Thoughts & Philosophy

      Thanks to my friend, Carl Rangen, for posting this on Facebook. I would bet that he is going to get a lot of laughing faces on his post, but this is really a very serious observation.  Carl Jung might have had a smirk on his face when he said it, but, if you've read any of his works, you know how serious this really is.        Thinking really is difficult.  Most humans only use 10-15% of their brain.  Most don't think because it is so much easier to regurgitate what the three social powers tell us. It is more emotionally comfortable not to have to figure anything out on our own. Thinking requires starting without any preconceptions, ignoring the social pressures to draw a particular conclusion, studying the facts (real facts), coming up with your own hypotheses (generally more than one is best), and testing those hypotheses until you feel you have the right answer or the best possible answer.       Thinking...

  #Buddha,  #reality,  #hereandnow, #Thay, #RVance-blog There is a great deal about our society, which is rapidly becoming global, that reinforces such "lies".  We are programmed to be mindless workers for the Tria Daemonia.          Be mindful.  Live in the now. That doesn't preclude doing something for the future, but be mindful that whatever you are doing is being done here and now. Don't let the systems force you into the past or future. Only now exists.     

 #JonTester,  #MontanaSenator,  #PublicServant, #Politics,  #RVance-blog Those who know me know that I am about as anti-political as they come. I have no use for politicians.  Most of them are part of, or are owned by, the Tria Daemonia one-percent.  BUT I hope you have also noticed that I freely admit; and happy I can do so; that there are exceptions. I believe our senior Montana senator, Jon Tester is one such exception.  Jon is a third generation Montana farmer/rancher. He also has a CDL - professional truck drivers license. (I wonder if that was a Senate first. LOL)  He obviously loves his farm and is very proud of it. He is also very much in love with Montana and quite the patriot. He once joked that he was beginning to think that he was the only one in Congress with a real job. There is a story that while everyone was in the hotel ballroom sipping drinks waiting for the election results, Jon was in the barn putting the motor back in his old ...

  #AlbertEinstein, #TriaDaemonia, #Democracy, #RVance-blog

  #Buddhism, #DalaiLama, #FirstRuleofLife,  #VancePhilosophy   I had the great privilege of studying with the Dalai Lama a number of years ago.  I was just one of probably 200 students, but when he spoke I felt like I was the only person in the room. He was talking to me.  During that time I learned that Buddhism is actually 99% philosophy/psychology of life and 1% religion.  I must admit that if I were to be forced to declare a religion I would probably say that I am 99% Buddhist. Forget the religion. Philosophically I'm a naturalist/existentialist, both of which are quite ontological.  It is the philosophy, psychology and spirituality of Buddhism that usually draws a person to it.   The first Rule of Life -  classic Buddhism loves numbered lists  - is that we do good to all sentient beings and if we can not do good, do no harm.   I don't care how many marvelous, powerful, inspirational, insightful things Buddha or the Da...

  Talk about mind boggling.  The title is so Thay (Thich Nhat Hahn)!  Oh, how he going to be missed.  I don't know that I'm all that different from other westerners who are attracted to Buddhism, but, at first and for some time thereafter, I found this type of language and the concepts they described rather uncomfortable. "Suffering well"? Who wants to suffer at all?   If you pay much attention to Thay, the Dalai Lama, et al., you will notice that it is never a simple sentence in any sense.  We can't avoid the suffering, so suffering well is going to give us peace and happiness because it means we have learned to live completely in the present and make friends with life, which includes the suffering.  For me it took some time just to get a handle on the concept. The first step after that was philosophical understanding. Now I know it, but I find that I drift away from my happiness from time to time. Returning is always further evidence of its trut...

 I have a grandson who is a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy.  I am extremely proud of him and love him very much.  That doesn't mean that that pride and love must extend to his Washington bosses.  It doesn't!   The principal argument here is not about whether or not we should have missiles or planes or tanks, etc. The real question is our morality, our compassion for those who are suffering, or lack thereof.    When Pamela and I visit family in the east we live about ten miles north of Fort Campbell.  Often I can hear the Howitzers firing.  Each boom that I hear costs the American taxpayer from $10,000 to $150,000. Now you can have quite an argument about the costs, etc., of such ordinance.  You can see how capitalists are getting filthy rich charging exhorbitant prices. When I was in the Army the joke was about the $500 hammers. We got paid $102 a month. The capitalist got more than that for every mortar we fired, and, yes, the...

  WELCOME to my  Thoughts and Philosophy blog site.    For those of you who have been following my Thoughts and Philosophy and noticed that I've come back to Blogger, you will notice that I have chaged the URL address.  Nothing else has changed.  The old address  "philoanthrothoughts" was just too long and cumbersome.  My new URL -  rvance-blog.blogspot.com  - is a lot better because it is simple. Hopefully it will help people make their way back if they like my work. 

 Sadly, this has become our American norm.  When only certain political and religious groups can say what they like without being violently verbally accosted we no longer have freedom of speech. 

        I've come back.       I haven't posted a blog on this site for quite some time. I had found it much easier to drop ideas and thoughts onto a Facebook page.  I had a good following on my FB page, but  I was finding Facebook quite annoying.  They changed their format, without warning, that made it more cumbersome, I had less control and they were constantly bombarding me with "suggested for you" which are basically ads.  The site belongs to them and most of my family no longer uses Facebook much. Family is the only reason that I got on Facebook in the first place. The only reason to keep my personal FB site  is to be able to follow good friends.      In any case,  I'm going to start posting my Thoughts and Philosophy here again.  Thanks for understanding and following me.  Pax, Russ