Desire To Think
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Animals and the sacred
How did humans first acquire language? It’s is a fascinating and important question. The ancient Egyptians believed that that speech and writing had been taught to humans by the deity Thoth, alternately conceived as an ibis-headed god or a baboon-headed god.
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On poetry and the arrangement of words
“How can we imagine something new? Here I will just develop variety in the arrangements of words. Having once made a garland of flowers, we can make a new one using the same flowers. Just a new arrangement stimulates the curiosity.”
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Haruki Murakami and Buddhist philosophy
Over Christmas I read ‘The Wind-up Bird Chronicle’, a novel by Haruki Murakami, in the English translation by Jay Rubin. The strange tale of the protagonist, named Toru Okada, seemed to have a loose affinity with concepts and themes from Buddhist philosophy, which I briefly sketch out here, but whether or not this affinity is…
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On the moment of insight
This description nicely illustrates something about how the brain works to generate new ideas, alternating between periods of focused intensity of thought and stillness in order to arrive at a sudden moment of insight or intuition. A similar process is behind many such ‘eureka moments’, where the would-be inventor or discoverer sets aside his or…
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On poetic understanding
Just as scientists strive to crystallize deeper truths about the world, so too do poets. However, whereas scientists further our understanding of reality through a process of abstraction, poets develop insights that resists abstraction and stays at the level of ordinary things.
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On monarchy in literature and life
Monarchy has been a feature of human societies since time immemorial, and is ensconced in our literary traditions. The two passages above are both taken from the funerals of famous leaders depicted in literature, and remind us of recent scenes following the death of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. That is to say, they…
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Ān dæg on Eoforƿīce
On ðissum gēare ēode ic tō Eoforƿīcceastre sēo is mihtig ⁊ spēdig ceaster ⁊ ligþ on ðǣre Eoforƿīcscīre Norþþriding.
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ल्येतुवा-देशात् तृणमणि-विषय एकाऽऽख्यायिका
पूरा त्वाकाशे सूर्यौ द्वावेवास्ताम् ।
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मिस्रदेशे मम यात्रा
अस्मिन् वर्षे अहं मिस्रदेशं गतवान् | मिस्रदेशस्य सभ्यता, भाषा, साहित्य च खलु प्राचीनाः सन्ति |
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Adam & Eve & the Egyptian serpent
Ancient Egypt had an immense influence on the world, through trade links and cultural contacts, so it should be no surprise to see ancient Egyptian ideas being propagated into later civilizations. Many Biblical figures in particular had very significant links with ancient Egypt, spending important and formative years there imbibing Egyptian ideas. In the Book…
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Desire To Think 