Coffee and Philosophy: Duality
I have to say that this is probably my favorite mug that I have seen so far. It's a perfect example of duality, especially in relation to life. To understand and embrace duality, we must realize that there are two sides to everything: light implies dark, life implies death, beginning implies end, and so forth. We can choose to see the world in a cold manner like the bear on the mug, chipped, worn down, flawed, and lackluster. We can also choose to fill that bear up with warmth and see it return to it's former glory. Perhaps people and life are simply like this bear. The warmth that people feel isn't really from the coffee though (although it does make us warm sometimes), but from the kindness, love, and compassion we share with each other. We should all choose to embrace each other in warmth instead of looking with judgement at the flaws we perceive. The world could use more warmth instead of coldness. Namaste.
beautiful. Yes their is a balance to maintain in ourselves and the world. The good the bad should both be respected and maintained. Non judgemental love and honoring of eachother as fellow souls that are all connected. I accept the dark and I channel my light. I no longer focus on what I been programed to hate or feel negative towards. It is all part of the bigger picture.
your so right... the world needs warmth. I hope to be able to share similar things on my steemit journey.
Namaste.
Thank you for your wise words.
Is a concept I also try to follow. I don't want to hide my "flaws" from others or try to supress my honest emotions. I accept them, try to let them have a controlled part in my life and concentrate on doing postitives. That is also why I try to talk solutions in politics instead of just about the problems.
edit: whoops I somehow ended up answering to phil-trails replies ^^. Guess I should stop stalking people...
well said either way :)
I DON'T agree this demonstrates duality, so much as the illusory/delusory/hallucinatory nature of all our sense-derived experience. When we vest our energy appropriately, that transitory illusion we call reality nurtures our consciousness, when poorly done so, we "suffer"- but usually, suffering clouds our vision more than the positive emotions.
The "mug" is a "mug" not both a "mug" and "not-a-mug".
The "shape of a bear" is just that.
The "picture that appears" also (and illustratively much more transitory).
The coffee, the warmth, they appear as what they appear to be.
Welp, maybe the coffee is both coffee and salvation sometimes...
Hehe, some cold logic to counter Phils claims I like that :3. I agree with Phil tho: The mug can be empty or full, depending on it's state it is a completely different beast.
Just to darken the mood a little: Love and Passion are a gateway drug to hate, that does not make love and passion bad, but it goes to show that nothing is soley positive.
I totally agree, the world needs more warm thoughts!
I love it! bears are amazing =) keep up the great posts (:
Thanks!
@philosophy-trail,as a student of psychology(here in Nigeria)i have always enjoyed your posts and always upvoted,so today i said i must follow and don't always need to go to philosophy topic before i read your post. keep up the good work..simply philosophy. will be glad if am followed by a great author like you. thanks
Sure thing!
Do we really simply "choose" to see the world this way or that? I believe we are shortchanging people when we make such claims. Our brains develop independent of our opinions, by the time we reach a place where we can "choose", we are already believing other people's beliefs . . .
We also have the ability to stop believing them and relearn things.
Do we? How so? Again, any assumptions we make are already framed by what others have told us. Do we really believe we can reset to zero on a whim? My point is not that we are unable to learn, rather, that what we learn remains forever framed by our past; most of which we have had little if any control over.
You're free to read back over my past several months of blogs where I completely broken down my learned views and behaviors and relearned the world as I want to see it. The only limitations on what's possible is the limitations you believe are possible. If you believe you can't change, you never will without an outside stimulus. The stimulus for me was love. People can change though, I'm proof of that. Even reading my old posts to my new ones are proof that someone with no concept of perspective or self can develop each.
I feel we are talking a bit past one another. I am not suggesting we cannot change, I mean my main premise is that change is the one thing we can count on. What I am suggesting is that our capacity for said change remains limited by our beliefs. William James used to argue that there are "live and dead" beliefs. Only those beliefs we have access to can be considered "live", that vast majority of beliefs remain forever beyond our scope.
Now this says nothing about the quality of any given belief--the belief's "cash value" as James called it--rather, it simply reminds us that we work within the limits of our beliefs. Why does that matter? In some ways it does not, in others is expands our cache of beliefs, and thus, our access to more and more "cash value".
I think steemit is going to like William James ;)
It is not easy to challenge core beliefs. You are right, they are developed over time, and are our automatic, unconscious response, much like an emotional reflex.
But they can be identified with effort and determination, and challenged.
I think for me mood plays a major role in whether they gain traction again or not.
We will probably carry them with us through life, but coupled with a dedication to balance insight and allowing yourself permission to let them revisit conditionally, it is possible to gain strength from the very things that once limited us.
The reflex perhaps is automatic, but with the work a secondary thought process can assist in limiting how much they effect self concept.
Not easy, not something I have mastered. But identifying them and understanding their development does help.
Greetings @philosophy-trail. Your are correct about your thought, people they can choose what they want. Upvote and follow you
-- I try and walk this out daily but for all of us -- some days are harder than others - there is just some really mean spirited people out there at the end of the day.
Have a nice week my friend.
Do you think those of us who have a very warm and inviting side, have maybe the darkest hearts also? Put another way, the person who shines the brightest can also bring the most darkness? Is our duality bound by extremes, or can you live almost exclusively on one side of the spectrum, and have another being balance out your existence on the light side by an equal and proportionate existence in darkness?
We are all responsible for our own duality and depending on another to balance us out is codependency. We can strive for wholeness, which is what most of my personal blogs have been about, and if we gain wholeness we can balance with another whole individual and amplify each other along our paths. In theory we could choose a destructive path together, but I can't imagine any whole individual would seek pain and sorrow. Everyone has their own path though, so who knows.
This is the idea of yin-yang 100%. There is no happiness without sadness, joy without pain, beauty without ugliness and on and on!