The Riddle of the Sphinx - a Trip to Egypt

A note from Will: This is a long blog post. But I really think there is something delicate yet profound in this whole story. I ask you to make a cup of tea and read through this slowly so it can really sink in. If you don't have the time now, or are not feeling relaxed and open then bookmark and comeback later. I think this is worth it. Be happy to hear your comments and thoughts about this whole experience.

I just recently came back from a trip to Egypt and it was a profound experience on a few different levels. I had a variety of goals I wanted to accomplish on the trip including broadening my search for the meaning of it all.  First off I embarked on a very fun adventure which is part of my youtube channel. You can check out that quest here on my youtube channel: Ichabod Oddman and the Quest for the Sword of Lightning.

Egypt is a place of power. No doubt about it and for some reason I had a bit of trepidation about the trip. I just didn't know what it was but I tried to be cautious.  The same kind of thing happened on my trip to Greece and the Acropolis. That too is a place of great power and I approached it slowly. I didn't actually go up to the top of the Acropolis until my  third day. I spent the first two days walking around it, paying a sort of respect to it and seeing the sights around it. It worked well and I planned on doing the same thing with the pyramids and the sphinx.

After my travel day to Cairo I hit the sack and woke up the next day feeling pretty good. I hired a taxi driver for the day and we discussed my plans for all the various places in and around Cairo I wanted to see. I had planned on the Pyramids and the Sphinx on my third day. This would give me time to respect the power and it would give Giza a chance to accept me.
But.... my taxi driver told me that today would be a perfect day to visit the pyramids and sphinx. It was a holiday in Egypt and traffic would be light and there wouldn't be a crowd at the site.

So, against my instincts I agreed to go see the sphinx and pyramid right away, first thing in the morning of my first day.... Bad Idea.......

Maybe it means nothing, maybe it's coincidence, or maybe it is something more but while riding on my camel out to the pyramid site the saddle slipped right off the side of the camel and I fell to the ground hard. I mean hard. This is not a horse. A camel is quite a bit taller than a horse so it was a big fall.  I did fall onto the sand of the Sahara which was a good thing and I only got bruised and hurt my knee a bit. But that wasn't the big thing.

The big thing was that the camel, for some reason, turned on me. I found myself looking up at the camel as it quickly turned. It's legs and hooves were flailing and I think it might have been angered or scared. And it might have been either trying to avoid me or trying to kick me.

So , with those big legs and hooves flailing I managed to roll, tumble, and scamper far enough away so it calmed down and just stared at me. - I escaped getting kicked or stomped on which could have been a real disaster. A kick from a fifteen hundred pound camel could be tremendous.

I don't know if it was a lucky break or a misinterpretation on my part but I came though it relatively unharmed. And I rode a horse the rest of the way to the Pyramids and Sphinx.

After that whole thing happened and I had time to think  the whole trip changed for the best. I had an uneasy feeling about the whole trip going alll the way back to the states. And getting that incident behind me gave me the feeling that I had passed through something and the rest of the trip would be ok. And I was right. The rest of the trip was great. I felt like a weight had been lifted from me and everything was now ok.

Finally Conferring with the Sphinx

I made my plans to go back to the Sphinx and Pyramids on a later day like I had originally intended. I wanted, in particular, just to sit with the sphinx and talk, ask questions.  But a funny thing happened to me along the way to that fourth day.

I spent those  days in a hired taxi. It was a great experience for me. I hired one driver to be my guide and chauffer for four days. This way I had the freedom to go anywhere at any time. And well, over those those days the driver and I got to know each other pretty well.

At first it was formal and informative. We mostly talked about Egypt and the various sights and how we could manage my time to accomplish the various goals I had set out for myself. But by the third day we had become traveling companions and we discussed a lot of things including his dreams, his aspirations, his family, his career, and the challenges he is facing as an Egyptian trying to make a living in Cairo. It was quite wonderful and while I got a lot out of Egypt herself I also got a tremendous amount out of the taxi rides.

Anyway, on the fourth day I finally went to confer with the Sphinx in the right way -so we could just sit together and talk; Not only did we converse about me, my life, my quests and the riddle. But we also talked about my taxi driver. I also asked for guidance for his life. And got answers.  It was a wonderful experience and afterward, during the drive back to the hotel, the driver and I talked about it at length. It affected him deeply.

