The Past is Beneath “Criticism” ; The ‘Optimal Future’ is a Function of Probability, and a Fortune of a Sincere Continuuity arising from Purer Premises of the Moment.

Man’s relationship with time is in the most literary sense of the term : ‘Skin Deep’.

For Time, wrinkles up, it seems on the body of Man, a reducing force, a keeper of accounts, a gushing, senseless, voice, capable of unconditionally impressing on the Skin of Man the irrevocable function of his experiences : Decay.

But what Is Time? What Is Man? And what is Superficial, and What is Not ? The statements above risk sounding foolish and appear as indictments, if these Vital Premises are not exposed of their conjurations. To Do So necessitates a Study of Relationships, rather than an examination in parts. How they relate and feel and form, rather than how they are divided from one another. More the Appreciation, and the less the mechanics ensures and insures a more Sublime and indeed, Complete Understanding – much as an analyses of cones and heights and cylinders, have never contributed on those mere grounds – to a Musician’s capacity to play the Organ better than he would not knowing its configured — one might say — ‘Superficial’ —  intricacies.

The reason the premise of “Man versus Time” is in a holistic and observable sense, insofar as it is an ‘Objective Phenomena’, is technically superficial is on account of the fact, nothing literally or otherwise, – could be more profound to Man, than Man’s Relationship With Himself.

Just as the Less is not More, Man is not the Time he Spends. That Statement does not require an added study of ‘Expenditures and Balance Sheets’ to be any more Qualified than they appear in that Self-Evident Form above in the allegory. In fact, to present it in any other way would be a Nuisance to the Reader and an insult to his Consciousness.

But is the term ‘Superficial’ an Insult?

When Man relates beyond the Skin, and beyond “prophesies” of appearances, and brush strokes of “modern” Art, – he is electing to leapfrog his rudimentary and standard functions, if only by beginning to not take those “mere” functions for Granted.

Gratitude proves to be a Science to a Man who is capable and powerful enough to be a witness to the relationship he shares with himself. The deeper he enters into his own orifices of his Self-Notion, nothing seems trivial, accidental, or Decadent. That is as much a Fact, as it is a fact, Global Banking has reticulated into utter Fraudulence, and Religion has dealt more degradation, damage, and ruin on Man ( Including the “Religion of Freethinkers” ) – than the Silent and Observable Natural and Quantum Forces as are easily afforded to those that Listen Better and more Wholly than they Speak. Not an Easy Task.

Is the experience of Ease then related to the differentiation of the Superficial and the Profound?

It is Not Easy to Unite with One’s own Self. Yet, it is not Difficult to Desire It when clearly, it is an experience capable of unconditionally impressing on the Spirit/Substance of Man, rather than Skin, - the irrevocable function of his Eternal Form – the very ‘Idea of Man’ being that form – inseparable from what He Is at the paramount moment. Therein, no Decay, but a Great, unsullied, and transcendental propensity is discoverable, notable, and construable – and the Author would hypothesize, can even be granted Construction in the ‘Grand Scheme of Things’.

How then are Ease and Difficulty Differentiated, if they are both expressions of the Mind?

The Superficial Man – One who dwells on the Skin, however, blames. In Christian allegory, he is like the Character Job : Given to him are purely arbitrary passions of an argument – and each passion, its own Principle, and its own Will. If he should dwell on the Skin, he finds blemishes, sores, holes – the whole tapestry of physical pain and afflictions are transcribed on his premises.  This is what he draws out and regards as the “Whole Past” – never mind, that had he not the surface of skin, as he has in Time the assistance of the surface of that Tool ‘Memory’, which alone empowers the Seeker to ask whichsoever inquiry that bodes and bears in his curiosity;  how come would he have Gained the Profound Opportunity of Criticism?

The Superficial Man continues to confuse Means with Ends at no great advantage! Regarding “The Flaws of Histories”, – Castigating and dispatching his dubious “Venom” to the Seeds of Past, ‘As If’ it Still Applies, he empowers that which he criticizes- namely his own Actual Decay/Decadence, – failing to apprehend with either his Soul or his Intellect – that the premises of ‘Past’, ‘Present’ and ‘Future’ are cursory habits of Consciousness – nuanced particles of Man’s own Capacity to Be, or to Become.

The Man who freely Wills a Vision, regardless of mere habits and costumes, while liberally interpreting the Useful aspects Truthfully from the ‘Past’, gives notable credence to a Present and Gratitude to those that strived afore him, and enters into his own futurized Vehicle and transmits himself therein through the Same. Indeed, Time as a function of the Conscious Mind is it not – much like Skin – a Vehicle? A ‘Foe-Friend’ – in the sense, it may appear a combustible vehicle, requiring maintenance, attention, — A Source of Energy, ultimately, that could be termed But the ‘Soul’ or to those of the least metaphysical “bent” – the ‘Prime Substance’. The Question of Existence rests on that Will – that Energetic Animus that supplies the Q     uest. To ameliorate the conditions within one’s own Person and the conditions and circumstances of all others go hand in hand, undistinguished, for one’s own Person Chooses It. And to enliven the Quest, one must summon Will and Vivacity – as Such.

Difficulty is the highest Ease, and the Highest Ease is always Difficult!

( Therein ) The Profound Man – One who dwells on Substance, and shuns hypocrisy and vagaries of illogic, un-reason, and tiresome ineptitude, and even avoids the accumulated lives of the illogic, un-reason, ineptitudes, torpitudes of others more Superificial than He, — Avoids all principles that detract from Candidness, and Dwells on the conditions and Premises of his highest Substantive Self – and in this regard, initiating himself through his 1) Mind – Reason  2 ) Body – Passions    3 ) Soul – Prime Substance , such that the Unity created by the Three are Greater than even the Whole. And in that there is contained – the Grammar – the Principle – the Mysteries of Man.

In the Year Two Thousand and Nine, as pronounced by the Christian Logbook and interpretation of Time, – it appears, there is a great deal of chaos, suffrage, blame, and anger arising out of Man. Everyone is at Blame, but not He. Every Foreign Element to his Consciousness is depraved and not He. The Justice is Unjust, but he presumes he is himself Just in stating that Concept.

