Restraining the Beast in Us - by TPO

Restraining the Beast in Us 

by TPO

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John Sutherland: “Wrath”,  [“The Seven Deadly Sins: A Celebration of Virtue and Vice”, Edited by Rosalind Porter] …

" Classical moralists were, in general, against anger …. Plutarch’s thinking is summed up by the translated title of his treatise, Of Meekness, or How a Man Should Refrain Choler. Anger management is the ticket. Plutarch’s objection is frigidly rational. Wrath is a ‘short madness’ which clouds the mind and precipitates rash action, always later regretted. He concedes that ‘moderate anger is useful to courage’ but moderate anger is, most would say, a contradiction in terms. We would do as well to talk of moderate lechery. It’s a sum-zero thing.

Seneca, the grand theorist of the Stoics, is even firmer in his opposition. If Plutarch saw anger as something to be curbed, like an unbroken horse, which might – once ‘moderate’ – be useful, Seneca was all in favour [sic] of exterminating the beast and getting on with life without it. As he writes in A Treatise on Anger:

     You have importuned me, Novatus, to write on the subject of how anger may   be allayed, and it seems to me that you had good reason to fear in an especial  degree this, the most hideous and frenzied of all emotions. For the other emotions have in them some element of peace and calm, while this one is wholly violent and has its being in an onrush of resentment, raging with a most inhuman lust for weapons, blood, and punishment, giving no thought to itself if only it can hurt another, hurling itself upon the very point of the dagger, and eager for revenge though it may drag down the avenger along with it. Certain wise men, therefore, have claimed that anger is temporary madness. For it is equally devoid of self-control, forgetful of decency, unmindful of ties, persistent and diligent in whatever it begins, closed to reason and counsel, excited by trifling causes, unfit to discern the right and true – the very counterpart of a ruin that is shattered in pieces where it overwhelms. But you have only to behold the aspect of those possessed by anger to know that they are insane. "

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“They that have power to hurt and will do none"

by

William Shakespeare

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They that have power to hurt and will do none,

That do not do the thing they most do show,

Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,

Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow;

They rightly do inherit heaven's graces

And husband nature's riches from expense;

They are the lords and owners of their faces,

Others but stewards of their excellence.

The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,

Though to itself it only live and die,

But if that flower with base infection meet,

The basest weed outbraves his dignity:

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Circles, Logic, Unity - by Hénock Gugsa

Circles, Logic, Unity

By

Hénock Gugsa
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I don’t know what it was, but I woke up last Friday morning with restless and impatient meanderings of the mind. For some reason, I was thinking of circles in all their variations and sizes. Strangely, the process of thought that was in motion was also of a circular nature. 

I would progress from one notion or concept to another in a deceptively linear fashion. But all the time, I was steadfastly and almost effortlessly holding on to the original thought and its seedlings. The experience was both tantalizingly refreshing, and mentally stimulating.

Think of circles, and imagine them … regular round circles, oblong circles, ovals, conical ones, and orbital ones. Think of the earth and the endless heavenly bodies. Think of our universe, and the universes beyond, and the universes within universes! In my mind’s eye, everything is both physically and metaphysically circular. Add to this the concepts of centricity and concentricity … now we are off and running and we haven’t even smoked anything!

Of-course, the first time I was introduced to the circle was in high school geometry. But that was only a superficial and benign encounter with this extremely crucial phenomenon of our existence. Then again, back at that time, my mind was not sufficiently developed to absorb the abstract side of a deceptively simple thing called a circle. In point of fact, I am embarrassed to admit, it was only in the last fifteen years or so that I began to really appreciate the immense significance of the circle.

Historically, we’ve been told, mankind has long been aware of the circle … in the daytime there was the sun, at night the moon … circles of celestial bodies! Then, we are told that the invention of the wheel (a circle) was the harbinger of civilization. Early abodes were circular, and many cultures have long had circle dances. So, the question is: why are we drawn to the circle (no pun intended)?

Some years back, a work colleague and I used to have interesting dialogues about general societal matters that also touched on religion and politics. He had very strong views and beliefs that could easily be classified as conspiracy theories of the strange kind. He believed that the world was under the control of the Masonic society, and that we were all being manipulated and are headed toward a certain Armageddon. The signs were everywhere, he used to say. And he actually meant all the logos of companies and corporations that displayed circles of one kind or another. Indeed, we still see all these round comets that seem to be traveling in circles. My friend likened them to snakes that are assaulting their own body … the fangs opened wide while engorging the tail. Thus, to him, circles were never some benign phenomena.

My views, on the other hand, have tended to be less dramatic and more didactic. At any rate, I am hoping that they are more positive and hopeful for mankind’s future. I believe in simplicity for the sake of clarity and easy understanding. In my reality: The circle is us, and we are the circle. No sinister conclusions need to follow!

So we ask: Considering the thing (the circle) in itself, what do we know or what have we learned?

In mathematics, there is a study of what is called the straight line (i.e., the number line). The two opposite ends of the line are presumed never to meet as each moves away, “infinitely”, in its own direction. But this is a wrong conception because the idea of infinity is ill used here. In actuality, it is not only possible but also probable that the opposite ends of a straight line will meet. All that is needed is the introduction of π (pi) which is a mathematical constant found on the number line. It is also the one and only “infinity” factor that is part and parcel of the circle!

How is a circle formed or created? Well, you need an origin, a starting place. From there you go a distance of π in all directions and connect those points. That is what we do with a pencil and a protractor, as I remember it. The origin is very important as it is also indicative of the destination. It is a point, a dot … and a dot is also a circle if you really imagine it. It is a starting point, and we assign it a number: 1.*

The oneness or unity of origin and destination is mathematically observed or enforced when multiplication (or division) of any number by 1 results in the same number!

Continuous travel to the east ends up in the west at some point. Extreme left and extreme right eventually are one and the same. After all what is the difference between Stalin and Hitler? They are one and the same evil.

During a self-awareness exercise, the psyche (the soul) may be grounded or tied down by notions of individuality. But deeper meditation will reveal that all dualities, all adversarial situations, are resolved by their coming together to a focal point. This point is the origin, the beginning. So, from whatever point our thought process emanated, we tend to come full circle to the beginning. Alpha has become omega, and vice-versa.

Conclusion :

My mind’s meanderings thus far have been circular. At times, they may have seemed strange or looney even to me. However, somehow the concept of the circle makes extremely good sense. Is it a coincidence that the vortex of thought in its cyclicality reminds me of a cyclone? The eye at the center of a cyclone is the unity point, the origin. At that point, chaos turns to tranquility. And when we depart from there, we are back again in chaos. In the same manner, we can think of all dualities existing in the same place at the same time for eternity (the infinity aspect). On/Off, Light/Dark, Good/Bad, and Sanity/Insanity are all within the Circle. And Unity (oneness) has been made clear by Logic! 

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* It is a mathematical and logical impossibility to assign zero (0) as an origin point. Besides being a void, an empty hole, zero can never be a divisor to any number.