If there is to be peace in the world, the nations must live in peace.
If there is to be peace among nations, the cities must not rise up against each other.
If there is to be peace in the cities, neighbors must understand each other.
If there is to be peace among neighbors, there must be harmony in the home.
If there is to peace in the home, we must find it in our own heart.

-老子, 6 B.C.

Benn loxo du taccu- "One hand can't clap" in Wolof.

ashotglassofblood(at)gmail(dot)com

A number of my blog entries are marked as "friends only".

Some thoughts are meant to be kept under wraps.

As private firms expand, they go public listed.
It runs counter for blogs as their contents increase.

The events are the subisdiary, the afterthoughts the focus.

You can kiss any expectations of kiss-and-tell-alls goodbye.

And yes, I do talk too much.

So tread the scarlet carpet, and enter The Satirical Chronicles.
But self-proclaimed religiosos, keep out.

"The unexamined life is not worth living"-- Socrates

“All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare"- Baruch Spinoza

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" -Mahatma Gandhi

"Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice." - Spinoza

I believe that Peace can only be achieved when there is Peace in our hearts. Conflicts in the world are manifestations of our inner turmoil. I believe that it is imperative to cultivate that inner Sanctuary-- a place you can escape to, partitioned from the world, to meditate and reflect, and find your inner fulcrum.

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." ---Albert Schweitzer

"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant"- Socrates

I post a lot of blog entries, from random musings and introspections to reposts of news articles and scholarly excerpts. They range from the very short to the very long.

I also post a lot of photographs because I love clothes, and am fascinated by faces. Yes, I am what you might call a camwhore except that I am merely looking for more facial angles and more faces. This is a fantastic form to play with clothes, to push boundaries and experiment.

There is also a sizeable collection of nude photography and erotic art in my entries, which to me are a celebration of the human body and of sexuality.

So, in short, you get an avalanche to your front page if you somehow decide to add me. It might not be too pleasant for some, so, don't click 'add to friends' just for fun.

Change what you cannot accept; Accept what you cannot change.

Reality and fantasy may elude one by a whisker.

In our dreams lie hidden dragons

Perhaps the epilogue of our lives should teach one to pay heed to the muddledness of fact and fiction.

Reality wears a different face behind masks of assumptions.

Chimed and charmed by chimeras and smokey chimneys

Ahh, to waltz in the very masquerade.

"At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss"- Paulo Coelho

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." - Albert Einstein

"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing. " - Socrates


菩提本无树，何处惹尘埃 - Buddhist philosophy

"When the student is ready, the teacher appears"- -Zen koan

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

"You must have chaos within to give birth to a dancing star"
"That which does kill you will make you stronger"- Friedrich Nietzsche

"It is better to be an unhappy Socrates than a happy Pig"- John Stuart Mill

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life." - Peggy Vaughan

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

"Impossible is found only in the dictionary of fools"- Napoleon Bonaparte

"Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people" - William Butler Yeats

"I cleave the heavens, and soar to the infinite. What others see from afar, I leave far behind me." -- Giordano Bruno

"When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest."- Henry David Thoreau

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'”

- Jack Kerouac

www.youtube.com/watch

Slow down you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart tell me why
Are you still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight (tonight)
Too bad but it's the life you lead
You're so ahead of yourself
That you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong
You know you can't always see when you're right(you're right)

You got your passion you got your pride
But don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize
Vienna waits for you

Slow down you crazy child
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
It's alright you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize...
Vienna waits for you.

And you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
Why don't you realize...Vienna waits for you
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you

-Billy Joel

Secret thoughts running loose
Dark questions
Some deviance
Yet
Naiveté so cleverly hidden
Tender idealism
The flights of imaginative fantasy

Things you'll never know
When I step out of that place
Lock the door
And step into the role of the girl of the world.

Return into my hiding hole
Stripped of all makeup
No pretense.
Barefooted
We'd walk on the grass
And sit by the ocean.
Watching the waves
The sun set and rise
The moon morphing over the nights.
Count the stars
Watch a nestling take its first flight
Stroke an animal.
Listen to the wind sing
Ride the wild horses
Dance in the drizzle.
Spill out thoughts
Or just talk.

