My name's Justin, and I'm a Buddhist. I take bits from Hindu, and Taoist philosophy as well though. I blog about religion, politics, philosophy, and whatever else I feel like blogging about. I've grown a lot over the years, but I'm still far from where I want to be. If you have any questions then ask away! Don't be shy.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The other (new) English teacher gave me these. I am so. happy.
Your work… that’s the meaning of life. The material the earth offers you and what you make of it.
Howard Roark (via hunterhaley)
You’ve made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don’t you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?
Howard Roark (The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand)
The Fountainhead
1949
Rant on Rand.
Reading the “Virtue of Selfishness” by Ayn Rand with essays by Nathaniel Braden. I love Rand’s fictional work, and some of her philosophy, but I can not stand her and Braden’s interpretation of mysticism. They are both incredibly arrogant and obviously haven’t read any mystic literature or if they did they were too ignorant to understand it. Braden brought up Zen Buddhists “no-mind” and treated it as some sort of mental handicap. What has Rand accomplished in life? All Rand had going for her were four good novels, her biased opinion on religion made her laughable. She makes many good points in her philosophy, but many outlandish atrocious comments as well. Not to mention the fact that she was a total hypocrite and couldn’t even live up to her own philosophy. I am actually disgusted by her character and her ignorance of mysticism and morality. Rand willingly smoked cigarettes knowing it was killing her, and signed up for social security and medicare. It’s sad that she fought for a philosophy she thought was so great and mighty, but in the end she couldn’t even live up to her own standards and died a heartless monster and was nothing like her ideal man Roark or woman Dominique.
However Braden on the other hand, after splitting with Rand finally got his head on straight and reconciled with mysticism and Buddhism and actually started practicing Buddhism and started to understand the concepts instead of just spouting out random filth. However while he is still a rigid individualist who can’t seem to see the futility of the ego, he’s a lot better off then Rand. Rand could easily corrupt people, and twist their thinking into a heap of garbage, people just have to remember to be very selective on her teachings and have a good source of background information so one doesn’t get sucked into the abyss. Site that explains Braden’s time with Rand and after with his introduction to Buddhism.
If you want my advice, Peter,” he said at last, “you’ve made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don’t you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?
Howard Roark, the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (via teducateyourself)
