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Émile, czyli o wychowaniu Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Pomimo tylu pism mających pono na celu jedynie pożytek ogółu – najważniejszy ze wszystkich pożytków, to znaczy sztuka kształtowania ludzi, znajduje się dotychczas w zapomnieniu.

Co najbardziej zbije z tropu czytelnika, to niewątpliwie sam system, który nie jest tutaj niczym innym, jak biegiem natury.

– Zalecaj to, co jest wykonalne – powtarzają mi nieustannie. Jest to tak, jakby mi mówiono: – Zalecaj, żeby czyniono to, co się czyni; albo przynajmniej zalecaj takie dobro, które dałoby się związać z istniejącym złem. Podobny pomysł jest w stosunku do pewnych przedmiotów bardziej chimeryczny od… mojego; w takim bowiem zlaniu dobro psuje się, a zło nie leczy. Wolałbym raczej stosować się stale do przyjętego ogólnie Sposobu postępowania niż sposób właściwy stosować połowicznie; mniej byłoby wówczas w człowieku sprzeczności: nie może on dążyć jednocześnie do dwóch przeciwnych sobie celów.

emile

Człowiek natury istnieje wyłącznie dla siebie; jest on jednością, całością bezwzględną, która uznaje jedynie siebie albo kogoś podobnego do siebie. Człowiek społeczny jest tylko jednostką ułamkową, zależną od mianownika, i której wartość polega na stosunku do całości, jaką jest społeczeństwo.

We wszelkim pomyśle rozpatrywać należy dwie rzeczy: po pierwsze, bezwzględną słuszność pomysłu; po drugie, łatwość wykonania.

W układzie naturalnym, gdzie wszyscy ludzie są równi sobie, wspólnym ich powołaniem jest stan człowieczeństwa, i kto wychowany jest odpowiednio do tego stanu, ten nie może źle spełniać obowiązków dotyczących tego stanu.
 Jest mi wszystko jedno, czy ucznia mego przeznaczają do stanu wojskowego, duchownego lub do palestry. Zanim go do czegoś przeznaczą rodzice, natura powołuje go do życia człowieczego. Rzemiosłem, którego pragnę go nauczyć, jest życie. Wychodząc z rąk moich nie będzie on, przyznaję, ani urzędnikiem, ani żołnierzem, ani księdzem; będzie przede wszystkim człowiekiem. Potrafi on być w potrzebie wszystkim, czym człowiek być powinien; na jakimkolwiek stanowisku los go postawi, dla niego będzie ono zawsze odpowiednie, on czuć się będzie zawsze na stanowisku właściwym. Occupavi te, fortuna, atque cepi; omnesque aditus tuos interclusi, ut ad me aspirare non posses.
 Najistotniejszą naszą umiejętnością jest być człowiekiem. Ten, kto najlepiej potrafi znieść dobro i zło, które życie przynosi, jest, moim zdaniem, najlepiej wychowany.
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Synchronicity – An Acausal Connecting Principle Carl Gustav Jung

All the events in a man’s life would accordingly stand in two fundamentally different kinds of connection: firstly, in the objective, causal connection of the natural process; secondly, in a subjective connection which exists only in relation to the individual who experiences it, and which is thus as subjective as his own dreams.

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The writer Wilhelm von Scholz 1)↓ has collected a number of stories showing the strange ways in which lost or stolen objects come back to their owners. Among other things, he tells the story of a mother who took a photograph of her small son in the Black Forest. She left the film to be developed in Strassburg. But, owing to the outbreak of war, she was unable to fetch it and gave it up for lost. In 1916 she bought a film in Frankfurt in order to take a photograph of her daughter, who had been born in the meantime. When the film was developed it was found to be doubly exposed: the picture underneath was the photograph she had taken of her son in 1914! The old film had not been developed and had somehow got into circulation again among the new films. The author comes to the understandable conclusion that everything points to the “mutual attraction of related objects,” or an “elective affinity.” He suspects that these happenings are arranged as if they were the dream of a “greater and more comprehensive consciousness, which is unknowable.