This has made me think a lot about the meaning of it all and the real reason why the Sphinx drew me in to visit and talk. Was it just for me? Or was I drawn all the way over to Egypt to help my driver? Or us both?

I can't tell you the questions I asked of the sphinx. Nor can I tell you what we discussed. But I can say that aside from those direct things I learned a profound lesson about people, life, and the threads that bind us all together in this mysterious web.  

Kafka's thoughts about my search for the meaning of life

There is no need for you to leave the house. Stay at your table and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t even wait, be completely quiet and alone. The world will offer itself to you to be unmasked; it can’t do otherwise; in raptures it will writhe before you.

Butterflies and Karasses

I watched a Nova special last night called "The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies". In short it tells about how four generations of butterlies make their way across 2,000  miles in a migration between Mexico and Canada. (and back again).

A couple of things struck me about this. First off, yes, it is quite an accomplishment but the fact that is a repeating multi-generational cycle really got me thinking.

Here is a rough sketch of how this multi-generational task happens:

Generation 1 leaves mexico and adventures into the US and dies along the journey
Generation 2 continues the northward quest
Generation 3 continues northward into Canada and finds the final destination
Generation 4 makes the trek all the way back from Canada to Mexico

Each generation does it's thing and lives it's life as it was "supposed to". And each generation is a critical component of a successful whole, yet totally unaware of the grand plan of the whole thing. ( I can't really speak to the philosphy, wisdom, or Omniscience of butterflies but it's a good guess that they are unaware of the plan)

You can probably see the simile coming but doesn't this seem like it could be plausible when it comes to us human beings? 

Is there a grand plan that we are only a part of?  A plan that spans more than the 80 or so years of one life?

If that is the case then it begs the question of whether or not I will be able to appreciate this "Grand Plan". Will I still be around as it continues it's unfolding? Or will I have just been food in a spider web somewhere between Mexico and Canada.


It brings to mind Vonnegut's concept of the Karass.

yes, no, maybe so, and I dunno

I have talked about the importance of asking the right question when it comes to the meaning of life.  and in this post I want to shed a little light on that theme.

The point I want to get at is the difference between a person finding and having meaning in their life and something that has been called "Transcendant or Cosmic Meaning".

This branching sheds light onto exactly what I am driving at here.

Everybody finds meaning and meanings in their life. I don't have anything to add to that. That is something defined by the individual. What I am searching for is the possibility that there is a "transcendant" meaning to all of this.

So far I have been able to boil it down to a question that can be asked several ways. Here are two examples:

 "Is there a transcendant meaning to all of existence? "or "Why do we and the universe exist?"

Nice, Now we have two options:

1. No
2. Yes

And of course there is always the fine art of  dodging  the question which gives us some possibilities:

3. Yes... but
4. dunno

This transcendant meaning is something that people have wrestled with for a long time. Here are some proposed answers to the question:

• Nietzsche (NO): He believed that life had no transcendant meaning but humans can create their own meanings.  This is very much in line with existentialism.
• Frankl (YES): Believed that transcendant meaning was something that humans could not create. But they could discover it.
• Many Religions (YES, But...): Believe that there is a transcendant meaning but it is not possible for humans to understand it.
• Albert Camus: (dunno):"I don’t know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I cannot know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it."

Let me leave you with a Stephen Hawking quote

 "If we find the answer to that, (why it is that we and the universe exist), it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we would know the mind of God."



hmmm... the search continues..
Am I still at square one?

An Endless loop of Gods - and why my cat sits on the radiator

I was listening to a radio program that had Erich von Daniken as the guest speaker and he said something that I thought was very profound and interesting. This is a small excerpt here:

"The Creation of the Spirit of Creation"

This statement brings up a lot of thoughts. First off it makes me wonder about the nature of creation and how it seems to almost be the all of everything. The creative force is an amazing thing and it lies at the very heart of the mystery. It is one of those things that sits in the center and knows while we dance around the circle and suppose.

But the real profundity of the statement is the implication of the creation of god. Let's assume that God created the universe. God had this desire to create and God created. But what instilled in God the desire to create? What created the spirit of creation? Was it a God that created God? Is there an endless loop of Gods? Does this circle go on forever? It's a paradox and paradoxes are something that I will be exploring in further posts.

