese thought by burning the books of rival schools and by making it a capital crime to speak of Confucius, Lao Tzu, or Mo Tzu. The Han thinkers, who thoroughly despised the Legalists and their methods while adopting many of their goals, took a different approach. Rather than reject alternate ways of thinking, they took a syncretic approach and attempted to fuse all the rival schools of thought into a single system. This syncretic project of the early Han is known as the Han synthesis. In many ways it was similar to the larger project of unifying Chinese government.
Chinese Philosophy
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Confucius
Legalism
Mo Tzu
Taoism
The Han philosophers concentrated specifically on the Five Classics, attempting to derive from them, particularly the I ching , or Book of Changes, the principle of the workings of the universe, or Tao. This new theory of the universe they appended to the I ching ; this appendix explains the metaphysical workings of the entire universe. Once the overall workings of the unverse were understood, then every form of thought could be directly related to each other by appealing to the basic principles of the universe.
Chinese Philosophy
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Pre-Confucian China and the Five Classics
The essentials of the Han synthesis are as follows: the universe is run by a single principle, the Tao, or Great Ultimate. This principle is divided into two opposite principles, or two principles which oppose one another in their actions, yin and yang. All the opposites one perceives in the universe can be reduced to one of the opposite forces. In general, these forces are distinguished by their role in producing creation and producing degeneration: yang is the force of creation and yin the force of completion and degeneration. The yin and yang are further differentiated into five material agents, or wu hsing , which both produce one another and overcome one another. All change in the universe can be explained by the workings of yin and yang and the progress of the five material agents as they either produce one another or overcome one another. This is a universal explanatory principle. All phenomena can be understood using yin-yang and the five agents: the movements of the stars, the workings of the body, the nature of foods, the qualities of music, the ethical qualities of humans, the progress of time, the operations of government, and even the nature of historical change. All things follow this order so that all things can be related to one another in some way: one can use the stars to determine what kind of policy to pursue in government, for instance.
Chinese Philosophy
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Wu-hsing
Yin/Yang
Since the Han thinkers had come up with a tool to explain historical and political events, the writing of history took off exponentially during the early Han and later. History became more than a repository of good and bad examples of government, as it had for the ancient Chinese, it became the working out of the yin-yang or five agents system as it applied to human affairs. This meant that the writing of history demanded accuracy, that the facts be laid out with great precision and indifference so that the workings of yin-yang could be followed precisely. The Han, then, developed a rigorously factual approach to history at a very early time in Chinese history. In government, the Han thinkers essentially adopted the Legalist attitude that human beings fundamentally behave badly, but they changed the doctrine significantly. The Han thinkers believed that people behaved in a depraved way because they had no choice; economic and social conditions forced them to behave badly. For at heart, all human beings desire only material well-being; in order to make people behave virtuously, the government should make it possible that the ends of virtue (the well-being of others) and the pursuit of individual well-being should be coterminous, that is, material benefits should accrue to virtuous acts (that's one-half of the Legalist formula). The emperor would bring this about through two means. First, the emperor and the government is responsible for setting up conditions in which people can derive material benefit from productive labor; the stress on productivity, of course, is derived from the Legalists and Mo Tzu. Second, the emperor can provide an example. It is the job of the emperor to care for the welfare of his people (Confucianism), yet at the same time, the Emperor should withdraw from active rule (Taoism). How did the Emperor rule then? By providing a living example of benevolence. This model of Chinese government would remain dominant well into the twentieth century.
Chinese Philosophy
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Mo Tzu
China Glossary
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DGB Philosophy...cont'd...
So the final name that I have been looking for in the past two or three years turns out to be not who I thought it was afterall -- Confucious -- but rather a man of equally or even greater real or perhaps mythological importance: Lao Tse, one of the chief philosophical architects of Taoism or Daoism.
Let's read a bit about Lao Tse -- again, information that was not available to me on the internet about 2 or 3 years ago (or at least I couldn't find the complete 'answer to the puzzle' I was looking for back then. It's not that the information wasn't out there -- somewhere. After all, there are millions and millions of 'Taoists' out there who were practicing this philosophy thousands of years ago, with ancestors who are still studying and practicing it now.
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From the internet...yin and yang...Taoism (Daoism)...Lao Tse....
Taoism (a.k.a. Daoism)
Western traditions
The Taoist Ying Yang symbol:
Quotations:
"Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river." Lao Tse.
