September 2, 2007 at 9:59 am (reading)
There are so many books I don’t even think of buying. Too cheap for me. However, I ventured into buying Teri Hatcher’s Burnt Toast, and I have just read it … right after Iris Murdoch’s The Time of the Angels and A. N. Wilson’s Iris Murdoch as I Knew Her . I did it, despite the back cover blurb which says that she is the star of a TV series whose title puts me off. It was a completely irrational choice.
The book does sport a number of somewhat facetious asides. It does get rather preachy at times. The author doesn’t seem to have reached farther on her path to enlightenment than I have on mine; she doesn’t even seem to be making educated efforts.
So how could I rationalize spending $6 (the cover price of the Bulgarian edition) on such a book? It seems easier to explain why such books are of use to their authors and to certain audiences. Well, I am happy I have met Teri, and it’s not because I share the lot of a working single parent who has had a number of failed relationships and is trying to save the world while learning how to take care of herself.
It’s like reading people’s blogs to find out that there are people who are observant, alert, conscious – not all the time, but still they are! They save me from my ever lurking arrogance – the feeling that I am the one and only treading on the Way without a paid Guru. They, perhaps, remind me that I need people in a way, despite the fact that I could do (and I love it) perfectly without their physical presence or even long distance communication.
Did Buddha ever offer a logical explanation of why we take refuge in our Sangha? We just do. It’s good to know one more thing that could make you really happy.
The moral: if you’re attracted by new food, listen to your instincts and try it.
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August 31, 2007 at 9:19 am (ideas, reading)
I buy a lot of books, sincerely meaning to read most of them. They range from fiction to philosophy, from self-help to real psychology, anthropology, physics, sociology, marketing, branding, advertising, religion, history, linguistics, literature, mythology, fairy-tales, magazines (yes, they are treated like books at home). All this lore added to high words.
Why should I read, think and write through all this instead of reaching nirvana through some simple zen experience like dark chocolate / tea/ not picking up the phone?
Won’t I just get lost, off my way to happiness – the way most western philosophers seem to have done (look forward to an entry on the western way of doing philosophy)?
I love reading and thinking and writing in my journal (and blogs) about all these in the most unsystematic way, but I do have a method in my madness: I let my heart / intuition lead me to the next book I will enjoy.
I plug into wisdom, no matter what I choose. I know Dalai Lama would say I should pick out one way and follow it, but … not my way. I do enjoy my infidelity to Buddhism or whatever path which seems to be The Path at a certain stage of my life. Not without my doubts, though 
.
And last (and I don’t care if least), I might be a Platonist or rather an Archetypist. I feel that if people have come up with all this, it’s part of human nature. If I ignore most of it, I ignore parts of my soul. And some day the ignored subatomic particles or stardust will loom and say “Boo!”
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August 31, 2007 at 9:18 am (writing)
I have just finished A. N. Wilson’s “Iris Murdoch as I knew her”, and I have written down several pages of unfamiliar words, would-like-to-refresh words, beautiful words. I have even looked some of them up in a dictionary and browsed through them a couple of times to revise.
Best-selling authors (like Dan Brown) write in simple English. I believe that nowadays the simpler the language, the better chances for the text to become a best-seller – more people will be able to read it and enjoy it in a fast and effortless way – the way they watch soap-like stuff on TV.
Then isn’t trying to master high English a waste?
I love beautiful difficult English (not Mobile Dick’s, of course!).
I would feel cool to be better at it. It will make me feel as important as someone who can change gear the classic way and does it in automatic America.
I would be happy if more people felt cool about studying it and using it. It will give them access to ideas and nuances of ideas, which would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
Look forward to my next entry, which might read like “Why should I have access to all ideas?”
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