Ignorance

Found this in "The Book of Tea" by Kakuzo Okakura and thought it very interesting. The book was published in 1906 but the message here still resonates today.

"People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly. We are wicked because we are frightfully self-conscious. We nurse a conscience because we are afraid to tell the truth to others; we take refuge in pride because we are afraid to tell the truth to ourselves. How can one be serious with the world when the world itself is so ridiculous!"

Most of the morals we are supposed to abide by came into existence thousands of years ago. Society has changed infinitely since the morals of most religions have been handed down. Yet the world does not stop to question if these rules are the right ones for society today. Some of them can be translated to fit today's world but some are just nonsense when applied to the current society. If the rules and morals of long ago are not adjusted or stricken or altered or updated, we are encouraging a world of ignorance. We need to come to terms with who we are as a society and not be afraid to redefine and re-assert our virtues.

Infinity

So it's been 2 whole months since my last post. I've been pretty damn busy. I just finished reading Stephen King's "The Gunslinger." There is a sort of monologue at the end of the book when the man in black tries to explain to the gunslinger the vastness of the universe. The idea he says defeats both the pragmatists and the romantics. And I totally agree with this. The more we strive to find out, the more knowledge we gain, the less there seems to be to dream about and romanticize. However at the same time for every question we answer it seems that a multitude more rise to take its place.

The greatest question of the universe lies not in life but in size, the man in black says. This too seems like a very good point. Given the vastness of the universe it is hard to believe that there is not another life-bearing world out there somewhere. The size of the universe however is a much more open question. And even beyond the unimaginable bounds of this universe, are there others? If we were to be warped to the edge of this universe what would be there? a wall? a sign saying "dead end"? Or is this universe just a small piece of a much larger cosmic entity? This question makes me think of a great example I read by Michio Kaku a few years ago in his book "Hyperspace". He gave an example of a fish swimming in a pond. To that fish the pond is its universe. But one day a hand reaches in and grabs the fish, pulling it from the pond, its universe, into a much larger world it never knew existed. A world full of air, and other life forms that it could never have previously imagined.

What if our universe is to us as the pond is to the fish? What if our entire universe is nothing but a small pond in an even larger entity and to the inhabitants of that larger universe we are but fish, with no understanding of the greater picture that we fit into. The man in black comes to a similar idea asking what if the universe as we know it only exists as a blade of grass in a much larger world. What would happen if there was a fire in that much larger world, would we be consumed? And conversely when we chop down trees and use them as firewood, are we destroying vast universes that we don't even know exist?

While the size of our universe is beyond our understanding at the moment, we may soon answer that question but once we do, other questions will continue to rise such as what is beyond our universe, perhaps nothing. But more than likely there is an infinite succession of larger and smaller entities. We may never know, but it's fun to think about.