TheReturnerofRazorburn's Xanga

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 07:15:45 GMT

Recently on Facebook, someone asked the following question: Can someone give me ONE LOGICAL REASON to believe god exists?

This was my response:

All of you people should read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn ^_^

God is sort of irrelevant when you look at the grand scheme of laws and the beauty of not being God.

Anyway, in relation to the logical aspect of God existing, I must stab at this from the Buddhist perspective a bit. When talking of existence at all, we must first consider what in fact does exist. We need a control before delving into such a complex figure as a god. We must look at the realm of the real with a critical eye and decide on one single reality if we are to as a group determine a logical progression which would lead to one thing either existing or not existing without the two happening simultaneously (by means of multiple realities). Here we see our initial problem, the first of four, with logically deducing such a vast topic.

We are forced to agree on reality based on flawed experiences and different perspectives by vote. Now, if the vote is anything but unanimous, and I can be sure that I'll vote the one opposition if need be, then there is no fully agreed reality. To say then that my vote doesn't count or it's a majority rule would mean that for a long time the world was indeed flat.

This is a perfect segue into the next problem which is the problem of absolute truth. We believe, or (better stated) must have faith in the idea, that our current science and logic are really showing us absolute truth. The problem here is that we are basing our control on something which is in constant fluctuation. This is clear in the rapidly changing aspects of quantum mechanics where we believe with great certainty that an electron will be within its orbital roughly 90% of the time but in reality it could be anywhere in the universe at any given moment. This 90% is good, but hardly can suffice to be an absolute truth. What we have from these tactics of reason is a discussion of the "general truth" and absolutely not an absolute truth. Even a 99.99999999999999% accuracy is still not always right and thus while our laws exist in science as they are; they only stand against the test of time. No matter how long something is considered right that is wrong, it's status as wrong does not change. So while for now we must rely on this as a truth for perhaps even a thousand lifetimes, we can not wisely hold it as the only truth or an absolute truth for all time (which gods may or may not transcend).

Reason three for the trouble with logical progression to God is that if it we use a purely logical argument, it would leave out all of the things which are not logical that can still occur in the realm of a deity. To ignore the spontaneous and sudden discontinuity which a god or even a human is capable, can occasionally render a necessary leap for survival, understanding or even absolute truth. Though this may seem wordy, an explanation Zen Buddhism uses is that when one achieves enlightenment or even a vast understanding of any kind (Satori) it rarely comes from a purely logical progression to that state. For example, when learning to do a difficult physical action, let's say a hand stand, we can't simply be told how to do it and have it work immediately. It actually takes repetition until your body finally understands the motion and balance required. It is not a digital understanding but an analogue accumulation of knowledge which does not have a place in logic or science. To say about A added to about B makes 35 is an entirely flawed statement. Instead, we must make a leap to that 35 and apply what we can in our given situation and basically guess (an action based on logic but not necessarily the logical answer). It is in this that we find the application of non-logic which yields results just as well, if not better, than logic in our assumed reality.

Finally, the most important aspect of this is that all of our experiences (the root of our logic) are based on fundamentally flawed concepts of the real. O.K, look at your hands, then cross your eyes and see what happens. You see perhaps three hands, perhaps two hands, perhaps even one hand. However, this perception is subject to alteration and our reality is forced to change for that period of time. This isn't to say that only sight is flawed. The sum of a cold feeling and a warm feeling creates the sensation of a hot feeling to our touch, thus we cannot trust just the feeling of things. We all hear things incorrectly at times, so where is the reliability of our ears? Smell and taste are completely different to different people and so while many of us love chocolate and it smells sweet and pleasant to us, we can barely say that is the case for every person on earth. In fact the dislike of chocolate is a genetic trait. Are these people not perceiving reality? Are they not trying to logically deduce one of the empirical things on which we supposedly agree? "Chocolate is sweet, I like sweet things, thus I like chocolate," is a logical statement that can not be applied universally to all things. Once we get to where it would have a logical accuracy, we have to deal again with the problem of testing every man, woman, child, animal, plant, vegetable, fruit, mineral, molecule, atom, and subatomic particle OR we can generalize yet again based on these analogue senses which are subject to change over time and are different for every individual and a virtually infinite number of possible realities.

