Guest Imladil Posted May 29, 2000 Share Posted May 29, 2000 Howdy, folx! Today's koan: "How can Imladil surf the web if his roommate doesn't pay his ISP bill?" Answer: I should be back wednesday or so. (Today I'm using my mom's computer while I make curried chicken.) About the ion cannon bit. I've been playing a lot of XvT lately, and I just installed the additional Balance of Power campaigns which have included a B-wing fighter. Now, I still like the A-wing...but I did have to try out the new ship. It has an ion cannon that disables nicely. To test fly the B-wing, I selected the custom dogfight scenario, then picked a fight with TIE fighters. Just for kicks, I disabled all of the TIEs, then went back around and blew them up at my leisure. I just hope the Imperial pilots had a sense of humor. ------------------ "Is the state of being realized as important as realizing the state of being?" --Thrustweasel of Earth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shootist Posted May 29, 2000 Share Posted May 29, 2000 What's the big deal about icon cannons all of a sudden? Why waste time throwing all those cute little pictures at spacecraft? ....Icon cannons indeed... ------------------ VERY FUNNY SCOTTY, now please beam down my PANTS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Red 12 Posted May 29, 2000 Share Posted May 29, 2000 Originally posted by Imladil: In Zen Buddhist tradition, there is a kind of riddle known as a koan. Unlike our western riddles, which have a humorous climax or a point of some kind, the zen koan is an open-ended riddle with no right or wrong answer. The riddle should be paradoxical in nature, ideally pointing in some way to the inifinite. The zen student would meditate long on a koan, and by doing so he would (hopefully) discover his true nature and become enlightened. A good zen koan can keep one wondering for days, until you finally come up with your own answer. Creating a zen koan can be interesting and fun! I invite everyone to contribute (they don't have to be strict, by the letter zen koans). If they have to do with Star Wars, great...but since the Jedi are a lot like the Samurai, this is fairly close to being on topic anyway. I'll start. "What is the color of nothing?" ? How far is up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Master Posted May 30, 2000 Share Posted May 30, 2000 I'll tell you how far up is! As far as you can go up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shootist Posted May 30, 2000 Share Posted May 30, 2000 Is water soluble? ------------------ VERY FUNNY SCOTTY, now please beam down my PANTS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Master Posted May 30, 2000 Share Posted May 30, 2000 I think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Imladil Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 Hmm. Good ones, there. Water is definitely soluble in water...but not in oil. I find that koan to be an exploration of how some things blend and others don't, which actually is profound when you apply it against the greater backdrop of things. "How far is up?" I'm still working on that one... I have a serious koan and a silly one today. The serious one is: "What is the difference between nothingness and infinity?" The silly one is about lollipops. Q: "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsieroll pop?" A: "Why didn't I get candy?" ------------------ "Is the state of being realized as important as realizing the state of being?" --Thrustweasel of Earth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Master Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 I took the candy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shootist Posted June 1, 2000 Share Posted June 1, 2000 Just a quick guess IMLADIL...Nothingness is the absence of anything, whereas:Infinity is having so much of anything there is no end to it. ? ------------------ VERY FUNNY SCOTTY, now please beam down my PANTS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Imladil Posted June 1, 2000 Share Posted June 1, 2000 'How far is up?' Well, go find it, and tell me when you get there. Here's one for ya--the center of the Earth is always straight down, no matter where you are. What's up wit' dat? Hmm. The nothingness and infinity koan was a bit too vague, I think. I'll come up with a better way of attacking the notion, but it may take awhile. Instead, let's focus on just infinity. What is it? Well, an infinite number is a number without end...and as strange as it may seem, such values can and do exist in our universe. Allow me to demonstrate. *(Imladil produces a yardstick and a machete, lays them on the table...then grins broadly.)* There are an infinite number of points along this yardstick. A point, for definition's sake, is a location only...it has no width, no height, etc. I can prove it by showing how you can divide the yardstick in half an infinite number of times without destroying it. *WHACK!* Okay, now we have a foot and a half...exactly half of the three feet we began with. Nevermind the table--it isn't real. I'll divide it in half again. *WHACK* Three-quarters of a foot. *WHACK!* Three eighths. I could do this again and again, just to prove the point, but you can already see that no matter how small the piece of yardstick becomes, you can divide it in half...an infinite number of times. And no--we aren't focusing on how small an atom is here, because I'm actually discussing points in the geometrical sense rather than the physical yardstick itself. Assuming that we can always scale ourselves down to divide that length in half, this becomes an example of what is called infinite regression. So...if there is infinity implied in the existance of this mere yardstick, I wonder just how big forever really is. The nothingness is altogether different (or is it? )--bear in mind that true nothingness cannot be conceived of because any observer present to witness it would be something. Don't worry about comparing these two concepts...I'll come up with a koan to do just that later. I'll close with a new zen-type signature: ------------------ "I sought the true nature of reality and discovered instead the real nature of truth." --Thrustweasel of Earth [This message has been edited by Imladil (edited June 01, 2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Master Posted June 1, 2000 Share Posted June 1, 2000 Nicly explained Imladil! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Imladil Posted June 1, 2000 Share Posted June 1, 2000 You just liked the machete part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Master Posted June 1, 2000 Share Posted June 1, 2000 I know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chillin Posted June 3, 2000 Share Posted June 3, 2000 Here's a koan: "How much wood would a Wood Chuck chuck if a Wood Chuck could chuck wood." ------------------ "Life is fair." It has now been written. