An Example of a "Learning Process" Journal (using the 2 colored box format) |
Thursday February 9, 2006 |
Book: Wordplay by John Langdon
Source: Bantam Press, 2005. |
This is a continuation of notes I began on February 5, 2006. This time I am listening to Haydn on (earphones) while making the notes. I do not normally do this as I find music distracts me when I am trying to concentrate, although I like it in the background when reading light literature.
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6:00 am
- Polarized
- "At the very roots of Chinese thinking and feeling there lies the principle of polarity ... polarity is the principle that + and - , north and south, are different aspects of the same system. ... Taoism avoids alue judgements. Yang is not better than yin any more than south is better than north. [p. 61]
| I have some reservations about a phrase such as "Chinese thinking". How homogeneous can this possibly be? |
- Magnetic ... Electricity ... Gravity ... Up/Dn
- Waterfalls
- "But waterfalls, in common experience, never stop. Each one is a part of a never-ending cycle and thus a direct experience of something that's virtually infinite." [p. 73]
| Another example of an infinite process, also with water, are ocean waves on the beach. |
- "Water gets its way by yielding, a principle that is frequently referred to in the Asian martial arts." [p. 73]
- Minimum
- "Lao-tsu, the sixth-century B.C. philosopher who is regarded as the father of Taoism, wrote, 'The tao does nothing, and yet nothing is left undone.' This important passage addresses the fundamental Taoist concept of non-action." [p. 76]
- "Choosing the path of least resistance is more in keeping with Taoist philosophy, and once again, water shows us the way. To go with the flow ... water travels accordingly, circumnavigating its obstacles and eroding them in the process." [p. 76]
- Wavelength ... Normal Distribution
- Time
- "... the past and the future exist only as concepts in our minds, and the present, fleeting as it is, is reality." [p. 88]
- Past/Present/Future ... Sometimes/Never ... Seasons
- Choice/Decide
- "Every time we do something, it's because we decided that the consequences of doing it would be more to our liking than the consequences of not doing it." [p. 100]
- "Reminding yourself that you do things by choice gives you the sense that you are in control of your life." [p. 102]
- "You chose the option you are most comfortable with. You are responsible for your own life." [p. 102]
- "Having a choice is the same thing as having freedom. Many people choose to not exercise their freedom. They forget that they have choices. Maybe they never consciously realized it." [p. 102]
- "... not making a decision is making a decision. Opting for the status quo ... is choosing to stand still and allow time and events to flow around us." [p. 104]
- "We should recognize that going with the flow reflects a decision - and much of the time, a sensible one." [p. 104]
- "For better or worse, our lives, and history at large, are governed for the most part by momentum. That's why it's so hard to change ourselves and our lives and our societies." [p. 104]
- "Each decision brings new choices. We are always free to choose, and, paradoxically, we are never free of the need to choose." [p. 104]
- "When we make a decision, we can seldom be absolutely certain of what the consequences will be." [p. 104]
- "But if we maintain the awareness that we are choosing momentum, choosing to go with flow, with the knowledge that we can, at any time, change our minds and get out of the flow, or swim upstream, we can remain very secure." [p. 105]
| I have made more notes on this section than any other. It reflects very closely the reading I did yesterday on Sartre. |
- Inertia
- Momentum
- "... we have choices and are in control of our destinies. While this is certainly true, it overlooks the power of momentum. We are the sum total of our hereditary and environmental pasts. With the possible exceptions of God and the Big Bang, nothing has ever started from nowhere. Everything owes is existence to something else. A number of something elses all interacting with each other. Everything has momentum." [p. 109]
- "The present may be the door to the future, but everything coming through that door comes from the past." [p. 109]
- "It is much easier to turn the wheels of a moving car than a parked one." [p. 109]
- "In human behavior some might say that the ends justify the means, but this is a short-sighted vision. There are no ends." [p. 110]
- Chain Reaction
- At any given moment, there are an infinite number of identifiable chains of events operating simultaneously. Not only is no single event isolated from all others, but no single chain of events can course through time unaffected by other chains."
| Even the concept of a chain misses the point. There are no chains. Everthing is interconnected. |
- Energy ... Action/Re-action ... Perfection
- Mathematics
- "Mathematics ... may be the most self-flattering, self-aggrandizing trivia game ever invented." [p. 125]
- Algebra ... Big Bang ... Astronomy 7:00 am
2:15 PM continuing ...
- Syzygy ... Limits/Infinity
- Spirals
- "Whenever strong support can be made for two opposing points of view, it's a pretty good bet that both are true." [p. 148]
- "Spirals ... synthesize the principles - and in many ways the graphic representations - of yin and yang (repetition and variation), infinity (a mathematical regular figure with no inherent end), and the normal bell curve and its graphic extension, a wave pattern (rising and falling). ... The only way I can imagine time as both linear and cyclical simultaneously is to represent it by way of a helix." [p. 150]
- "... imagining a spring with a narrow diameter wrapped around the coil of a larger spring. ... A spiral representing seconds encirlces the minute coil sixty times for each revolution of the minute spiral, and the minute spiral does the same to the hour spiral. And on and on." [p. 151]
- Organic... Change/Changes
2:25 PM |
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