But the Angry Man, the Chaotic, and the Irascible. Who is that Man? Is he a Superficial Man? Or is he Man Profound? Moreover, if he is a Superficial Man, will he learn Gratitude, so that his depth may increase towards himself, and so that he comes closer in proximity to the Man Profound? And per the Man Profound, in reaching the higher orifices of his awareness – Will he find it Satisfactory to be overwhelmed by the deplorable “Noise” – the noisy and pitiful vagaries of the Superficial Man, whom he cannot escape within or outside himself, so long as the Man Profound is Obliged to admit to his Humanity, which he Must at all times, unless he departs from its premise, – What of him? Perhaps, it is Love?

Is there an allegorical inflection that is perceptible? ‘Lion and Sheep drinking from the same Pond’ is a beautiful phrase – one that easily comes to the author’s mind when he raises up his eyes to the stars, probing for nebulous Relevance to Clarify itself. Is that not which some call ‘Kingdom of Heaven on Earth’ — That is a Space of such Profound Mutual Understanding and Investment, that it mutually assures Evolution, rather than “Cold War like Mutually Assured Destruction”?

An Investment that leaves both parties Wealthier than they were before and Conscious of the Fact, – if they prove Inevitable in their Reason, their Passions guided by Substance, and their Substance guided by the Whole than is greater than the Sum of the Parts?

The Whole may just be what is contained in the word ‘Love’.

“Amor Omnia Vincit”- as a Spanish friend of mine has been invoking of late with a Steady frequency. Meaning, ‘Love Conquers All’.

Going beyond Superficialities, and giving a Living Flame to Profundity, will be tantamount to transcribe the Equinoxes and Solstices of what is meant by that one word.

Love.

. . .

Alexander K. Rai, MSMA is the author of ‘Reader’s Indigest’. He ( personally ) believes in 2009, the most important aspect of existence is to readily admit one’s Humanity, so long as one is complicit in the Human Nature . Adding moreover that, while it is ‘Human to Err’, to ‘Err Honestly, is to find Truth’. Believing in his own Humanity, while at the same time, regarding the Whole that is more than the Collection of Parts, as the premise of what some may call the basis of his “Personal Faith”, he is giddy, that at any given time he is impersonating Only Himself, and all that is done by  his Humanity, is easily Surpassed by the volition of the Same, and what is prevented, is prevented by the same. The Author asides from being a ‘Real Person’  may in that vein, be also for the disinterested Reader, be a purely ‘Symbolic Speculation’, and shall not be disserved from the profit of Gainful Readership, whatsoever. The Author, therein, as Stated, does not take Credit for either Comprehension or Incomprehension of any of his Creative Works, offered in Honor of him Self and Despite Himself, freely to all that may elect to invest their ‘Time’ – and thereby moisten a bit of their Skin, in the Author’s peculiar unsolicited brand of mental – perhaps – also Spiritual – moisturizer.  The Photography Displayed in this Journal are not the Author’s, but rather transcriptions of images of Vintage Books, whose creative attributions are too many, too vague, or both – To List.

The Art of Mechanics.

( Plutarch’s ‘Marcellus’  Translated by John Dryden )

.  .  .  .  .

( Appreciation Liqueified by Sound ) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGAsvJvebwI

