Cracking the Safe

Translation from the Chinese of Chuang Tzu, by Thomas Merton, 

Cracking the Safe
For security against robbers who snatch purses, rifle luggage, and crack safes,
One must fasten all property with ropes, lock it up with locks, bolt it with bolts.
This (for property owners) is elementary good sense.
But when a strong thief comes along he picks up the whole lot,
Puts it on his back, and goes away with only one fear:
That ropes, locks, and bolts may give way.
Thus what the world calls good business is only a way
To gather up the loot, pack it, make it secure
In one convenient load for the more enterprising thieves.
Who is there, among those called smart,
Who does not spend his time amassing loot
For a bigger robber than himself?

In the land of Khi, from village to village,
You could hear cocks crowing, dogs barking.
Fishermen cast their nets,
Ploughmen ploughed their wide fields,
Everything was neatly marked out
By boundary lines. For five hundred square miles
There were temples for ancestors, altars
For field-gods and corn-spirits.
Every canton, county, and district
Was run according to the laws and statutes—
Until one morning the Attorney General, Tien Khang Tzu,
Did away with the King and took over the whole state.
Was he content to steal the land? No,
He also took over the laws and statutes at the same time,
And all the lawyers with them, not to mention the police.
They all formed part of the same package.

Of course, people called Khang Tzu a robber,
But the left him alone
To live as happy as the Patriarchs.
No small state would say a word against him,
No large state would make a move in his direction,
So for twelve generations the state of Khi
Belonged to his family. No one interfered
With his inalienable rights.

The invention
Of weights and measures
Makes robbery easier.
Signing contracts, setting seals,
Makes robbery more sure.
Teaching love and duty
Provides a fitting language
With which to prove that robbery
Is really for the general good.
A poor man must swing
For stealing a belt buckle
But if a rich man steals a whole state
He is acclaimed
As statesman of the year.

Hence if you want to hear the very best speeches
On love, duty, justice, etc.,
Listen to statesmen.

But when the creek dries up
Nothing grows in the valley.
When the mound is leveled
The hollow next to it is filled.
And when the statesmen and lawyers
And preachers of duty disappear
There are no more robberies either
And the world is at peace.

Moral: the more you pile up ethical principles
And duties and obligations
To bring everyone in line
The more you gather loot
For a thief like Khang.
By ethical argument
And moral principle
The greatest crimes are eventually shown
To have been necessary, and, in fact,
A signal benefit
To mankind

 also found the guru stotram online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8gJOCwBuFc

I watched the whole thing mesmerised.

This is first-class A grade pure mind-boggling insanity. 

Of course,  one kit isn't going to be enough for me ... I'd probably need like thirty or so just for breakfast

I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't believed it .

replicants everywhere
swarming !!
replicants  
autofac

The Donella Meadows book looks to me to be a real job, unlike Gall's gall. Plus the section on leverage points includes self-organization which mentions the power of diversity - touching Scott E Page's words/book too.


There is yet one leverage point that is even higher than changing a para- digm. That is to keep oneself unattached in the arena of paradigms, to stay flexible, to realize that no paradigm is “true,” that every one, including the one that sweetly shapes your own worldview, is a tremendously limited understanding of an immense and amazing universe that is far beyond human comprehension. It is to “get” at a gut level the paradigm that there are paradigms, and to see that that itself is a paradigm, and to regard that whole realization as devastatingly funny. It is to let go into not-knowing, into what the Buddhists call enlightenment.
the buddha found this !! awesome !! Ingram, here I come.
Fred Kofman wrote in a systems journal: [Language] can serve as a medium through which we create new understandings and new realities as we begin to talk about them. In fact, we don’t talk about what we see; we see only what we can talk about.
mcluhan said this too !!!

this is just so cool - global village constrution kit .

tempo - venkat rao. also 'destruction   & creation'  - boyd

1. artificial intelligence a modern approach  - peter norvig
2. algorithmic beauty of plants
3. laws of form - g spencer brown
4. complexity a guided tour - melanie mitchell ???
5. godel, escher ,bach :an eternal golden braid - douglas hofstadter ???
6. Lisp: A Language for Stratified Design  - Abelson, Sussman
7. Introduction to cybernetics - ross ashby
8. design for a brain - ross ashby
9. autocatalytic sets ?
10. complex adaptive systems, the difference - scott e page
11. atyonlh, witaoim, Intensive science and virtual philosophy - manuel delanda
12. *destratified/ erik davis 
13. Growing artifical societies - epstein , axtell
14. collapse of complex societies - tainter
15. medium is the message, understanding media - mcluhan
16. systemantics - gall 
17.  

