Masochistic Perceptions, Trials and Truths

These are my cyberfied cerebral synapses ricocheting off reality as I perceive it: thoughts, opinions, passions, rants, art and poetry...

Sunday, March 12, 2006

The Ultimate Introspection Koan


A Koan is given by a Zen master to his student. My Koan (though I am not Zen master and far from it!) is to ask: "who are you when you are your self?"

Descartes coined the statement “I think, therefore I am”. Shakespeare, in describing this further wrote:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts...


My question is: who is the “I” that thinks? Wittgenstein states that “Everything that can be said can be said clearly”. Bearing that in mind, who are you when there is no one else around? Do we become the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one to hear us, the sound of one hand clapping, or "are" we because we still "think"?

4 Comments:

  • At 4:06 p.m. , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    "All the world could be a stage,
    And we are merely players,
    Each another's audience,
    Beyond the guilded cage."
    Na..NaNaNa
    NaNaNa NaNA NaNa

    Thanks, now "Limelight" will be going through my head for a week.

    (Rush, "Moving Pictures")

     
  • At 9:47 a.m. , Blogger Ed Meers said...

    I think it was 1987 and I was in the second row at a Rush concert. What a show! "Exit, Stage Left" is one of my fav's.

     
  • At 5:54 p.m. , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    You know, I admit to turning on to Rush later on in life, and the concerts I saw were pretty huge. I liked the occasional, but since I didn't get stoned or overdrunk and wake up someplace I didn't remember, I never really saw the attraction for big concerts except to pick up the paraphernalia (sp?) and shirts. The best concert I was at was the first: Bachman Turner Overdrive at Northern Michigan University. 1977. Opening band was "Charlie". I've got the album around somewhere. I think you would like it. Songs about TV, Star Trek, general Pop that was sort of alternative at the time. Real clean sound.
    That started me on a constant quest for Albums of Meaning"....with distorted guitar, of course.
    Best concert: Foreigner in Jacksonville, Fl at a bar called Raven, I think. Crammed inside, they kept blowing the breakers, but it was up close and personal, and it was my birthday.

     
  • At 7:27 p.m. , Blogger Ed Meers said...

    BTO, Rush... Auntigrav, you're not a closet Canadian now are you!?

    I got out of the 'big concert' stuff in high school as I made my way throught the smaller venues of the local punk scene. Still, some of the big shows were something to behold. Probably the best show I ever saw was Iron Maiden on their 'Powerslave' tour. The loudest show I saw (for free and got to interview the band for the local college station) was Metallica on their 'Justice for All' tour. Cost and noise level keeps me away from these things now. My wife saw Bruce Springsteen last time he was through town and I really wouldn't mind seeing him as far as big names go. That aside, I couldn't even name a large venue artist that I'd want to see... God I'm getting old!

     

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home