Thursday, October 7, 2010

Empty glass,empty talk?

In Kuching still and enjoying the distant sunset over my garden. This morning I decided to create a blog to journalise my re-opening of interest in philosophy. I've been interested in philosophy since my student days at the University of Pulau Pinang in 1972. Over the many years of working and waking life, I've not consistently turn back to its pages. From now onwards I think I would like to jot down some insights I had before and presently about philosophy. Today is the re-start of this continuing adventure in my life. I find that in this age of the Internet I can now easily find information about the subject which were not available during the university days of the library and books. Where do I begin?

Scarcity in economy is an important quality in Chinese brush painting. With the minimum of strokes you must be able to achieve the essence of the subject. Have I achieved the above in one minute attempt?

In my mind which I carry everywhere I go especially the software called knowledge. As one quote which automatically comes to mind defines :-

"Knowledge is of two kinds; you know the subject yourself or you know where to get information upon it".

Meaning in the first instance you are an 'expert' and in the second instance you are a 'life-long learner'. The new blog entitled " Philosophy - a Sarawak Edition" will be written from a life-long learning perspective. Thus anybody at any age anywhere can join in the fun. Comments are welcome.
Now having drawn the glass on the table what do you see? I gathered this quotation ages ago and somewhere pops out of my brain cells just now:~

A philosopher is a person who looks at an empty glass with a smile.
...oops like a Taoist would say, when you look at an empty vessel what is useful is the void from which water pours to satisfy your thirst. Knowledge will be nothing if it is not useful.

So now carry on smiling. Hopefully you can find some enjoyment as I do in yearning to learn about philosophy.

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful philosophical post.;) I think as we grow older, philosophy becomes even more interesting as we now can ponder the ideas from our own experiences, even perhaps understand some of the thoughts better.
    Have a lovely weekend,
    xo

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  2. such simplicity in your painting,
    it would be interesting to learn a thing or two about philosophy, now, that's something my mind has to work on to, not really my forte. ^0^

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