parable of the one and one and two

The master speaks

but the idiots don't listen

and the disciples

sit and ponder

as days turn to night

and still they sit

This is brilliant . Original here - fakebuddhaquotes.com
 Excerpt from the Diamond Sutra

Subhuti, in these bodhisattvas no perception of a self takes place, no perception of a being, no perception of a soul, no perception of a person. Nor do these bodhisattvas have a perception of a dharma, or a perception of a no-dharma. No perception or non-perception takes place in them.
And why? If, Subhuti, these bodhisattvas, should have a perception of either a dharma, or a no-dharma, they would thereby seize on a self, on a being, on a soul, on a person.
And why? Because a bodhisattva should not seize on either a dharma or a no-dharma. Therefore this saying has been taught by the Tathagata with a hidden meaning: “By those who know the discourse on dharma as like unto a raft, dharmas should be forsaken, still more so, no-dharmas.”
The Lord asked: What do you think, Subhuti, is there any dharma which the Tathagata has fully known as “the utmost, right and perfect enlightenment,” or is there any dharma which the Tathagata has demonstrated?
Subhuti replied: No, not as I understand what the Lord has said. And why? This dharma which the Tathagata has fully known or demonstrated – it cannot be grasped, it cannot be talked about, it is neither a dharma nor a no-dharma. And why? Because an absolute exalts the holy persons. 

From the Bruce Lee movie "Enter the Dragon" -
Shaolin Abbott: I see your talents have gone beyond the mere physical level. Your skills are now at the point of spiritual insight. I have several questions. What is the highest technique you hope to achieve ?
Lee: To have no technique.

I used to imagine that having no technique meant to become a spherical blob /cloud of protoplasm and engulf the enemy and then return back to your original shape and size, but I am beginning to see now that that is not what is meant by the above.

Think of this - you are in a train and you are passing stations one a second. Seriously. Try to roll with the imagery. Now, if your girlfriend asks you, over the cell phone , "Which station are you at now ?" And any answer you give will always be wrong. You wouldn't finish saying the name of the station before it passed by.

This train metaphor is  a re-hash of the one in the Pirsig book.
Pirsig's book,  which is sneaky  and roundabout and yet seeps the lessons into your subconscious without your knowing. Years after reading it  (and not understanding anything),  ideas and concepts from the book would still keep popping up from time to time.....

It's just "Be here now " (Ram Dass), for a very small tiny value of now , all the time.

Susan Blackmore nails it in 'Ten Zen questions' -
1)  am I conscious now ?  2) was I conscious of a moment ago ?

Unhygienix hits Fulliautomatix with a wet fish

*thwacK*

language is a lost cause because you have to create the universe from scratch for each word.

galcon ftw !!!

hindsight is 20/20 because by then your box has expanded.

"So I have just one wish for you--the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintain the kind of integrity I have described, and where you do not feel forced by a need to maintain your position in the organization, or financial support, or so on, to lose your integrity. May you have that freedom."

The above is the concluding paragraph of Feynman talking about  cargo cult science.
In 1996, when I first read this, it set me on fire, ready to go tilting at windmills.
Now, I chanced upon it again, and it reminds me of still how relevant those words are, and how far astray flows the stream of life from it

This : 
youtube: dna replication animation
plus
matt (of 'illustrated PhD fame) Hunting down my son's killer
plus
books on complexity
=>  mind blown BIGTIME.

excerpt for #2 above:

Codons and the standard genetic code

In computing, most computers run on the x86 instruction set.
Remarkably, in life, there is also a dominant instruction set--the standard genetic code, as described in the DNA codon table.
The genetic code is an instruction set for making proteins by chaining together individual amino acids.
The genetic code is made up of instructions called codons.
Each codon is a three-letter sequence in DNA that encodes either an amino acid to insert or the command "stop construction of this protein."
For example, the codon TTG means "insert a Leucine."
With four letters in the alphabet, there are 4³ = 64 possible codons, but there are only 25 genetic instructions, since some codons encode the same amino acid and several encode "stop."
---

for all the little bits I knew about  genetics, this paragraph really really tied them all together into one big flash of light !!