Simply undisguised curiosity
In all its nakedness.
Philosophy, esotericism--
Obscure delvings.
You'd displace their crude comments--
"What are you trying to prove"
Because they'd never heard of all these
And need to save some face.
Total acceptance
No judgements
Just questions
Exploration.

Innocent laughter
Genuine sincerity.
Wide-eyed.
Would you like to visit my Secret Garden?
I think you'd like it there.
I think you'd like me then.



©yours truly

Sunday, 14th May

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to be sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one - not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safely in the casket or the coffin of your selfishness. But, in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, unredeemable. The only place outside heaven where you can be safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love, is hell.
- The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward in the same direction."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Don't settle for the one you can live with. Wait for the one you can't live without."- Anonymous

This is, essentially, my personal Philosophy. Something I hold on truly to, something I came up with myself. Whether others agree or not is simply a matter of perspective. But I stay true to this because it is what keeps me Grounded, and opens my heart and mind, to learn and welcome change and internal evolutions. I call it Version Infinity.

If we think of the term "Infinity", or what's denoted mathematically as "∞", what strikes the mind? For me, I see boundless capacity-- for change, for Growth and for everything else that the human spirit is capable of. Infinity divided by something is still infinity-- something so large we can't identify it. Perhaps, beyond our comprehension or accountability. I draw parallels with the Catholic notion of God as the Alpha and the Omega-- the beginning and the end. Yet, where is the beginning and where is the end? Or are there even those?

I believe we all start out as Tabula Rasa-- a blank state, at least, in terms of our consciousness. Babies seek to learn and fill in the gaps to compensate for our set of incomplete instincts. Slowly, but surely. In life, we are no strangers to adversities-- harsh times, whether catastrophic or minor. I also believe that no adversitiy, regardless of magnitude, is useless. Because, they culminate and interact with each other symbiotically, and may even produce a Cascade Effect. Eventually, every iota of experience can be taken as a learning point. Nothing is too insignificant, because if we look back, it's the function and interaction of every experience in our lives that has made us the way we are. Add something new or sans something, we might have turned out different. Whether it's beneficial or disadvantagous, it's a different story altogether.

Yet, how one takes these adversities determines what one becomes as well. One can choose to wallow in self-pity, blame the world and hollow up; yet, that same person can choose to learn from it. To embrace every single scar and cut, to love every bruise, to see every wound as a tattoo in the calculus of the experiences of one's heart and soul. And eventually, the person with that open heart and mind becomes a Prototype. Still raw but clearly shining with potential.

Cycle after cycle of adversity, the Prototype undergoes many phases of modification and adjustment. "Research" is done, the Prototype is tweaked, and we get newer and improved versions of the Prototype, yet, still raw. The caterpillar is still within the cocoon, and it's not the time yet for it to fly out. The inner Alchemy has yet to be complete, and on the surface, it's simply a piece of coal. What we don't know is, the piece of Coal has been thrown into the Fire-- the flames and passion of Life, openly embraced.

The time dawns, and the Coal breaks. Along with that, the energy and vitality is released exothermically. Out from the black cocoon flies the Diamond Butterfly-- a pretty hard and resilient creature. Yet, it's only Version 1.0. Time to try the first few awkward flights. Stumbles and obstacles abound, yet, Version 1.0 has been pretty much steeled. A few bugs, like in the Beta version of a programme.. but who said we are born Perfect?

Version 1.0 evolves to 2.0.. to 3.0.. and so on... Adversity after adversity, Triumph comes about. It's a cycle and moratoriums are to be experienced in the different facets of life. When we face struggles in one domain or aspect of our life, we resolve it and polish that inner mirror asiduously, until it glows. Victory. On to the next dull, unpolished facet. Never languishing in Blindness or Myopic views... recognizing the capacity for Growth and welcoming it with open arms.

