moscairritante scribbled: This is all good Foucauldian stuff!

moscairritante scribbled: Nice photo. Where are u from?

moscairritante scribbled: By no means do I underestimate the insights of Hindu and Buddhist thought, Mark. I believe that the East has found genuine ways of regulating the activities of the "mind". On the other hand, disillusioned Westerners often underestimate their own successes with directing the mind. In my opinion, the brain/mind is for thinking and I can never believe that the cessation of thought can be a desirable end in itself (except in the most temporary sense). As for enduring heat/cold, etc., Westerners have been extremely good at doing what was necessary in desperate situations. For example, in Stalingrad the Russian army endured almost a year of sub zero temperatures during which the Nazis bombed and shelled them continually. However, their spirit never broke and their sacrifice bought time for the series of offensives that eventually were to expel the Germans from Russia and Ukraine. In general, I believe that we have been so successful in the West because we have used the mind/brain for its proper purpose: thinking. As the excesses of our own success lead many to look elsewhere for answers to their most profound questions, it is worth remembering a somewhat trite, but nonetheless illuminatin, American saying: "No gain without pain".

moscairritante scribbled: I find the author of this article a comitted Hindu zealot (of course, there are also Christian zealots). By this I mean that one feels he has a particular axe to grind from the beginning. The right wing Hindu view of Indian history gained prominence with the success of Hindutva politics. To believe everything such interpreters have to say is like letting a religious Zionist narrate Jewish history to you. Of course, some of the points made may be valid. No doubt the idea of the Aryan invasion did suit the British for their own purposes--but that is to confuse arguments. The basic point I kept asking myself as I was reading this was: "If this writer denies the Aryan invasion, how can he explain the fact that the Indian and European languages are related? Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the only way it could be done was by saying that India was the original source of the Indo-European laguage group, came out of India and populated much of Europe. Indeed, this is more or less what is eventually claimed by the writer's reference to "migrant Indians". Notice, that he doesn't even claim that they were conquerors! They were merely a few migrants who apparently moved into Europe and influenced the whole history of European languages without having left any trace of their presence! Excuse my frankness, but this article is mostly bigotted nonsense.

moscairritante scribbled: A strange amalgam of comic cuts and Indian philosophy?