avoid

Even the simplest most common meaning evokes trhe notion of control. Parenting is the administration of children. Not a pleasant thing to do, though it can be enjoyed. For example taking children on holiday when they are bored.

All to often parents like to administer mopre than theoir own children, hence schools, religions and governments. Although being a parent isn't an essential course to undertake to be a controler it is a great mover and sadly parenting for a the best part of a couple of decades leaves it's mark on the parent. Moreso if there is more than one child and parenting goes on for decades, more so for a single parent where it is difficult to get a break.

Ther outcome is that the parent often cannot stop and wants to admisister even once the children have left home. Such a parent is likely to seek groups to join, where admistration is a foregone acceptable mechanism. Joining campaigns, samll tyo beging with, with the possibilty of going up the heirachy and become a named administrator.

Feeding people and generally helping is the most easy to undertake as it seems the admistartion is for anothers well being, as no doubt was the argument withg parenting.

I've make a lot of sad choices in my life
and most of them are friends, and all of them are mad.
And so as not to buck to buck the trend
I made another in being here with you.

Life's not want it's made out to be
nor is life the word to use at all my dears
it's a consumer game that costs so clear
and killing without tears.

Hey! never mind the joyfull tones
warm words that lift your heart
sweet thinking is just the trick
to keep you playing the part

That art where each of us can be
whatere we choose
to fight to win yet maybe loose
or not to choose at all

For what choice is made can only be
a passing leaf or tree
and once it's made a neverending stream
of coloured waters spew.

These prancing thoughts all rightly flowing
to the one and only see
that waits so patiently past shore
to welcome death and thee

here below the waves now sunk
above I clearly see
that all my life till now has been
the very death of me.

For taking that which is not mine
is bound to end in shame
a game some time ago
I'd decided not to play.

And so my friends, my enemies
I wish you well of course
and hope you too can see
which ever way you choose to take
it's one you never had to make.

Jain Mahavira Vardhamana

Regarding the idea of the soul (Jiva), Vardhamana introduced a small change that made a significant difference in his approach to life and the shaping of the Jain code of conduct. It was widely accepted by Indian society that animals, humans, and even the gods had souls, but Vardhamana went even further, claiming that nearly everything is alive. Everything is made up, according to his view, of Jiva or “living intelligence”, trapped in matter. Living beings were divided into different categories.

Beings with five senses, including humans and major animals.
Beings with four senses, they cannot hear (wasps, flies, butterflies).
Beings with three senses, they can neither hear nor see (ants, moths, fleas).
Beings with two senses, they can only taste and touch (worms, leeches, shellfish).
Beings with only one sense, they only have the sense of touch (plants, microscopic organisms, wind, fire, water).

These ideas became the basis of the most important component of the ethical code of Jainism, named ahimsa or “non-violence”: Violence against any living creature in any form is strictly forbidden. Because Jains believed that everything was alive, non-violence was taken very seriously, to the point that the followers of Vardhamana veiled their mouths for fear of inhaling and killing the organisms of the air. They also screened their lamps to protect insects from the flame and swept the ground before walking in order to avoid the risk of accidentally trampling out any life. Some sources claim that Vardhamana would allow mosquitoes to feed on his blood, and while other ascetics would carry sticks with them to scare off the dogs, Vardhamana would allow the dogs to bite him. Even vegetables were considered to be alive, along with inanimate objects, such as rocks and fire. For this reason, the most strict Jains would only eat vegetables and grains of rice that were already lying on the floor, no longer attached to their source, and would never cut up a plant to obtain their food.

Vardhamana is credited as the author of an interesting parable known as, “The blind men and the elephant”, which is a form of criticism of the conventional assumptions on the nature and scope of human knowledge. A group of blind men are taken to an elephant and asked to inspect the animal while describing it:

[...] the one whose hand landed on the trunk said, "This being is like a drain pipe". The one whose hand reached its ear said, “This being is like a kind of fan”. The one whose hand touched its leg said, "This being is like a pillar". The one who placed his hand upon its tail said...

All these descriptions are accurate and incorrect at the same time. The point of the parable is clear: all points of view are partial and there is no such thing as an absolute truth when it comes to human knowledge. All human notions are imperfect, incomplete, tentative. This parable illustrates the fundamental doctrine of Jain epistemology known as Anekantavada, which maintains that no single point of view or human notion can be regarded as the complete truth. This parable is also mentioned in other traditions as well, such as Buddhism and Sufism, but it is most strongly linked to Jainism as it is perfectly consistent with the Jain epistemological approach.

No deity was recognized by Vardhamana: The only road to liberation was people’s own personal effort. This is the reason why Jainism is considered an atheist religion. Vardhamana emphasized the importance of individual actions.

Al-Ma'arri (973-1057), whose full name was Abu 'L'Ala Ahmad ibn 'Abdallah al-Ma'arri, was born in Ma'arra, south of Aleppo. He  achieved fame as one of greatest of Arab poets. Al-Ma'arri was stricken with smallpox when four and became blind.  As he grew older, he was able to travel to Aleppo, Antioch and other Syrian cities, learning by heart the manuscripts preserved there. Al-Ma'arri spent 18 months at Baghdad, then the center of learning and poetry, leaving to return to his native town. There he created the Luzumiyyat, a large collection of verses that contrasts from traditional works by its irregular structure and in the opinions it contains.  His presence in Ma'arra drew many people, who came to hear him lecture on poetry and rhetoric.