Polish after polish, cycles of evolutions one after another, finally a Version Infinity emerges.

This Version Infinity is one, who in his infiniteness, recognizes that he is not yet complete-- the Best is yet to be. As change is the only constancy in life, so must he, in his state of Wisdom and carrying his battlescars proudly, continue to evolve and seek betterment. Knowing that the story and the journey of life is always about constant evolution, and since he is in Infinity mode, there is room for further improvement. He is not someone who blindly talks.. for the Dhammapada states that what good are many words if they are not acted upon? Intent must be translated into action, for both complement and work together. What good does mere talk do, especially if spouted in self-glorification? What does quoting the words of wise men achieve if they are not internalized and there existeth no conviction to act upon them? That is akin to looking but not seeing. The Infinite One also seeks to contemplate, reflect, and in such, you can see genuineness in his eyes.

He appreciates the Journey. For it's not simply the End.. it's the path. And with a Braveheart, Faith, Instincts, Knowledge and all that is within his Essence, he learns. He tames the Cyclops and befriends the Saggi. Labels do not daunt him. He learns to unlearn his fear, to conquer his inner demons and inner Everests, trekking through his inner Kilimanjaros.

Version Infinity is a Wise one, who does not rest on his laurels. For Wisdom is open to those who seek her with an open mind and heart. He seeks Balance in life. He is Contented, yet he seeks to improve, for he knows that Infinity dictates no limits. He is intelligent-- be it from the School of Life or from academic pursuits, yet he is humble. He sees his Darkness and is not repelled by it. He also cultivates his Inner Light and like a beacon, shines for all. Yet, he also learns and receives from the Light that others shine. He reaches beyond himself, and fills his life with Compassion. Selfless and full of Love, for Love, in its purest state, only seeks to be multiplied and not divided. But he is not trapped in any polarity, for he recognizes that the teachings of the Philosophers, of our Elders, and of many wise Sages or Religious guides speak about the contradictions of Dark/Light, Yin/Yang, Day/Night that are the essences of life. And to be caught in either polaritiy, though an easy trap, is what unassuming Fools do. He knows that Inner Peace is the first step to changing any turmoil in our world-- for inner unsettledness is manifested in our world's troubles and suspicions-- and hence, he cultivates that Inner Sanctuary, letting his inner Beauty radiate. He has experienced his senses fully, and in so, has broken the bonds that chain him to them. He, who is truly Infinite, is one to be respected for his Balance and for tapping and reawakening into the Essence of Humanity. He, in all his Beauty, knows his inner mirror is broken. Yet, the broken pieces that have been buffed so arduously, now reflect each other in such resplendent brilliance, like Diamonds with the perfect number and depth of cuts. He, who has transcended it all.

And, with firm conviction, I believe that anyone and everyone has within him or her, the ability to reach Version Infinity. Are you game enough? Do you dare to look within your soul? Are you prepared to come out of that Cave of Shadows? For the journey may seem insurmountable, but hold fast to the unwavering Light at the end of the tunnel. And may we meet, with wings unfurled in unparalleled majesty. ¡Viva la revolución interior!

-P

(2006)

Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of men's desire; he who watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate.

For taking thought of her is the perfection of prudence, and he who for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care; Because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude.

For the first step toward discipline is a very earnest desire for her; then, care for discipline is love of her; love means the keeping of her laws; To observe her laws is the basis for incorruptibility; and incorruptibility makes one close to God; thus the desire for Wisdom leads up to a kingdom.

If, then, you find pleasure in throne and scepter, you princes of the peoples, honor Wisdom, that you may reign as kings forever.
Now what wisdom is, and how she came to be I shall relate; and I shall hide no secrets from you, But from the very beginning I shall search out and bring to light knowledge of her, nor shall I diverge from the truth.

Neither shall I admit consuming jealousy to my company, because that can have no fellowship with Wisdom. A great number of wise men is the safety of the world, and a prudent king, the stability of his people;
so take instruction from my words, to your profit.

Book of Wisdom 6:12-16