Philosophy

PHILOSOPHY - It is said philosophy is like a blind man searching on a
dark night in a dark room for a black cat which is not there. ---
You can cut a rose flower, you can dissect it, you can put all the
ingredients separately into different bottles methodically labeled,
but one thing will be missing: there will be no beauty to be found and
no life to be found, no joy to be found, no dance of the rose flower
in the wind, in the rain, in the sun; they will all be gone. ---
The philosophers are good at categorizing things, the scientists are
good at categorizing things. Their whole effort is how to categorize,
how to put everything in a particular category - this is this, that is
that - and they go on and on. They are not in search of the organic
unity of life, they are not in search of the ultimate principle of
life that runs in the trees and the mountains and the stars and the
animals and the birds and men and women. They are not in search of
that unifying factor. That unifying factor is what religions have
called the truth, what Buddha has called NIRVANA, what Jesus has
called the kingdom of God. --- Remember it, if you can find any
answer through philosophy, that simply proves one thing: that your
question was silly. --- It is said that if you want a philosopher to
remain engaged, just give him a piece of paper and on both sides
write P.T.O, so he will look on this side and then turn it over, and
then P.T.O. is there again, so he will turn it over ... and he will go
crazy - but he will remain occupied! --- The old professor of
philosophy who was retiring addressed his class: "Men, I have two
confessions to make before I go," he said. "The first is that half of
what I have taught you is not true. The second is that I have no idea
which half is." --- Buddha insisted again and again, "I am not
answering your questions, I am only making your questions clear to
you." --- This is the difference between a philosopher and a mystic:
the philosopher tries to answer your questions, the mystic simply
helps you to understand your questions. --- Whenever Buddha used to go
to a new place, his disciples would go ahead and declare to the
people, "Please don't ask these eleven questions, because that will be
a sheer wastage of time, because all that he is going to say is:
'Such is the nature of things.' Don't ask these questions." ---
Buddha is not a philosopher, neither is Lao Tzu. In fact, no one who
has KNOWN is a philosopher. Philosophers are blind people talking
about light. --- Philosophy is an obsession with words. The word
"God" becomes more significant than the experience of God; that is
philosophy. Philosophers ask: What do you mean when you use the word
"God?" What do you mean when you use the word "truth?" What do you
mean when you use the word "good?" What do you mean when you use the
word "love?" --- Philosophy is more or less a linguistic phenomenon,
a question of language and grammar, of hair-splitting and
shadow-boxing. It is not concerned with reality at all. It talks ABOUT
reality. But remember, to talk about reality is one thing and to move
into reality is quite another. Philosophy is talk, religion is
experience. --- My interest is in religion, not in philosophy at all.

+++ PHILOSIA - In India they do not have an equivalent word for
philosophy. They have a totally different word for it, that is
DARSHAN. Ordinarily it is translated as "philosophy"; it is not.
Philosophy means something of the mind; DARSHAN simply means insight,
vision, seeing. In the East they have called the greatest ones
"the seers". They have not called them prophets, they have not called
them philosophers, they have called them seers - they have seen. The
East has always believed in seeing, not in thinking. --- To translate
DARSHAN into English is very difficult. To call it philosophy is
unfair; it destroys the whole beauty of the word DARSHAN. So I
translate it with "philosia". Philosophy means love for knowledge;
"sophia" means knowledge, "philo" means love. Philosia means love for
seeing - "sia" means seeing. Once you have seen, all beliefs wither
away like dry leaves falling from the trees. --- +