” . . . He now was a third time created consul, and sailed over into Sicily. For the success of Hannibal had excited the Carthaginians to lay claim to that whole island; chiefly because after the murder of the tyrant Hieronymus, all things had been in tumult and confusion at Syracuse. For which reason the Romans also had sent before to that city a force under the conduct of Appius, as prætor. While Marcellus was receiving that army, a number of Roman soldiers cast themselves at his feet, upon occasion of the following calamity. Of those that survived the battle at Cannæ, some had escaped by flight, and some were taken alive by the enemy; so great a multitude, that it was thought there were not remaining Romans enough to defend the walls of the city. And yet the magnanimity and constancy of the city was such, that it would not redeem the captives from Hannibal, though it might have done so for a small ransom; a decree of the senate forbade it, and chose rather to leave them to be killed by the enemy, or sold out of Italy; and commanded that all who had saved themselves by flight should be transported into Sicily, and not permitted to return into Italy, until the war with Hannibal should be ended. These, therefore, when Marcellus was arrived in Sicily, addressed themselves to him in great numbers; and casting themselves at his feet, with much lamentation and tears humbly besought him to admit them to honorable service; and promised to make it appear by their future fidelity and exertions, that that defeat had been received rather by misfortune than by cowardice. Marcellus, pitying them, petitioned the senate by letters, that he might have leave at all times to recruit his legions out of them. After much debate about the thing, the senate decreed they were of opinion that the commonwealth did not require the service of cowardly soldiers; if Marcellus perhaps thought otherwise, he might make use of them, provided no one of them be honored on any occasion with a crown or military gift, as a reward of his virtue or courage. This decree stung Marcellus; and on his return to Rome, after the Sicilian war was ended, he upbraided the senate, that they had denied to him, who had so highly deserved of the republic, liberty to relieve so great a number of citizens in great calamity. At this time Marcellus, first incensed by injures done him by Hippocrates, commander of the Syracusans, (who, to give proof of his good affection to the Carthaginians, and to acquire the tyranny to himself, had killed a number of Romans at Leontini,) besieged and took by force the city of Leontini; yet violated none of the townsmen; only deserters, as many as he took, he subjected to the punishment of the rods and axe. But Hippocrates, sending a report to Syracuse, that Marcellus had put all the adult population to the sword, and then coming upon the Syracusans, who had risen in tumult upon that false report, made himself master of the city. Upon this Marcellus moved with his whole army to Syracuse, and, encamping near the wall, sent ambassadors into the city to relate to the Syracusans the truth of what had been done in Leontini. When these could not prevail by treaty, the whole power being now in the hands of Hippocrates, he proceeded to attack the city both by land and by sea. The land forces were conducted by Appius Marcellus, with sixty galleys, each with five rows of oars, furnished with all sorts of arms and missiles, and a huge bridge of planks laid upon eight ships chained together, upon which was carried the engine to cast stones and darts, assaulted the walls, relying on the abundance and magnificence of his preparations, and on his own previous glory; all which, however, were, it would seem, but trifles for Archimedes and his machines. These machines he had designed and contrived, not as matters of any importance, but as mere amusements in geometry; in compliance with king Hiero’s desire and request, some little time before, that he should reduce to practice some part of his admirable speculations in science, and by accommodating the theoretic truth to sensation and ordinary use, bring it more within the appreciation of people in general. Eudoxus and Archytas had been the first originators of this far-famed and highly prized art of mechanics, which they employed as an elegant illustration of geometrical truths, and as a means of sustaining experimentally, to the satisfaction of the senses, conclusions too intricate for proof by words and diagrams. As, for example, to solve the problem, so often required in constructing geometrical figures, given the two extreme, to find the two mean lines of a proportion, both these mathematicians had recourse to the aid of instruments, adapting to their purpose certain curves and sections of lines. But what with Plato’s indignation at it, and his invectives against it as the mere corruption and annihilation of the one good of geometry, which was thus shamefully turning its back upon the unembodied objects of pure intelligence to recur to sensation, and to ask help (not to be obtained without base subservience and depravation) from matter; so it was that mechanics came to be separated from geometry, and, repudiated and neglected by philosophers, took its place as a military art. Archimedes, however, in writing to king Hiero, whose friend and near relation he was, had stated, that given the force, any given weight might be moved, and even boasted, we are told, relying on the strength of demonstration, that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this. Hiero being struck with amazement at this, and entreating him to make good this problem by actual experiment, and show some great weight moved by a small engine, he fixed accordingly upon a ship of burden out of the king’s arsenal, which could not be drawn out of the dock without great labor and many men; and, loading her with many passengers and a full freight, sitting himself the while far off, with no great endeavor, but only holding the head of the pulley in his hand and drawing the cord by degrees, he drew the ship in a straight line, as smoothly and evenly, as if she had been in the sea. The king, astonished at this, and convinced of the power of the art, prevailed upon Archimedes to make him engines accommodated to all the purposes, offensive and defensive, of a siege. These the king himself never made use of, because he spent almost all his life in a profound quiet, and the highest affluence. But the apparatus was, in a most opportune time, ready at hand for the Syracusans, and with it also the engineer himself. When, therefore, the Romans assaulted the walls in two places at once, fear and consternation stupefied the Syracusans, believing that nothing was able to resist that violence and those forces. But when Archimedes began to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces all sorts of missile weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down with incredible noise and violence, against which no man could stand; for they knocked down those upon whom they fell, in heaps, breaking all their ranks and files. In the meantime huge poles thrust out from the walls over the ships, sunk some by the great weights which they let down from on high upon them; others they lifted up into the air by an iron hand or beak like a crane’s beak, and, when they had drawn them up by the prow, and set them on end upon the poop, they plunged them to the bottom of the sea; or else the ships, drawn by engines within, and whirled about, were dashed against steep rocks that stood jutting out under the walls, with great destruction of the soldiers that were aboard them. A ship was frequently lifted up to a great height in the air (a dreadful thing to behold), and was rolled to and fro, and kept swinging, until the mariners were all thrown out, when at length it was dashed against the rocks, or let fall. At the engine that Marcellus brought upon the bridge of ships, which was called Sambuca from some resemblance it had to an instrument of music, while it was as yet approaching the wall, there was discharged a piece of a rock of ten talents’ weight, then a second and a third, which, striking upon it with immense force and with a noise like thunder, broke all its foundation to pieces, shook out all its fastenings, and completely dislodged it from the bridge. So Marcellus, doubtful what counsel to pursue, drew off his ships to a safer distance, and sounded a retreat to his forces on land. They then took a resolution of coming up under the walls, if it were possible, in the night; thinking that as Archimedes used ropes stretched at length in playing his engines, the soldiers would now be under the shot, and the darts would, for want of sufficient distance to throw them, fly over their heads without effect. But he, it appeared, had long before framed for such occasion engines accommodated to any distance, and shorter weapons; and had made numerous small openings in the walls, through which, with engines of a shorter range, unexpected blows were inflicted on the assailants. Thus, when they who thought to deceive the defenders came close up to the walls, instantly a shower of darts and other missile weapons was again cast upon them. And when stones came tumbling down perpendicularly upon their heads, and, as it were, the whole wall shot out arrows at them, they retired. And now, again, as they were going off, arrows and darts of a longer range indicted a great slaughter among them, and their ships were driven one against another; while they themselves were not able to retaliate in any way. For Archimedes had provided and fixed most of his engines immediately under the wall; whence the Romans, seeing that infinite mischiefs overwhelmed them from no visible means, began to think they were fighting with the gods. Yet Marcellus escaped unhurt, and, deriding his own artificers and engineers, “What,” said he, “must we give up fighting with this geometrical Briareus, who plays pitch and toss with our ships, and, with the multitude of darts which he showers at a single moment upon us, really outdoes the hundred-handed giants of mythology?” And, doubtless, the rest of the Syracusans were but the body of Archimedes’ designs, one soul moving and governing all; for, laying aside all other arms, with his alone they infested the Romans, and protected themselves. In fine, when such terror had seized upon the Romans, that, if they did but see a little rope or a piece of wood from the wall, instantly crying out, that there it was again, Archimedes was about to let fly some engine at them, they turned their backs and fled, Marcellus desisted from conflicts and assaults, putting all his hope in a long siege. Yet Archimedes possessed so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of scientific knowledge, that though these inventions had now obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet would not deign to leave behind him any commentary or writing on such subjects; but, repudiating as sordid and ignoble the whole trade of engineering, and every sort of art that lends itself to mere use and profit, he placed his whole affection and ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life; studies, the superiority of which to all others is unquestioned, and in which the only doubt can be, whether the beauty and grandeur of the subjects examined, or the precision and cogency of the methods and means of proof, most deserve our admiration. It is not possible to find in all geometry more difficult and intricate questions, or more simple and lucid explanations. Some ascribe this to his natural genius; while others think that incredible effort and toil produced these, to all appearance, easy and unlabored results. No amount of investigation of yours would succeed in attaining the proof, and yet, once seen, you immediately believe you would have discovered it; by so smooth and so rapid a path he leads you to the conclusion required. And thus it ceases to be incredible that (as is commonly told of him), the charm of his familiar and domestic Siren made him forget his food and neglect his person, to that degree that when he was occasionally carried by absolute violence to bathe, or have his body anointed, he used to trace geometrical figures in the ashes of the fire, and diagrams in the oil on his body, being in a state of entire preoccupation, and, in the truest sense, divine possession with his love and delight in science. His discoveries were numerous and admirable; but he is said to have requested his friends and relations that when he was dead, they would place over his tomb a sphere containing a cylinder, inscribing it with the ratio which the containing solid bears to the contained. Finis | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3di_FWO8MU Musicke