I've always believed in numbers and the equations and logics that lead to reason.
But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask,
"What truly is logic?"
"Who decides reason?"
My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional -- and back.
And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life:
It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found.
I'm only here tonight because of you.
You are the reason I am.
You are all my reasons.
Thank you.
- John Nash
Saturday, December 5
Monday, November 30
군자는 위로 통달하고 소인은 아래로 통달한다
과거 성현이라 알려진 사람들은 모두 자기중심성으로부터 자신을 해방시키고, 나아가 세계 인류를 근본적 질곡으로부터 벗어나도록 도운 사람들이다. 공자가 제시한 군자는 바로 이 자기중심성을 넘어선 인간의 전형이다.
'군자는 상달하고, 소인은 하달한다.'
이 구절은 군자의 특징을 잘 보여 주고 있다. 군자는 자기중심성을 넘어서고자 하는 지향이 뚜렷한 사람이고, 소인은 자기중심성 속에 머무르려는 사람이다.
군자의 상달은 인류 진화의 방향을 잘 보여 준다. 이제는 개인 차원이 아니라 인류 전체가 소인에서 군자로 진화하지 않으면 인류의 존속마저 위협받게 되는 시대가 되었다. 이것이 공자를 비롯한 성인이 제시한 길이 인류 보편의 과제가 되어야 하는 이유다.
우주의 자연선택이 인간이었다면 인간 가운데서도 어떤 유형의 사람이 가장 오래 존속했을까? 2천여 년 이상을 존속하고 있는 사람들은 바로 석가, 예수, 공자 등의 성현들이다.
이들은 자기중심성을 넘어서 가장 진보적인 가치인 사랑과 자비, 인의 실천을 체화한 사람들이다.
- 이남곡, <논어>
'군자는 상달하고, 소인은 하달한다.'
이 구절은 군자의 특징을 잘 보여 주고 있다. 군자는 자기중심성을 넘어서고자 하는 지향이 뚜렷한 사람이고, 소인은 자기중심성 속에 머무르려는 사람이다.
군자의 상달은 인류 진화의 방향을 잘 보여 준다. 이제는 개인 차원이 아니라 인류 전체가 소인에서 군자로 진화하지 않으면 인류의 존속마저 위협받게 되는 시대가 되었다. 이것이 공자를 비롯한 성인이 제시한 길이 인류 보편의 과제가 되어야 하는 이유다.
우주의 자연선택이 인간이었다면 인간 가운데서도 어떤 유형의 사람이 가장 오래 존속했을까? 2천여 년 이상을 존속하고 있는 사람들은 바로 석가, 예수, 공자 등의 성현들이다.
이들은 자기중심성을 넘어서 가장 진보적인 가치인 사랑과 자비, 인의 실천을 체화한 사람들이다.
- 이남곡, <논어>
Thursday, November 19
Thursday, October 29
Thursday, October 15
Sunday, July 19
Sunday, May 24
배우기를 좋아하지 않으면 나타나는 폐단
공자께서 자로에게 말씀하셨다.
"유야 너넌 육언육폐라는 말을 들어 본 적이 있느냐?"
자로가 대답했다.
"아직 듣지 못했습니다."
"앉거라. 내가 그 폐단에 관해 말해 주겠다. 인을 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 어리석어지고, 지혜를 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 허황해지며, 신의를 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 의를 해치게 되고, 정직함을 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 가혹해지며, 용기를 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 난폭해지고, 굳세기를 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어한다면 무모해진다."
"유야 너넌 육언육폐라는 말을 들어 본 적이 있느냐?"
자로가 대답했다.
"아직 듣지 못했습니다."
"앉거라. 내가 그 폐단에 관해 말해 주겠다. 인을 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 어리석어지고, 지혜를 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 허황해지며, 신의를 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 의를 해치게 되고, 정직함을 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 가혹해지며, 용기를 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어하면 난폭해지고, 굳세기를 좋아한다면서 배우기를 싫어한다면 무모해진다."
Saturday, May 16
#AccordingToMyMother
When my mom disowned me for being gay, it was my freshman year of college. I remember going to the Financial Aid Office to consider my options as a suddenly-and-unxpectedly financially-independent 16-year-old, and they had me fill out some surprisingly simple paperwork and register for ten sessions of therapy. The therapist I was assigned ended up being the best to come form the Financial Aid Office -- of all places! He really helped me find a new way to approach my relationship with my mother.
