Latin and English Translations:
Castitas vs Luxuria - Chastity vs Lust
Temperantia vs Gula - Temperance vs Gluttony
Caritas vs Avaritia - Charity vs Greed
Industria vs Acedia - Diligence vs Sloth
Patientia vs Ira - Patience vs Wrath
Benevolentia vs Invidia - Kindness vs Envy
Humilitas vs Superbia - Humility vs Pride
Personal View: You must partake in the seven deadly sins to reach the seven divine virtues. How else can you tell the difference between the Fourteen?
William Blake taught me that “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom...You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.”
Thus, applying it to the sins, excess Lust leads to Chastity, excess Gluttony leads to Temperance, excess Greed leads to Charity, excess Sloth leads to Diligence, excess Wrath leads to Patience, excess Envy leads to Kindness and excess Pride leads to Humility eventually by force or self decision.
I traveled the Road of Excess, I enjoyed my being present/presence there but looking back, I'm glad I reached the Palace of Wisdom and I enjoy my being present/presence here. I made mistakes, took chances, gambled with my life to reach here. I befriended Failure, we were enemies when we started off. Victory, she hated me, because I had courted her for the first twenty years of my life. But, she recently spoke to me and said she was willing to forgive me because I valued her much much more now than ever before and didn't take her for granted. I was willing to serve her and she even offered me occasional dalliances with Failure because she was aware of my unrelentless spirit.
Failure you see, is the alter ego of Victory, which teaches me how to be satisfied and be thankful to Victory. I had learnt my lessons alright. And it's all right now...
© Niranjan Noel Joseph
“This is how moths speak to each other. They tell their love across the fields by scent. There is no mouth, the wrong words are impossible, either a mate is there or she is not, and if so the pair will find each other in the dark.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Meat for Thought - You are what you Eat! Meat = Life = Suffering = Transcendence?
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." has been attributed to be quoted by Mohandas Gandhi. In India, our animals aren't treated well at all. Night owls would have noticed meat vans cooped up with live chicken, goats and cows being transported to various destinations. These animals have suffered a LOT during their final 36 hours at minimum. Imminent knowledge of death, starvation, suffocation, injected with steroids and growth hormones to mature faster, witnessing the death of loved ones, friends and relatives. Literally horror movies to experience before it is their turn to get the chop. This changes the physiology of the animal - the horror, the torment, sadness and ultimately the suffering.
We ingest this suffering and we are what we eat, regardless of whether we eat to live or live to eat. We thrive on suffering. Speaking of suffering, Herman Hesse eloquently put in his book - Siddhartha that "'The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it. You have already learned from the river that it is good to strive downwards, to sink, to seek the depths.' ...
Was it not a comedy, a strange and stupid thing, this repetition, this course of events in a fateful circle?...
The river laughed. Yes, that was how it was. Everything that was not suffered to the end and finally concluded, recurred, and the same sorrows were undergone."
Richard Dawkins contemplated in his book - River of out Eden: A Darwinian View of Life - "The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."
Kahlil Gibran chimed in “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
This started to make sense now,
To be continued...
We ingest this suffering and we are what we eat, regardless of whether we eat to live or live to eat. We thrive on suffering. Speaking of suffering, Herman Hesse eloquently put in his book - Siddhartha that "'The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it. You have already learned from the river that it is good to strive downwards, to sink, to seek the depths.' ...
Was it not a comedy, a strange and stupid thing, this repetition, this course of events in a fateful circle?...
The river laughed. Yes, that was how it was. Everything that was not suffered to the end and finally concluded, recurred, and the same sorrows were undergone."
Richard Dawkins contemplated in his book - River of out Eden: A Darwinian View of Life - "The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."
Kahlil Gibran chimed in “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
This started to make sense now,
To be continued...
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