As Notion ( Liqueified ) | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGAsvJvebwI He now was a third time created consul, and sailed over into Sicily. For the success of Hannibal had excited the Carthaginians to lay claim to that whole island; chiefly because after the murder of the tyrant Hieronymus, all things had been in tumult and confusion at Syracuse. For which reason the Romans also had sent before to that city a force under the conduct of Appius, as prætor. While Marcellus was receiving that army, a number of Roman soldiers cast themselves at his feet, upon occasion of the following calamity. Of those that survived the battle at Cannæ, some had escaped by flight, and some were taken alive by the enemy; so great a multitude, that it was thought there were not remaining Romans enough to defend the walls of the city. And yet the magnanimity and constancy of the city was such, that it would not redeem the captives from Hannibal, though it might have done so for a small ransom; a decree of the senate forbade it, and chose rather to leave them to be killed by the enemy, or sold out of Italy; and commanded that all who had saved themselves by flight should be transported into Sicily, and not permitted to return into Italy, until the war with Hannibal should be ended. These, therefore, when Marcellus was arrived in Sicily, addressed themselves to him in great numbers; and casting themselves at his feet, with much lamentation and tears humbly besought him to admit them to honorable service; and promised to make it appear by their future fidelity and exertions, that that defeat had been received rather by misfortune than by cowardice. Marcellus, pitying them, petitioned the senate by letters, that he might have leave at all times to recruit his legions out of them. After much debate about the thing, the senate decreed they were of opinion that the commonwealth did not require the service of cowardly soldiers; if Marcellus perhaps thought otherwise, he might make use of them, provided no one of them be honored on any occasion with a crown or military gift, as a reward of his virtue or courage. This decree stung Marcellus; and on his return to Rome, after the Sicilian war was ended, he upbraided the senate, that they had denied to him, who had so highly deserved of the republic, liberty to relieve so great a number of citizens in great calamity. At this time Marcellus, first incensed by injures done him by Hippocrates, commander of the Syracusans, (who, to give proof of his good affection to the Carthaginians, and to acquire the tyranny to himself, had killed a number of Romans at Leontini,) besieged and took by force the city of Leontini; yet violated none of the townsmen; only deserters, as many as he took, he subjected to the punishment of the rods and axe. But Hippocrates, sending a report to Syracuse, that Marcellus had put all the adult population to the sword, and then coming upon the Syracusans, who had risen in tumult upon that false report, made himself master of the city. Upon this Marcellus moved with his whole army to Syracuse, and, encamping near the wall, sent ambassadors into the city to relate to the Syracusans the truth of what had been done in Leontini. When these could not prevail by treaty, the whole power being now in the hands of Hippocrates, he proceeded to attack the city both by land and by sea. The land forces were conducted by Appius Marcellus, with sixty galleys, each with five rows of oars, furnished with all sorts of arms and missiles, and a huge bridge of planks laid upon eight ships chained together, upon which was carried the engine to cast stones and darts, assaulted the walls, relying on the abundance and magnificence of his preparations, and on his own previous glory; all which, however, were, it would seem, but trifles for Archimedes and his machines. These machines he had designed and contrived, not as matters of any importance, but as mere amusements in geometry; in compliance with king Hiero’s desire and request, some little time before, that he should reduce to practice some part of his admirable speculations in science, and by accommodating the theoretic truth to sensation and ordinary use, bring it more within the appreciation of people in general. Eudoxus and Archytas had been the first originators of this far-famed and highly prized art of mechanics, which they employed as an elegant illustration of geometrical truths, and as a means of sustaining experimentally, to the satisfaction of the senses, conclusions too intricate for proof by words and diagrams. As, for example, to solve the problem, so often required in constructing geometrical figures, given the two extreme, to find the two mean lines of a proportion, both these mathematicians had recourse to the aid of instruments, adapting to their purpose certain curves and sections of lines. But what with Plato’s indignation at it, and his invectives against it as the mere corruption and annihilation of the one good of geometry, which was thus shamefully turning its back upon the unembodied objects of pure intelligence to recur to sensation, and to ask help (not to be obtained without base subservience and depravation) from matter; so it was that mechanics came to be separated from geometry, and, repudiated and neglected by philosophers, took its place as a military art. Archimedes, however, in writing to king Hiero, whose friend and near relation he was, had stated, that given the force, any given weight might be moved, and even boasted, we are told, relying on the strength of demonstration, that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this. Hiero being struck with amazement at this, and entreating him to make good this problem by actual experiment, and show some great weight moved by a small engine, he fixed accordingly upon a ship of burden out of the king’s arsenal, which could not be drawn out of the dock without great labor and many men; and, loading her with many passengers and a full freight, sitting himself the while far off, with no great endeavor, but only holding the head of the pulley in his hand and drawing the cord by degrees, he drew the ship in a straight line, as smoothly and evenly, as if she had been in the sea. The king, astonished at this, and convinced of the power of the art, prevailed upon Archimedes to make him engines accommodated to all the purposes, offensive and defensive, of a siege. These the king himself never made use of, because he spent almost all his life in a profound quiet, and the highest affluence. But the apparatus was, in a most opportune time, ready at hand for the Syracusans, and with it also the engineer himself. When, therefore, the Romans assaulted the walls in two places at once, fear and consternation stupefied the Syracusans, believing that nothing was able to resist that violence and those forces. But when Archimedes began to ply his engines, he at once shot against the land forces all sorts of missile weapons, and immense masses of stone that came down with incredible noise and violence, against which no man could stand; for they knocked down those upon whom they fell, in heaps, breaking all their ranks and files. In the meantime huge poles thrust out from the walls over the ships, sunk some by the great weights which they let down from on high upon them; others they lifted up into the air by an iron hand or beak like a crane’s beak, and, when they had drawn them up by the prow, and set them on end upon the poop, they plunged them to the bottom of the sea; or else the ships, drawn by engines within, and whirled about, were dashed against steep rocks that stood jutting out under the walls, with great destruction of the soldiers that were aboard them. A ship was frequently lifted up to a great height in the air (a dreadful thing to behold), and was rolled to and fro, and kept swinging, until the mariners were all thrown out, when at length it was dashed against the rocks, or let fall. At the engine that Marcellus brought upon the bridge of ships, which was called Sambuca from some resemblance it had to an instrument of music, while it was as yet approaching the wall, there was discharged a piece of a rock of ten talents’ weight, then a second and a third, which, striking upon it with immense force and with a noise like thunder, broke all its foundation to pieces, shook out all its fastenings, and completely dislodged it from the bridge. So Marcellus, doubtful what counsel to pursue, drew off his ships to a safer distance, and sounded a retreat to his forces on land. They then took a resolution of coming up under the walls, if it were possible, in the night; thinking that as Archimedes used ropes stretched at length in playing his engines, the soldiers would now be under the shot, and the darts would, for want of sufficient distance to throw them, fly over their heads without effect. But he, it appeared, had long before framed for such occasion engines accommodated to any distance, and shorter weapons; and had made numerous small openings in the walls, through which, with engines of a shorter range, unexpected blows were inflicted on the assailants. Thus, when they who thought to deceive the defenders came close up to the walls, instantly a shower of darts and other missile weapons was again cast upon them. And when stones came tumbling down perpendicularly upon their heads, and, as it were, the whole wall shot out arrows at them, they retired. And now, again, as they were going off, arrows and darts of a longer range indicted a great slaughter among them, and their ships were driven one against another; while they themselves were not able to retaliate in any way. For Archimedes had provided and fixed most of his engines immediately under the wall; whence the Romans, seeing that infinite mischiefs overwhelmed them from no visible means, began to think they were fighting with the gods. Yet Marcellus escaped unhurt, and, deriding his own artificers and engineers, “What,” said he, “must we give up fighting with this geometrical Briareus, who plays pitch and toss with our ships, and, with the multitude of darts which he showers at a single moment upon us, really outdoes the hundred-handed giants of mythology?” And, doubtless, the rest of the Syracusans were but the body of Archimedes’ designs, one soul moving and governing all; for, laying aside all other arms, with his alone they infested the Romans, and protected themselves. In fine, when such terror had seized upon the Romans, that, if they did but see a little rope or a piece of wood from the wall, instantly crying out, that there it was again, Archimedes was about to let fly some engine at them, they turned their backs and fled, Marcellus desisted from conflicts and assaults, putting all his hope in a long siege. Yet Archimedes possessed so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of scientific knowledge, that though these inventions had now obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet would not deign to leave behind him any commentary or writing on such subjects; but, repudiating as sordid and ignoble the whole trade of engineering, and every sort of art that lends itself to mere use and profit, he placed his whole affection and ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life; studies, the superiority of which to all others is unquestioned, and in which the only doubt can be, whether the beauty and grandeur of the subjects examined, or the precision and cogency of the methods and means of proof, most deserve our admiration. It is not possible to find in all geometry more difficult and intricate questions, or more simple and lucid explanations. Some ascribe this to his natural genius; while others think that incredible effort and toil produced these, to all appearance, easy and unlabored results. No amount of investigation of yours would succeed in attaining the proof, and yet, once seen, you immediately believe you would have discovered it; by so smooth and so rapid a path he leads you to the conclusion required. And thus it ceases to be incredible that (as is commonly told of him), the charm of his familiar and domestic Siren made him forget his food and neglect his person, to that degree that when he was occasionally carried by absolute violence to bathe, or have his body anointed, he used to trace geometrical figures in the ashes of the fire, and diagrams in the oil on his body, being in a state of entire preoccupation, and, in the truest sense, divine possession with his love and delight in science. His discoveries were numerous and admirable; but he is said to have requested his friends and relations that when he was dead, they would place over his tomb a sphere containing a cylinder, inscribing it with the ratio which the containing solid bears to the contained.”

