When Philosophy Lost Its Way - nytimes.com/

Excerpts from  NY Times: Opinionator | When Philosophy Lost Its Way 

The act of purification accompanying the creation of the modern research university was not just about differentiating realms of knowledge. It was also about divorcing knowledge from virtue. Though it seems foreign to us now, before purification the philosopher (and natural philosopher) was assumed to be morally superior to other sorts of people. The 18th-century thinker Joseph Priestley wrote “a Philosopher ought to be something greater and better than another man.” Philosophy, understood as the love of wisdom, was seen as a vocation, like the priesthood. It required significant moral virtues (foremost among these were integrity and selflessness), and the pursuit of wisdom in turn further inculcated those virtues. The study of philosophy elevated those who pursued it. Knowing and being good were intimately linked. It was widely understood that the point of philosophy was to become good rather than simply to collect or produce knowledge.

The scientist’s privileged role was to provide the morally neutral knowledge needed to achieve our goals, whether good or evil. This put an end to any notion that there was something uplifting about knowledge. The purification made it no longer sensible to speak of nature, including human nature, in terms of purposes and functions. By the late 19th century, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche had proved the failure of philosophy to establish any shared standard for choosing one way of life over another. This is how Alasdair MacIntyre explained philosophy’s contemporary position of insignificance in society and marginality in the academy. There was a brief window when philosophy could have replaced religion as the glue of society; but the moment passed. People stopped listening as philosophers focused on debates among themselves.

Once knowledge and goodness were divorced, scientists could be regarded as experts, but there are no morals or lessons to be drawn from their work. Science derives its authority from impersonal structures and methods, not the superior character of the scientist. The individual scientist is no different from the average Joe; he or she has, as Shapin has written, “no special authority to pronounce on what ought to be done.” For many, science became a paycheck, and the scientist became a “de-moralized” tool enlisted in the service of power, bureaucracy and commerce.

Here, too, philosophy has aped the sciences by fostering a culture that might be called “the genius contest.” Philosophic activity devolved into a contest to prove just how clever one can be in creating or destroying arguments. Today, a hyperactive productivist churn of scholarship keeps philosophers chained to their computers. Like the sciences, philosophy has largely become a technical enterprise, the only difference being that we manipulate words rather than genes or chemicals. Lost is the once common-sense notion that philosophers are seeking the good life — that we ought to be (in spite of our failings) model citizens and human beings. Having become specialists, we have lost sight of the whole. The point of philosophy now is to be smart, not good. It has been the heart of our undoing.

As you deeply think so it shall happen

yat bhaavam tat bhavati  यत्भावं  तत्  भवति 

In her personal journal as well as in her short stories, Katherine Mansfield showed a special interest in exploring the psychological underpinnings of much human conduct.  

   "Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently,
    but life itself would come to be different.
    Life would undergo a change of appearance because
    we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude."

   "If you wish to live, you must first attend your own funeral."

In this observation, Mansfield recommends that -- no matter what our current age -- we imagine our own death.  The basic idea is to think about who will show up at our funeral, and what will be said about us in the eulogies.  It's an old idea, but a good one, and most recently suggested by Stephen R. Covey in his book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" (1989).  His Second Habit is called "Begin with the End in Mind

Childless-Couple in Kongu, Tamil Nadu

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/in-defence-of-the-chronicler-of-kongu/article6778031.ece

Extract:

“Perumal Murugan is a scholar with a rich sense of history.”
A file photo of the novelist. - The Hindu

“Mathorubhagan” was published four years ago. The novel marks the second phase of Mr. Murugan’s fictional explorations. It poignantly tells the story of a childless peasant couple set in a time about a century ago. Ponna and Kali rejoice in their conjugal love but their pain of being childless is accentuated by the taunts of neighbours and insults on religious functions. Tiruchengode, the abode of Siva in the form of half-woman half-man, is the sacred temple to which childless couple flock to this day hoping to extend their lineage. Over 125 years ago, Chinnathayammal and Venkata Naicker of Erode circumambulated the “varadi kal” at Tiruchengode resulting in the birth of the great rationalist, Periyar.

After exhausting all means, childless couples seek what is, from a modern perspective, an exotic, even ‘immoral,’ solution. Every year, at the Vaikasi Visakam car festival, childless women indulge in consensual sex in a carnivalesque atmosphere. The lucky are able to conceive. Children born of this socially sanctioned ritual are referred to as sami kodutha pillai (god-given children). 

