Image a nation

Thousand Character Poem

Two eight character poems from the Thousand Character Poem brushed in Seal Script.by Janney.From bottom top:

How rain is made,
How frost is formed.
Gold was produced from the Lishui River,
Jade was mined from Kungang

The characters from the above image top two lines were also written on the the veranda of this building late 1800s

金生麗水, 玉出昆岡
Gold was produced from the Lishui River, and jade was mined from Kungang (Kunlun Mountain)

Here are all the eight character two line poems reading top to bottom then left to right that make up the Thousand Character Classic. Are there cultural differences between writing read left to right, right to left, or across or up and down?

A contemporary Heart Sutra by Janney…”

..Heart Sutra in Siddham, a Sanscrit related script, used in old India and traditionally used in Buddhist sutra copying. The following two examples are from Sacred Calligraphy of the East by John Stevens

Heart Sutra in Seal Script. One question with copying sutras is who does the original translation? There are likely many different translations? Maybe the scribe makes a mistake or makes an intentional change?

Alameda Creek

Having a word for some “thing” makes a difference not just in how people see that “thing” but whether they see it all.

People created sounds for communication which evolved into language, a set of shared sounds with common meanings.

The shared or commoness develops from the common behaviours of individuals that make up the society. It was this common behaviour being expressed as a social structures in a functioning society which enabled individuals to successfully survive.

Still, people are individuals, and as the society is successful, increases in population reflect the interconnectness of the individual behaviors and how the behaviour of individuals fits together as a unified social structure and less of Is it the “exact same” behavior..” Society is the unified integrate, more or less, relationships.. We may agree about the meanng of the words, but we do it using the same words which is the glue, like a “ higgs boson” of society.

Take care ! the society which enables social survival also demands compromise of individual expression. Freud would diagnosis it as psychological repression of the natural self.

It pops up in many different forms,. this idea that there is a “natural self” and human suffering—individual or social— is the result of the success of survival of the society needing the individual to repress his/her natural desires and wants to conform to society.

What solution is possible? Society enables individuals to survive while it destroys the natural spirit of individuals.

In modern society the natural spirit of the individual is both repressed and unexpressed, and both society and individual can never realize their potential. Or society which enables individuals to survive, rewards those who, free from social restraints break the bonds of “societal . repression” and show their true selves, some as cultural icons while others as criminals.

End Papers

“By God’s sword, if all abandoned the king, do you know what I would do? I would carry him on my shoulders step bested, from island to island, from country to country, and Wold not fail him not even if it meant begging mu bread.”
Wiliam Marshal, guardian and protector of the young Henry III, (c. 1226)

William the Marshal, in his 70s years old then , was a long time enforcer for various members of the Plantagenet family. When King John died of food poisoning his son Henry II was very young, and his claim to the throne was threatened was usurper waiting to grab his chance. Rather than returning to the official place to recognize the young Henry as king, William Marshal had the young Henry immediately recognized as king on the spot denying Stephen.

But why I remember Marshal is— King John had, under duress, signed the Magna Charta, and later reneged and re-signed and reneged ac couple more times and one of the first things William did as regent for the young Thousand character classicing Henry was had him sign the Magna Charta to make it the law of the land.

The personal computer—the smart phone is a personal computer—is a person’s direct individual connection to the world.. On public transportation oe afternoon this man was having a personal conversation with a personal therapist concerning the death of his mother that morning. Everyone in the car could hear him and the response over the diner the train. Many people felt their personal space had been invaded by this man bringing his intimate problems to a public place, and perhaps as some time passed, people felt empathy for the man . . . until he started crying about his own problem— soon he would die from cancer—which continued for two more stops at which place I departed..

If there is an “absolute human nature” than do the compromises of the individuals living in the society deny their natural expression of being human? or do they enable it.

Or perhaps the “natural state” of being human is plastic, adaptable & adoptable, “go with the flow” so to speak. Do people make the changes in society or does society make people change. Perhaps too often words we commonly use to describe what happened become words that we use to assert casual understanding where is no cause at all, we just believe there to one.

Does any of this give a clue as to why people do the things they do? Does having a word for a thing, being able to speak that word, being able to write that word, mean you, I or anyone understands that word. Maybe too often having language which enables people to communicate—i.e. successful survival—also enables the combination of other things like ignorance and political power.

Gate gate paragate, parasamgate, bodhisvaha