Finis | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3di_FWO8MU

.  .  .
Alexander K. Rai, MSMA is a traditionalist indepdent scholar who believes in the Principle of Objective Truth. Believing Spirit and Empowerment through Ethics and Co-Creation carry the recipe of Transformational Peace and Light, and the fertile graces of community, values, and inner voice will carry the banner in definining a natural hierarchy of values, in a world lost in the anemia of proportions, and an exorbitant chorus of internecine conflict that is a zero sum game, and discredits the tremendous potential vested in the actualizable Man. Alexander, additionally, is a resident homo sapien on the Planteray System of the Sun, calling the Third Rock his modest home.

Hubris, Whimper, and Bang .

“If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.”  Carl Rogers.

To Perceive : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKAxnB6Ap4o

.  .  .

Human, All too Human .

“So many signals from old express the same, although in different ways – those read via the great pyramid more distinctly than any. In spit of our not knowing Harald’s ideas and ways of thinking, we may conclude that his new faith had made him enter a radical change, and that his own change influenced his surroundings – perhaps similar to what was described by Rupert Shaldrake in his Book, ‘The Hundreth Ape’ : As Soon as a few apes had made a radical step of discovery ( like peeling a banana ), this phenomena would influence the entire world of apes ; a great many would start doing the same, even at a large distance from the discoverer. Humans may possibly confirm that same law, according to Spiritual laws. It has taken a millennia to capture and mature what Harald had begun to understand.” ( Transcribed from the Book ‘A Riddle of Rings’ Pg. 61, by Bodvar Schjelderup – On the Life of Danish King Harald ).