synchronicity

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Decisive evidence for the existence of acausal combinations of events has been furnished, with adequate scientific safeguards, only very recently, mainly through the experiments of J. B. Rhine and his fellow-workers, 2)↓ who have not, however, recognized the far-reaching conclusions that must be drawn from their findings. Up to the present no critical argument that cannot be refuted has been brought against these experiments. The experiment consists, in principle, in an experimenter turning up, one after another, a series of numbered cards bearing simple geometrical patterns. At the same time the subject, separated by a screen from the experimenter, is given the task of guessing the signs as they are turned up. A pack of twenty-five cards is used, each five of which carry the same sign. Five cards are marked with a star, five with a square, five with a circle, five with wavy lines, and five with a cross. The experimenter naturally does not know the order in which the pack is arranged, nor has the subject any opportunity of seeing the cards. Many of the experiments were negative, since the result did not exceed the probability of five chance hits. In the case of certain subjects, however, some results were distinctly above probability. The first series of experiments consisted in each subject trying to guess the cards 800 times. The average result showed 6.5 hits for 25 cards, which is 1.5 more than the chance probability of 5 hits. The probability of there being a chance deviation of 1.5 from the number 5 works out at 1 : 250,000. This proportion shows that the probability of a chance deviation is not exactly high, since it is to be expected only once in 250,000 cases. The results vary according to the specific gift of the individual subject. One young man, who in numerous experiments scored an average of 10 hits for every 25 cards (double the probable number), once guessed all 25 cards correctly, which gives a probability of 1 : 298,023,223,876,953,125. The possibility of the pack being shuffled in some arbitrary way is guarded against by an apparatus which shuffles the cards automatically, independently of the experimenter.  Czytaj dalej

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1. Der Zufall: Eine Vorform des Schicksals.
2. J. B. Rhine, Extra-Sensory Perception and New Frontiers of the Mind. J. G. Pratt, J. B. Rhine, C. E. Stuart, B. M. Smith, and J. A. Greenwood, Extra-Sensory Perception after Sixty Years. A general survey of the findings in Rhine, The Reach of the Mind, and also in the valuable book by G. N. M. Tyrrell, The Personality of Man. A short résumé in Rhine, “An Introduction to the Work of Extra-Sensory Perception.” S. G. Soal and F. Bateman, Modern Experiments in Telepathy.

Awakening Kundalini Lawrence Edwards

“This book is the work of a man who is devoted to the wisdom and transformative power of the divine feminine. It is immeasurably helpful to have a clear framework to understand the gift of the extraordinary consciousness beyond our usual body-mind perspective. Understanding the creative process of Shakti’s unfolding in the evolution of our Self is a much-needed perspective in interpreting the physical, mental, and emotional challenges that can arise in us—whether or not we are actively seeking to cultivate the vital flow of Kundalini. Dr. Edwards provides detailed guidance for exploring meditative techniques and other tools to work with this ancient tradition in our everyday lives. Further, he provides a balanced treatment of the psychological process encountered in inner work, including the healthful role of the ego mind and working with our shadow in the process of Kundalini awakening—essential but often neglected topics in spiritual guidance. This is an inspiring reference manual…”
Mary B. O’Malley, MD, PHD

Awakening_cover

“Lawrence Edwards has given us a detailed, compassionate, and brilliantly clear guide to the greatest mystery and greatest revelation of our existence. It tells the story of his call to the profound process of awakening known in the yogic tradition as Kundalini, through his early visionary experiences, his meeting with his Indian teacher, Swami Muktananda, and how his life unfolded from that fortuitous meeting. Drawing on the rich legacy of numerous traditions—Jungian, Western psychology, scientific research, traditional yogic and mystical ones—this book is an aid in taking us beyond the confines of the delusionary certainties of our ego mind toward the experience of the deepest ground of our own being…”
Anne Baring
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The Secret of the Golden Flower Richard Wilhelm & C. G. Jung

The Golden Flower is the Elixir of Life (Chin-tan; literally, golden ball, golden pill). All changes of spiritual consciousness depend upon the heart. There is a secret charm which, although it works very accurately, is yet so fluid that it needs extreme intelligence and clarity, and the most complete absorption and tranquillity. People without this highest degree of intelligence and understanding do not find the way to apply the charm; people without this utmost capacity for absorption and tranquillity cannot keep fast hold of it.
The Secret of the Golden Flower

The Tai I Chin Hua Tsung Chih 1)↓ can be traced back to the seventeenth century as having been printed from wooden tablets. The editor describes having found an incomplete copy dating from that time in the Liu-li-ch’ang, the old street of dealers in books and antiquities in Peking, and tells how he filled it out later from a friend’s book. But the oral tradition goes back even further than that, to the Religion of the Golden Elixir of Life (Chin-tan-chiao), which developed in the T’ang period in the eighth century. The founder is said to have been the well-known Taoist adept, Lü Yen 2)↓ (Lü Tung-pin), counted later by folklore as one of the eight immortals, about whom in the course of time a rich store of myths has gathered…