"Without going out of your door, You can know the ways of the world. Without peeping through your window, you can see the Way of Heaven. The farther you go, The less you know. Thus, the Sage knows without traveling, Sees without looking, And achieves without struggle." Lao Tse.
"Different Chinese philosophers, writing probably in 5-4 centuries B.C., presented some major ideas and a way of life that are nowadays known under the name of Taoism, the way of correspondence between man and the tendency or the course of natural world." Alan Watts, from his book: "Tao: The Watercourse Way."
"We believe in the formless and eternal Tao, and we recognize all personified deities as being mere human constructs. We reject hatred, intolerance, and unnecessary violence, and embrace harmony, love and learning, as we are taught by Nature. We place our trust and our lives in the Tao, that we may live in peace and balance with the Universe, both in this mortal life and beyond." Creed of the Reform Taoist Congregation 1
"For more than two thousand years, Daoism has evolved in close interaction with the other major traditions of China--Confucianism, Buddhism, ethnic creeds, and popular religion--and adapted many of their features. To the present day, Daoism consists of a multiplicity of beliefs and practices, and continues to develop, as it has for the past millennia, through the interaction between differentiation and integration--the move to change in accordance with political, cultural, and economic developments versus the urge to create stability through belief systems, lineage lines, rituals, and myths." From the Amazon.com review of the book "Daoist Identity: History, lineage and ritual.
History of Taoism:
Tao (pronounced "Dow") can be roughly translated into English as path, or the way. It is basically indefinable. It has to be experienced. It "refers to a power which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)" 2
The founder of Taoism is believed by many to be Lao-Tse (604-531 BCE), a contemporary of Confucius. (Alternative spellings: Lao Tze, Lao Tsu, Lao Tzu, Laozi, Laotze, etc.). He was searching for a way that would avoid the constant feudal warfare and other conflicts that disrupted society during his lifetime. The result was his book: Tao-te-Ching (a.k.a. Daodejing). Others believe that he is a mythical character.
Taoism started as a combination of psychology and philosophy but evolved into a religious faith in 440 CE when it was adopted as a state religion. At that time Lao-Tse became popularly venerated as a deity. Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, became one of the three great religions of China. With the end of the Ch'ing Dynasty in 1911, state support for Taoism ended. Much of the Taoist heritage was destroyed during the next period of warlordism. After the Communist victory in 1949, religious freedom was severely restricted. "The new government put monks to manual labor, confiscated temples, and plundered treasures. Several million monks were reduced to fewer than 50,000" by 1960. 3 During the cultural revolution in China from 1966 to 1976, much of the remaining Taoist heritage was destroyed. Some religious tolerance has been restored under Deng Xiao-ping from 1982 to the present time.
Taoism currently has about 20 million followers, and is primarily centered in Taiwan. About 30,000 Taoists live in North America; 1,720 in Canada (1991 census). Taoism has had a significant impact on North American culture in areas of "acupuncture, herbalism, holistic medicine, meditation and martial arts..." 3
Taoist concepts, beliefs and practices:
Tao is the first-cause of the universe. It is a force that flows through all life.
"The Tao surrounds everyone and therefore everyone must listen to find enlightenment." 4
Each believer's goal is to harmonize themselves with the Tao.
Taoism has provided an alternative to the Confucian tradition in China. The two traditions have coexisted in the country, region, and generally within the same individual.
The priesthood views the many gods as manifestations of the one Dao, "which could not be represented as an image or a particular thing." The concept of a personified deity is foreign to them, as is the concept of the creation of the universe. Thus, they do not pray as Christians do; there is no God to hear the prayers or to act upon them. They seek answers to life's problems through inner meditation and outer observation.
In contrast with the beliefs and practices of the priesthood, most of the laity have "believed that spirits pervaded nature...The gods in heaven acted like and were treated like the officials in the world of men; worshipping the gods was a kind of rehearsal of attitudes toward secular authorities. On the other hand, the demons and ghosts of hell acted like and were treated like the bullies, outlaws, and threatening strangers in the real world; they were bribed by the people and were ritually arrested by the martial forces of the spirit officials." 3
Time is cyclical, not linear as in Western thinking.
Taoists strongly promote health and vitality.
Five main organs and orifices of the body correspond to the five parts of the sky: water, fire, wood, metal and earth.
Each person must nurture the Ch'i (air, breath) that has been given to them.