Any anthropologist would attest to similar practices existing in many pre-modern societies with no access to assisted conceptions. Classical Hindu traditions refer to this practice as niyoga or niyoga dharma — an indication of its religious sanction. It is this section of the novel that has provoked the ire of Hindu fundamentalists and caste purists. Portrayed as a slur on Hindu women, Mr. Murugan is being pilloried for denigrating the whole town.
================= 
My Note:
Due to political agitation, Perumal Murugan has discontinued his profession as writer and has left his town. Compare this narration with the modern procedure for childless couples portrayed in the 2012 Hindi film "Vicky Donor" in which a young unemployed man is the donor of his sperm that is used by the doctor to impregnate his clients. The modern procedure avoids physical sexual contact by the lady with the sperm-donor who remains anonymous. The Pandavas were the children of Kunti and Madri through Nioyga :

"The epic Mahabharata describes two instances of niyoga. Queen Satyavati compels her son and sage Vyasato perform niyoga with the widows of her son Vichitravirya. The widows Ambika and Ambalika and one of their maids bear Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura respectively. When Pandu is cursed to die on being intimate with any woman, his wives Kunti and Madri perform niyoga with the Devas and mother five sons - the Pandavas." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niyoga

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

35 Amazing Photos from the Ruins of Angkor Wat Vishnu Temple in Cambodia

http://www.talkpundit.com/news/history-and-culture/35-amazing-photos-from-the-ruins-of-angkor-wat-r42 

A visit to Cambodia is recommended or may even be de rigueur for any Indian with an interest in the erstwhile history of India. For nowhere in the world outside India one can see the glory of its past splendor so well exhibited as in Cambodia. There are several hundred Hindu and Buddhist temple ruins throughout the countryside, especially around the town of Siem Reap near the large lake Tonle Sap. Siem Reap is the heart of the country. Here is where the splendid temple Angkor Wat has stood for nearly nine hundred years. Read Article...

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"Nothing Really Changes When You Die"

Nothing Really Changes When You Die

By: Anup Taneja on Speakiing Tree   5-Mar-2014

At the time of death a whole storehouse of impressions and desires is churned out and the most cherished and deep-rooted desire comes to the mind’s surface.  This cherished desire occupies the dying man’s mind for immediate gratification. If the desire is not gratified, his mind gets permeated with it and it is said to be reborn and seeks gratification in the next birth. The desire will manifest prominently in his next birth. The last thought thus determines the nature or character of the body to be attained next. The Gita says, “Whatever thoughts predominate at the time of death as a result of the way you have lived your life, those thoughts determine your after-death state....”..

According to Paramhansa Yogananda, it would be futile to depend upon death to liberate you from your imperfections. You are exactly the same after death as you were before. Nothing in fact changes; you only discard your body. If you were a trickster or liar before death, you don’t become a saint merely by dying. Whatever you have made of yourself thus far, so will you be hereafter. And when you reincarnate, you will carry the same traits with you. To bring about a change in your character, huge effort is required.

The question that arises is: What type of effort should one make to ensure that thoughts of the Divineoccupy our mind in our last moments so that we are   able to depart peacefully from the world?

To begin with, Yogananda suggests that the seeker should adopt an attitude of  dispassion  by constantlyremaining aware of the transitory nature of life and the fact that the great sleep of death can take him away any moment from the world. Then, through regular meditation, the seeker should endeavour to rise above the delusion of body-consciousness in order that he is prepared mentally to depart from this world  with an unruffled mind.

In meditation the seeker does consciously what he does unconsciously every night in deep sleep.  Every night you lose awareness of your physical existence and the world, with its concomitant pains and tribulations, as these get obliterated from the screen of your consciousness. This points to the fact that you are not a mere body of flesh and bones. And what is unconsciously experienced  in the state of deep sleep, can also be experienced consciously in mediation by reconnecting our identity with our true Self, the inner Witness that both sustains and transcends the three lower states of consciousness.

The more you meditate, the more you will realise that there is something divine behind the kingdom ofordinary consciousness where supreme peace and happiness reign. By the practice of ever deeper meditation, the seeker can gain access to the supra-causal state of consciousness where he loses his separate entity and his ego gets dissolved in Pure Consciousness.

Paramhansa Yogananda calls this state as ‘dying to the world without dying’-- a state where no duality of consciousness is experienced and all painful experiences of life and death give way to the bliss of eternal consciousness. A conspicuous feature of this state is that even while performing his worldly activities, the seeker continues to remain established in the super-conscious state of inner realisation.

Yogananda would say:  “Never go to bed   without   making the effort to meditate. What of it if you lose a little sleep? But it would be worthwhile if you can reach the deathless state before the Grim Reaper catches you”.

The great Truth alone is the source of peace and bliss

Extract from: http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/heart/heart_12.html

"Tell me about the Atman," said Narada.