So we have four reasons not to use logic here. That aside, as I re-read your question, I notice that you are asking for a logical reason to BELIEVE God exists. So let's see what your sources for this can be...

What are valid means of knowing enough to lead to a belief? If you want something as simple as experience, then I can give you no reason to believe in any god. However, you can give yourself that reason by a series of experiences which validate enough for you to experience a god with your senses in one way or another (logically speaking though the senses may be flawed).

Next you have the option of inferring God's existence. You can say, "Well, so many things have serendipitously occurred in my life that I have reason to believe God exists." or even simply based on your experiences you can infer God exists just as you can infer that a deer has been through your yard based on foot prints in snow or mud, or that you found some fur, urine or feces which could belong to a deer in your yard.

You could also believe the valid testimony of a trusted source. If you trust your parents and they say God exists, why deny their idea (nb: I don't think anyone should indeed just trust their parents off the bat but they should in fact explore more ideas than the one into which they happen to be born. However this is just my opinion which is clearly only worth the price you paid for it, nothing)? If you trust the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament or the Koran or the Vedas or the Mahayana Sutras that tell about Bodhisattvas or the Tao Te Ching or traditional Greek and Roman stories or hieroglyphic details of gods from Egypt or any other texts which detail someone(s) or something greater than yourself, then go for it and believe in god(s) and/or goddess(es). If you believe only science and logic's testimony, then you still lack a thorough quantitative explanation of the topic. This isn't because the subject has yet to be tackled, but because we lack a method or a technology to accurately quantify God as 0 or 1 or >1.

Conclusion: While there is no one purely logical reason I can give you to personally choose to believe god exists, there are plenty of reasons that you have that allow you to make the non-logical progression to the existence of something greater than yourself. It is our dualistic thinking that also says that God must either exist or not. We have the option of saying that God Non-exists and that we must have faith in God as being beyond either of those simple ideas of our so called 'reality.' So I suggest to you that you explore the possibility of this higher power existing all around you. Just look at the ocean. Can you still be the biggest, baddest, most knowing thing out there next to that vast body of water that is far bigger than we can actually conceive? Sure you can, but to me, that sounds like a truly arrogant position to take. We could better use our time helping the world (not OUR world) through faith, giving and seeking the truth, however difficult and non-logical it may be.

Thanks for reading!

~Raphael Falkoff

B.A. in Religion and Asian Studies

from Temple University

Please respond to this or message me your responses. They can be either praise or critique but either way, be kind. ^_^

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:06:47 GMT

I won a plane ticket to JAPAN~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

^_______________^

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I think I'm going to Japan I think I'm going to Japan I really think so.... (doodoodoodoo doo doo doo---doooo)

Women are the death of me...

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:30:30 GMT

Girl with star eyes fire hair and water skin, do call me. I think of sweet roses in my life and how I am waiting to release my heart. Waiting and watching and trying undying though flying denying the sighing of her chest. And I'm not lying. I look at such natural blossoms left and falling petals right and I can see myself hit the ground again and again and again.

I think of the time I flew from building to building and half way through lost my footing and fell. I landed on the ground and felt the crush of my lungs and my liver against my ribs and my heart. My splintering spine and flaking bones jab me from within as my eyes crush from inside to out. This end, this desolate end goes beyond all comprehension to the point of purest dreams. And though it seems unreal, it is my day and is my artifact of the sun. I wait and wait and wait and yet this moment does not escape my pocket even to tell my name. The clothing kept, no seam stretched, the ghost of the tree stands waiting and once again my death has changed. Yet still, somehow, it is death.

