Saturday 23 December 2017

JEREMY GRIFFITH - WORLD TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT


Jeremy Griffith (right) with Bob Geldoff.

'Zoologist Richard Dawkins wrote in his book The Selfish Gene that we are born selfish'.

(The reality that the selfish gene metaphor is trying to describe is complex.)

Plato wrote that 'our souls exist before birth' and that 'our soul resembles the divine'.

Humans sometimes put the lives of others before their own.

Humans sometimes torture and kill.



Jeremy Griffith, an Australian biologist, has a 'biological' explanation of 'the human condition'.

Griffith writes: "The agony of being unable to answer the question of why are we the way we are -  divisively instead of cooperatively behaved - has been the particular burden of life.

"It has been our species' particular affliction or condition - our human condition ...

"Finding understanding of the human condition is what rehabilitates and transforms the human race." 

...
CARL JUNG, SEX

Carl Jung wrote about the 'dark side' of our nature.
Jung believed that if we are to become better people, we have to accept that we have a 'dark side'.

Jeremy Griffith explains that despite appearing destructive, 'science can now reveal that we humans actually have a moral soul that is derived from a loving, cooperative and selfless heritage.'

Griffith believes that humans are fundamentally good.

Griffith believes that as humans developed consciousness and intellect they became psychologically flawed.



But, Griffith gets it wrong when he says that early man was 'good'.

"Griffith's writing presents a romanticised view of hunter-gatherer life."

Griffith fails to realise that "violence, aggression and homicide are intrinsic aspects of hunter-gatherer life."

Biologist Jeremy Griffith

"Two-thirds of modern hunter-gatherers are in a state of almost constant tribal warfare, and nearly 90% go to war at least once a year.

"War is a big word for dawn raids, skirmishes and lots of posturing, but death rates are high—usually around 25-30% of adult males die from homicide."

Noble or savage?



According to the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: a history of violence and humanity -

"Hunter Gathers, much like Chimpanzees raided each other a lot to steal resources and females.

"Unlike Chimpanzees the mortality rate is higher."

A Prehistoric Mass Grave suggests hunter-gatherers could be violent.

...

In 1983, Jeremy Griffith founded the World Transformation Movement.

In his books on the subject of the human condition, he cites Socrates, PlatoChrist, Charles Darwin, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Eugene Marais, Louis Leakey, Laurens van der Post, and R.D. Laing.[1][8]

Griffith asserts that "humans act angrily because of a battle between instinct and intellect".


The Taoists say that evil is the result of going to extremes.

The Irish Times summarised the thesis presented in Freedom as "Adam and Eve without the guilt: explaining our battle between instinct and intellect". [10]

Kirkus Reviews wrote that "Griffith offers a treatise about the true nature of humanity and about overcoming anxieties about the world".

"Griffith himself has asserted that through his 'clarifying insight all our psychologically defensive angry, alienated and egocentric behaviour…is made redundant'".[12]

Below, is what we wrote earlier.


Falkland Road.

David Allan writes:

"When you experience a 'bad' event, try to imagine what possible good could come out of it -

"Even if it's many years from now or several cause-and-effects later, or even if it just makes you more empathetic or prepared next time.

"Not convinced?

"Look back on something bad from your past and connect the dots between that event and real happiness that came later as a direct result of that breakup, layoff, sickness etc."

Good and bad


Port au Prince, Haiti

Avoid the extremes, if you want to avoid very 'bad' events.

Jesus advised us to take the path which is straight, and avoid the extremes on either side.



"The idea that 'challenges help us to grow', that 'we develop as a result of the hard things that happen to us', is the classic hero's journey."

Good and bad

"You can find potentially bad in what seems good. 

"My favorite example of this are lottery winners. Lottery winners are shockingly unhappy not long after their greatest wish comes true."

Good and bad


France

"Once you move past 'good and bad' you become less concerned about outcome; you become more accepting to how things evolve naturally."

Good and bad


West Java

From The Tao Book and Card Pack by Timothy Freke:

When an old farmer's stallion wins a prize at a country show, his neighbour calls round to congratulate him, but the old farmer says, “Who knows what is good and what is bad?”

The next day some thieves come and steal his valuable animal.

His neighbour comes to commiserate with him, but the old man replies, “Who knows what is good and what is bad?”

A few days later the spirited stallion escapes from the thieves and joins a herd of wild mares, leading them back to the farm. 

The neighbour calls to share the farmer’s joy, but the farmer says, “Who knows what is good and what is bad?”

The following day, while trying to break in one of the mares, the farmer’s son is thrown and fractures his leg. 

The neighbour calls to share the farmer’s sorrow, but the old man’s attitude remains the same as before.

