Whatever is liminal, or emerging –arts, culture, society, spirituality
Archive for November, 2008
Trust
Nov 22nd
I found the following quote from Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), on a site dedicated to the tarot deck he inspired. Osho/Rajneesh was a controversial guru who died some twenty years ago. Like many spiritual leaders, he may have lost his way at some point, but I still find his writing to contain some of the most concise wisdom I’ve come across. I’ve also found the, along with the Thoth deck (inspired by Aleister Crowley, an equally controversial figure from the turn of the previous century) to be the most revealing of tarot decks, usually giving me the message I need at the moment.
The name of the card is Trust:
“Don’t waste your life for that which is going to be taken away. Trust life. If you trust, only then can you drop your knowledge, only then can you put your mind aside. And with trust, something immense opens up. Then this life is no longer ordinary life, it becomes full of God, overflowing.
When the heart is innocent and the walls have disappeared, you are bridged with infinity. And you are not deceived; there is nothing that can be taken away from you. That which can be taken away from you is not worth keeping, and that which cannot be taken away from you… why should one be afraid of its being taken away? It cannot be taken away, there is no possibility. You cannot lose your real treasure.”
Osho The Sun Rises in the Evening Chapter 9
Blogs and Collective Intelligence
Nov 12th
I found the following video at the Ted.com site. TED is an annual conference in California (where else?) that highlights innovative thinking in many fields. Each talk is relatively short, which makes it possible to fit in many speakers. It also forces each speaker to be concise.
This talk is by James Surowwiecki (author of The Wisdom of Crowds) and talks about how the tsunami of 2005 was a turning point in the way social media, blogs in particular, became a crucial way to spread information. He discusses how the blogosphere is a way for decentralized “bottom up” kind of information to reach many people. He sees this as a form of collective intelligence. As his book (which I haven’t read, but which he refers to in the talk) goes into, a group or crowd often mysteriously has better knowledge than the individuals that it is composed of.
He also talks about the possible danger of people being hooked into networks and losing the power to think independently.
Liminal Worlds
Nov 8th
Liminal refers to anything that is emerging -or as a place on the boundary or threshold. This can refer to society, culture, the arts or any other realm. This site will specialize in searching for things that seem both liminal and relevant –emerging movements, artists, philosophies and paradigms. Check back frequently for updates!