By a long-drawn discussion – stage by stage, step by step – the sage Sanatkumara took the mind of Narada to the apex point.

"The great Truth alone is the source of peace and bliss," said the sage.

"Tell me the Truth," asked Narada.

"The Truth is the Infinite," said Sanatkumara.

"Tell me what the Infinite is," asked Narada.

"Where you see nothing else outside you, where you hear nothing else outside you, where you are not thinking anything outside you, that is the Infinite. Where you see something outside you, where you hear something outside you, where you are thinking something outside you, that is the finite. The Infinite alone is bliss. Know that!" replied Sanatkumara.

"Where is that Infinite?" asked Narada further.

Sa evadhastat, sa uparistat, sa pascat, sa purastat, sa daksinatah, sa uttaratah, sa evedam sarvam (C.U. 7.25.1). "Where is the Infinite, you are asking me. It is in front of you. It is behind you. It is to the right. It is to the left. It is above. It is below. It is everywhere. It alone is. One who knows this has freedom in all the worlds," replied the sage. No passport is necessary; no visa is necessary to move in the realms of being.

Such a person who knows this secret becomes the Self of worlds galore. He becomes the Self of all beings. He becomes everything! Such a person is the centre of gravitation for everything in the universe.Yathaika ksudhita balah mataram paryupasate evam sarvani bhutany agni-hotram upasate ity agni-hotram upasata iti (C.U. 5.24.5). If that person who knows this secret eats food, the whole universe is satisfied. In earlier days there was a concept of feeding Brahmins. 

The idea is that a Brahmin is one who knows Brahman. 

and if he eats, everybody is satisfied. This knowledge makes you such a potentate in the cosmos that the worlds – all beings – gravitate around you for blessing in the same way as children sit around their mother for food. "Mummy, give me food. Give me something to eat," so children cry around the mother. So all beings, all creation – everyone will rally round you and seek your blessing because what you are, they also are. What you eat, they eat, and what you feel, they feel. Your joy is their joy. Your existence is their existence.

This is the import, finally, of this one wondrous story I mentioned to you of the six great people going to Ashvapati, the king, for the knowledge of the Atman, which is not outside and not somewhere, and that Atman about which Yama, the Lord, refused to speak.

Ascaryavat pasyati kascit enam (B.G. 2.29), the Bhagavadgita also reiterates. "Wonder is this thing that you are speaking. It is a wonder!" The teacher who can explain this is a wonder. The student who can understand this is a wonder. The thing that is explained is a wonder. The whole thing is a wonder. The greatest wonder is the Ultimate Being called God Almighty, the Absolute. May this wonder bless you, is my prayer!

Mark Twain's Top 9 Tips for Living A Good Life

http://premiere.whatcounts.com/t?r=1395&c=926789&l=34053&ctl=16E4D67:16DF956C67F4B5DD715277556B8254A7B4B847859706E37D& 

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." --Mark Twain

Mark Twain's Top 9 Tips for Living A Good Life 
by Henrik Edberg, syndicated from positivityblog.com 

“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.”

“Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”

“When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.”

You may know Mark Twain for some of his very popular books like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He was a writer and also a humorist, satirist and lecturer.

Twain is known for his many – and often funny – quotes. Here are a few of my favourite tips from him.

1. Approve of yourself.

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”

If you don’t approve of yourself, of your behaviour and actions then you’ll probably walk around most of the day with a sort of uncomfortable feeling. If you, on the other hand, approve of yourself then you tend to become relaxed and gain inner freedom to do more of what you really want.

This can, in a related way, be a big obstacle in personal growth. You may have all the right tools to grow in some way but you feel an inner resistance. You can’t get there.

What you may be bumping into there are success barriers. You are putting up barriers in your own mind of what you may or may not deserve. Or barriers that tell you what you are capable of. They might tell you that you aren’t really that kind of person that could this thing that you’re attempting. Or if you make some headway in the direction you want to go, you may start to sabotage for yourself. To keep yourself in a place that is familiar for you. So you need give yourself approval and allow yourself to be who you want to be. Not look for the approval from others - but from yourself.
To dissolve that inner barrier or let go of that self-sabotaging tendency. This is no easy task and it can take time. 

 I remember a similar advice by  Marianne Williamson in 'A Course in Miracles' where she warns us of 

a similar obstacle from ourselves to  our achievement  -MKK:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most.*~*We ask ourselves:'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’Actually, who are you not to be?*~*You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.There is nothing enlightened about shrinkingso that people won't feel insecure around you.We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us.And when we let our own light shine,we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.   *~*

2. Your limitations may just be in your mind.

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

So many limitations are mostly in our minds. We may for instance think that people will disapprove because we are too tall, too old or balding. But these things mostly matter when you think they matter. Because you become self-conscious and worried about what people may think.