The following week the army passes by, forcibly conscripting soldiers for the war, but they do not take the farmer’s son because he cannot walk. 

The neighbour thinks to himself, “Who knows what is good and what is bad?” and realises that the old farmer must be a Taoist sage. 

Northern Cyprus.

"It’s not that the farmer is unengaged in life. It's not that he is unable to be happy or sad. 

"But he has a greater perspective.

"He sees the bigger picture.

"He know that he can't stop things from happening, but he can control how he reacts to them.

"And it's often not the experience that matters as what you do with that experience."

Good and bad



Jesus advised us to take the path which is straight, and avoid the extremes on either side.

Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. (5:5)

Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy. (5:7)

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God. (5:8)

The point to remember is that if we follow the correct path, everything is hunky dory.

...

Buddhists believe in taking the The Middle Way, avoiding extremes.

The Taoists believe in avoiding the extremes.

The taoist Lao Tzu said:

The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths.

Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao.

Stay Centered - A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything.

"Another way to 'stay centered' is expressed by the Golden Mean, which Aristotle described as keeping to the beneficial middle and avoiding extremes."

In philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, the golden mean is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. 

...

BUT, if Jesus avoided the extremes, what about the crucifiction? 

Was that a story added on to the New Testament, to tie in with Jewish myths?

According to theologian Gunnar Samuelsson, Jesus did not die on a cross.

There is always a suspicion that the 'official story' is not entirely true.

There is a suspicion that the 'biography' has had untrue bits added, and that there is a lot of 'spin'.

"Late in the third century B.C. Cleomenes, king of Sparta, embarked on a revolutionary policy of cancellation of debts, redistribution of land and emancipation of the helots (slaves). 

"He was driven out of Sparta... 

"In the story preserved by Plutarch, Cleomenes and twelve friends have a last supper together on the night before his death. 

"He is betrayed to his enemies... 

"His dead body is crucified

"A prodigy occurs after the crucifixion; and the people of Alexandria call him a 'hero and son of the gods'." 

The Legend Of Jesus Christ - Text-only version

So, the 'real Jesus', who taught that one should tune in to the Holy Spirit, may not have been crucified?


Photo from Photobucket

Let's look at Taoism.
1. The Force

Consider Luke Skywalker and how Obi-wan Kenobi taught him about "the Force".

Luke had to avoid being distracted by things like fear and anger.

He had to learn about spontaneity.

On one occasion, Luke was trying, without success, to avoid laser blasts from a 'remote'.

When Obi-wan Kenobi placed a helmet on Luke's head so he couldn't be distracted, he easily deflected the remote's laser blasts.

The idea is that when you are aware of the 'Tao' and feel 'the force', you can flow with it, and the right action appears for itself, spontaneously.

(More here: http://www.exn.ca/starwars/taoism.cfm / http://www.belief )


The economy does not work when things are out of balance.

2. What are the essentials of Taoism?

(http://www.godquest.org/taoism.htm / Http://www.crystalinks.com/taoism.html)

Some Taoists and Christians and others believe that bliss can be achieved when:

1. One is compassionate

2. One is moderate (Avoid large numbers?)

3. One is humble (Avoid large numbers?)

4. Everything is in balance (+ X - X rather than +X - 1000X?)

5. One is in tune with the Holy Spirit or the Tao or whatever one wants to call it. One goes with the flow.

6. One avoids the use of force; one avoids pitting one's will against the universe.

..

The Christians talk about God’s spirit.

God nourishes us.

The Taoists talk about the Tao being a force that flows through everything. 

The Tao nourishes us.


healmypet.com.

3. The Tao and Yin and Yang:

When the Tao is in balance one can be happy. (+ X - X rather than +X - 1000X?)

There is Yin and there is Yang (just as there is black and white, up and down, male and female).

'When they are equally present, all is calm. 

'When one is outweighed by the other, there is confusion and disarray.

'The Tao surrounds everyone and one must listen to find enlightenment.'

True Taoism does not get bogged down with theology. "The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao."

Taoists love their enemies. "I am good to the man who is good to me, likewise, I am also good to the bad man."


The USA's Phoenix programme (left) involved torturing and killing civilians. The USA's ISIS force is also going to extremes. www.thesleuthjournal.com

4. Wu wei is action through inaction; ‘a practice of minimal action, particularly minimal violent action’. 

Don’t overdo the antibiotics or the pesticides. 

Don’t bomb your enemies.

Consider the lilies.

Don't force yourself or others to be compassionate. Be spontaneous.

Genuine love is spontaneous love.


The USA is out of balance. www.youtube.com

"The Master does not see evil as a force to resist, but simply as an opaqueness, a state of self-absorption that is in disharmony with the universal process, so that, as with a dirty window, the light can't shine through. 

