“Not through discourse, not through the intellect,
Not even through study of the scriptures
Can the Self be realized. The Self reveals
Himself to the one who longs for the Self.
Those who long for the Self with all their heart
Are chosen by the Self as his own.”
– The Mundaka Upanishad (tr. Eknath Easwaran)
"biological sex" is so ridiculous if you think about it for one second. "sex" is a generalization of a bunch of characteristics, dumbass. it's semantic by definition. that's why it's impossible to come up with any specific criteria for it that doesn't fall apart immediately in the face of biological reality.
I wrote a little python script to cast an I Ching reading. It uses real random data from random.org, weighted to traditional yarrow stalk method probabilities.
"The Upanishads are the production of the highest human wisdom and I consider them almost superhuman in conception. The study of the Upanishads has been a source of great inspiration and means of comfort to my soul. From every sentence of the Upanishads deep, original and sublime thoughts arise, and the whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit. In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death." – Arthur Schopenhauer
At moments — Lin Manuel Miranda reciting Seamus Heaney; Justin Timberlake & Ant Clemons walking out under the Stax marquee onto McLemore Ave; Bush, Clinton, and Obama all addressing the nation together — I think it even managed to touch something a bit higher and greater than mere propaganda
OK, so sure- I'm cynical enough to see this "Celebrating America" thing on the teevee as the corniest of feel-good propaganda. At the same time, even just that much is already a positive sign of people caring enough about the country and the business of government to at least get off their asses and produce some corny feel-good propaganda. I mean it's a good time for some of that, honestly, and for what it is it's quite well-done.
Data technician in the streets, suburban dad in the sheets