+  +  +  +   +  +   +  +   +   +  +   +

The disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years of compounded errors and privileges have arisen and resurfaced to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of.

Is an act of Preface then a Hypocrisy?

The idea of expressing a regard for a time previous to this present time a floundering poppycock act of lunatic romance, offered in variegated and delicately plucked themed tendrils of Oo-Laa-laa? More Choleric drivel to Avoid for the “Positivist” on the way to Yoga Class, and more Over-Intellected, un-founded vehemence to the “Realist” – too busy for such unsolicited and unprofitable truth on his way to pick up the latest Copy of The Financial Times? Too Piquant for the “Pacifist” in his ardor to master the gentlest way to tickle the voluptuously distended orifice of his lover?

And so it goes on the arbitrary Categorization of The Wise Human Community, in a listless and conscripted set of crutches, like the gassed and gunned down Dead from First World War, walking through the vapors of time, invading the Cool and Serene preoccupation of sipping a Free Sample of Whole Foods Organic Tea, and on the way back from Fresh Grocers staring with a startled look of self-excitement at the discounted and marshaled Goods and Services of the Day of Age, the Peace of Mind so easily jilted looked for and found in Social Network sites blazing with piques and prods of the profit margin to reduce the sole remaining and latest adventure in Human Wisdom to Finally Show Face.

Everyone is (unequally) on the Side of the Guilty, and Everyone is (unequally) on the Side of the Blessed. Yet, Distinctions are not Wise to make, when the disappointment, agonies, and calumnious riot of Cause and Effect will not leave undisturbed the pretenses of “Scientific Potential”, – Naïve Belief in a ‘Know How Saving the Day’, clearly, Know-How and Wisdom are perhaps wrangling in the Zone together, sprawled naked, rather uptight and cylindrical, in a battle that Exists in Only One Real and Palpable Sphere of Influence: In My Own Consciousness and Your’s.

For I, The Wise Human, and You, my Neighbor have Inherited it All, – the tanks, the guns, the scientists, the buffoonery, the saints, the greats, the sages, and the whole lot of our litany, - and the Hands that are typing this message, prop up and down, fingers moving and ricocheting off the plastic key slits, impressing thought beyond the horizon of action and reaction, Yes, beyond your brain, into your Heart : Where Citations, Errors, and Right-Doings and Wrong-Doings, in the word of the Great Persian Poet Rumi, also a Wise Human like you and me, do not prevail before what is manifesting in the Prime and Cardinal Order of things as a Universal, Collective, Irrevocable One and Single Necessity: To Love.

Yet the ones esteemed so long, so long for their privileges and disappointments, for their venerable pouch like faces and their expressive facial overhangs, ponderous valleys and cliffs, joints, and constitutions, the Great and Self-Elected Elders of your era and mine : Our Wise Human Eras, have not Quite Safeguarded this Institution you and I regard by that Term of the Heart, rather than of the Brain : The Term Love. Do you, the Wise Human, Know what this Means? This Term? Love?

This is what A.S. Eddington, a Homo Sapien, wrote on Page Three Hundred and Eighteen of the Book “The Nature of the Physical World” :

“It will perhaps be said that the conclusion to be drawn from these arguments from modern science is that religion first became possible for a reasonable Scientific man about the year 1927. If we must consider that tiresome person, the consistently reasonable man, we may point out that not merely religion, but most of the ordinary aspects of life first became possible for him in that year. Certain common activities ( e.g. falling in love ) are I fancy, still forbidden him. If our expectation should prove well founded, that 1927 has seen the final overthrow of strict causality by Heisenberg, Bohr, Born and others, the year will certainly rank as one of the greatest epochs in the development of scientific philosophy.”

Mister Eddington, the premiere Homo Sapien, the Wisest of his Race in the Year Nineteen Twenty Seven, clearly did not Outlive his message. For “the final overthrow of strict Causality” has Not Been Solved as a “Problem”, nor has any of the many profound Problems of Cause and Effect since his eras, – but rather the most superficial constructions and re-constructions of Causal forces have provided on Two Thousand and Nine, for the Wise Human his great lot : His Scientific Revolution, his Agricultural Revolution, and his self-proclaimed “Revolution” in Cybernetics : The Desire to render Inorganic and Unfallow – to Cause the forces of Negation and Pestilence to stir and breed and corrupt the last bastion of the Organic : The State of Human Mind, has reversed the progress of the War to End All Wars. By Claiming Conquest, Man has Bred it. By Show of Force, Man has Come Under Force. By Hypocrisy, Man has inherited A Startling Lie. The Food that does not provide Nutrition, the Romance that does not last beyond the first night’s affectionate embrace, the Lust in the body that can not be quelled even if Three Fourths of Europe was to be turned into a Temple for it, and the Seventh Grade English media empire, that has conscripted for its own services all Seventh Graders in the Universe: including the Two Billion or so living in the ‘First World Nations’, in any one of which, Mister A.S. Eddington’s corpse must be by now have fully rotted and reclaimed unto ‘The Nature of the Physical World’ he was so prolifically interpreting back in Nineteen Hundred and Twenty Seven.

