RisingLane

"Zikr (or Dhikr) is an Arabic term meaning 'remembrance,' an essential Islamic act of worshipping Allah by remembering Him through specific praises, words, or phrases, either verbally or silently in the heart, aiming to achieve closeness to God and find peace." - AI Allahu Akbar!

Thy will be done!

"I pursued enlightenment for 40 years and ended up in frustration. After that, I started pursuing the selfish aim of happiness for myself, and I ended up being enlightened." - Ramesh Balsekar Nice! 😀👍

My holy trinity of strategy games is StarCraft II, Anno 2070, and Civilization V.

Exactly. Why has no one mentioned Civ 5 yet? Much more stimulating than most games.

Infinity is wholeness, so I’m basically saying the same thing. Holism = wholeness = health = healing = unity = oneness = infinite = harmony, balance = goodness = love = God = selflessness = wisdom = beauty = holy = heaven = bliss.

A chanting of the Heart Sutra. Translated by Thich Nhat Hanh. Download text here.

The halo represents holiness, and holiness means wholeness.

Rockstar is overrated. I haven’t enjoyed a single game they’ve made. Even the video briefing in Anno 2070 feels more exciting—just listen to that gorgeous soundtrack: God bless Germany!

This concept is also found in Islam: "The Jabriyya believed that humans are constrained to a set path, do not have a choice, and that everything that happens in society happens by God’s will and destiny."

Beautiful! 15:28 especially. And 31:20.

There is no God but Allah!

Allah is the greatest!

I like Death Note for its psychological chess game between Yagami and L, and how it explores hubris.

The Life of Chuck is a surprisingly good film. If you’re looking for a life-affirming movie to close out the year, this one’s worth checking out. I was expecting a more impactful ending, but it’s still worth watching. Beginning with act three is an interesting choice—it felt like a setup for a more emotional climax, but it still worked well.

Yes, it’s a powerful illusion, and I’m not sure why it exists. I suppose it’s enjoyable while it lasts—the pride of believing you’ve made the right choices, and the dread of thinking you’ve completely messed it up. These emotions are all part of the separate, ego-driven dreamstate. Waking from this dreamstate means realizing that life is living itself, and you were never truly in control.

I no longer question whether free will exists; to me, it’s all just poetry now—the poetry of determinism. For example: “Life is about allowing yourself to be played by nature. The metaphor is not you are playing yourself as an instrument; you are the instrument that nature is playing. You are the violin in the hands of God. Allow yourself to be played. If you want the orchestra to play in unison like an organism, that’s what it’s about. Our role as metacognitive agents is to pay attention, to observe how we are being played … To recognize that your life is not about you is not to say that your life is meaningless. The blossom of the apple tree is not about it, it’s about the apple—without the blossom there is no apple and there is no next apple tree. The fact that our lives are not about us does not entail or imply that our lives are meaningless. They’re extremely meaningful precisely because they are not about us, precisely because they are about something much bigger than us.” - Bernardo Kastrup

His deep understanding of physics. Here are more Einstein quotes about free will.

Too bad. I was planning to post this, and even though it’s no longer fitting, I’m sharing it anyway because it’s just too cute.

Speaking of green games, Anno 2070 is a beautiful game—one of the finest creations to come out of Germany.

Well, somebody has to play that role. Determinism on its own is bad news. You need to realize God. God cannot be a victim. Only the ego is a victim. In a way, you could say we’re all victims. Even the luckiest person alive is still at the mercy of their circumstances. Simply having to exist here makes you a kind of victim—just maybe a fortunate one.

He might see it that way.

That's right. I see my profile picture as a sort of cosmic film strip.

Here’s the video that goes along with it: Gary Weber has a whole playlist on this topic. I love the Einstein quote; it's very poetic: "Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust—we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."

Any Shpongle fans here?