A methodology on crack
I will attempt to put into words my approach as a whole to my readings. I've done this many times before, but I wish to refine my presentation of this approach as it keeps getting updated in the computer of the brain.
A preliminary factor for me is the sense of the end being imminent on both the external global stage and the personal health and financial arena. This upends most of the usual dynamics that is the norm for whoever wishes to tackle these sorts of books. This necessitates in my mind an either/or.
Either I give it all up and live a dissolute lifestyle of just emptiness, of living for the moment and seizing every chance I can get to laugh and make light of things, the thinking positive way without any substance, OR I approach everything i'm interested in, in an attempt to put on a tabula rasa.
A starting over, with a clean slate, this involves mental emptying too, of approaching whatever it may be without preconceived notions, especially ideas where the utility of any of them is in question, for example not being up to today's standards.
Today's standards are in a shambles, I flee it at all costs.
But there are things in between these sweeping statements that when encountered and ruminated on will possibly cause me to update my whole thinking of it.
Regardless, my approaching "it all" shall remain the basic approach till my dying day, or if it is the cards that I spend the last portion of my life clinging on for dear life in a state and circumstance fundamentally different than now which is blessed to the nines with almost limitless access to all I am interested in.
Now clearly not all will be used at the same time, for then I could only be going through a sentence each per wake period. No I cannot be doing it like that, there's an infinite amount of nuances to every clause here.
There is to be a representation of the totality as a unit, and when certain things are gotten to the end thereof, that means that it will be -re-read soon, re-reading is one of the most important things.
For these texts that have been studied for centuries in some cases, if someone without any credentials are saying they understand them completely without hardly any effort, and with only one cursory reading, I separate my thoughts from such folks, they will lead me astray.
With the crack approach, being far from ideal, there must be a balancing effect with a zealous demand for the best material out there.
Unit 1 is what I'm currently putting together, it began with a heavy emphasis on the ancient guys, with much secondary stuff, but what is now developing is an inclusion of the highest peaks in the grand tradition of Philosophy in the Western tradition, what will come after that is the inclusion of the East, which I find both alluring and mind boggling, someone like Alan Watts is definitely needed for that area.
Philosophy is accompanied by a larger terrain first in ancient stuff, for example, Homer and Hesiod, those dealing with anything that survives, if all this was a University program the Major I'm after is in Antiquity studies.
But from Middle Ages on, the focus narrows pretty much to just 2 things 1) Philosophy and 2) The Arts, which can mean classic fiction, or anything that is of the pure pleasures.
Pure Pleasures is the kind that there are no bad feelings about getting into them, in fact, you feel better the more you get into them, you say to yourself, Gosh, I am proud of being interested in that!!
My work
My work will be not just reading, which would surely mean forgetting 99% of what is being read, but to keep a journal of sorts which begins as a list, a chronological list, that gets filled in, so that it blossoms into a treatise almost. And watching the best kinds of videos, and online resources about and on the works being read.
When my document blossoms enough into a substantial thing, I will share it on SW, as a kind of progress report, and maybe, just maybe I will say something there that will be either of benefit to someone or merely just in some way enjoyable to read.
This is an exciting journey for me, that I wish I could have begun long ago, I would ideally back then known that in 2026 the end is imminent, so I'd have a framework then, with all the tech I have now, but oh it is useless to be thinking like that, there's things you can't do anything about, it is imperative therefore to get to work, to be familiarized more and more, inch by inch.
I give this explanation a 4 out of 10, needs work, the next update must be at least a 5 out of 10.
I wish all good people here good times despite the kind of world we're living in, in a microcosm way it can be great, as Epictetus dichotomy of control goes that is, to know what is up to us, and what is not up to us, when we worry and care about what isn't up to us, we're missing out on such things as tranquility, ataraxia, and so on, we're troubled and frustrated in all we do, seize the peace, carpe tranquilium!! 😌
A preliminary factor for me is the sense of the end being imminent on both the external global stage and the personal health and financial arena. This upends most of the usual dynamics that is the norm for whoever wishes to tackle these sorts of books. This necessitates in my mind an either/or.
Either I give it all up and live a dissolute lifestyle of just emptiness, of living for the moment and seizing every chance I can get to laugh and make light of things, the thinking positive way without any substance, OR I approach everything i'm interested in, in an attempt to put on a tabula rasa.
A starting over, with a clean slate, this involves mental emptying too, of approaching whatever it may be without preconceived notions, especially ideas where the utility of any of them is in question, for example not being up to today's standards.
Today's standards are in a shambles, I flee it at all costs.
But there are things in between these sweeping statements that when encountered and ruminated on will possibly cause me to update my whole thinking of it.
Regardless, my approaching "it all" shall remain the basic approach till my dying day, or if it is the cards that I spend the last portion of my life clinging on for dear life in a state and circumstance fundamentally different than now which is blessed to the nines with almost limitless access to all I am interested in.
Now clearly not all will be used at the same time, for then I could only be going through a sentence each per wake period. No I cannot be doing it like that, there's an infinite amount of nuances to every clause here.
There is to be a representation of the totality as a unit, and when certain things are gotten to the end thereof, that means that it will be -re-read soon, re-reading is one of the most important things.
For these texts that have been studied for centuries in some cases, if someone without any credentials are saying they understand them completely without hardly any effort, and with only one cursory reading, I separate my thoughts from such folks, they will lead me astray.
With the crack approach, being far from ideal, there must be a balancing effect with a zealous demand for the best material out there.
Unit 1 is what I'm currently putting together, it began with a heavy emphasis on the ancient guys, with much secondary stuff, but what is now developing is an inclusion of the highest peaks in the grand tradition of Philosophy in the Western tradition, what will come after that is the inclusion of the East, which I find both alluring and mind boggling, someone like Alan Watts is definitely needed for that area.
Philosophy is accompanied by a larger terrain first in ancient stuff, for example, Homer and Hesiod, those dealing with anything that survives, if all this was a University program the Major I'm after is in Antiquity studies.
But from Middle Ages on, the focus narrows pretty much to just 2 things 1) Philosophy and 2) The Arts, which can mean classic fiction, or anything that is of the pure pleasures.
Pure Pleasures is the kind that there are no bad feelings about getting into them, in fact, you feel better the more you get into them, you say to yourself, Gosh, I am proud of being interested in that!!
My work
My work will be not just reading, which would surely mean forgetting 99% of what is being read, but to keep a journal of sorts which begins as a list, a chronological list, that gets filled in, so that it blossoms into a treatise almost. And watching the best kinds of videos, and online resources about and on the works being read.
When my document blossoms enough into a substantial thing, I will share it on SW, as a kind of progress report, and maybe, just maybe I will say something there that will be either of benefit to someone or merely just in some way enjoyable to read.
This is an exciting journey for me, that I wish I could have begun long ago, I would ideally back then known that in 2026 the end is imminent, so I'd have a framework then, with all the tech I have now, but oh it is useless to be thinking like that, there's things you can't do anything about, it is imperative therefore to get to work, to be familiarized more and more, inch by inch.
I give this explanation a 4 out of 10, needs work, the next update must be at least a 5 out of 10.
I wish all good people here good times despite the kind of world we're living in, in a microcosm way it can be great, as Epictetus dichotomy of control goes that is, to know what is up to us, and what is not up to us, when we worry and care about what isn't up to us, we're missing out on such things as tranquility, ataraxia, and so on, we're troubled and frustrated in all we do, seize the peace, carpe tranquilium!! 😌
46-50, M