Development of virtue is one's chief task. The Three Jewels to be sought are compassion, moderation and humility.
Taoists follow the art of "wu wei," which is to let nature take its course. For example, one should allow a river to flow towards the sea unimpeded; do not erect a dam which would interfere with its natural flow.
One should plan in advance and consider carefully each action before making it.
A Taoists is kind to other individuals, in part because such an action tends to be reciprocated.
Taoists believe that "people are compassionate by nature...left to their own devices [they] will show this compassion without expecting a reward." 5
The Yin Yang symbol:
This is a well known Taoist symbol. "It represents the balance of opposites in the universe. When they are equally present, all is calm. When one is outweighed by the other, there is confusion and disarray." 4 One source explains that it was derived from astronomical observations which recorded the shadow of the sun throughout a full year. 5 The two swirling shapes inside the symbol give the impression of change -- the only constant factor in the universe. One tradition states that Yin (or Ying; the dark side) represents the breath that formed the earth. Yang (the light side) symbolizes the breath that formed the heavens.
One source states: "The most traditional view is that 'yin' represents aspects of the feminine: being soft, cool, calm, introspective, and healing... and "yang" the masculine: being hard, hot, energetic, moving, and sometimes aggressive. Another view has the 'yin' representing night and 'yang' day. 5
Another source offers a different definition: A common misconception in the west is that "...yin is soft and passive and yang is hard and energetic. Really it is yang that is soft and yin that is hard, this is because yang is energetic and yin is passive. Yin is like a rock and yang is like water or air, rock is heavy and hard and air is soft and energetic." 8
Allan Watts, describes the yin and yang as negative and positive energy poles: "The ideograms indicate the sunny and shady sides of a hill....They are associated with the masculine and the feminine, the firm and the yielding, the strong and the weak, the light and the dark, the rising and the falling, heaven and earth, and they are even recognized in such everyday matters as cooking as the spicy and the bland." 9,10
However, since nothing in nature is purely black or purely white, the symbol includes a small black spot in the white swirl, and a corresponding white spot in the black swirl.
Ultimately, the 'yin' and 'yang' can symbolize any two polarized forces in nature. Taosts believe that humans often intervene in nature and upset the balance of Yin and Yang.
About the name: Taoism or Daoism:
There are two commonly used systems for translating the Mandarin Chinese language into Roman letters:
Wade-Giles: This system is commonly used in Taiwan and the U.S. The Chinese character for "Way" becomes "Tao," which leads to the English word "Taoism."
Hanyu pinyin or Pinyin: This system was developed by the Chinese people and is now finding increased use worldwide. The "Way" becomes "Dao," which leads to the English word "Daoism." The "Dao" is pronounced like the "Dow" in "Dow-Jones Index."
We have chosen to emphasize the "Taoism" spelling. A Google search for "Taoism" returned 245,000 hits, whereas a search for "Daoism" returned only 35,000.
Tai Chi:
There is a long history of involvement by Taoists in various exercise and movement techniques. 6 Tai chi in particular works on all parts of the body. It "stimulates the central nervous system, lowers blood pressure, relieves stress and gently tones muscles without strain. It also enhances digestion, elimination of wastes and the circulation of blood. Moreover, tai chi's rhythmic movements massage the internal organs and improve their functionality." Traditional Chinese medicine teaches that illness is caused by blockages or lack of balance in the body's "chi" (intrinsic energy). Tai Chi is believed to balance this energy flow.
Taoist Texts:
These include:
Tao-te-Ching ("The Way of Power," or "The Book of the Way") is believed to have been written by Lao-Tse. It describes the nature of life, the way to peace and how a ruler should lead his life.
Chuang-tzu (named after its author) contains additional teachings.