Is what we think of as God simply "The Creative Force in the Universe?" The Force that through the Green fuse shoots the flower?

Is there a God?

Is there an endless loop of Gods?

Or is it all something we simply cannot fathom?

And that last question brings me to my cat and the radiator.

It is Autumn here in New England and the mornings are getting brisk. There is a beautiful chill in the morning air. This morning chill re-ignites a seasonal pattern in my cat. He sits on top of the radiator in the kitchen because it is nice and warm. He enjoys the warmth of it. Does he have any clue about what all had to be created and what all had to happen for that radiator to be warmed? Nope, He doesn't understand any of it and he is incapable of understanding how the Gas company pipes gas to my house and how the boiler in the basement warms up water and how the water circulates through pipes and passes through the radiator giving it a soft and comfortable warmth.

Nor does he understand that I keep all of this in motion by paying the gas bill and by adjusting the thermostat.

Nope, he doesn't understand any of that.... yet he enjoys it and, in the way of cats, he appreciates it.

And what does this all lead us to? I am not really sure because as in just about every other post on this blog I end up with more question marks than I expected. But, The sun is shining outside and it's burning away the morning briskness and I think that maybe I will just go outside for a walk and enjoy the sunshine on my face.

-----------------------------

Next post: I just recently returned from a trip to Greece and one of the things I visited was the Oracle at Delphi. This is the place that the Ancient Greeks considered to be the Center of the Universe. I will be posting pictures and my thoughts about the experience and the place.

A Dream of a Dragon Swallowing the Moon

Its a peculiar thing but it is absolutely true.

If you have been reading this blog you know that I have just recently returned from a trip to Japan. It was a wonderful trip and I had a lot of reasons for going. And I am not even going to get into the peculiar thread of circumstances that created my adventure and trip to the land of the Rising Sun.

But I do want to talk about one particular event.

It was my very first night/day in Japan. I had just finished a marathon of planes, trains, airports, buses and what not. The whole thing from doorstep to doorstep was about 31 hours. I started my journey at 5am and finally reached my first resting point in Japan at about 11pm Japanese time which made it noon time the next day back home.

Anyway, On that first night, I went outside to enjoy the beautiful tropical evening (Quite a contrast from New England at the time because it was 35 degree when I left and felt like it could snow)
And I was just enjoying the smell and feel of Japan. I was basking in the wonder of how quickly I had traveled all the way around the world and in the wonder of how very different Japan was - even in the little things.

Well, to the point here. I looked up at the sky to verify that the moon, ever constant, was still the same regardless of where I was on the Earth. And I was taken aback in almost shock.

Before my very eyes a large cloud formation was in the shape of a big Japanese/Chinese Dragon, complete with horns and a long undulating body. And its mouth was open and I watched in utter disbelief and shock as this dragon swallowed the moon.

Now wait just a second here. What I saw was not a cloud that kind of looked like the shape of a dragon. It was the most remarkable thing I have ever seen. The darn cloud looked like a dragon. I am earnest here. I simply could not believe my eyes and I had to wonder if I was hallucinating from the long and arduous journey I had just completed.

But it took its time and it gave me plenty of time to verify and re-verify what I was seeing. It was a big ole dragon with its mouth wide open and it just slowly swallowed the moon. It took a couple of minutes and I just stared at it in rapt awe.

Was this some kind of a message? Was there a meaning in this? It's been bothering me ever since and I have thought about this incident many times since I got back. And while I was there I gave it a lot of thought.

Now Onto the Quest for a Sword

One of the things I really wanted to do while I was there was to buy an actual samurai sword that was made there. It was a very personal quest and I had a lot of trouble at first. I had no clue as to where to go to get one and it took me over a week just to figure things out. Anyway, I was in this one particular shop (the picture below is of the shop, the evening before I had arrived just a half hour after they closed)


Anyway, I was in the shop, and it wasn't the first one I had been in to look at the swords - and there it was, a beautiful Samurai sword with a hand painted dragon on it; and it looked to me like there was something near the head of the dragon that was either the moon or a cloud of smoke. Nevertheless, it struck me pretty hard. Was this the reason for my vision? Was this sword a manifestation of what I had seen? Was the vision of the dragon swallowing the moon a message to me to buy this particular sword? Whatever was going on it was uncanny and well, I bought the sword and had it shipped home.

