Synchronicity, Dreamwidth, Many Essays, Esoterica and the Mid-East

[tcpip]

A couple of strange moments of synchronicity and coincidence this week. About a year ago, I started reading Salmun Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh at a cafe around the corner for work. I know the date I started because I used my ticket from when John Foxx did a movie presentation. Every few days when buying a bite to eat or a coffee I'd read a few pages. Just as I'm about to finish, I discover that John Foxx did the cover for the book.

The second moment of synchronicity was finishing Rolemaster Cyradon, which is almost due for the final draft. About fifteen years ago I did another book for Iron Crown Enterprises. Just as the final draft of this book was due to be sent to the publishes, my hard disk died. This time around, the USB key which I'd kept about nine days of work decided to go belly-up. Fortunately, I discovered a very handy program to recover such things.

I have a Dreamwidth account under the same moniker. This is good because it doesn't have the poor management decisions of Livejournal, but uses pretty much the same technology, plus one can crosspost (like this one). This is a good list of Livejournal features not in Dreamwidth and likewise a list of changes.

Conducted a Philosophy of Economics (Normative Economics) session at the Unitarian Philosophy Forum on Sunday. Have also put up notes for the session on Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast which looks at metaphysics, theology and philosophy. Both of these have been very well received and well attended. Submitted a proposed distance education programme for VPAC as part of my Cert IV in Workplace Training and Assessment.

Visited darviz on Sunday morning, whom I hadn't spent much time with for years. Talked about his band, Darkness Visible, and then apropos, Freemasonry, various forms of esoterica and the politics of the middle-east (he's has a Jewish heritage and a generally pro-Israeli position; I'm probably best described as a secular zionist in that regard). On a related topic, I have finished an essay for isocracy.org on National Self-Determination and Federal Internationalism; comments invited on this oft-tricky subject.

Comments

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

ITYM Salman Rushdie. I'm amazed he's still alive.
Is the book any good?
I admit, I have almost no interest in reading it, and I am highly dubious of books that are proclaimed Great Literature, but I am also curious to know what all the fuss is about.

But the main reason I post is that for the past few days, on an off, I have been following this - http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=13824&page=5 (er... I said slowly, right?) which is a log of a person reading TSR/Dragon all the way through. I thought you might be interested. I am finding it lightly entertaining coffee break reading.

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

He's here -
http://www.islam-watch.org/SalmanRushdie/index.html

I like these Muslims -
http://sufinews.blogspot.com/
http://www.freemuslims.org/

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

That Salman Rushdie page is pretty interesting. I haven't read much of his commentary in the past, and the articles on the right to be offended and the proposal for a 'higher criticism' reading of sacred texts is certainly something I agree with.

In addition to Sufism, there is also an interesting syncretic style of Islam in Indonesia called 'abangan', which combines Hindu, Buddhist and animist traditions from that region. In other parts of the world it would probably be considered a capital heresy, I'm sure...

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Interesting ! Good for them !
When I approached the Nimatullahi Sufis in London they advised me not to be a spiritual tourist and to confine myself to Advaita Vedanta as they are both nondual monism .
I really like this community ! It's the only one that I've ever found that combines social and spiritual liberation .

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Persian sufis recommened that you take up a school of Hindu philosophy? That's pretty interesting...

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

I am very committed to Advaita Vedanta through Shanti Sadan and also the Ramakrishna Order . I once atttended a meeting in London where a Sufi compared Advaita with Wahdat al_Wujud as essentially the same , differing only in spiritual perfume . The daughter of a Gambian Sufi Imam was very happy to attend lectures by members of Shanti Sadan in Kensington .
http://www.worldwisdom.com/public/authors/Hari-Prasad-Shastri.aspx
http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=Dara+Shikoh
I detest the misogyny , fanaticism and violence of the barbaric jihadis ...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I am very committed to Advaita Vedanta through Shanti Sadan and also the Ramakrishna Order

Well, how about that... I had no idea. I must investigate further, given my interest in non-dogmatic and liberal religious thought...

The daughter of a Gambian Sufi Imam was very happy to attend lectures by members of Shanti Sadan in Kensington .

Very pleased to hear that.

I detest the misogyny , fanaticism and violence of the barbaric jihadis

I just wish they would concentrate beating each other up and leaving the rest of us alone...