My hollow hallow waits to be cut down and gently placed where its feet never reached. Sadly sorrow surrounds such sweet souls yet they taste of tonic and tinctures tried twice by bitter braves. The rope I held so dearly holds me now. In oven sunlight vultures peck and I allow. Dropping their desserts, they cry and caw all along the edges of the afternoon. Bright and early two days later adventurers find my treasured inner gold. All good parts not rusted at high prices quickly are sold.

And I missed my pounding heart. And I missed my pounding mind. And I missed my lungs and some how died. Powder graces my hands and covers my hair. No single cell abandons the flaming ship but they all try. No captain to lead they are leaded and can not leave. My headache is gone but my thoughts remain. For each new moment is the same as the last, my eyes are relieved of their pressure. Down the hallway I see him. Not sure what he's done or who he's been. Still I wonder what his daughter has seen. Will she call out or keep it all in? I will fall down once again.

Still I see her boiling her face and brightening her sight. Two solid orange moons open and are dotted. Debating the weight of fated satyrs singing of ancient freight. Oh the anger of the wait! Autumn falls and flowers wilt leaving leaves like me to drop and hit the ground again and again and again.

Kafka called me an oaf

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:38:21 GMT

In an old orchard, I found a small key. There was no lock to be found and there were no doors near by at all. I sat on the stump of a tree cut down by the ages. In a moment I was asleep and dreaming. This is what I dreamed:

Outside of a crushed barbershop with a fallen pole and crumbled corner I was waiting for someone. This person I have never met, but I stood there with balloons for them when they arrived. Heat oozed from the streets and the walls of the small ruins around me. The streets were bare and covered in ash, dust and sand while a few wild plants sat in unpleasantly aromatic dew and dirty soil. By the time the person was supposed to arrive the balloons had faded out of existence and my watch read 29:49. I know I knew they knew to meet at noon after the new moon. Yet somehow something seemed to slip to the side of their mind.
An hour and a minute or a second and a day slide beyond to when the stars appear in the sky above this ever still solace in the desolate street. I look down and notice that there is a boy near the corner. He called me over and called me oafish. He was ten years old and told me to be careful. That moment a bee flew down my throat and I had to swallow a stinger. I felt like I had died by arrows and I wondered if the floundering fellow would appear. The rest of the scene disappeared as the pain overwhelmed my senses. A silent scream came from my palms and toes. My chest was a bundle of kindling and the killer bee kindly started a fire in my chest. The wind passed through my eyes and down my spine to the center of the spindle and my fine fibers were plucked individually then strummed in unison. So I died by the hands of this boy named Crow.

A leaf fell on my head and I came home safely. The pain still there but empty of the real. Key in hand, I looked for the goblet at my side and noticed honeydew nectar had collected there. The orchard sat me up and sent me on my way with an apple and a kiss. By morning I had forgotten it all. I forgot it all. I forgot.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:29:59 GMT

Have you ever wanted a single sip of water so badly you cried just for the taste?

So zen, so right, so calm, so so. I have it all. A job with huge growth potential, a great semester grade wise coming to an end, a girlfriend, friends, a cell phone, a full belly, a home, a family, a deep breath, and yet also a problem. Those are in no particular order.
I never update. I never think to write down these happenings and yet it somehow feels that right now I must. The problem is all inside my head I said to me. The answer is easy if I take it logically. I guess I've got a struggle to be free.
I'm just going to have to sleep on it tonight and hopefully in the morning I'll be able to see the light. So soon time for bed.
I have aches in my head too. I cannot keep the night from coming in.

Won't someone come on in to take up some more space in my room?

Hisashiburi, Gobusata, and the rest...

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:17:44 GMT

"You're too pretty for your nose to be chilly!" ~some old guy on the street to me...

I don't know what prompted me to write but I have some interesting things to discuss.
I have what looks like a renewed interest in training peeking up from both new and old students.
We shall see where this goes but I am indeed excited.
Not much more to say than that for now, but I think things are going well.
Yeah, I guess I haven't been writing because I haven't had anything but my usual blather to say.
Good. No real blather here either.

