immortality

given the option of immortality most would jump at the opportunity, whereas im much akin to see such alleged freedom as the ultimate entrapment. the gift of time is undoubtedly the greatest gift to the practical mind: imagine the offerings of learning all the languages, playing all the instruments, visiting all the mountains and walking all the streets of the world, tasting every cuisine and experiencing every culture.

the amount of wisdom and knowledge acquirable in a seemingly infinite lifespan, i would imagine, is great to the extent of being able to raise the consciousness to an unprecedented level. an immortal in a sea of mortals is a God among men...and the troubles start here..

agelessness comes with it inevitable loneliness...the surety of death for all family, friends and acquaintances. immortality for the self would definitely become a curse, as nothing else around the self is nearly as constant.

a God is like a bird in the wind, with no legs for which to land. nothing stays...everything passes. the universe passes by and the heaven and earth too pass away but the God remains. all enjoyment amounts to but a speck of time in his age of timelessness.

to become immortal is to become like God. i would venture to say that the sure price of Godlessless is personal happiness. ie, once we have obtained eternal life on earth we would have forfeited our own happinesses as nothing would last long enough to satisfy us, except:

the satisfaction of making the lives of mortals happy.

yet we do not need to be immortal to accomplish this. under this finding it follows naturally that any higher being can only experience lasting purpose by lifting up those who are lower than he as the higher one climbs, the more there are who are below him. this metric of vertical distance is applicable to intelligence, wealth, awareness, power, fame, wisdom...

the higher we rise, the lonelier we become; the power of exclusivity is a delusion that ultimately begs for death.

narcissism

it is better to listen to the rebuke of the wise and humbly accede to it, no matter how disagreeable it may be to the mind, as the ego resists criticism and by reflex glances all negative words aside. unfairly it only accepts the songs of flattery so that no improvements are made, and all flaws and weaknesses become drowned in the celebration of fools who flock together. such is the danger of the conglomeration of the likeminded, no matter how wise.

so it is always better to set the ego aside and let all words come through, and be glorious for a moment in praise, yet similarly solemn in the presence of all comment lest one be superior, so that he who receives the word of wise may appear wise as he who gave it.

guilty kimchi

fresh and hot

a little aged here and crunchy there

funky red lace on a pale green underlay

a bite 

lips a'smackin

teeth chatter to the tang no better

than the smell of a leaf with a fragrant fester

how wrong it feels to indulge in this

with nimble hands we taste this bliss

"Pab! Hana! De!"

one more time just one more time

how do we take without wanting more

for the wrongness of it all in every nibble

tastes only right--quit this petty rabble

i say hand me another serving

forget the tummyache for tomorrow

as the days ahead sure quickly follow

i live for now and now im itchy

woe to him who withholds my Kimchi.

~

korea haiku

alive in allive

a little clock ticks

cosy walls hum through the night

my heart sound asleep

~

oh my God

don't need no food, don't need no sleep, just a couple sips of water once in awhile.

i dont know i just want to be happy

i think what i was trying to say was that happiness is more or less a construct...

and of its greatest constructors lie ignorance, the grandmaster of happiness-making. i would rather face the dirty, messy truth. and as in part two, if this means i can never be truly happy in the popular sense of the word, then i must prepare to live through this decision.

i want things to stay the same

even though the nature of things is to change. this means that as people we must adapt to keep our results in order. stubborn rigidity is the trade of personal security against long-term happiness. willing change is whereas the highest abstract form of sacrifice and it is an investment into any relational bond. in a way, a relationship with no sacrifice is a fund with no investors. likewise, as there is no commitment, there is always a fast route out; where there is no risk, there is no payout.

the dividends are good, and i plan to reinvest.