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Innror Posted June 3, 2000 Share Posted June 3, 2000 probably a lot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Master Posted June 4, 2000 Share Posted June 4, 2000 More than you could. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Imladil Posted June 4, 2000 Share Posted June 4, 2000 Well, in thinking on my nothingess and infinity koan, it occured to me that it's already been done...and it's a philosophical argument I'd never really delved into enough to understand: "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" Rather than being an illustration of useless debate, as this phrase is sometimes used, it gets to the ideas I'm focusing on. I've already discussed infinity (yes, and machetes), so next I'll go into the concept of nothingess. When you close your eyes and try to envision nothingness...what you conceive is not true nothingess at all, but emptiness. After all--you're there, witnessing the emptiness, so it is not truly nothing at all. As long as there is a perceiving witness or relative object of some kind, there is...there is 'existance,' which is more than nothing. In fact, even if you conceive of the nothingness and call it such--by doing so, you have made it something. Nothingess...cannot exist in our universe. Yet all that is came out from nothingess with the creation of the universe. Before there was 'existance,' there had to be a beginning point of nonexistance. In essence, if you meditate long and deeply enough on this matter, you may come to find that if the seeds of all existance (in which there is implied infinity) come from nothingess, then nothingess can itself be seen as a greater concept than even infinity. Great. So everything is nothing...and in nothing is everything. Just wonderful, Imladil. What the heck are we supposed to do with that? Simple: tell me how many angels there are on that pinhead. ------------------ "I sought the true nature of reality but discovered instead the real nature of truth." --Thrustweasel of Earth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chillin Posted June 4, 2000 Share Posted June 4, 2000 I believe that the Angle koan is a matter of ones own perspective. For instance in your own minds eye do you see angles as big as normal people or do you see them as tiny little things that sit on your shoulder and argue with the demon on your other shoulder? Or you might see them as beings that can change their shape and form, they decide on how they look to you and what form they come in whether an invisible specter, or in the form of a person. I belive they are "shape shifters" so I'd say all the angles in heaven could stand on the pinhead if they wanted. About the nothingness and infinity koan...well I think I'll stay out of that one. ------------------ "Life is fair." It has now been written. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Master Posted June 4, 2000 Share Posted June 4, 2000 That's nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chillin Posted June 5, 2000 Share Posted June 5, 2000 Isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Imladil Posted June 5, 2000 Share Posted June 5, 2000 Chillin: staying away from infinity/nothingness is probably a good idea for you, given what happened with the mirror. Interesting discussion there on the nature of angels. Curiously enough, that was one part of the koan I let go of, just taking as a given that an angel would need only one dimensional point in order to exist. Of course, an angel is much more than a single point in space...being self aware (aware of its own existance) means that it exists in at least three dimensions. Hmm. That reasoning was a bit tenuous. Allow me to explain: any being that is aware of itself manifests its existance by recognizing itself. Self recognition implies that there are at least two--the perceiver and the perceived--and it then follows that there must be a third element as a division between them (as space, no matter how small, must cross something.)* This complexity of nature precludes existance as a single point in space. So, our angels must have some space in which to exist after all. Now the argument becomes: can they scale themselves down infinitely in order to fit more of them on the pinhead, and is there a limit? Meanwhile, I have a new koan for this evening (actually, it's 3:30 am here). "Why does it not rain?" Enjoy. <font size=1>*This existance-requiring-three bit is an example of trinity, a metaphysical concept which seems to be reflected in most of our world's religions, BTW.</font> ------------------ "I sought the true nature of reality but discovered instead the real nature of truth." --Thrustweasel of Earth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Master Posted June 5, 2000 Share Posted June 5, 2000 Does it have any thing to do with me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lt Cracken Posted June 6, 2000 Share Posted June 6, 2000 'Cuse your in a desert during the summer season. ------------------ Even if you dodge this, Kakarotto, THIS PLANET'S GOING UP IN SMOKE!! Vegeta, DragonBall Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Imladil Posted June 6, 2000 Share Posted June 6, 2000 Ah, but even in the hottest, driest desert on our world, there is some water in the air, precipitating into miscroscopic droplets that fall when the air cools at night. Can this be considered rain? What about at the bottom of the ocean? Can it be said to be raining all the time? In outer space, there is a certain amount of frozen water contained in small comets and icy asteroids. As these objects enter our gravity well and plummet to Earth, can they be considered rain? On the other hand... When we speak of rain, we usually mean the atmospheric phenomenon where water vapor precipitates around dust particles and then falls to Earth as raindrops. From our perspective, 'it is raining' is a clear judgement call to make--simply hold out your hand and see if it gets wet! When viewed in this way, one can answer the koan easily: "Because it can't rain all the time." As usual, the koan had absolutely nothing to do with the matter at hand. It was an illustration of how resolving one's point of view is an important first step to resolving a question. In real life, well meaning people can discuss a matter, and because they have failed to take the other's point of view into account, they may wind up completely misunderstanding each other. Unless you get something else out of it. This is zen, after all... ------------------ "I sought the true nature of reality but discovered instead the real nature of truth." --Thrustweasel of Earth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Imladil Posted June 6, 2000 Share Posted June 6, 2000 Oh, yeah...a new koan. A silly one, this time: "How did the chicken become the road?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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