Now, for the rest of my trip a sense of relief had come over me. It seemed right that the vision of the dragon lead me to this particular sword and everything had fallen into place. But something has been nagging at me. I have been wondering if there is something more to this?

If you have any thoughts on this I would be glad to hear them. And if you have some expertise on Japanese/Asian folklore or fables I would love to hear what your opinion and thoughts are about my vision, the dragon, the moon and my samurai sword.

Here are two pictures of the actual sword I bought:

East Meets West

I get the sense that us westerners tend to scoff at stuff like this. - bah , you saw a shape of a cloud that looked like a dragon, big deal? and it happened to pass over the moon, whoop tee doo. You were thinking about it all week and the first thing you saw with a dragon on it made you think it was a messaage bah! Just read your Jung, its plain old synchronicity without any hidden meaning.

But, the eastern philosophies, and a heck of a lot of other philosophies for that matter, wouldn't agree with this scoffing. The mysteries and the messages abound, we usually just don't pick up on them.

A Dream Within a Dream

The Philosophers Walk in Kyoto Japan

I have so much to say about this little span of time in my life but let me see if I can titrate it down a bit. About travel: I have mixed feelings about travel when it comes to questing for the meaning of life and I have talked about this before. First off, it is difficult to get philosophical when you travel - you are just not in the right frame of mind (quiet) There is just too much to absorb and too much new going on. Second, I do believe that travel can help with the quest to find the meaning of life but only after you get back home and take time to contemplate what you saw, learned and discovered.

Anyhoo about the actual philopher's walk in Kyoto:

I spent a few minutes being smug because it was just a bunch of tourists all being smug at how smart they are. We all kept glancing at each other trying to show how smart we were to be philosophising about the meaning of life. I guess I am just human like everybody else :) Anyway, I took my time and walked the path and earnestly tried to contemplate the meaning of it all. I came up with no reveleations but I did take this one little video... hmm... makes you wonder.

About the Philosphers Walk:It was a daily path along a small canal that the philospher Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945) would walk and contemplate philosphical things. He was a professor at Kyoto University. His work was predominanlty involved in a merging of Eastern and Western philosophies. Its a beautiful walk and the canal is lined with Cherry blossoms that bloom in Mid April. They say that when these cherry blossoms bloom this is quite possibly the most beautiful spot in all of Japan.

Should I stay or Should I go?

Should I Stay Or Should I Go is the title for an old song by the Clash and it's fitting for what I want to talk about in this post.

It is a neverending question that spins around philosophers. Do you search for the meaning of life within yourself or do you travel and quest to find it? Of course it seems to me that both are necessary. And Paolo Coelho, in his famous book The Alchemist he lays out an excellent answer to this question. And I won't tell you about what he says or how he says it just in case you want to read the book and discover for yourself.

But I want to propose that both are absolutely necessary and here are my arguments for the case.

What would you be like if you were born in a cardboard box? ( The Box Man: A Novel )
And your whole life you lived in this box? The sum total of your experience would be what you experienced within the four cardboard walls. What would your internal dialogue be like? What information had you gathered to help you understand yourself and the world? For one thing the world is, to your experience very simple and small, corrugated and smelling of processed paper.

So, this is a good argument for adventuring out into the world and gathering data and experiences, of which in this world, there is an abundance. And this experiencing isn't just hedonistic. They are important because they enrich you and make you more capable.

But it goes beyond this. Because I believe there are places in the world that are something more than they appear to be. There are places in this world where the wall between what is, and what appears to be, is very thin. The ancient Celts had a name for places like this. They called them thin places.

So, you need both the internal and the external, and the two have to compliment and help each other. You can't just sit in one place and discover the truth and you can't just adventure out looking for the truth. This is the truth.

About Thin Places

I have been working on my third novel for quite a while now and it will be finished soon, the pieces are falling together. But, what I want to say is that well before I heard about thin places A portion of my novel takes place in this large stone structure that juts up into the air. At the top of this structure is a monastery. In the novel I call it Speyer after a town in Germany.

