APHORISM BY KUJO KARUNA \\ JOINT WITH KAMISHOKU
Summary coming soon.

VOLUME 01 ch01 – scanned; translated; editing ch02 – scanned ch03 – scanned

Love thy neighbour as thyself, but choose your neighbourhood carefully. (Louise Beal)

Not only in times of despair must we have hope, but also in times of progress must we resist regression.

A teacher is first and always a student, only then a teacher.

Who looks inwardly hasn’t the time to point outwardly.

The noblest vengeance is to forgive. (from the 16th century)

I not only did a gangster picture of me but also of my brother Alex

The ‘Making of’ will be published tomorrow.

The truth need not justify itself to the fool.

Until death do we live, and so, until death shall we learn.

The end justifies the means (from the 16th century)

Here is the second installment of my monthly profile pictures. (I use them for Facebook and SmugMug).

This was the November 2009 picture: click here

Tomorrow comes another film noir episode. The ‘Making of’ will be published on Nov 30.

When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad I’m better. (Mae West)

If the end is to be justified by any means, it is not an end that I so desire.

“There is always some kind of trade when it comes to re-arranging the cards that u already have in your hands….I’m beginning to understand now why they say to hold them loosely” – M.T.

Happy Sundays..

The heart is all. (source: from the 19th century)

Comfort kills creativity. Professional work kills free time. (source: unkown)

remind someone of a kindness or act of generosity you have shown him or her. Bestow a favor and then forget it.

You must give time to your fellow men – even if it’s a little thing, do something for others – something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. ~ ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Yesterday, I asked my Twitter & Facebook friends whether they agree or disagree that “time heals all wounds.” The replies were fantastic, so I am reproducing them here for posterity.

Kudos especially to the authors of 11, 13, and 16, whose views most closely track my own. And I apologize to #17, for obvious reasons, but I suspect/hope he was kidding.

Please feel free to share your own opinion on this saying in the comments.

1. disagree. Healing and scabbing are two very different things. Because it is not an open wound doesn’t mean it’s healed.
2. Wounds of the heart? Wholeheartedly agree.
3. Time wounds all heals. – lennon
4. Absolutely agree!
5. No.
6. Nope. The Catholic Church still owes us an apology for Scholasticism.
7. The operative word is “heals.” The body, biologically, will repair to the point that it is impossible to conclude injury took place. The mind could not be more different. It not only records the original pain and injury, it modifies itself to attempt to prevent the same injury from occurring again. To classify this as healing isn’t fair to the mind, it does not repair to new, it remembers and recalls at the same time it moves past and learns from it. But that does not mean that being reminded of the pain doesn’t bring it right back to the surface. We may be wiser, but we weren’t once, and we remind ourselves of it when the need arises.
8. Heal? Not always. Growth? ALWAYS. Frank Clark said it best: “We find comfort among those who agree with us — growth among those who don’t.”
9. I’d agree minus the word “all”. I believe time heals many wounds or even most, but never all. There’s a circumstance for everything.
10. depends on the nature of the wound. Self inflicted? Other person caused? severity of wound. Was it an actual wound or a metaphorical / emotional / mental wound? So … no it doesnt heal ALL wounds.
11. Depends. What do we mean by “wound” and “heal”? It seems to me that the phenomenal (for lack of a better word) experience of pain can, and often does, subside given enough time, but the displacement of ends due to a violent interruption in life may always be the source of an onerous burden. Is a burden the same thing as a wound? Also, can we still have a burden if the displaced end turns out to be more favorable in many ways than the original end (something that may be difficult to know, so perhaps this is just a feature of our psychology and “making the best of it”)? If nothing else, it seems that we have a tendency to engage in counterfactual thinking about past circumstances and this can be extremely frustrating. It can make us doubt ourselves and have a paralyzing effect on present decision making.
12. Best way of handling any wound is to forget about it. I have run away from all those and I don’t worry about them anymore. Time doesn’t matter just space.
13. No. Recovery from wounds is often a non-ergodic process. People might adapt to their wounds, but they’ve still been set on a different path because of them. It’s not an all-or-nothing thing, but people greatly overestimate that aphorism… for understandable ego-defensive reasons.
14. disagree. time fades wounds, but if it healed them, we’d be just as we were before and that’s never true.
15. Well, sooner or later, you’re going to die. So, if you just wait long enough, it certainly is true that you’ll no longer have any wounds to speak of.
16. perhaps from the time of the wound (T1) and the time of the “healing” (T2) such a change occurs honest assessment between T1 self and T2 self becomes impossible, idk
17. I still haven’t healed from the broken heart you gave me
18. Time diverts us from the utter pain of each wound inflicted. Time and wounds are of no consequence to one another. Time happens separately from wounds; we simply use time to measure the arc from pre-wound to infliction, suffering and ultimate demise.
19. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24