Taoist web sites:
Taoist course, books and objects: Lao Tzu and Taoism Revealed: A 40-day course delivered by email. You may learn more about the life and philosophy of Lao Tzu, including the study of Tao Te Ching, and concepts like tao, wu-wei, wu, and more. Register here. More information
The LaoZi Academy in Sydney, Australia, teaches "... the fundamentals and secrets of ancient Daoist life. The Academy delivers clear and concise principles and practice methods used by ancient Daoist masters in the pursuit of health, happiness and longevity many thousands of years ago." See: http://www.laoziacademy.com/
MoreLight.net publishes a number of books from the Taoist canon, including The Primordial Breath, Volumes 1 & 2, and Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams). See: http://morelight.net/
Mr. Sage's Philosophical Taoist Homepage's intent is to give a more scientific, astro-physics, philosophical, as well as traditional esoteric view on Taoism. See: http://members.aol.com/
Sacred Mountain Press publishes Taoist works. Their "... goal is to make interesting, beautiful, and reliable Taoist information as accessible to the general public as that of any other major religious or spiritual tradition." See: http://www.smpress.com
"Tao Resource" is a web site that imports authentic Taoist products to help people improve their "personal or sacred space, to build a small Taoist shrine or even to construct a large Taoist temple." This site is well worth perusing. It has sections showing altar tables, bells & chimes, jewelry, statuary, personal altars, etc. See http://www.taoresource.com/
Tai Chi: "Is Tai Chi the Ultimate Exercise?," an essay on Tai Chi at:
http://www.utah.edu/
"The International Taoist Tai Chi Society" � is the largest non-profit Tai Chi group in the world. See: http://www.taoist.org
Taoist message board, discussion forum, etc: The "real Tao" message board is a "brand new Taoist Forum" at: http://pub18.ezboard.com/
A Taoist discussion forum named in the spirit of Jack Keroac and the Dharma Bums, is at http://www.TheTaoBums.com It is a "Friendly, active, nonsectarian discussion forum for Taoism, qigong, tai chi, yoga, meditation and much more!"
Taoist web sites: The Center TaoTaoist Thought and Fellowship in Santa Cruz, CA provides monthly meetings and an extensive forum. See: http://www.centertao.org/
Daoist Arts contains essays on Daoist History, Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan), Qigong and other Taoist matters. They have a free newsletter. See: http://www.daoistarts.org/
Bill Mason's Taoism Page is at: http://www.taoism.net This web site emphasizes the practical application of the Tao to everyday life.
Maury Merkin, "Daoism in brief," is at: http://www.his.com/ This website offers a brief introduction to Taoism and a glossary of terms.
This website is dedicated to Purist Taoism in the tradition and wisdom of Lao-Tzu.
Jeff Rasmussen's Tao Te Ching web site features an illustrated Tao Te Ching, an introduction to Taoism, and links. See: http://www.symynet.com/
Reform Taoism has an excellent web site which publishes their creed and beliefs on dozens of important topics. See: http://www.reformtaoism.org
" The Taoist Canon: A guide to studies and reference works" at: http://weber.ucsd.edu/
The "Taoism Depot" contains a Taoism discussion forum, live chat and a wide range of resources. See: http://www.edepot.com/
The "Taoism Information Page" is at: http://www.religiousworlds.com/
The "Taoism Depot" contains a Taoism discussion forum, live chat and a wide range of resources. See: http://www.edepot.com/
The Taoism Initiation Page has a great deal of information about Taoism and a Taoism course that leads to initiation. is at: http://www.taopage.org
The Taoist Restoration Society (TRS) is "a U.S. nonprofit corporation dedicated to the rehabilitation and rebirth of China's Taoist tradition." See: http://www.taorestore.org/ Offline as of 2007-AUG-29
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Now -- to use a Freudian metaphor -- 'We have reached the source of The Nile.' (And it is not 'The Oedipal Complex'.)
As of this moment -- Hegel's Hotel -- in its most basic and firmly entrenched structure is in place, solidly grounded with its foundations solidly based in pre-Socratic Greek Philosophy (Anaxamander and Heraclitus) and, at the same time, ancient Chinese Daoist Philosophy (Lao Tse, 'yin' and 'yang' Eastern Dialectic Philosophy).
So the question remains how best to represent the rest of the structure of Hegel's Hotel.
Let us say that the combination of Plato and Aristotle (Plato's 'rational idealism' vs. Aristotle's 'empirical realism') holds up the next segment of Hegel's Hotel.
Now at this point in time, we have not discussed in any significant detail any or many aspects of Roman (Skepticism, Stoicism, Cynicism, Epicureanism...) or Scholastic Philosophy (Aquinas, St. Augustine, Ockham's Razor...) or Early Scientific (Galileo, Copernicus, Sir Francis Bacon) so I will simply say that we need to do significant work at a later point in time in these time periods of Western Philosophy.
We haven't discussed Descartes 'subjective rationalism' to any significant degree. Later to come.
