The point of Banksy’s art is social commentary. More importantly it is location specific. So by removing it from the wall it was painted on means it loses its meaning, significance and value. In a sense Banksy is really criticizing about this kind of phenomenon by choosing graffiti as his medium.
Author: Warren Tang
I write about linguistics and philosophy. I also write poetry and take photographs.
Meaning
You know, nothing really has meaning.
What I mean by this is that within context things make sense. But what if you expand or contract the context? The meaning changes. So this in itself is an indication of the inherent instability of meaning.
So meaning is contextual. It is empty of any independent “substance”. Nothing new about this. Socrates said something similar about words in Cratylus. As did Buddha. And so the jump to this conclusion is not hard to reach.
meta-valentine
it’s not
that the love
has died
but rather
the love has meta-
morphisized
it is not worse
or incomparable
it is still love
but quieter
and (imo) more
beautiful
Keep Calm. Meditate.
I should take this – my own advice – to heart.
Happy New Year, everyone.
look carefully …
look carefully
and everything will
show you its beauty
(no more) love
to you
it’s the world,
your world,
a kind of
definition
but one day
you will know
it cannot
define you
or even love
speech-less
perhaps
when words
do not come
one
should keep silent.
is that not
its will?
No act of kindness is ever too soon.
on (the) edge
we walk
the edge
of the earth
at every moment
and yet most
do not know
this simple
obvious truth
Monday Meme with Shawn L Bird.
Is The Buddha a god?
The Buddha was born a prince. His mother died soon after giving birth to him. So there is no claim of divinity of any kind. He was an ordinary man with ordinary problems just like you and me. And therefore he is not a god. Nor should he be worshipped as such.
Buddhist iconography was something which arose after his death. And temples are not places of worship. Both of these are created to help us understand his teaching, the dharma, which is we alone can liberate ourselves from unhappiness through attention to the nature of one’s body and mind.
This then means that Buddhism is not about faith but practice. The practice espoused was to look after the mind as much as we look after our body. This Buddhists do through meditation. Meditation does not have any special powers as such but only allows one to focus the mind to see clearly what the mind and body are. Some kind of basic understanding is necessary of course, but essentially it is that everything is impermanent, without self and suffering. Nothing including Buddhism lasts forever. That includes the self which many people cling on to. The self is an illusion. And that is perhaps the greatest of all roots of our suffering. Understand that this is what existence is then we can proceed to find the happiness which does not diminish.
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