riviersonderend

Weet ons werklik dat ons nie weet nie? Flous ons nie dikwels onsself met ons redenasies nie? Is dit waarin ons dikwels ons toevlug neem, nie júís dit waarvan ons moet wegvlug nie? Die week se gedagte van Abraham Maslow (einste hy van die needs hierarchy):

The search for the exotic, the strange, the unusual, the uncommon has often taken the form of pilgrimages, of turning away from the world, the “Journey to the East”, to another country or to a different religion. The great lesson from the true mystics, from the Zen monks, and now also from the Humanistic and Transpersonal psychologists – that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbours, friends, and family, in one’s own back yard, and that travel may be a flight from confronting the sacred – this lesson can be easily lost. To be looking elsewhere for miracles is to me a sure sign of ignorance that everything is miraculous.

WAARSKUWING: hierdie post bevat eksplisiete beskrywings van insekseks.

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Hoe verloor ‘n land sy eerste minister? ‘n Mens kan maklik verklaar hoe ‘n land se leier vermoor word. Dit het al in Amerika gebeur. So ook in Suid-Afrika, Swede en sekerlik ook in ‘n paar onbelangrike Afrikalande. Maar hoe verloor ‘n land sy eerste minister? Vra vir Australië. In 1967 het Australië se eerste minister, Harold Holt, langs die see in Victoria gaan stap. Die volgende oomblik is hy die see in, net om nooit weer gesien te word nie. Net so, en ‘n land is sy eerste minister kwyt.

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There is an insect order that consists entirely of parasitic insects called, singly and collectively, stylops, which is interesting because of the grotesquerie of its form and its effects. Stylops parasitize divers other insects such as leaf hoppers, ants, bees, and wasps. The female spends her entire life inside the body of her host, with only the tip of her bean-shaped protruding. She is a formless lump, having no wings, legs, eyes, or antennae; her vestigial mouth and anus are tiny, degenerate, and nonfunctional. She absorbs food – her host – through the skin of her abdomen, which is “inflated, white, and soft.”

The sex life of a stylops is equally degenerate. The female has a wide, primitive orifice called a “brood canal” near her vestigial mouth-parts, out in the open air. The male inerts his sperm into the brood canal, from whence it flows into her disorganized body and fertilizes the eggs that are floating freely there. The hatched larvae find their way to the brood canal and emerge into the “outside world.”

The unfortunate insects on which the stylops feed, although they live normal life spans, frequently undergo inexplicable changes. Their colors brighten. The gonads of males and females are “destroyed,” and they not only lose their secondary sexual characteristics, they actually acquire those of the opposite sex. This happens especially to bees, in which the differences between the sexes are pronounced. (Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Ceek)

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10% van die wêreld se spesies is parasitiese insekte. “What if you were an inventor, and you made ten percent of your inventions in such a way that they could only work by harassing, disfiguring, or totally destroying the other ninety percent? These things are not well enough known.” (Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

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In die somermaande roei Eskimo’s in hulle kanoe’s op soek na kos. Hulle eet vis, gans- en eendeiers, takbokke en “vars slaai” – blare wat nog nie in die takbok se maag verteer het nie. Die vrouens en kinders vang ook klein voëltjies en ryg dan ‘n draad deur hulle en laat hulle vlieg soos vlieërs met ‘n tou wat aan hulle vasgemaak is. Die verskrikte voëls skree vreeslik en spartel om weg te kom. Dit lok nog voëltjies wat die Eskimo’s dan maklik vang.

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At first (Huston) Smith gave me a complicated answer about how the infinite must entail all possibilities, including evil. But then, as if acknowledging the fatuity of all theodicies, Smith told me the story about the minister who comforted a woman in despair simply by clasping her hand and weeping with her. Does God care? Who knows? But we care. Our solace – and salvation, if we can be saved – will come not from God’s compassion but from ours. (John Horgan, Rational Mysticism)

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Let us love the country of here below. It is real; it offers resistance to love. (Simone Weil)

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So?

It’s a strange, strange world we’re living in, Master Jack.

WordPress is nou amptelik deel van die Facebook Evil Empire. As jy ‘n blog op WordPress het, kan jy jou jongste inskrywings en kommentaar op jou Facebook-profiel plaas. Wat rêrig cool is, is dat jy ook jou Facebook-vriende se jongste inskrywings kan sien (dis nou as hulle op WordPress blog – hoekom is daar mense wat nie op WordPress blog nie?). Dit is nou as hulle ook die WordPress-applikasie gelaai het. Facebook neem oor!

Good grief. Die Franse is besig met bemarking vir die Rugby Wêreldbeker.

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Hierdie week se gedagte is van Osho, na aanleiding van die volgende vraag aan hom: “Osho, I feel life is very boring. What should I do?”

As it is, you have already done enough. You have made life boring – some achievement! Life is such a dance of ecstasy and you have reduced it to boredom. You have done a miracle! What else do you want to do? You can’t do anything bigger than this. Life and boring? You must have a tremendous capacity to ignore life.

… ignorance means the capacity to ignore. You must be ignoring the birds, the trees, the flowers, the people. Otherwise, life is tremendously beautiful, so absurdly beautiful, that if you can see it as it is you will never stop laughing. You will go on giggling – at least inside. Life is not boring, but mind is boring. And we create such a mind, such a strong mind, like a China Wall around ourselves, that it does not allow life to enter into us. It disconnects us from life. We become isolated, encapsulated, windowless…

Put aside your knowledge! And then look with empty eyes… And life is a constant surprise. And I am not talking about some divine life – the ordinary life is so extraordinary. In small incidents you will find the presence of God… Miss the present and you live in boredom. Be in the present and you will be surprised that there is boredom at all.