Spinoza holds a special spot in the evolution and structure of Hegel's Hotel. Although Spinoza was a 'mono-theorist' meaning that he believed in the principle of 'wholism' and 'unity' which partly contradicts Hegelian dualistic and dialectic philosophy, still Schelling probably represents the best 'synthesis' between Spinoza and Hegel with Schelling's romantic idea of 'dialectic unity and wholism'. In this regard, both Spinoza and Schelling remain important philosophers in Hegel's Hotel, and in DGB Philosophy's version of 'Multi-Dialectic-Democratic (Multi-Cultural) Evolution, Wholism, Unity and Spiritual Pantheism'.
Then there are the 'Rational-Empiricists' and the 'Enlightenment Political-Economic Philosophers: Epictetus, Bacon, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Adam Smith, Diderot, Voltaire, Montesque, Tom Paine, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, let's even include Lincoln...and right up to Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Korzybski, S.I. Hawakawa, Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis, Ayn Rand...
Then there are the Romantic Philosophers and the German Idealists who probably represent the central focus of Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy. These include: Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, and Marx (although Marx requires his Scottish 'polar-brother' -- Adam Smith -- to work through the Capitalist-Socialist Democratic-Dialectic to its best evolutionary potential).
Then there is Darwin who needs to be integrated with Hegel, Schelling, Spinoza, Anaxamander, Heraclitus, Einstein...in DGB fashion...to make up a 21st century rendition of post-Hegelian, post-Darwinian Evolution Theory.
Then there are the 'Competitive Narcissistic-Power Philosophers' who more or less follow the path started by Anaxamander who need to be properly respected and taken into account for their work: Hobbes, Machiavelli, Schopenhauer...
Then there are the post-Hegelian 'Humanistic-Existentialists': Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Erich Fromm...who hold up another important part of Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy.
Then there are the 'dialectic' clinical psychologists: Freud, Adler, Jung, Reich, Ferenczi, Fairbairn, Kohut, Berne, Perls
And finally, there are 'The Post-Modernists and Power-Deconstructionists' which I will go back through all of Western History to include in this group: Socrates, Hume, Voltaire, Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida...
No, let us mention one more contemporary 'natural philosopher' in the Spinozian-Schelling-Einstein' mold: David Suzuki.
I've missed out on a number of different layers of Western Philosophical History including: Utilitarianism, Pragmatism, Structuralism...
These we may or may not attend to in the distant future...
Without as much overlap, let us count up the different 'levels' of Hegel's Hotel that we are working on here:
1. Anaxamander, Heraclitus, Lao Tse (Daoism, yin/yang);
2. Plato and Aristotle
3. Roman Philosophy (Skepticism, Stoicism, Cynicism, Epirureanism...)
4. Scholastic Philosophy (Aquinas, St. Augustine, Okham's Razor...)
5. Early Scientific Philosophy (Galileo, Copernicus, Bacon...)
6. Rational Idealism (Descartes, Spinoza)
7. Empirical Philosophy (Locke, Berkeley, Hume)
8. Narcissistic Power Philosophy (Hobbes, Machiavelli, Schopenhauer)
9. Darwinian Evolution Theory and its Post-Hegelian, Post-Darwinian Integration
10. Enlightenment Philosophy (Smith, Diderot, Voltaire, Monteque, Tom Paine, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin...)
11. Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill...)
12. Romantic Philosophy and German Idealism (Rousseau, Goethe, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Marx...)
13. Humanistic-Existentialism (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Fromm...)
14. American Pragmatism (William James, John Dewey...)
15. Linguistic-Semantic-Epistemological Philosophy (Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Korzybski, S.I. Hayakawa, Beck, Ellis, Kelly, Ayn Rand...)
16. Post-Modernism, Power Philosophy and Marginalization, and Deconstruction(ism) (Foucault, Derrida...)
17. The Dialectic Psychologists (Freud, Jung, Klein, Fairbairn, Berne, Kohut, Perls...)
18. 21st Century Environmental Romanticism (David Suzuki...)
19. Communitarianism
20. DGB Dialectic-Democratic, Humanistic-Existential Philosophy
We leave Hegel's Hotel for today.
Have a good 'dialectic-democratic-humanistic-existential' day!
Live the life of a 'Apollonian-Dionysian Superman(woman)'!
Balance your 'yin' and 'yang'!
Cheers!
-- dgb, April 1st, 2009, modified June 23rd, 2009.
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