The thing about this place is that I thought I created it on my own. And its a funny thing how just a few days ago I discovered a thin place called Skellig Michael in Ireland. And it has me wondering, because I am Irish, if there is something more to what I have written down in my novel. Is it just a coincidence that I "created" my own Skellig Michael? Or have I been there before?

Anyway, It is now on my list of places to visit.

Being Michael Crichton

There is this great little indy film called "Being John Malkovich". It is a wonderful, quirky and insightful movie where the characters actually find a doorway right into John Malkovich's head. I read somewhere that they were making the movie and when John Malkovich heard about it he volunteered to join in the production. Anyway its a great movie.

But, I am envisioning a movie called "Being Michael Crichton". This comes about because of his recent battle and death to cancer. He was quite an amazing man who did a lot of fantastic things including directing movies, writing blockbuster books and graduating from Harvard as a medical doctor. He had the curiosity to deeply look into many things and the courage to say and do what he believed was right.

I always felt a bit of a kinship with him, I am not sure why, but since I read "The Andromeda Strain" at some point in the early seventies. He went on to pen such amazing works as Jurassic Park.

Now to the point:

Of all the things he has done and written there is one, in my mind, that stands above everything else. It is one of his lesser known books called "Travels". It is a very personal account about his life and his travels in this world in exploration of the external world and in an attempt to uncover the mystery or possibility of another world. Its a remarkable book and I believe it is the only one where we get a real peek at Michael. He was a very private person when it came to his own life.

Anyway, this book had a profound effect on me and I am going to re-read it to see what further insights I can gain from him and his quest to find an answer.

Battling the inevitability of my eyes

When I got to a certain age I started having a little bit of trouble with my vision. I am a heavy reader and this was quite a challenge for me. Right around the time my vision started giving me trouble two people I know, who are the same age as me also started having trouble with their vision. We all ended up getting glasses around the same time.

What's my point here?

Well, this little coincidence got me thinking. Is something going on here? Or is it just a coincidence? I did some research and sure enough, if you have had normal vision eyes since birth it is pretty certain that your vision will deteriorate at a very specific and linear rate. An ophthamologist can tell how old you are by examining your eyes or by just looking at your prescription.

This is mind boggling to me. What is the purpose of this? Why all these changes as we age? Skin, organs, eyesight, hearing, teeth. The whole shooting match. Why the decline? What is the purpose that is being served here?

Ok, this is no big revelation. But the thinking here is that nature always finds the optimal solution and it seems to be a pretty optimal solution to insure no individual of a species lives too long. It is necessary, for flexibility in the species, for new individuals to enter the stream.

That's the easy answer. But are there other possible answers?

How about the "Everybody gets a turn answer?"

It sounds silly but it could be true. The plan could be to give everybody a turn at the mystery and the miracle of life. Why not? Kind of like a pass on the roller coaster. Hey, you had your turn now step aside and let somebody else ride!

Horseshoes, Sneakers, and the Meaning of Life

Horseshoes, Sneakers, and the search for the meaning of life

It is common knowledge that nature finds elegant solutions to problems and amazing answers to questions. This ability of nature is evident in every aspect of life and the lessons nature has for us are manifold - from the mathematical patterns that ants follow in their foraging to the amazing navigation of bees, to the structure and strength of balsa wood and bamboo.

I could go on and on about the solutions nature has found to problems but you already know all about it. We are all aware of the fact. And we have only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to seeing the ways nature has solved problems.

Of course, this is what the sneakers are about.

I have these really great pair of sneakers that are comfortable and feel really good to run in. They were a gift and I didn't at first realize they were horseshoe shaped underneath - until one morning when I ran in a light coating of snow. Upon a second lap I noticed the horseshoes!

They seem to be very well designed and very comfortable. And an interesting thing about them is the very subtle clip-clopping sound my feet make as I run. It seems to be a kind of feedback and I can get a good sense for the evenness of my running by this subtle clip-clopping. It makes me wonder if horses use their ears to monitor and correct their running?

But, About man and nature:

I do have a couple of criticisms about these sneakers though. First off, in the picture you can see that the horseshoes are backwards! The open end is toward the front.. hmmmm.... And secondly, a horseshoe is not a creation of nature, it is a man made invention that is put on the foot of a horse. I am willing to bet that a sneaker designed after a real horses foot would be even better than the horse shoe design. Just a thought.