 Of himself, al-Ma'arri wrote "Men of acute mind call me an ascetic, but they are wrong in their diagnosis. Although I disciplined my desires, I only abandoned worldly pleasures because the best of these withdrew themselves from me." But his somewhat misanthropic nature appears in another remark:  "I was made an abstainer from mankind by my acquaintance with them and my knowledge that created beings are dust."
In the meditations of the Luzumiyyat are sentiments which, had they not been surrounded by many expressions of  pious faith, would have incurred a charge of heresy. In a somewhat oblique apology for any offenses his work might engender, al-Ma'arri said "I have not sought to embellish my verse by means of fiction or fill my pages with love idylls, battle scenes, descriptions of wine parties and the like. My aim is to speak the truth. Now, the proper end of poetry is not truth, but falsehood, and in proportion as it is diverted from its proper end its perfection is impaired. Therefore I must crave the indulgence of my readers for this book of moral poetry." 

Al-Ma'arri's skepticism of all religions reminds us of Xenophanes, Carvaka, and Lucretius, and does not re-appear in Western thought until the Enlightenment. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Al-Ma'arri remarked that monks in their cloisters or devotees in their mosques were blindly following the beliefs of their locality: if they were born among Magians or Sabians they would have become Magians or Sabians. Al-Ma'arri was a rationalist who valued reason above tradition or revelation. Like Carvaka he saw religion in general as a human institution invented as a source of power and income for its founders and priesthood, who pursued worldly ends with forged documents attributed to divine inspiration. Like Vardhamana and the Jains, al-Ma'arri believed in the sanctity of life, urging that no living creature should be harmed. He became a vegetarian and opposed all killing of animals, and the use of animal skins for clothing.

Al-Ma'arri passed judgments with a freedom that must have offended the privileged members of his society. In Reynold Nicholson's words "Amidst his meditations on the human tragedy, a fierce hatred of injustice, hypocrisy, and superstition blazes out." Many of the extracts below are taken from Nicholson's translation.
Introduction

Calmness: Page 2

Sanctity of Life Page 3

Reason and Truth Page 4

Mortality Page 5

Those Who Falsely Lead Us Page 6

Religion and Superstition Page 7

Sources Page 8

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People invariably talk in terms of cause and culpabilty when they are unprepared to take full responsibilty for thier feelings and situations: whereas I would argue that it is a matter of conditions.

The concept of conditions requires being somewhere and is an expression of space, whereas cause and culpabilty are both linear aspects of time.

So you can live and kill and eventually die on a line, albiet bent and never straight or can dwell eternally in an infinitly dimensioned space, even if you are only able to enjoy a few dimensions. I'm replacing the previous clause after a discusison on a train to St Ives on 11th Feb where I argued against that.

My argument was that an increase in dimenensions has the opposite effect, implying a cause; that the greater the choice the more constrained is the will. If direction is linear then there may be only one choice although travel back in time would seem to be another.

Having to choose which direction to take, more so in multidimesional space, must take more time to finalise, unless no choice is made. So where there is no choice of direction is there any choice. Where there are options to choose from, linearly only one can be made at a time. Yet there is always the choice not to choose: such choice does not require a timely decsion and can best be experienced when the dimensions and choices are merged.

Although the notion of a universe, a single word exists, it's identification must remain a mystery so as not to evoke a choice

Conditions

The conditons for an existence are many, or more accuratly undefined in totality and inevitably infinite and whole. But let's use H²O as a simple example.

I am not going to look at the conditions needed of it's internal structure to exist but the basic human concious interaction. We all are familiar with water for drinking, which seems essential, washing and swimming being less important.

Yet H²O exists in three main forms, ice, water and steam. Ice although not as common as water is well appreciated whereas steam is a bit more obscure or should I say vague. Steam is a colourless gas and is essentially H²O molecules moving around at high speed.

Certain condtions are prevalent for H²O to appear in any one of these forms, both commonly appearing to equate to temperate; however pressure is equally important. By reducing the pressure on water it will convert to steam even if there is no change in temperature.

So you can see that whereas certain conditons must be met for an existence it cannot be viewed that heat melts water. Heat does have the nature of being transfered but it does not have the nature of cause and does not melt things. Heat does not melt wood nor stone, although it can be used to melt stone.

Cause and Effect
Looking at the environment from a perspective of understanding the fundemtall conditons that have to exist for a complex form to exist is the stuff of science i.e. knowledge, the task being understanding. Yet most understanding is not a pure intelectual pusuit with the goal of knowing but of controlling. Here exists the basis of linear thought that one thing ineviably leads to another. Despite this being absolutley false this is inhernt in our language, so words follow words, but does one word mean that another has to follow, surely I can write what I like even though it may be unintelligable.

So there is a cause and effect mentality that pervades human thinking which is then seen as polarisation and extended to the issue of success or failure, profit and gain. The outcome of applying a finite amount of conditions does not necessaripy produce the succes and gain it was set for.

Culpability

Most often in human endeavours that require a gain, when some task to perform fails there is seen to be a weakness or wrongness. People are then held to account for not being fully in control of the environment and blame is then apportioned. Of course those apportioning rarely take their appropriate share and so the disparity grows between what really does exist and that which is only a function of conditions.

The problem is that the simple idea of spirit and body has become an never ending search for conditons that can be manufactured for the minds desire to control. There is a never ending set of conditions as to why H²O exists and an equally non-exhuastive uses water can be put to.

So can you really ever be to blame for not understanding enough conditons and or not having the will to manipilaute them to anothers liking, well obviously you can; but intellectualy it's a load of bullshit, it is just bullying, something us humans are becoming conditioned to.

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