The medium we use to excel is science. (George Hrab, source: Geologic Podcast episode number 139 – around 35:55 min)

Every experience, good or otherwise, is an opportunity for growth; lack of experience is a lack of opportunity.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. (Carl Sagan, source: http://skepticblog.org)

In a land far away, in a time long ago, there was a man who had enough and had he not just enough, but to excess had he. His hours were long, his toils sincere, and his earnings quite dear. He ate well, he lived well, and he slept well. For this was a man with enough to spare and did he, with others share. For this, he was well regarded by his brethren, kin and neighbor, too. Even his foes kept a fond distance, for they were few and their character untrue, with only the cowardice of envy to spare. And so, the man slept well and he lived well.

It was common in those times, as in times now, for like to live by like. And so it happened that in a dwelling nearby lived a second man, well to do as he was. This man, too, had more than enough, enough even to excess. He ate well and he lived well, but he did not sleep well. Though his hours were likewise long, his toils were not sincere. The wind hums in question, how were his earnings dear? With cunning and not without conniving, this second man pondered and plotted his hours away. He left his toils to others near, that they may have reason not to stray. And stray they did not, their fear keeping them near. His foes were neither few and ever nearer they drew. Respect for this man fell away; in its place, stood only their contempt. And so, the second man, though he lived seemingly well, did not sleep so well.

It was true in those times, as in times now, that where a mountain stands tall, a valley lays nearby. And so it were that a third man lived not so far from the first and second men. But though he ate well enough, he did not live well and he did not sleep well. His toils were many and his hours even more. And whilst he would utter not such words, it was for the second man that he toiled so. Neither foe had he, nor friends with which to be. His hours filled with anger true and one part angst, and toil alone did he. And so, the third man did not sleep well, because he did not live well.

It was inevitable in those days, as in days of now, that where the sun shines upon a tree, never the land below is a golden ray to see. And so there was a fourth man, who served below all the others. Of excess and its meaning he understood not, knowing it to be a thing only that he lacked. His toil was not much, his time of rest neither more. For his hours were long and he never knew when, if, it would end. Foes he had not; for nothing did they fear nor more was there to envy dear. Friends were likewise few, too afraid of filth to stand even near. He ate not well, and by no man’s standard did he live well. But he did sleep well. With little to weigh him down and not a regret to hold him back, only the night was his friend, ever to return and always to keep him until the morn. And so, the fourth man did not live well, but he slept so very well.

With a heavy heart do we toil away what otherwise would we idle, or with light heart shall we rest when the day has met its end and bids farewell the eve.

This story of four men is but a tale of two: two ways to eat, two ways to sleep, and keeping true –there are but two ways to live.

Love makes the world go round. (source: from the 19th century)

original world map from here

[on BELIEF and ACTION]

It is possible to know one’s beliefs by looking at their actions, but it is impossible to know one’s actions simply by looking at one’s beliefs.

For belief is different than action, and rare is the person who acts according to his or her professed belief.

Humans are mortal, by definition, and know for certain very little about things immortal.

Hypothesis and superstitions, often termed belief, aim to simplify what is supernatural, i.e., what is not of this earth.

One’s beliefs cannot change reality, they cannot explain the past or define the future. At most, a belief may shape the present, and only our actions can agree with our beliefs.

If our actions do not match our beliefs, then it is only the present that we disgrace in the name of the future.

A belief which does not match our actions is but another’s, whose existence is never real enough to call our own. In this light, it is only possible to say that actions exist and beliefs are as only as real as said actions.

The action which differs from belief must relinquish any ties to that belief, for they are separate, they are an ‘other’ unto each other.

A fool professes a belief and guides not his actions to follow. The wise guide their own actions accordingly, and in doing so, set forth a belief which no soul can dispute, as it is backed with action.