Chats with Cleverbot Part 3

Cleverbot: Which kind of dog is your favorite?

User: Irish Wolfhound probably.

Cleverbot: What is that?

User: Huge dog, friendly, loyal - but then aren't most dogs?

Cleverbot: So if they aren't insects, then what are they?

User: Canines.

Cleverbot: What kind of clothes?

User: It has a rough coat of fur.

Cleverbot: What is the website.

User: Here is the Wikipedia page:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Wolfhound.

Cleverbot: All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost.

User: You are so cool, Tyler; that has been my lifelong motto. :D.

Cleverbot: There won't be a sequel. The world is ending soon.

User: There will always be a sequel.

Joseph Campbell

Some selected Joseph Campbell quotes today.~~GH

"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." 

"Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends." 

"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." 

"If you are falling....dive." 

"If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's."

"Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold." 

"We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes." 

What Does Love Mean?

This is copied directly from Dr ibn-Hyman's blog and represents his response to the question posed by a student: What does love mean? 

He is a wise man and I am honored to study under him. ~~GH

What Does Love Mean?

We are so inclined to label "love" what we think it is.

A behavior that we do. A psychology that we adopt. A philosophy that we hold.

Something that merely affects us, intoxicates us, plagues us, even condemns us.

Never is it clear what love is not.

Love is not behavior. You behave in particular ways to appease, even defer to love.

Love is not psychology. You think certain ways to understand love.

Love is not a philosophy. You believe certain ways to keep faith in love.

It is that profound recognition, that self-affirming sense of comfort, that sacrificial surrender of selfhood to the certainty that you have encountered your God in the flesh - living, breathing, dwelling among men.

And,  for the sake of love,  you submit...relinquishing all.

~~ Sundjata Keita ibn-Hyman

What is Love (Baby Don't Hurt Me)

Bet you never thought of Haddaway and 

C.S. Lewis together before now

What Love means has been heavy on my mind for more than a month now. I must have read more than four hundred literary "definitions" of what Love is. I've shared several on ChickenScratches. I've explored my own feelings and the meanings I've made and am making, participated in discussions with my philosophy professor and classmates, as well as friends.

Below, C.S. Lewis defines the ramifications of choosing not to Love. Talk about a Catch-22 situation!! The bottom line? You cannot live and avoid all pain. Why not accept that some pain will occur, and embrace the joy that it brings in its hands?  ~~GH

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. ~~C.S. Lewis

I Am . . . Seeking Balance

I saved this file on my hard drive as "Sacred Geometry."

I don't remember where I collected it from.

I recently discovered the following quote(s). The first listed is what caught my eye and drew me in. While searching for background info on who spoke the words, I found the second version. 

I offer both, not knowing which is more accurate or true to the speaker, knowing you will find your own truth within his words. ~~GH

Wisdom tells me I am nothing. 

Love tells me I am everything.  

Between the two my life flows.

When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom. 

When I see I am everything, that is love. 

My life is a movement between these two.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Exposing the Core

My birthday is tomorrow, and as a result, I'm doing a lot of introspection (more than usual!). One mini-goal I have is to label or name my spiritual belief system. Hint: It's not going smoothly. Labels are difficult for me. Boxes are worse. Wish me luck.~~GHC

My response to:

“Make no mistake about it – Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It is seeing through the facade of pretense. It is the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true. ~~Adyashanti

I must agree. This "Road to Enlightenment" ain't for sissies. It feels like all the hard crust is being broken off and chipped away, revealing a tender nerve that has never been exposed to the atmosphere. 

Sometimes the hardest part is knowing the delicate bit is itself a crust surrounding an even more vulnerable core.~~GHC

Thank you for reading my blog. I greatly appreciate your loyalty and interest and hope my words enrich your life in some way. ~~Ginger

Guest Philosopher: Joseph Campbell

Decided to share some words of wisdom from someone much wiser than I. Although I've collected hundreds more, here are a selected few.~~GHC

(In my rush to get the post up right at midnight, I neglected to check the formatting earlier. It should be good now. Sorry about that. ~Ginger)

"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." ¯ Joseph Campbell 

"Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends." ¯ Joseph Campbell, Creative Mythology: The Masks of God 4

"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." ¯ Joseph Campbell

"If you are falling....dive." ¯ Joseph Campbell *This may be the most important quote in this post*

"If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's." ¯ Joseph Campbell

"Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold." ¯ Joseph Campbell

"We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes." ¯ Joseph Campbell

"All religions are true but none are literal." ¯ Joseph Campbell

"Regrets are illuminations come too late." ¯ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces  (No Regrets)

"A bit of advice Given to a young Native American At the time of his initiation: As you go the way of life, You will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think." ¯ Joseph Campbell

"You enter the forest at the darkest point,where there is no path.¯ Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life & Work

"The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure " ¯ Joseph Campbell

"The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light." ¯ Joseph Campbell

"The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here is the place to have the experience." ¯ Joseph Campbell

"As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. Don't bother to brush it off. Getting a comedic view of your situation gives you spiritual distance. Having a sense of humor saves you." ¯ Joseph Campbell