2023 (#32) : Genesis 2:4-6 , Derrida , Sri Ramana Maharshi , Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj , Nietzsche , Bhagavad Gita , John 13:1-4

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams[b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground..

• Genesis/Bereshit 2:4-6

The message itself is not, but only
represents, the absolutely creative moment. It is a second and secondary
word. And when Thoth is concerned with the spoken rather than with the
written word, which is rather seldom, he is never the absolute author or
initiator of language. On the contrary, he introduces difference into language
and it is to him that the origin of the plurality of languages is
attributed.

• Derrida

The ‘I’-thought is the ego and that is lost. The real ‘I’ is
‘I am that I am’. 

• Sri Ramana Maharshi

As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.

• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a breeze, a moment’s glance — it is little that makes the best happiness. Still! …

• Nietzsche/Zarathustra

But he who will teach this secret doctrine to those who have love for me, and who himself has supreme love, he in truth shall come unto me.

• Bhagavad Gita

Don’t be troubled. Believe in God, and believe in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not true, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again. Then I will bring you into my presence so that you will be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

• John 14:1-4

O Heaven above me. pure and deep! You abyss of light! Seeing you, I tremble with godlike desires. To throw myself into your height, that is my depth. To hide in your purity, that is my innocence.

• Nietzsche/Zarathustra

The subordination of Thoth, the ibis, eldest son of the original bird, is
marked in several ways: in the Memphitic doctrine, for example, Thoth is
the executor, through language, of Horus’ creative project. He bears the
signs of the great sun-god. 

• Derrida

There must be love in the relation between the person who says ‘I am’ and the observer of the ‘I am’… It is only when the observer (‘vyakta’) accepts the person (‘vyakti’) as a projection or manifestation of himself, and so to say, takes the self into the Self, the duality of ‘I’ and ‘this’ goes and the identity of the outer and the inner, the Supreme Reality manifests itself.

• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

2023 (#31) : Genesis , Tao Te Ching , Derrida , Mark 8:24 , Nietzsche , Jung , 1 Samuel 20:24 , Luke 3:38 , Bhagavad Gita 18:73

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  

• Bereshit/Genesis 1:27

Know the male, yet keep to the female: receive the world in your arms.

• Tao Te Ching

producing these remains and therefore the witnesses of my radical absence, to live today — here and now, this death of me  

• Derrida

There is a time for being ahead, a time for being behind; a time for being in motion, a time for being at rest; a time for being vigorous, a time for being exhausted ; a time for being safe, a time for being in danger.

• Tao Te Ching

the task, the mission to which one is destined (always by the other), the commitment, the duty, the debt, the responsibility … the bond and the love which seal the marriage between the author of the ‘original’ and his own language.

• Derrida

He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’

And he looked up and said, “I see men as trees, walking.”

And he looked up, and said, I see men; for I behold them as trees, walking.

And he looked up and said, I see people, but [they look] like trees, walking.

The man looked up and said, “I see people. They look like trees, only they are walking around.”

He looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like walking trees.”

And he looked up, and said, I see men: for I see them walking like trees.

And looking, he said, I see men; I see that they walk as trees.

• Mark 8:24

“Everything is subjective,” you say; but even this is interpretation. The subject is not something given, it is a superadded invention, stuck on to the tail.

• Nietzsche

we must perforce consider first the myths of the Near and Middle East that underlie Christianity … the motive force that produces these configurations cannot be distinguished from the transconscious factor known as instinct.

• Jung

So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon festival came, the king sat down to eat.

• I Samuel 20:24

to wait without waiting, awaiting absolute surprise, the unexpected visitor, awaited without a horizon of expectation … the messianic as hospitality … the madness of hospitality…

• Derrida

the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

• Luke 3:38

By thy grace I remember my Light, and now gone is my delusion. My doubts are no more, my faith is firm; and now I can say ‘Thy will be done’.

• Bhagavad Gita 18:73

2023 (#30) : Malaguzzi , Emerson , Heidegger , Sri Ramana Maharshi , Mathew

Observing small group work informs teachers about relationships among children , their partcicpation and the roles that each child plays in the group … Children learn by interacting with their environment and actively transforming their relationships with the world of adults, things, events, and in original ways, their peers. In a sense, children participate in constructing their identity and the identity of others.

• Malaguzzi

The passion rebuilds the world for youth. It makes
all things alive and significant. Nature grows
conscious. Every bird on the boughs of the tree
sings now to his heart and soul…the clouds have
faces…the trees of the forest, the waving grass,
the peeping flowers have intelligence….

• Emerson

A clearing in the forest is still there, even when it’s dark. Light presupposes clearing. There can only be brightness where something has been cleared or where something is free for the light.

• Heidegger

The work will go on of itself. Thus Krishna told Arjuna that he need not trouble to kill the Kauravas because they were already slain by God. It was not for him to resolve to work and worry himself about it, but to allow his own nature to carry out the will of the higher power.

• Sri Ramana Maharshi

²⁷ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you..

• Mathew