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This sect 3)↓, like all religions, native and foreign, met with tolerance and favour in the T’ang period and spread widely, but, as it was always an esoteric and secret religion, in the course of time it began to suffer persecution because of members being suspected of political intrigues. Again and again its adherents were persecuted by a hostile government, lastly, in an extremely cruel way by the Manchus, just before their own fall 4)↓. Many members have turned to the Christian religion, and all, even if they have not actually entered the church, are very friendly towards it.
 Our book gives the best available account of the religion of the Golden Elixir of Life. The sayings are attributed to Lü Yen, whose other name was Lü Tung-pin, or Lü, the Guest of the Cavern. In the book he is introduced as the patriarch Lü, Lü-tsu. He lived at the end of the eighth and at the beginning of the ninth century. A later commentary on his sayings has been added, but it springs from the same tradition.
 Whence did Lü get his esoteric, secret lore? He himself attributes its origin to Kuan Yin-hsi, the Master Yin-hsi of the Pass (Kuan, i.e. Han-ku Pass), for whom, according to tradition, Lao-tse wrote down his Tao Te Ching
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1. The Secret of the Golden Flower (Tai I Chin Hua Tsung Chih), the title of which was changed to Cttang Sheng Shu (The Art of Prolonging Human Life) by the Chinese publisher of the edition used here.
2. Born circa A.D. 796. [H. W.]
3. Chin-tan-chiao, The Golden Elixir of Life
4. In the year 1891, 15,000 members were killed by Manchu hirelings.

This Changes Everything Naomi Klein

“Most projections of climate change presume that future changes—greenhouse gas emissions, temperature increases and effects such as sea level rise—will happen incrementally. A given amount of emission will lead to a given amount of temperature increase that will lead to a given amount of smooth incremental sea level rise. However, the geological record for the climate reflects instances where a relatively small change in one element of climate led to abrupt changes in the system as a whole. In other words, pushing global temperatures past certain thresholds could trigger abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes that have massively disruptive and large-scale impacts. At that point, even if we do not add any additional CO2 to the atmosphere, potentially unstoppable processes are set in motion. We can think of this as sudden climate brake and steering failure where the problem and its consequences are no longer something we can control.”
Report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society, 2014 1)↓

“I love that smell of the emissions.”
Sarah Palin, 2011 2)↓

“Coal, in truth, stands not beside but entirely above all other commodities. It is the material energy of the country—the universal aid—the factor in everything we do.”
William Stanley Jevons, economist, 1865 3)↓

“How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn’t listen.”
Victor Hugo, 1840 4)↓

klein

“Climate scientists agree: climate change is happening here and now. Based on well-established evidence, about 97 percent of climate scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening. This agreement is documented not just by a single study, but by a converging stream of evidence over the past two decades from surveys of scientists, content analyses of peer-reviewed studies, and public statements issued by virtually every membership organization of experts in this field.”
Report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2014 5)↓

“There is no way this can be done without fundamentally changing the American way of life, choking off economic development, and putting large segments of our economy out of business.”
Thomas J. Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on ambitious carbon reduction 6)↓
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1. Mario Malina et al., “What We Know: The Reality, Risks and Response to Climate Change,” AAAS Climate Science Panel, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2014, pp. 15–16.
2. “Sarah Palin Rolls Out at Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Ride,” Fox News, May 29, 2011.
3. William Stanley Jevons, The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal-Mines (London: Macmillan and Co., 1865), viii.
4. Hugo’s original: “C’est une triste chose de songer que la nature parle et que le genre humain n’écoute pas.” Victor Hugo, Œuvres complètes de Victor Hugo, Vol. 35, ed. Jeanlouis Cornuz (Paris: Éditions Recontre, 1968), 145.
5. Mario Malina et al., “What We Know: The Reality, Risks and Response to Climate Change,” AAAS Climate Science Panel, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2014, p. 3.
6. Thomas J. Donohue, “Managing a Changing Climate: Challenges and Opportunities for the Buckeye State, Remarks,” speech, Columbus, Ohio, May 1, 2008.