Now on to the Chatauqua

There are two distinct parts to this. The first part is the obvious part and in the second part I will be a bit more penetrating.

What nature has to say about the meaning of life

First Part: First of all she says to live according to how you are supposed to live, do the things you were meant to do, in the ways you were meant to do them. Second, be the piece of the puzzle you were meant to be, the good of the whole is good for you too. Eat, sleep, drink, procreate, be fecund, contribute to the circle in the way you do. All of this is easy but is there more?

Second Part: Yes, I believe there is more. I believe you should be grateful and thankful for this mystery and this existence. And this is evident in nature. I have a reasonable proof of creatures actually being grateful here (The thankyou bird)

And you should enjoy and appreciate the mystery of life and your existence in it. I am certain that my cat diitto does. He really revels in the joy of his life and the beauty of things, particularly in springtime. The philosophers Garden

Now for the really hard question. What is the "purpose" of all this? Is it simply to be? Is it to enjoy and appreciate the gift? Is it something more? Is it much less? What is nature showing us?

Will I die when I find the answer?

I have been on my quest for many years now and the idea that I will die when I discover the answer to the meaning of life has crossed my mind many times. It's an interesting and very weighty idea. And a bit of a paradox.

Here are some variations on this theme:

Fulfillment of my quest: This is the biggest thing. Often I could consider that when I discover the answer my role here is complete and it's time to move on. Of course that is conjecture because I don't really know if there is anyplace to move on to. I would imagine the answer would answer this question. or maybe it wouldn't.

The quest is the meaning - I definitely do not like this one at all. It says that the meaning of life is the quest itself. Robert Pirsig sums it up pretty well: "Life is not about getting to the top of the mountain, all the life and beauty is along the side and the climb". That's a rough paraphrase of how I remember it anyway. If this were the case I probably would die, of heartbreak. Seems too pedestrian to me.

A Revelation before dying - I also have this thought that each person, just before dying, is revealed the meaning and answer to everything. Seems like a neat package with a great bow but beats me if its true. If it is true I haven't been able to verify it seeing as I am unable to talk to anyone who has been there. And it brings up the added thought that I am attempting to short-circuit the way it is meant to be. If the revelation comes just before or during death then is my search wrong? Will my answer come to me in time (of my dying?) And if I found the answer sooner would I then force the hand and die?

Here is how I feel about the whole question raised in this post.

About a month ago I injured my right calf during a run one morning. It's one of the risks of running in very cold and icy conditions. While it still bothers me, I haven't stopped running. I get out there every morning. Why? Because If I stop to let it supposedly heal, I may fall into the rut of not running and never start up again. Or worse, once it heals I may not run again for fear of a re injury. And that fear is not something I will allow. Same goes for my quest. I will not allow the fear of dying to stop me from questing. Especially seeing as It's only conjecture. Anyhoo, Like Percival I must continue on in my search for this grail of grails.

Wisdom, Truth, Honesty and Ethical Dilemmas

Being a seeker of the ultimate truth and the ultimate answer I often puzzle over ethical dilemmas. First off there is always the question of if there is a higher truth to things. I mean that a lot of ethics and morals are based in societal needs. There are a lot of ways we act and think in order to keep the harmony in society. And these values change over time and vary from society to society. As an example some cultures don't mind picture taking but some cultures consider it very taboo to take a persons picture without permission. And some cultures don't permit it at all.

Before you jump and say "when in Rome you follow the Roman rules" I just want to say that this is not my real point. My real point is the question of if there are ethical rules that go above all else and are universal. And by universal I mean the whole tootin universe.

Let me get to my point here. It is a theory I have called "Path Interruption" and it applies to conscious beings (but then again I am not going to say a rock is devoid of consciousness, who knows right?)

Path Interruption

I feel that a potential universal ethic is that of awareness of path interruption. I think that every human being is on his or her own path and he or she must find and follow that path. And, you as a person have to be very careful about that path. You have very limited right to interrupt that path in any way. This ties in very nicely with the ethics of hurting someone else which is bad according to path interruption. You have changed their path. And forcing someone to do something they don't want to do is also a bad form of path interruption.

