On Thu, Feb 24, 2000 at 12:54:50AM +0000, Rik Hemsley wrote:
> #if Erin
> > I am spiritual but not religious.
>
> I am neither. Sometimes I wish I was religious. Then perhaps I wouldn't
> have to think about the Universe so much.
I thoroughly enjoy thinking about the Universe...
> > Principally, and in my understanding, religion is the organizational
> > strucure of people and practices/rituals, while spirituality is a way of
> > being open to/part of the mysterious and creative forces of life (put simply).
>
> Hmm. Still don't see what 'spirituality' means. Can you explain
> further ?
Um, only for me and my experience and understanding of spiritual - and even then,
it is a non-static and ever-evolving/shifting non-linear experience.
By its very nature, spiritual experience defies conventional linear modes of
communication, but I'll list a few things off the top of my head:
- standing on the Cliffs of Moher
- the warmth of the sun
- rock formations, rippling waves
- the beauty of a processor's internal silicon-etched
circuitry viewed under an electron microscope
- an act of selfless kindness
- contemplating Life and the Universe
-> how is it that all these particles and molecules
have clumped together to produce life as we know it,
consciousness, etc...?
It is about paying full attention in the moment, being aware of as much as
possible, noticing the details and how they are part of the kaleidescopic
bigger picture (pattern matching!)...
It is more than I can ever hope to encompass in any one email reply... [=^J
> > How does this relate to being a woman of *nix-y persuasions? I'd say a
> > good part of my experience with computers is a "sense of wonder"
> > apprehension of the infinite complexity which is entirely built upon the
> > basis of 1 and 0.
>
> Somewhere I read (probably misquoted) :
> "UNIX is a simple system, but it takes a genius to understand
> that simplicity."
>
> IMO it doesn't take a genius to understand UNIX. I'm no genius and
> I get it. I remember being in awe of the sheer simplicity.
I'm not sure what point you're making in relation to what I wrote, but
you appear to have assumed that my stating "experience with computers" meant
my experience with unix (an easy assumption to make when connected to the part
where I say "of *nix-y persuasions") -
BUT! In referring to complexity built
upon "the basis of 1 and 0", I was not merely considering some instance of a
*nix-y operating system, but rather, of the limitless possibilities of what
has been / is being / could be done with multiple, networked, machines - the OS,
the hardware, the software, the imaginations and minds of those people involved
in making them all work and do something... beholding the simplicity with awe
*is* part of grooving on the complexity that can be built with it...
And, well, I haven't written my own kernel recently so there still are plenty of
mysterious and cool things for me to discover and learn in my ongoing *nix-y
explorations. [=^J
Erin 8)
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