Paradox
Well it's the end of the first week of 2007 and already people are
back in their saddles and getting on down the trail so to speak. All
week I have been posting about various activities we can engage in to
bring us to a more enlightened perspective for this our new year.
Today i wanted to wrap up the new year theme with a collection of
simple paradoxes to reflect upon. May they point us all in a
direction more suited to our needs.
We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but
narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more but
enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but
less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but
less judgement; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but
less wellness.
We drink too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too
fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired,
read too little, and watch TV too much
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned
how to make a living, but not a life; We've added years to life, not
life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble
crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer
space, but not inner space; We've done larger things, but not better
things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the
atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less; we plan
more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but,
lower morals.
We build more computers to hold more information to produce more
copies than ever, but have less communication; We've become long on
quantity, but short on quality.
If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily
replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will
feel the loss for the rest of their lives.
So stop and think about all this for just a few moments as you whole
heartily get ready to do another year. Where do you want to invest
yourself? What fruits do you hope to harvest and more importantly
what seeds to you plan on sowing?
Have a wonderful weekend and a GRAND NEW YEAR!
Peace and Love, Jim
posted by The Daily Buddha at 7:15 AM
2 Comments:
So, can we say marketing is the root of all evil? Come to think of it, many of these paradoxes are a learned belief, behavior, or result of advertising/marketing in today's modern world. I wonder if many of these paradoxes existed in the ancient world? or if many of them did not exist? And if that's the case, does that mean we are doomed to an ever growing list of paradoxes that make up our life as we "improve" our daily lives? ;)
We can say that marketing and most activities in that realm do contribute to perpetuating the illusions and thus many a paradox. Obviously the myth that technology will buy us more time is obvious to most, just look at how much time we spend organizing our data, songs, pictures and other stuff.
Seeing or not seeing through illusion however lands squarely with each of us a individuals. To what degree we believe anything should not be based on marketing, pretty graphics or slick commercials. We should believe on what we can see, find out and discover first hand, for ourselves.
As for your question about ancient worlds, they of course had desires but it was not as exploited for profit as you see here now.
I believe with each passing generation we wake up just a bit more and with that awakening comes the ability to see through many paradoxes. This leads me to believe if enough people wake up much of this will go away.
Problem is, as people we are afraid NOT TO DREAM as though what we have is never good enough. Learning to wake up and quit dreaming and start living sounds silly, but then it's really just another paradox. :)
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