^_^

"Damn! You one ugly mother ******! Tricked me! Bastard."

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 12:34:23 GMT

Congrats: Kathleen passed her test!!!

I'm so tired...

I saw you standing at the airport
With your chihuahua in your hand
Crying on the moving sidewalk
On your way to Disneyland

I am starting to fall back into normal existance...
This is awful...I need a miracle...
Time to angrilly buy groceries which may or may not ever be eaten.
I could have gone to a sweat lodge, but no.
I've never needed the moon like this.

You held me upside-down
Till I couldn't breathe anymore
Then you held me like a baby
Television, like wine; and cigarettes, like grains of sand;
And raspberry schnapps, like a thousand sunsets.
The boys talk like they own the world
The women keep their stupid diaries
But suddenly there's a tidal wave
And everything is sucked out to sea.
There were probably birds
Outside our little room
I don't remember anything but you
You must have been the butt
Of all the jokes in the world
For trying to live like Pippi Longstocking.

I'm gonna be a star fruit surf rider....

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 02:56:59 GMT

"Hey, Solid Rafe, I got a new mission for ya..."

Personal...Very Personal...

An extremely close friend of mine was just robbed at gunpoint today. He was held up and tied up for about an hour while three men stole his playstation 2, all of his games, his DS and one game for it. They then left as his mother and grandmother came home. He was extemely lucky to go unharmed. This is one of those situations where I feel both responsiblities. I feel responsible for him not knowing what to do and thus being victimized, but I feel responsible for him not knowing what to do and thus not trying something beyond his capablities and ultimately getting wounded or killed. This leaves me feeling nothing but confused. I took seven deep breaths and have written this piece of information out. That is the beginning. I am calling on all of my students from hence forth to be fully aware of their situation beit in danger immediately or not. Andy, Neaguen, Lola: You are my source of awareness in this situation and are the only ones I feel are knowlegable in this kind of dangerous situation. Jason and all of my other genin and pregenin, be aware that you are NOT ready for high risk weapon situations. In the event that someone holds you up, I ask that you do what my friend did here. Give them what you have until you have polished your skill to at the very minimum Chuunin. That is when I had my situation and as a result was capable of handling it. This is a major part of why most of you train. While martial arts is an aspect of all of your lives spiritually, mentally, and physically, in events like this, it is your only mode of defence. This situation could have been worse in so many ways and I know that it is my responsiblity to make sure that all of my students and all of their important and loved people are safe in EVERY situation. If you feel that you are not there and wish to be, please let me know and I will without hesitation teach you what you need to know. It is your responsiblity to polish it and ultimately be capable of executing it. It is so decreed.

On another note, I feel a little more relaxed now but I still feel tense, I am going to go over every one of my unarmed v. weapon techniques in three styles tonight. I will have polished them to a mirror sheen by tomorrow and hope that some of you are interested in learning them soon. We will practice in a way that is safe, but I expect each of you to treat the situation as though it is real. However, in the event that you simply do not want to do it, be fully aware that you will be INCAPABLE of executing moves which would be used in such situations and should NEVER even attempt them without extensive training.

This has been a public sensei announcement.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 05:23:44 GMT

I have been thinking lately, what would it be like if I were blind, allergic to dogs, and had no sense of touch in my fingers? That would truly suck.