"This freedom from moral categories allows him his great compassion for the wicked and the selfish" - Stephen Mitchell

"The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. 

"It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)"



5. Henry C K Liu wrote in the Asia Times about Taoism.

(http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EH01Ad01.html ).

Where does evil come from?

There can be no ‘good’ without ‘evil’.

"Controlled quantities of the bad can be good. 

"Excessive amounts of the good can be bad. 

"Poison kills. But when handled properly, it can cure diseases. 

"Without poison, there can be no medicine.

"To employ poison to attack poison is a Taoist principle."

The secret is to avoid extremes.


Americans carrying out torture in Vietnam.

How should we act?

We should avoid producing unintended consequences.

"Not taking premature or unnecessary actions keeps all of one's options open, so that the most appropriate action remains available. 

"Actions always elicit reactions. 

"Each action taken provokes reactions from all quarters that, taken together, are always more powerful than the precipitous action itself. It is the ultimate definition of the inescapable law of unintended consequences."

"To follow the dao (path) of life is to go with the natural flow of life and to avoid going against it.

"The ethical theories of Taoism lean toward passive resistance, believing that evil, by definition, will ultimately destroy even itself without undue interference.

"Yet it would be a mistake to regard Taoism as fatalistic and pessimistic, instead of the ultimate sophistication in optimism that it is.

"Only by not applying effort can one achieve that state in which nothing is not attainable effortlessly.

"A little ambition is a good thing. Total elimination, even of undesirables, is an extreme solution, and it is therefore self-defeating.

"Life is a prison from which one can escape only if one does not try to escape. It is the desire to escape that makes a place a prison, and the desire to return that makes it a home. Home is not where one is, it is where one wants to return."

Photograph: Seyllou

6. Taoism and other religions.

The following comes from: http://www.jadedragon.com/archives/tao_heal/teach01.html

From Taoism: happiness comes from helping others; wealth comes from giving to others. 

"Love the world as yourself; then you can care for all things."

From Buddhism: "Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy." 

Buddha: "See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?"

From Islam: "There is a reward for your treatment of every living thing." Muhammad also said: "None of you is a believer until you like for others what you like for yourself."

From Christianity: "Do unto others as you would have them do to you."

Veritopian refers to Yin & Yang Mathematicshttp://everythingforever.com/st_math.htm

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16 Comments:

At 23 December 2017 at 01:29 , Blogger Kaivey said...

One right winger who writes on another blog who is always going in about survival of the fittest wrote this recently -

Bob we are authorized to use force against one another and even to the point of killing each other...

In the Genesis account the first one out (Cain) killed the second one out (Abel) ... so we got that one out of the way immediately...

This is reality... plan accordingly...

 
At 23 December 2017 at 01:34 , Blogger Kaivey said...

I'm just hoping that Heaven, or the devine, doesn't have the opposites for wholeness. I'm hoping we just get the good bit then, pure bliss and happiness.

 
At 23 December 2017 at 01:49 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and-the-spirit-of-christmas-the-christmas-truce-of-1914/5316722

 
At 23 December 2017 at 01:50 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

https://www.globalresearch.ca/understanding-north-korea-2/5605020

 
At 23 December 2017 at 03:35 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

https://www.alternet.org/less-year-rex-tillerson-wrecked-state-department

 
At 23 December 2017 at 03:59 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

it is reported that the Almighty abhors unjust weights
and balances...

curiously only one Bad Faith religion has oozed from
the Talmud, and by deception, craft and CHUTZPAH
relentlessly prosecuted the Mass Murder for
filthy lucre business model the "economic" enslavement
of the inhabitants of the Earth...for at least 2,000 years
by the Calendar presently in use...give or take several thousand penumbral eclipses

managing to Mass Murder over 400 Million in just the
last century ....forensic accountants attest that the
staggering amount of ledger-demain and outright pilfery
and theft by extortion are of such magnitude the
jew poo'd mind of the average braindeadgoy ...
simply can not grasp....the enormity

Jesus @Matthew 13:39-43 confirms the holocaust dogma
of Talmudic Judaism....Joe Bob sez check it out

Was Sholem Asch really a Christian...at heart,

Buoyed by this success and with the political news darkening, Asch turned to a project he had been mulling over for decades: a novel about the life of Rabbi Yeshua ben Joseph, otherwise known as Jesus. As Ben Siegel details in his clear-eyed biography, The Controversial Sholem Asch, Asch made his first attempt at the project after a 1908 trip to Palestine. Dissatisfied with the results, he put it aside but remained haunted by the idea. “Since that time I have never thought of Judaism or Christianity separately,” Asch told a reporter of the New York Herald Tribune. “For me it is one culture and one civilization, on which all our peace, our security and our freedom are dependent.”

evidently when Jesus said to go unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel He wasn't talking in Yiddish about a tribe
of phallic worshipping and transgender/sodomite "Proselytes"
to Talmudic Judaism in the land of Gog & Magog...

the distinction between the Sacred & the Profane is not
actually a matter of opinion...DE FACTO.