Now, what about ethical dilemmas and path interruption.

This brings to mind a pretty common psychological test. In the test the subject is told that they are watching some railroad tracks and a train is coming. Now the subject can see three people working on the tracks and they have no idea the train is coming. They are wearing hearing protection and the train will run them right over - it is certain that they will die. Now the subject as an observer of this is right near a track switch where the switch can be thrown and the train will change tracks and avoid the three workers, but, on the other track there is one person and this person will be killed. hmmm... interesting ethical dilemma. So what would you do?

Often times people will choose to kill the one person because its better to save three than one. But, how does the theory of path interruption fit into this? If you do nothing, three people die, true but if you take action one person will die - the difference being that you have taken action and in effect you have, by your action, killed this person.

So, what is the absolute right thing to do? Do you get a karmic point bonus for saving a persons life? Or do you get a karmic minus for killing somebody? Does it really matter?

(The interesting thing to remember is that the choice you make determines the path you take)

So, is it ok to just be an observer in other peoples lives, or is it right to take action based on what you feel is right? I am sure if you asked that one man standing on the railroad tracks alone he would give you a very strong opinion about what you should do and how you shouldn't interrupt his path by throwing the switch.

Where does wisdom fit into this?

I have always considered wisdom to be very important however intangible it is. A good portion of wisdom comes from experience and understanding that many of the rules we live by are not set in titanium. They are good in most cases but sometimes it is best for all parties involved to not follow the rules. This is wisdom on the level of society. But what about the ultimate ethics and wisdom? What is it and how do we acquire it? Or is there even no such thing?

I am heading to Japan and looking for suggestions

I am booked, paid for and all set. I am heading to Japan for a while. The funny thing is that I am going there for reasons other than my quest for the answer to the meaning of life. But, as wonderful and mysterious as the world is I can fold my quest right into the trip. But I don't really know much about Japan, Japanese culture or even Japanese Philosophy. So I have to do some research before I depart. I have some time to do this.

I thought maybe you could give me advice on what to see and what to visit that will help enrich me on my path to enlightenment. Do you know of any special places there that I should visit? Are there any must sees when it comes to the meaning of life, philosophy, religion and wisdom?

Any insight you can lend me will be greatly appreciated. - and even the fact that you are reading my blog is greatly appreciated !!

Thanks - you can email me privately or just post comments. I don't want to say exactly when I am going or how long I will be there - its just prudent internet security :)

A Quote that will stagger you

I spent a few quiet hours yesterday reviewing my TSFTMOL notebooks (TSFTOMOL = The Search For The Meaning of Life). I was looking for new patterns and paths; and I ran across one quote that I had jotted down that gave me pause to think. It's very visceral and it hits you like a blow to the solar plexus. Thing about this quote is that I didn't note where I got it. So, it's not mine, and I don't know who wrote it.

I have some thoughts about this quote but I am not going to give them to you. I just want you to take a few minutes and think about it and draw your own thoughts and conclusions about it. If you want, comment about it. But I am probably not going to comment. (I would love your comments, particulary because they won't be influenced by my thinking).

Anyway here is the quote:

"Time is an efficient killing machine."

The Exact Location of God

Okie, Now the title says "God" but you know what I mean. I am talking about the force that through the green fuze shoots the flower, the singularity, the prime mover, the creator, the one, the thing that is all - you get the picture.

I am going to explain to you my theory of exactly where this slippery fellow is but first I of course have to make some assumptions; 3 to be exact:

assumption 1: that there really is a "God"

assumption 2: that Einstein is right about relativity and time

assumption 3: that everything goes in circles (?) more on this

Okay, here is my explanation and theory on the exact location and how we can find him. Get yourself a snack or refresh your coffee because this is going to take a while. - but if you want to know then stick with me.

First lets talk a little bit about time. (assumption #2)It is pretty much standard accepted scientific fare that the faster you go the slower you experience time - in relation to something else traveling slower. The old adage is that if you have twin brothers and you send one on a rocket ship going at a speed approaching the speed of light and he returns to earth after a year in his own life his twin brother will have aged decades. This depends of course on how fast the space traveling twin was going. Ok now my point.