I also was wondering:
How does one sleep? Is it just a full relaxation? Or is there some initiating factor going on that we all do but are unaware we are doing it? For that matter, could we trigger a wake up with another thing from sound or touch? Would an alarm clock triggered by smell work if you had some light sound at first but then slowly took the audio away and left you entirely relying on your sense of smell? And what would happen then if you had a stuffy nose? Would you be able to smell better if it were for the survival of your job as it once was for survival in life? Would staying awake keep you from smelling? Does any of this mean that if we just keep doing an action for an extended period of time we would adjust to it and get accustomed to it? Is that a good thing? Is this a real defining of karma in its actual form? Is karma anything other than the stream of our existence carving away a deep vale through which all of our pain flows? Would keeping ourselves from adjusting lessen that depth? Does this mean that at their cores Buddhism and Taoism are exact opposites? Do I live in an unrealistic Dichotomy between full existence and non-existence? Does this phrase even exist? Does phrasing it differently change anything really? Does this change do anything? How about this one? Would it be better if I just forgot about it and relaxed? Would that put me to sleep? Would that put me to sleep?How does one sleep? Is it just a full relaxation? Or is there some initiating factor going on that we all do but are unaware we are doing it? For that matter, could we trigger a wake up with another thing from sound or touch? Would an alarm clock triggered by smell work if you had some light sound at first but then slowly took the audio away and left you entirely relying on your sense of smell? And what would happen then if you had a stuffy nose? Would you be able to smell better if it were for the survival of your job as it once was for survival in life? Would staying awake keep you from smelling? Does any of this mean that if we just keep doing an action for an extended period of time we would adjust to it and get accustomed to it? Is that a good thing? Is this a real defining of karma in its actual form? Is karma anything other than the stream of our existence carving away a deep vale through which all of our pain flows? Would keeping ourselves from adjusting lessen that depth? Does this mean that at their cores Buddhism and Taoism are exact opposites? Do I live in an unrealistic Dichotomy between full existence and non-existence? Does this phrase even exist? Does phrasing it differently change anything really? Does Does this change do anything? How about this one? Would it be better if I just forgot about it and relaxed? Would that put me to sleep? Would that put me to sleep? Did reading this twice put you to sleep? Did you even realize it was the same thing completely twice? Did you notice the repetition of the word "does" eight sentences ago? Do you think I did that on purpose? Does it really matter? Would it not be better if I were sleeping right now? How should I go to sleep? How do I live like this?

As all creation, there is another creation which passes and is born at once. Such fluctuations eventually become aware of themselves. Upon realization, they are set into an infinite motion out toward the clearest edges of the pond. It looks very pretty from the bank.

Agony, Release and Rapture.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 06:46:36 GMT

its been a little while...

Right now, I feel the heavy pull of water into the basin of my lower eye lids, but not from sadness. I am somewhat in awe of the beauty of the night I know is out there but I do not see. It is that time for me to just sit in my own contemplation. I feel that Buddha will tell me what I need to hear tomorrow.

Though the dying embers may slowly find their warm ways into my wind struck ears, I will stick to my natural rhythm. My raw material mind will find its way back home. I sometimes miss those days.

Oh, please can you, time,
Tell me if it would be fine
To touch still warm coals?

I feel the chill of the cool waved in wind and just want it to calm back so I can just enjoy the fire some more. It doesn't end exactly but somehow I heat up. I may want to go back inside, but this fire can't be taken with me. I have to sit by it and stay in its comfort or recline in the refuge of my bed. The thick summer air begins to settle on my fingers as dew. I look out into the autonomic sky and see the swishing crystals of the morning egressing from the onyx and into the black opalescent dawn. The kind of stone sky where if you turn your head just right you can see the inferno blazing at its core so very far from earth. But you can always feel its warmth whether you can touch it or not.

I watch as the ultra-orchid sun twists itself slowly through the ether and I sip my drink. The soft flavors of maple syrup, asprin and chewing gum slush amongst the crushed ice as it bubbles ever so silently behind the ambiance of the waves. Each sip puts another quarter drop of liquid just beneath my lashes. The unique feeling of searching is gone. I grow bored of the same night stars I lay under night after night I spend unsleeping my dreams. By now my embers have faded. The romance between the sun and moon has left the moon telling the sun to take it. It does. And I return to the comfort of my room.

Six wittnessed the waves,
Three watched cherry petals fall,
One watched the ocean...

Now. as the morning light peeks in through the cracks in my home made home, I am covered in tiny prayers and I empty then sleep. This is the first time I have ever felt the sting of touching the dying ember.