peaceful warrior, with nick nolte playing the bearded wisey and revolver with a bald-mullet jason statham... what do they have in common ?

quite a bit of this is nothing more than tim gallwey's work.

http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ideas/ian-leslie/non-cogito-ergo-sum ..

still there are examples worth reading the article for.
 However,  'unthinking' is a vague term that won't enter over our vocabulary methinks.

today , work is not defined.
the first step of work is arriving at a technique.
sometimes the technique is not there and has to be found,
sometimes, a choice has to be made between existing techniques.
once the technique is arrived at, then starts the work of doing the work.

personal growth is like surgery. some parts of you might not make it to the next level.
unlike the moth which can become a butterfly, and not think about it, the human self has awareness of itself, and monitors all facets .
so if a part of you is plugged into the world in any sort of relation, the self will aim to preserve that part ,because the self is a sum of all facets, and hence rule out growth that might excise that facet.

“Where the whole man is involved there is no work. Work begins with the division of labor.”

marshall mcluhan .

I've been reading mcluhan quotes for some time now, and nodding my head all along. 
It's eerie how accurate this guy is 

The new media are not bridges between man and nature; they are nature.”

Marshall McLuhan quote The Fundamental Law of Administrative Workings (F.L.A.W.): Things Are What They Are Reported To Be. This Axiom has been stated in various ways, all to the same effect. Standard formulations include the following: The Real World Is What Is Reported To The System (65) John Gall, Systemantics

'oh no it's that meng guy again' guy is 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8fcqrNO7so' this guy.
he's google's jolly good fellow !! well i never ... !!

"use the Force, Harry" - Gandalf


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this is The Supremely Funny !!

the hero's journey is a quest to attain new cool super powers, transform self and return as a new person.
the super powers typically accompany the new persona. the cost of this transformation is everything.

aside: most self help books exploit this thirst for super powers in us by placing the teensy weensy nugget of bullshit that they peddle at the end of a seeming quest.

ooh .  eye opening, mind blowing etc etc.
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/04/36-brilliant-minutes-of-john-cleese-talking-about-creativity/

open mode , closed mode, both are needed,

worst in creativity  is someone who believes you should look decisive and act instantly

john cleese quoted alan watts !!!! today is the happiest day of my life !!! *sniff 

saw this on kung fu grippe. that is merlin mann's web page.
http://www.43folders.com/2011/04/22/cranking

religion is opium
philosophy is a meme
but simulation (or imagination in humans) is knowledge. and consciousness.

hbr article on steve jobs. very nice. takeaways - intersection of humanities and technology,
zenlike focus, essence of the object, deep simplicity, impute

oh, the joy of an unplanned day !
 anything-can-happen-thursday ?

the universe is made of two things : atoms and opinion

as they say in the tao book - " Should you want to eliminate something, you must deliberately allow it to flourish."   - Thomas Cleary translation
becoming a master at something , you must first make all the possible mistakes you can in the area. If you were to measure yourself on the quality of your output, you would never get far. You'd be living a life of miserable longing and self-hate. Ira Glass has a famous quote +video clip about this.

this is awesome - happiness advantage


this is mindblowing - why i chose a gun

the current environment, a virtual lobotomy. performance factor
death by a thousand cuts - each one just steals a second of your life

when you are intent upon your work
and you raise your head to see
time has passed
the feeling you get is what Gibson said of his family and Atlantis -
there was something there , but it's gone now

now if you're killing time, the feeling is different

and neither is better

it's not so much a meditative state we need to get into  than to get out of our own head and to _somewhere_ else

the manual of adventure

in this age of ever increasing stratification and stultification, the only possible adventure is to de-re-form the blackboxes of your reality. And 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' isayour manual.

Bill Watterson's commencement address at Kenyon is good reading.
Chimes with Alan Watts points on work as play.
Hugh Macleod's 'Ignore everybody ' complements  all this nicely
-- excerpt --
Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them.
To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.