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So … Which is it?

  

Category:  Photography & Art

By:  a-macarthur  •  5 years ago  •  14 comments

So … Which is it?

The more I consider the quote, the more I wonder about how a guy my age needs to "be" … or … to spend more time "just being."

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© A. Mac/A.G.


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A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
1  author  A. Macarthur    5 years ago

I still spend a good amount of time in pursuit of "truth" and "reality." I recently started to paint again (I've given it up dozens of times … and re-started); for some unknown reason, I have changed my approach, my medium (from oils to acrylics), and my feelings about painting in "realism". 

What's up with that?

There are people who are out-of-my-life-but-still-in-my-heart who I think about contacting … but so far haven't. I worry about friends who have less than I do and wish I could do things to make a difference in their lives … I buy an occasional Mega-Millions Lottery ticket, and, have a list in my head of those friends and reoccurring acquaintances with whom I'd convene an all-expense paid meet-up in Walt Disney World … whereby, in the presence of my accountant and an attorney, I'd hand each in attendance a check for $1 million … no strings attached.

… hmmmm … think I'll buy a ticket tomorrow morning when I buy my coffee.

Night all.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
2  Buzz of the Orient    5 years ago

To bee or not to bee...

512

....is that the question?

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
2.1  author  A. Macarthur  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @2    5 years ago

That’s the ... uhmmm ... the “buzz” ...

... couldn’t resist but it fits all the way around.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
2.1.1  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  A. Macarthur @2.1    5 years ago

Remember: If the Foo shits, wear it.

 
 
 
dave-2693993
Junior Quiet
3  dave-2693993    5 years ago

Such a wonderful topic Mac.

I think many of us go through such cycles in thought some times.

I have some paintings from my Paternal grandmother. I am sure proper critics can rip them apart. I love them.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The truth is what is in us.

Some may or may not know I am a bit perturbed, because the powers that be insist my girls be in purgatory, back in their home country. A periodic thing that is, what it is.

Then sometimes we get a little gift from heaven. I did last night. Some old and new pictures of my girls and some girls I have never met. Primarily they are trying out a new phone camera I got as a gift recently for Nat (our friend Natalya) who lost her phone at the beach last summer.

Technically, these pictures are for the most part, terrible.

I love them. This is my truth, from an older man who fell into a world of dreams.

To borrow a a phrase Buzz: Some Random Pictures from Ukraine". I promise to stay no more risque than PG.

Julia and Grandmother

800

 

Julia, not afraid to be vulnerable and Nat, the happy girl.  A luxury like a phone is not so easily attained as here.

800

 

Can't forget Mom from a couple years ago.

800

 

ok, ok, ok, ok. I am guilty of liking girls who like girls (btw, who is the Mary Tyler Moore looking one there, with Nat to her stage left?)...and the magic of still shots makes the one in the lower right look crying...nope)

800

 

 

...and my Snow Girl

800

 

Sorry, no pictures of Irina or Tat (Tatjana) this time. They broke the PG rule. Naughty girls...

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
3.1  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  dave-2693993 @3    5 years ago

You've got quite a collection - of beautiful girls.

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
4  MrFrost    5 years ago

Thanks for this mac...really...

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
5  author  A. Macarthur    5 years ago

This morning I bought a lottery ticket.

 
 
 
It Is ME
Masters Guide
6  It Is ME    5 years ago

You should spend ALL your time just being. You is who and what you is !

Too many folks spend waaaaaay too much time trying to "Compromise" for the "Other" person these days ! Now what "Compromise" did that "Other" person do for you ?

 
 
 
Nowhere Man
Junior Guide
7  Nowhere Man    5 years ago
We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.

A little history....

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

This is generally attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Joy of Kindness (1993), by Robert J. Furey, p. 138; but it is attributed to G. I. Gurdjieff in Beyond Prophecies and Predictions: Everyone's Guide To The Coming Changes (1993) by Moira Timms, p. 62; neither cite a source. It was widely popularized by Wayne Dyer, who often quotes it in his presentations, crediting it to Chardin, as does Stephen Covey in Living the 7 Habits : Stories of Courage and Inspiration (2000), p. 47

I have spent a lot of time looking for this quote in Chardin' books and could not find it.

Variant: We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.

The above "quotation" can be considered a paraphrase of Hegel's dictum that matter is spirit fallen into a state of self-otherness.

Of all of Chardin's work, I prefer this one....

What paralyzes life is lack of faith and lack of audacity. The difficulty lies not in solving problems but expressing them. And so we cannot avoid this conclusion: it is biologically evident that to gain control of passion and so make it serve spirit must be a condition of progress. Sooner or later, then, the world will brush aside our incredulity and take this step : because whatever is the more true comes out into the open, and whatever is better is ultimately realized. The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. --"The Evolution of Chastity" (February 1934), as translated in Toward the Future (1975) edited by by René Hague, who also suggests "space" as an alternate translation of "the ether."

Variants:

"One day after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity" — after all the scientific and technological achievements — "we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. --As quoted by Sargent Shriver, Jr. in his speech accepting the nomination as the Democratic candidate for vice president, in Washington, D. C. (8 August 1972); this has sometimes been published as if Shriver's interjection "after all the scientific and technological achievements" were part of the original statement, as in The New York Times (9 August 1972), p. 18

The ideal is that being on a journey that we must take, we should maintain our faith while we act on the journey. While on the journey we find that after we have mastered everything around us that is currently apparent, we MUST act on that knowledge in the faith that we will gain love for man as the result. Once we understand this simple equation, it would be as profound to man's advancement as the harnessing of fire.....

The epitome of the human experience is to advance the race, but what is race when our consciousness is so external to it.....

WE are all one in the spirit, the sooner we accept this the sooner we will all live in peace.

Catch the fire my friends!

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
7.1  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Nowhere Man @7    5 years ago
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
"This is .... attributed to G. I. Gurdjieff in Beyond Prophecies and Predictions: Everyone's Guide To The Coming Changes (1993) by Moira Timms..."

You go on to speak of our going on a journey, and to maintain our faith. Gurdjieff in his youth did that very thing, while seeking for the meaning of life, and why he existed.  That was well illustrated in the movie about his youth, Meetings with Remarkable Men, which is one of my most favourite and inspirational films, and which you posted on this site a while ago. 

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
8  author  A. Macarthur    5 years ago

Great addition to the discussion!

I cannot account for the disparity in attribution of the quote and variants. 

This is where I found it …

Stephen R. Covey   >   Quotes   > Quotable Quote

1538.jpg

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”


  Stephen Covey
tags:   life ,   religion ,   spiritual
Read more quotes from   Stephen R. Covey  
Regardless, the point is one to consider, and, for me personally, as I ponder its words, at this moment I come away with the question, "Is it time … or …well passed the time … I should be more spontaneous and less deliberate?"
 
 
 
Nowhere Man
Junior Guide
8.1  Nowhere Man  replied to  A. Macarthur @8    5 years ago

The best I have found my friend is to be yourself. Leave the expectations to others. 

Hence there is no need to expound anything.

I have always held that the truth needs no defense, so I have no need to agress anything. Be true to ones self and relax in the light that is uniquely yours....

If others cannot see the light that is easily before them, then they have trouble shining their own light and have more to worry about than little ol' me.......

Your light shines strong my friend, let it shine.....

Those who see it, appreciate it, greatly.

Peace brother....

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
8.1.1  author  A. Macarthur  replied to  Nowhere Man @8.1    5 years ago

Peace to you as well … and hell-to-pay tonight for the Cowboys!

 
 

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