Jews MUST HATE...Jesus & have a Talmud

http://snippits-and-slappits.blogspot.com/2015/01/spiritual-syphilis.html

so why did Adoram get stoned...


Sincerely,

Davy

 
At 23 December 2017 at 05:36 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

So, our higher consciousness and intellect has only served to make us aware of such behaviours as aggression and selfishness? Without this higher order of thinking we would still be as innocently unaware as the cat stalking his prey or the chimps who will rape and tear off the limbs of his competetors? The big question still is, how did we ever reach this level of awareness, by what mechanisms, or manipulations? Because higher consciousness does not seem necessary to be sucessful in the animal world, and yet being an instinctive animal is something of an anchor to the ascending advancement of the human consciousness. Hence the onward march of transhumanism I guess. But what will Humans lose in the process? What will a sunset look to a robot?

 
At 23 December 2017 at 07:09 , Blogger Mark Jesus said...

Born selfish is a loaded assumption not based on the Bible. Born to know God more like. Each other bit about ourselves. On 'our souls exist before birth'? Not one jot or tittle from Genesis to Revelation. 300 years on, this Plato-god is imposed on theology by Augustine and cometh ...Classic Theism. Open Theism proceed this. Takes the Bible as, says what it says. Means what... And God doesn't make us selfish and we didn't pre-exist. Some won't get/have the eternal either. Second death. Or gift and Christ. Questions otherwise and hope. Unrecognised but somehow receive. How wide might be God's mercy, for many as... and through, and you. Best over the holidays to ya. Peace and Love. Mark

 
At 23 December 2017 at 10:44 , Anonymous Brabantian said...

Happy Solstice season & Merry Christmas to everyone

As is sometimes said upon entrance to a traditional Irish tavern, 'God bless all here'

--

One thing coming to mind recently, is how because of human psychology, it is difficult for 'truth' to stand by itself

Humans have a great need for 'affiliation' of some kind, and it is much easier for people to adopt a new viewpoint, if the new 'truth' is connected with some kind of political or other 'movement' that seems to be growing, gathering either power or social influence

Without that 'group affiliation', the 'truth' on difficult matters can be frightening ... because it pushes you outside of the mental orbit of your fellow humans

In a sense the extremists have it easy ... they tend to instinctively place any extreme ideas in the context of affiliation, giving the individual a sense of growing power in action ... even if the group is small, the person has a sense that this is the 'right' group

The Ohio USA young neo-Nazi guy who by last summer had gathered 4 million monthly visitors to his website, constantly told his often young audience, 'We will win'

This works on the Left too ... Bernie Sanders saw his movement catch fire amongst millions, before he made his 'deal' with Hillary ... and a couple years back, Greece's Syriza was inspiring millions all across Europe, before they made their 'deal' with the EU

Without a corollary 'movement' tho ... a web page presenting truth, can convey a sense of powerlessness, being a voice in the wilderness ... The human reader is psychologically puzzled, asking: If these matters are true in this way, where is the political or other 'movement' embodying something obviously this important?

We can only do our best, tho ... and we never know whom we reach, whose lives we may have comforted or saved

Am quite sure that many hurting people, who never left a comment, were touched by something they read on Aangirfan ... seeing the story of someone not very different from themselves

 
At 23 December 2017 at 11:23 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

https://www.globalresearch.ca/ahed-tamimi-is-part-of-the-palestinian-generations-r-for-return/5623764

 
At 24 December 2017 at 05:11 , Blogger Anon said...

Merry Christmas to all.

- Aangirfan.

 
At 24 December 2017 at 14:11 , Blogger Andy said...

Have you even read "The Selfish Gene" -(Dawkin's book)? He does Not say we are born selfish. Read the book sister!
Merry Christmas Aangirfanians

 
At 25 December 2017 at 22:29 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bless you and thank you for all your work. You talk to my soul. Very best wishes and love.

 
At 25 December 2017 at 23:23 , Blogger Anon said...

Richard told me that he thought of changing the title of the book.

 
At 25 December 2017 at 23:24 , Blogger Anon said...

Bless you too. Very best wishes and love.

 
At 8 November 2019 at 19:24 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very good article. I absolutely love this site. Continue the
good work!

 

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