And people pick up on that and may react in negative ways. Or you may interpret anything they do as a negative reaction because you are so fearful of a bad reaction and so focused inward on yourself.

If you, on the other hand, don’t mind then people tend to not mind that much either. And if you don’t mind then you won’t let that part of yourself become a self-imposed roadblock in your life.

It is, for instance, seldom too late to do what you want to do.

3. Lighten up and have some fun.

“Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”

“Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.”

Humor and laughter are amazing tools. They can turn any serious situation into something to laugh about. They can lighten the mood just about anywhere.

And a lighter mood is often a better space to work in because now your body and mind isn’t filled to the brim with negative emotions. When you are more light-hearted and relaxed then the solution to a situation is often easier to both come up with and implement. Have a look at Lighten Up! for more on this topic.

4. Let go of anger.

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”

Anger is most of the time pretty pointless. It can cause situations to get out of hand. And from a selfish perspective it often more hurtful for the one being angry then the person s/he’s angry at.

So even if you feel angry at someone for days recognize that you are mostly just hurting yourself. The other person may not even be aware that you are angry at him or her. So either talking to the person and resolving the conflict or letting go of anger as quickly as possible are pretty good tips to make your life more pleasurable.

5. Release yourself from entitlement.

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing.It was here first.”

When you are young, your mom and dad may give a lot of things. As you grow older you may have a sort of entitlement. You may feel like the world should just give you what you want or that it owes you something.

This belief can cause a lot of anger and frustration in your life. Because the world may not give you what expect it to. On the other hand, this can be liberating too. You realize that it is up to you to shape your own life and for you to work towards what you want. You are not a kid anymore, waiting for your parents or the world to give you something.

You are in the driver’s seat now. And you can go pretty much wherever you want.

(कर्मण्येव अधिकारस्ते - mkk)

6. If you’re taking a different path, prepare for reactions.

“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.”

I think this has quite a bit of relevance to self-improvement.

If you start to change or do something different than you usually do then people may react in different ways. Some may be happy for you. Some may be indifferent. Some may be puzzled or react in negative and discouraging ways.

Much of these reactions are probably not so much about you but about the person who said it and his/her life. How they feel about themselves is coming through in the words they use and judgments they make.

And that’s OK. I think it’s pretty likely that they won’t react as negatively as you may imagine. Or they will probably at least go back to focusing on their own challenges pretty soon.

So what other people may say and think and letting that hold you back is probably just fantasy and barrier you build in your mind.

You may find that when you finally cross that inner threshold you created, then people around you may not shun you or go chasing after you with pitchforks. They might just go: “OK”.

7. Keep your focus steadily on what you want.

“Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.”

What you focus your mind on greatly determines how things play out. You can focus on your problems and dwell in suffering and a victim mentality. Or you can focus on the positive in situation, what you can learn from that situation or just focus your mind on something entirely else.

It may be “normal” to dwell on problems and swim around in a sea of negativity. But that is a choice. And a thought habit. You may reflexively start to dwell on problems instead of refocusing your mind on something more useful. But you can also start to build a habit of learning to gain more and more control of where you put your focus.

8. Don’t focus so much on making yourself feel good.

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”

This may be a bit of a counter-intuitive tip. But as I wrote yesterday, one of the best ways to feel good about yourself is to make someone else feel good or to help them in some way.

This is a great way to look at things to create an upward spiral of positivity and exchange of value between people. You help someone and both of you feel good. The person you helped feels inclined to give you a hand later on since people tend to want to reciprocate. And so the both of you are feeling good and helping each other.

Those positive feelings are contagious to other people and so you may end up making them feel good too. And the help you received from your friend may inspire you to go and help another friend. And so the upward spiral grows and continues.

9. Do what you want to do.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Awesome quote. And I really don’t have much to add to that one. Well, maybe to write it down and keep it as a daily reminder – on your fridge or bathroom door – of what you can actually do with your life.

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This article is reprinted here with permission. Henrik Edberg is a writer who lives on the east coast of Sweden. He is passionate about happiness and personal development and writes about it every week on The Positivity Blog and in his free newsletter.  

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Bhagawan is Sat-Chit-Ananda. Bhagawan is ever present and in us too.
One who is aware, will be ever in Bliss.
yasyat brahmani ramate cittam nandati nandati nandatyeva
यस्यत् ब्रह्मणि रमते चित्तं नन्दति नन्दति नन्दत्येव