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Hahaha - I say "amen" to that !
: D

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the book's pretty good (after all, I've been reading it for a year). It's largely a first person narrative, rather stylistically and setting rich.

WRT to the Dragon reading there is a person on rpg.net who has been doing the same thing with White Dwarf

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=405199

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. That's interesting. I never gave much thought to White Dwarf. Around the time I was buying Dragon WD was all Warhammer, which was never my thing.

Of course I also liked the White Wolf magazine (despite not being interested in VTM) and the late lamented GM (er.... Games Master International I think it became).

I used to read the latter for hours, pondering all the weird games that were advertised (like Reich Star), book reviews.... and their weird obsession with Joe Dever.

I still have them in a crate with my Dragons. *sigh*

I just did a Torrent search, and universally it seems WD's 100th issue was the beginning of the end.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

White Dwarf was a pretty good magazine before it became a house 'zine for GW; as you say it's was pretty much around issue 100 (I would say before that) when it started going downhill fast.

White Wolf magazine seems to be a largely forgotten product, which is a shame because they did a really good job and covered a lot of material imo.

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

I have WD 1-100 now, and I had no idea that Jackson/Livingston wrote the early issues. I knew they were behind GDW but I never made the connection.

Through it I found a game called Starfaring (by Ken St Andre) I'd not heard of.

I've half a mind to try and get a group together. I probably say it in every RPG thread, but I do miss the hobby.

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention (not sure if you have ever seen WD#1) the ad on the back cover for Gamma World (A game that famously forgot to include rules for Armour Class in the 3rd Edition IIRC) that blew my mind.

The guy didn't mention it, but it seems to feature the Solid Gold Dancers.
It's quite something (and electric blue).

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Yay for synchronicity !
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Interesting comments; I thought the metaphor was bit mixed "But Jung felt that, if you want to understand the jungle, you can't be content just to sail back and forth near the shore." Either march into the jungle or sail into the ocean but not sail into the jungle!

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Ah, to enjoy new Dreamwidth accounts in a universe of internal relations; I'm on there too, so look for me if you have a hankering for a mellotron_breakfast. I haven't started cooking yet, though.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I think the xposting tool is very useful - however it does muck up the lj user versus dw user comparisons.

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

You had important data saved only to a thumbdrive???

I hope you hung your head in shame. Being able to recover it doesn't make it allright.

1) Back up Often
2) Back up Offsite
3) Back up to more than one media

C'mon, GMail accounts are free and you can e-mail yourself docs up to 25Mb. Et Voila!

you of all people should know better...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know, I know.. I had just been in a bit of a "will finish this, everything else comes second" sort of mood.

[darviz.livejournal.com]

I appreciated the visit Lev. You're always interesting company. Speak to you soon.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Likewise good sir; it was an excellent conversation and must have another one in the near future. My apologies that I had to run off so quickly, but I did have that philosophy of economics presentation to give.

[recumbenteer.livejournal.com]

I have role playing loot to give away. Are you interested in a couple of Traveller Rule Books (the orginal A5 size ones) or issues of 'Challenge' the GDW house magazine?
I'll be moving house soon and I'd rather give them away to a roleplaying fan than move them to the new place.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh yeth please. I like roleplaying loot.

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

I like roleplaying loot booty.

FTFY.

[telarus.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! Thanks for the notes on the 'Six Impossible Things' talk.

There's something coming down the Discord Society pipeline that you may be interested in (it's from the 16th century, no seriously). I'll make sure you're on the list when we get further along in the project.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

16th century eh? Over time I learned a little too much about that period, albeit in stranger corner of it (e.g., Transylvania and the Malay archipelago)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

BTW, what part of Six Impossible Things did you particularly like? Any questions?

[szeretni.livejournal.com]

Hello! I was just checking out your LJ, because of what you wrote on talk_politics and what a coincidence that you're writing about synchronicity - I'm trying to find out as much as possible about that right now. :)
It's a fascinating subject and if you have any tips on books to read about it, I'd be happy to hear them. :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.. That's a very good question. There is, of course, Jung's famous book on the subject (entitled Synchronicity. You might also want to have a look at Koestler's The Roots of Coincidence although is dealing with parapsychology (and paraphysics) rather than an archetypal and symbolic approach. Apart from that I really don't know!