The Problem is Clear to See. The wealthiest and most aware and Scientific of Wise Humans are tormenting and vanquishing millions of acres of Life Enriching Eucalyptus Forests, by mowing them down to produce paper fiber. The Stock Markets – driven by the Wild, Reckless, Wanton and “Realistic” covet of Money Makers and King Makers are ransacking the Wealth of Nations, through their “Invisible Hand”. The Greatest Nation in the World, the United States of America is being governed by a Kleptocracy, – Wise Humans and Seventh Graders that the Media venerates and places on a tall podium to exude their aura. Animals are being colonized, bred, and slaughtered in masses to satiate the Carnivorous Zeal of the Homo Sapien. Every thought, directed with the Individual’s appetite for Survival is being less luxuriously directed to acknowledge the Greatest and Most Common and Prevalent Truth : Selfishness. To emphasize one’s own lowest possible concept of Self : The Self that exists to Eat and go unstarved, to Reproduce to satiate its base purpose, to excrete out of Necessity. Witnessing the punctility and unreasonableness of the biological compulsions, the Wise Human rationalizes. “It is Not My Problem, but the World’s”. But Who Is the World? Who Is Paying? Who Is Profiting? Everyone, and No One. Every Body, and No Body. Every Misery, and No Misery, Life and Death lock lips in the Cradle and in the Grave, as Theoretical Evil becomes Practical Necessity, and Life becomes a Retreat – A March – Into Death. With Slogans of “Positivism”, “Realism”, “Pacifism”, and “Negativism” no one is becoming happier, felicity nor survival is growing in harvest, no problem is in appearance or in reality Going Away, – A War to End all Wars, is now the Slogan of every Institution, Corporation, Individual, Nation State, and Jurisdiction in the World. Confusing seems to be the Costume and even the Unwashed Underwear of the Emperor that no longer has any clothes.

The disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years continue to compound the errors and privileges that rise and resurface to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of. And he is Speaking to the Heart when he is Asking you the Wise Human to Defer For A Change, and Respond rather than React, to the Question Proposed before You: Do you, the Wise Human, Know what this Means? This Term? Love?

Another Wise Human – Doctor Albert Schweitzer speaks to Us as an Expositor of the Phenomena of Love. He too speaks from his Grave :

“ Thought cannot avoid the ethical or reverence and love for all life. It will abandon the old confined systems of ethics and be forced to recognize the ethics that knows no bounds. But on the other hand, those who believe in love for all creation must realize clearly the difficulties involved in the problem of a boundless ethic and must be resolved not to veil from [humankind] the conflicts which this ethic will involve [us], but allow [us] really to experience them. To think out in every implication the ethic of love for all creation — this is the difficult task which confronts our age.”

You the Homo Sapien must be Asking, “What Could That Possibly Mean?”.  ‘The Ethics that knows no bounds’ is certainly beyond the Confines of the Codeces that are managed the world, the “Systems” if you will, and the Societies that continue to bequeath upon them the doubtful blessings that always make the most noise and rely on the aid of the mischievous, illiterate, and the unethical to make itself known.

For, the disappointments and agonies of hundreds of years of compounded errors and privileges have arisen and resurfaced to further compound the Ordeal of the Homo Sapiens : ‘The Wise Human’. The problem is clear to see even on the premise of stating a declaration as extended and all encompassing as the horizontally crucified effigy portrayed in that first Sentence. The author himself is a member of the ‘Wise Humans’ Community and Phenomena he is speaking of.

Who else is claiming the Wisdom of Humanity today in Speaking their Minds? Who else is Waging the War to End All Wars? The Iranian mob points fingers to the false prophets, the false prophets point fingers to America, America points finger to its ministers, its committees, its values, and its ministers, its committees, its values, point fingers to everyone else in the World, Nation States that crumble under the efforts expended and invested in the Act of Accusation, as the finger licking denizens of Mac Donalds and Panera Breads, and Deli De Luca, and Seven Eleven, are Youtubing their Way into thought Systems, alternating between Advertisements of Free Pornography on the Internet, Dating Sites, and Dot Coms, blaming everyone from Barney the Purple Dinosaur, Ex-Wives, Girlfriends, the Vatican, the Police, Loud Neighbors, Churches, Synagogues and Imaginary Rogues.

The Homo Sapien, reared from Cradle to Grave by the Experiments of Dead Societies and Dead Men of Dead Letters, creak and crank – its Youth defeated by its Dead Ancestors, its Youngest indebted by its Oldest, the most Respectable Institutions desecrating the most Respectable Virtues, – in the Tall Tale Talks of Infrastructure Investment, the Mortgage System, the Debt and the Despair, everyone feels entitled to Complain, and too Few feel the Privilege to Amend, to Make Better, to Act to Restore, to Take Responsibility.

Meanwhile, the multiplying numbers of the Irresponsible and Uneducated feel Entitled to sag their dry minds and spirits on the Crutches of Fact Invention and Castigation. The Christians are in an uproar, believing their troubles are caused by the heathens, the browns, the blacks, and the asiatics. The Apologists of every Religion are rising anew with “Inspiration” to leech anecdotes from magazines and New York Times to Copy and Paste their way into “Great Reformation”, the Hot Steam of the Ego could Seer the Stone Faces of Statutes, and stop a Racing Horse dead in its Tracks, as if it has been gored by a Locomotive. The Muslims either have all Given Up, or All Died “From the War On Terror”. The “War on Error” is being fought at all fronts, at all times, by those that feel that they are entitled to be counted as “amongst the Right”. The “Blame Game” has become an International Sport, in Spare Time and in Quality Time, and all Available Portions, Packets, Bouqets, and Vellums of Time, it is an Unceasing Marvel the likes of which the world has yet to match. Secular Men are blaming the Vatican – as “Hidden Demons” conscript every avenue of Self-Advertisement on National Television and Hire every Private Eye to pay their ways out of Sins. The “Hunters of Facts” and Finger Pointers, Travel in all Directions and Latitudes, screeching “It’s the Freemasons! It’s the Freemasons!”.

So Where and in Whom does the Solution Lie? In Scientific Revelation? In Books and Start Ups? In “Money Making Schemes”, and “Executing an Act of Justice”? To Avenge a Dead Religion, or in Advocate a New Prophet? What about You? You the Wise Human? Do You Know What the Term Love means? Do you believe rather that it is an Opinion,  A trifling passing Season, an aromatic Whiff, a Way of Life, Spare Change, a Theology, an Alternative Way of Living, or a Secret Society? That it’s a Thing to be Had, and a Congregation to Visit, or an “Order” to Join?