He said I could be "White," "Black" or "Gray." "White" meant I could go back in the closet as my mom hoped and prayed and return to the church and fight this "sin" and have the old relationship I had my mother. "Black" meant resuming our silence, letting the rift grow larger and learning to live without a relationship with my mother because neither of us was going to change. I was always going to be gay. She was always going to believe that homosexuality was a choice and a sin. Or I could try to find the "Gray." He highlighted the fact that my mother was a single parent and I was an only child and that our relationship, while incredibly messy, was important to each of us. And perhaps we could find a gray area in which I would accept the likelihood that she was never going to change her belief system, but I would learn to have compassion in the face of her homophobia, or ignore her ignorance, and let her words that were meant to hurt just go through one ear and out the other. Love by example, even when it may never be reciprocated in the same fashion. Am I always successful at this? No. I mean, I find a weird form of catharsis by writing about it and sharing it with the world. But I think the intention is pure. And maybe if we found the gray area in our extreme points of view a little bit more, then maybe we could have a little more understanding in the world. A little more love.
-- Daniel K. Issac, The Huffington Post Interview
He said I could be "White," "Black" or "Gray." "White" meant I could go back in the closet as my mom hoped and prayed and return to the church and fight this "sin" and have the old relationship I had my mother. "Black" meant resuming our silence, letting the rift grow larger and learning to live without a relationship with my mother because neither of us was going to change. I was always going to be gay. She was always going to believe that homosexuality was a choice and a sin. Or I could try to find the "Gray." He highlighted the fact that my mother was a single parent and I was an only child and that our relationship, while incredibly messy, was important to each of us. And perhaps we could find a gray area in which I would accept the likelihood that she was never going to change her belief system, but I would learn to have compassion in the face of her homophobia, or ignore her ignorance, and let her words that were meant to hurt just go through one ear and out the other. Love by example, even when it may never be reciprocated in the same fashion. Am I always successful at this? No. I mean, I find a weird form of catharsis by writing about it and sharing it with the world. But I think the intention is pure. And maybe if we found the gray area in our extreme points of view a little bit more, then maybe we could have a little more understanding in the world. A little more love.
-- Daniel K. Issac, The Huffington Post Interview
Tuesday, May 5
"First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.
"Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truths has any chance of being supplied.
"Thirdly, even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds."
-- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859
"Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truths has any chance of being supplied.
"Thirdly, even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds."
-- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859
Wednesday, January 14
Mourning the Parisian Journalists Yet Noticing the Hypocrisy
by Rabbi Machael Lerner
Editor, Tikkun Magazine
As the editor of a progressive Jewish and interfaith magazine that has often articulated views that have prompted condemnation from both Right and Left, I had good reason to be scared by the murders of fellow journalists in Paris. Having won the 2014 "Magazine of the Year" Award from the Religion Newswriters Association, and having been critical of Hamas' attempts to bomb Israeli cities this past summer (even while being equally critical of Israel's rampage against civilians in Gaza), I have good reason to worry if this prominence raises the chances of being a target for Islamic extremists.
But then again, I had to wonder about the way the massacre in Paris is being depicted and framed by the Western media as a horrendous threat to Western civilization, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, I wondered about the over-heated nature of this description. It didn't take me long to understand how problematic that framing really is.
When right-wing "pro-Israel" fanatics frequently sent me death threats, physically attacked y house and painted on the gates statements about me being "a Nazi" or "a self-hating Jew," and called in bomb threats to Tikkun, the magazine I edit, there was no attention given to this by the media, no cries of "our civilization depends on freedom of the press" or demands to hunt down those involved (the FBI and police received our complaints, but never reported back to us about what they were doing to protect us or find the assailants).
Nor was the mainstream or Jewish media particularly concerned about Western civilization being destroyed or freedom of thought and association undermined when various universities denied tenure to professors who had made statements critical of Israel, or when the Hillel association, which operates a chain of student-oriented "Hillel Houses" on college campuses, decided to ban from their premises any Jews who were part of Jewish Voices for Peace. Nor was the media much interested in a bomb that went off outside the NAACP's Colorado Springs headquarters the same day as they were highlighting the attack in Paris. Colorado Springs is home to some of the most extreme right-wing activists. It was a balding white man who was seen setting the bomb, some reports claim, and so the media described it as an act of a troubled "lone individual," rather than as a white right wing Christian fundamentalist terrorist. Few Americans have ever heard of this incident.