We are going pretty fast right now. We are on a planet that spins pretty fast, something like 1,000 miles per hour at the equator. And the Earth itself is rotating around the sun at about 67 thousand miles per hour. Not too shabby. Now you also have to consider the fact that the sun, towing its little planets, is also traveling in a big orbit within the milky way galaxy at around 486,000 miles per hour, and of course the milky way itself is traveling through space.

Now, before you start analyzing my numbers don't worry about them at all -they are really not important. What is important that you see that we are moving pretty fast. And that means we are experiencing time at a rate. And this is important. We are not experiencing time at the rate of rates or the real rate. It is a relative thing and we experience time at the rate we experience it. And who knows, maybe some of these wheels within wheels that we are spinning within are speeding up, slowing down, changing speed - and what does that mean? That we experience time at changing rates. Pretty spooky or awe inspiring depending on how you look at it.

Now lets move on to assumption #3 and tie it in with assumption #2

As far as I can tell everything moves in circles, electrons move around the nucleus, the moon around the earth, the earth around the sun, the sun around the milky way, And the milky way is part of a cluster of galaxies that is "probably" revolving around something else - something bigger.

So let me make my point. Everything in the universe is spinning around something. It's just one big spinning thing and toward the outer edges of this time is moving pretty darn fast because that stuff is moving pretty fast.

Lets picture the whole universe as a single galaxy so I can make my point. At the outer edges of the entire universe we move prettty fast and we experience time pretty fast. What happens as we move closer to the center of this rotating universe? Time slows down right? Okie, what happens as we move even closer? Time slows down even more right?

Okie dokie, what happens when we get to the very center of it all? The place where there is no motion? The exact center around which everything in the universe revolves? Well, there is no time there. Time has stopped, but not in a freeze frame kind of way, in a way that means time is all time yet no time. The total experience of all time is in that no time. The complete experience of all time is in that space that has no time. Get what I am saying?

And it is in that very place that God is.

Update on what's coming and what I am thinking about

The wheels are ever turning and looking over my search for the meaning of life notebook I realized I have a lot of themes and ideas

to explore. Here is a short list of some of the things I will be covering in the near future.

• Essays: I have several more essays coming:


• The Operation Instructions


• A Video called "Inside the Box"


• Venus over D'angelo's


• The Plasticity of Time


• Resonance


• Separating the I from the us


• Are we being lied to?


• "A" truth versus "The" truth

I will be covering a lot of ground and this week I plan on taking a trip to boston. As an aside to the real reason for the trip I am planning on stopping in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to take a look at a painting by Gauguin called: "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?"If they allow pictures I will take a picture of it.

Socrates, Einstein and Now

Odd Title but let me tie it all in.

Socrates was famous for walking through the streets and asking questions. He saw the people of Athens as living only for money, power and fame. Through his relentless questioning he tried to get them to examine their lives; the why of what they were doing.

Ok, now Einstein. And I can sum up the right impression with a quote from him:

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed". - Albert Einstein

Now the Tie-in:

We are all stuck within inches of the skin of this remarkable and frail little blue planet. Its quite an enigma and quite the mystery; while the universe spins on around us every direction forever. we are bombarded every day by rays of wonder, amazement and astonishment. Yet we don't seem to notice. We too often tend to just continue the ant march following the same paths every day, doing the same things and chasing after the same meaningless things.

I have a task for you:

Roll up your sleeve and look at the inside of your wrist. Watch the veins as they pulse with blood and life. It's absolutely astonishing. It's a little thing we seldom think about but it is part of the schema that surrounds us. Take a little time out from your day today to think about the mystery and the riddle and the enigma and the puzzle and the conundrum and the why of it all.

The funnel

I was thinking the other day about the possibility of people having spirits or souls. Well, this got me to thinking that there is quite a large number of spirits or souls traversing across the living mesh of this planet.



I thought it would best be described in a picture:

Now this is just a visual metaphor for the concept that I am talking about. You and I don't really see the spirits and souls flowing in and out of the mesh of life on earth. But it is something to think about. And if this is really happening then why?

Some interesting stats about life/death About 150,000 people die every day and 350, 000 are born every day. Its quite a large number of spirit souls isn't it? Well of course I haven't really verified those facts but here is a very interesting site with some mind boggling statistics. Click on the daily button The World Clock