You the Wise Human, the Homo Sapien, you and me, live today in a World of Choice. In a World where Beauty stares at us Compassionately from every Corner and Every Crenellation, Unhidden, Transparent, in Plain Sight and Profound View. No amount of manufacture, no quantity of rhetoric and noise, no gaggle of Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, no number of Sponsors and Advertisers can drown out or Ransack – What Remains within your Access: You the Homo Sapien. The Lakes and Ponds of the World defy the Pollution you have bred into the air with your lament, the sewerage that your way of life produces has filled every water body on Earth, yet Mountains, Forests, Lakes, Herbs, Seeds, the Sun, the Seasons, all alternate around you, looking at you in Silence, observing you, holding you, healing you, and caressing you. You who claim that the world is all bad, have you ever experienced a Rose that did not Smell Blessed? You who claim that Reality or “Realism” is discovered in Economics and Social Networks, have you ever held the hand of a Child? You who claim money printed and backed by nothing “Talks”, have you ever had a Conversation that fulfilled a craving of feeling with a perfect Stranger? You who compare your lessers, and contrast your betters – Do you Realize to Stare into the Mirror and See your Own Face? Who Do You Think You Are? Are not the Wise Human? The One who forgot everything just to remember that Life is a Gift, and Love alone Conquers?

I, A Wise Human, regard and by transcription proclaim it as Self Evident and Naturally and Divinely  Fulfilled that :

True words aren’t eloquent;
eloquent words aren’t true.
Wise men don’t need to prove their point;
men who need to prove their point aren’t wise.

The Master has no possessions.
The more he does for others,
the happier he is.
The more he gives to others,
the wealthier he is.

The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master leads.

- ( Lao Tse ) -

May you immerse your Self in Knowing that :

- (1) -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8IozVfph7I

- ( 2 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3byt7xMSCA

- ( 3 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbpuSPL-FNU

- ( 4 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI

- ( 5 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL33hii4Y9U

- ( 6 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgz5BELaYW0

- ( 7 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwdWqBzdvtQ

- ( 8 ) -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NwfGA4cxJQ

- ( 9 ) -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w3tndTJ-hI

- ( 10 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aufuwMiKmE

- ( 11 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wop91_Gvwos

- ( 12 ) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5kBqrHphjo

What you do Today, resounds in Eternity. You the Wise Human must Do. It is in Doing that you must Place your Faith, if Wise is the mode of that which is termed as Humanity.

– # # # –

Alexander K. Rai ( The Homo Sapien Author of this modest Screed ) is a Self Styled International Designer, Author, Commentator, Spiritualist, Traditionalist, and Transcendentalist. His Life as a Wise Human has not extended so very many years as to become either enviable, ironic, lucrative, or quintessential. This Homo Sapien is inclined to Hope that you the Wise Human – the Reader – will aid in the Author intending things to be kept that way, after reading this modest commentary offered by a fellow of your own Genus, Species, and Taxonomie in the Categories of things known and unknown, lamented and pardoned. The fact a quixotic Sixty Eight year old Man from New Jersey – a retired veteran of the Korean War – thought highly enough of him a few years back to solicit him to join the Adult Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Philadelphia not so long ago, does not make him a “member of a Global Conspiracy”, any more than offering a human being a napkin after he has had the most inconvenient of sneezes, makes a Wise Human any wiser than he ought to be.  As a Christian by Deed, a Mystic by nature, and a Humanist in Principle, Alexander believes that Decency is the highest Obligation of all Free Men, and the Only Binding Contract between all Men is the unwritten manifesto of Life itself, which, blessed by the mercies of Virtues, Providence, and God, salvages all Men from the bondage formed by their Great and Modest Delusions, which causes them to Suffer Tragedies and Comedies of their own Errors of essential and otherwise irreversible Fallibility. Alexander’s “True Political Views” as an American is contained within two words and one name : ‘Ron Paul’. ( Google the phrase on ‘Youtube.com’) . He believes Barack Obama is -  all things considered – indeed an Honorable Man, while also believing that all Honorable Men should Strive to Be the Change they can Truly Believe ( And Invest ) In. As a Cardholding Libertarian Alexander has as much Faith in the Republican Party as he does in the fundamental Sanctity and Integrity of  a Banana Peel being tossed about between a bellicose and noisy bunch of Apes.

The Only Medal for Self Conquest is a Perfect Conscience .

” . . .  At Taxila, Alexander also met Brahmin Sages.  He always liked to meet philosophers and wise men, and visited meadows where they gathered philosophy. But when he turned up with his army, the sages only response was to stamp their feet. Through an interpreter, what this bizarre behavior meant. This was their reply : “King Alexander, every man can possess only so much of the Earth’s surface as this as we are standing on. You are but human like rest of us, save that you are always busy and upto no good, traveling so many miles from your home, a nuisance to your self and to others. Ah well!, You’ll soon be dead, and then you will own just as much of this Earth as will suffice to bury you. Alexander expresssed his approval of these sage words, notes Arrian, adding the comment : “But in point of fact his conduct was always the exact opposite of what he then professed to admire.” The brahmins were honored as advisors and counsellors, and in the market, were given anything that they needed free. They ate standing up and lay on the ground in the open both on the hottest day and in the monsoon rains. Sometimes they would stand motionless on one leg for hours, holding aloft a heavy weight. Alexander was particularly impressed with the powers of endurance of a sect of fanatics who went about naked, and wanted one of them to join his court as an adviser. But their leader Dandamis refused to work for Alexander or to permit any of his pupils to do so. ” If you my lord, are the son of god, why – So am I! I want nothing from you for what i have suffices. I perceive moreover that the men you lead get no good from their world-wide wandering over land and sea, and that of their many journeys there will be no end. I desire Nothing that you can give me, i fear no exclusion from any blessing which may perhaps be yours. India, with the fruits of her Soil in due season is enough for me while I Live; And when I die I shall be rid of my poor body – my unseemly housemate.” These words convinced Alexander that Dandamis was, in the Truest Sense, a Free Man, and he made no Attempt to Compel Him.”

Transcribed from Nigel Cawthorne’s ‘Alexander the Great.

.  .  .

Per further Impressions :

( 1 ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZy_RSbxEqU

( 2 ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ2dwPiLX6M

( 3 ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWSttXt_AME