Continue reading
Editor, Tikkun Magazine
As the editor of a progressive Jewish and interfaith magazine that has often articulated views that have prompted condemnation from both Right and Left, I had good reason to be scared by the murders of fellow journalists in Paris. Having won the 2014 "Magazine of the Year" Award from the Religion Newswriters Association, and having been critical of Hamas' attempts to bomb Israeli cities this past summer (even while being equally critical of Israel's rampage against civilians in Gaza), I have good reason to worry if this prominence raises the chances of being a target for Islamic extremists.
But then again, I had to wonder about the way the massacre in Paris is being depicted and framed by the Western media as a horrendous threat to Western civilization, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, I wondered about the over-heated nature of this description. It didn't take me long to understand how problematic that framing really is.
When right-wing "pro-Israel" fanatics frequently sent me death threats, physically attacked y house and painted on the gates statements about me being "a Nazi" or "a self-hating Jew," and called in bomb threats to Tikkun, the magazine I edit, there was no attention given to this by the media, no cries of "our civilization depends on freedom of the press" or demands to hunt down those involved (the FBI and police received our complaints, but never reported back to us about what they were doing to protect us or find the assailants).
Nor was the mainstream or Jewish media particularly concerned about Western civilization being destroyed or freedom of thought and association undermined when various universities denied tenure to professors who had made statements critical of Israel, or when the Hillel association, which operates a chain of student-oriented "Hillel Houses" on college campuses, decided to ban from their premises any Jews who were part of Jewish Voices for Peace. Nor was the media much interested in a bomb that went off outside the NAACP's Colorado Springs headquarters the same day as they were highlighting the attack in Paris. Colorado Springs is home to some of the most extreme right-wing activists. It was a balding white man who was seen setting the bomb, some reports claim, and so the media described it as an act of a troubled "lone individual," rather than as a white right wing Christian fundamentalist terrorist. Few Americans have ever heard of this incident.
Continue reading
Monday, January 5
Any philosophy worthy of its title should not be a mere intellectual exercise but should have practical application in enabling man to live an enlightened life. A philosophy which makes no difference to the quality and style of our life is no philosophy, but an empty intellectual construction.
- Ramakrishna Puligandla , Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy
- Ramakrishna Puligandla , Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy
Sunday, January 4
정토회 수행문
모든 괴로움과 얽매임은 잘 살펴보면 다 내 마음이 일으킨다.
그런 어리석은 사람들은 이 괴로움과 얽매임이 밖으로부터 오는 줄 착각하고 이 종교 저 종교, 이절 저절, 이 사람 저 사람을 찾아다니며 행복과 자유를 구하지만 끝내 얻지 못한다.
그것은 안심입명의 도는 밖으로 찾아서는 결코 얻을 수 없기 때문이다.
언제 어디에서 일어난 어떤 괴로움일지라도 안으로 살펴보면 그 모든 괴로움의 뿌리가 다 마음 가운데 있고 그 마음의 실체가 본래 공한 줄 알면 모든 괴로움은 저절로 사라진다.
그런데도 사람들은 자신이 일으킨 한 생각에 사로잡혀 옳다 그르다 모양짓고 그 모양에 집착해서 온갖 괴로움을 스스로 만든다.
한 생각 돌이켜서 이 사로잡힘에서 벗어나면 모든 괴로움과 얽매임은 즉시 사라진다.
그런 어리석은 사람들은 이 괴로움과 얽매임이 밖으로부터 오는 줄 착각하고 이 종교 저 종교, 이절 저절, 이 사람 저 사람을 찾아다니며 행복과 자유를 구하지만 끝내 얻지 못한다.
그것은 안심입명의 도는 밖으로 찾아서는 결코 얻을 수 없기 때문이다.
언제 어디에서 일어난 어떤 괴로움일지라도 안으로 살펴보면 그 모든 괴로움의 뿌리가 다 마음 가운데 있고 그 마음의 실체가 본래 공한 줄 알면 모든 괴로움은 저절로 사라진다.
그런데도 사람들은 자신이 일으킨 한 생각에 사로잡혀 옳다 그르다 모양짓고 그 모양에 집착해서 온갖 괴로움을 스스로 만든다.
한 생각 돌이켜서 이 사로잡힘에서 벗어나면 모든 괴로움과 얽매임은 즉시 사라진다.