This book by David Loy will get a fuller treatment later. It was a delight to read, and it requires further digestion. However, one thing makes it quite fun: its numerous quotes spread throughout the text. Delicious little bits of thought. I've written some of my favorites for your delectation. (However, don't let these substitute for reading the book!)
The universe is made of stories, not atoms.
Muriel Rukeheyser
The limits of my language are the limits of my world.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
The Greek polis was formed by warriors coming back from the Trojan Wars. They needed a place to tell their stories, because it was only in the stories that they achieved immortality. Democracy was created to make the world safe for stories.
Ernest Becker
Reality is what doesn’t go away when you stop believing in it.
Phillip K. Dick
No dharma has ever been taught by a buddha to anyone, anywhere.
Nagarjuna
Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
To the native Irish, the literal representation of the country was less important than its poetic dimension. In traditional bardic culture, the terrain was studied, discussed, and referenced; every place had its legend and its own identity . . . . What endured was the mythic landscape, providing escape and inspiration.
R.K. Foster
Just as the flower is made of non-flower elements, the self is made only of non-self elements.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The sense of the world must be outside the world.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.
Hannah Arendt
Myth is not entertainment, but rather the crystallization of experience, and far from being escapist literature, fantasy is an intensification of reality.
Alan Garner
What does our great historical hunger signify, our clutching about us of countless other cultures, our consuming desire for knowledge, if not the loss of myth, or a mythic home, the mythic womb?
Nietzsche
Theology is a branch of fantastic literature.
Jorge Luis Borges
Fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factural, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living.
Ursula K. LeGuin
One does not refute symbols; one deciphers them.
Henri Corbin
She kept asking if the stories were true.
I kept asking her if it mattered.
We finally gave up.
She was looking for a place to stand
& I wanted a place to fly.
Brian Anderson
The only secure truth men have is that which they themselves create and dramatize; to live is to play at the meaning of life.
Ernest Becker
We accept reality easily, perhaps because we sense that nothing is real.
Jorge Luis Borges
Our truth consists of illusions that we have forgotten are illusions.
Nietzsche
I plan on more to come!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Statement from Ousted Iowa Supreme Court Justices
The following (except for the very last line)is the press release by the ousted Iowa Supreme Court justices. A very thoughtful and appropriate response that bears repeating:
November 3, 2010
The following public statement was issued by Justice David Baker, Justice Michael Streit and Chief Justice Marsha Ternus.
Des Moines, November 3, 2010— It has been our great privilege to serve the people of Iowa as justices on the Iowa Supreme Court. Throughout our judicial service, we have endeavored to fulfill our duty to Iowans by always adhering to the rule of law, making decisions fairly and impartially according to law, and faithfully upholding the constitution.
We thank all of the Iowans who voted to retain judges around the state for another term. Your support shows that many of our citizens value fair and impartial courts. We also want to acknowledge and thank all the Iowans, from across the political spectrum and from different walks of life, who worked tirelessly over the past few months to defend Iowa's high-caliber court system against an unprecedented attack funded by out-of-state special interest groups.
Iowa's merit selection system helps ensure that our judges base their decisions on the law and the Constitution and nothing else. Ultimately, however, the preservation of our fair and impartial courts will require more than the integrity and fortitude of individual judges; it will require the fervent and steadfast support of the people.
To which I say "Amen!"
November 3, 2010
The following public statement was issued by Justice David Baker, Justice Michael Streit and Chief Justice Marsha Ternus.
Des Moines, November 3, 2010— It has been our great privilege to serve the people of Iowa as justices on the Iowa Supreme Court. Throughout our judicial service, we have endeavored to fulfill our duty to Iowans by always adhering to the rule of law, making decisions fairly and impartially according to law, and faithfully upholding the constitution.
We thank all of the Iowans who voted to retain judges around the state for another term. Your support shows that many of our citizens value fair and impartial courts. We also want to acknowledge and thank all the Iowans, from across the political spectrum and from different walks of life, who worked tirelessly over the past few months to defend Iowa's high-caliber court system against an unprecedented attack funded by out-of-state special interest groups.
Iowa's merit selection system helps ensure that our judges base their decisions on the law and the Constitution and nothing else. Ultimately, however, the preservation of our fair and impartial courts will require more than the integrity and fortitude of individual judges; it will require the fervent and steadfast support of the people.
To which I say "Amen!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)