A ROOTS AND WINGS BLOG by GLENN SCHIFFMAN

10/27/2016

10/26/2016

Meditate

"The more and more you listen,

the more and more you will hear.

The more you hear,

the more and more deeply you will understand."

~ Jamyang Kyentse Rinpoche

10/22/2016

10/18/2016

Voltaire

THOSE WHO CAN CONVINCE YOU TO BELIEVE ABSURDITIES CAN CONVINCE YOU TO COMMIT ATOCITIES. (VOLTAIRE)

10/10/2016

10/09/2016

National Library Week

“You know, the more you know about something, the less you will fear it.” (Anonymous)

10/08/2016

"Security is mostly a superstition, it does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men (and women) as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all!" --Helen Keller

9/28/2016

A Separate Reality

"We are luminous beings. We are perceivers. We are an awareness.

We are not objects. We have no solidity. We are boundless.

The world of objects and solidity is a way of making our passage on earth convenient. It is only a description that was created to help us.

We or rather our reasons, forget that the description is only a description and thus we entrap the totality of ourselves in a vicious circle from which we rarely emerge in a lifetime. We are perceivers.

The world that we perceive though is an illusion. It was created by a description that was told to us since the moment we were born."

~ Don Juan

9/27/2016

Comprehend

"When I was born in 1895, reality was everything you could see, smell, touch and hear. The world was thought to be absolutely self-evident. When I was three years old, the electron was discovered. That was the first invisible. It didn't get in any of the newspapers; (nobody though that would be important!) Today 99.99 percent of everything that affects our lives cannot be detected by human senses. We live in a world of invisibles. The fact that...humanity does not understand nature is the prime reason for humanities failure to exercise its option to attain universally sustainable physical success on this planet ... I am confident that humanity's survival depends on all our willingness to comprehend feelingly the way nature works.

9/11/2016

Vietnam

9/09/2016

π

9/05/2016

Black Elk

9/04/2016

Pontiac

Syllogisms

AD HOMINEM:

Latin for "to the man." An arguer who uses ad hominems attacks the person instead of the argument. Whenever an arguer cannot defend his position with evidence, facts or reason, he or she may resort to attacking an opponent either through: labeling, straw man arguments, name calling, offensive remarks and anger.

ARGUMENTUM AD BACULUM: An argument based on an appeal to fear or a threat. (e.g., If you don't believe in God, you'll burn in hell)

ARGUMENTUM AD IGNORANTIUM: A misleading argument used in reliance on people's ignorance.
ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM: An argument aimed to sway popular support by appealing to sentimental weakness rather than facts and reasons.

9/02/2016

Commands

8/31/2016

Difficult

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
— Upton Sinclair

What profits

8/29/2016

Compassion

"Compassion is a spontaneous movement of wholeness. It is not a studied decision to help the poor, to be kind to the unfortunate. Compassion has a tremendous momentum that naturally, choicelessly moves us to worthy action. It has the force of intelligence, creativity, and the strength of love. Compassion cannot be cultivated; it derives neither from intellectual conviction nor from emotional reaction. It is simply there when the wholeness of life becomes a fact that is truly lived."

~ Vimala Thakar