A couple months of Facebook philosophy

In the sta­tus update box on Face­book reads “whats on your mind”. So I com­mit­ted to speak­ing my mind for the few months I had left before my travel to Asia. These are the posts that came out dur­ing that period.

John Raux thinks more monks should be ninjas(or at least know kung fu). con­tem­pla­tive and phys­i­cal health flour­ish when pushed to rig­or­ous ends. the great chal­lenge to make peace with­out mur­der is exem­pli­fied by cre­ativ­ity, phys­i­cal activ­ity and prayer…. min us the throw­ing stars. save those for the renn fest.

Sep­tem­ber 20 at 2:15am

Plan like the wind, com­mit like an ani­mal, con­nect like a tree, vow like a mountain,love like the ocean tide… swelling by the grav­ity of another.

Sep­tem­ber 18 at 7:24am

John Raux thinks there is a light at the end of the tun­nel. death may be the ocean that all stream and river of life emp­ties into.. that all time and cir­cum­stance even­tu­ally dis­cover.. and yet there is cur­rent in that ocean. we fear the ungras­pable and yet are held in its hands. we wres­tle the mys­tery that com­pels us to move into being and dying for we have a des­per­ate pref­er­ence in what we already know and remem­ber. the deep grav­ity sings new life with each moment that passes away. to not fight death but to live fragility through the dif­fi­cult tun­nel of love we call the way, the journey.

Sept 16 at 7:32am

John Raux thinks there is a fine line between being a cap­ti­vat­ing speaker and hold­ing peo­ple cap­tive through mono­logue, monop­oly, rant­ing or rab­bit trail­ing. the appro­pri­ate con­tent with the right tim­ing and con­text makes us long­winded ora­tors more likely to end up mak­ing sense out of our gib­ber­ish than stick­ing a foot in our mouths or say­ing im sorry.

Sept 12 at 3:04am

John Raux what is meta for? a sys­tem of systems,the nature of nature,theory of the­o­ries, prob­lem with problems,comprehending com­pre­hen­sion. A sim­ple self ref­er­enc­ing pre­fix becomes prophetic,shedding intu­itive light on the com­pli­cated “strange loops” of this some­times seem­ingly para­dox­i­cal world we live in. For us to under­stand our con­text we must first under­stand our­selves & “how” we come to under­stand­ing in the 1^st place.

Sep­tem­ber 11 at 12:26pm

John Raux won­ders if mean­ing­ful­ness is a per­son­al­ized ver­sion of pat­tern recog­ni­tion.. aggre­gat­ing & devel­op­ing synapses of pref­er­ence exer­cised in rep­e­ti­tion. What does it look like to nur­ture a pat­terned life? How do we see & notice,slow down & be present to our aggre­gat­ing story? willpower & cul­tural belief sys­tems will not save us from mean­ing­less­ness. though noth­ing is beyond repair. the mys­tery beck­ons us with love.

Sep­tem­ber 10 at 1:23am

John Raux has been dream­ing a lot pos­si­bly due to min­i­mal sleep(rem over­drive to heal), lying on his back(good cir­cu­la­tion & nerve alignment),septum piercing(sinus pres­sure released),& the emotional/​chemical roller­coaster that comes with mov­ing to another country(Nepal in 3 weeks).ive also heard writ­ing them down allows for sub­con­scious expe­ri­ences to be retained and devel­oped as you con­nect them with mem­o­ries of past dreams.

Sep­tem­ber 8 at 10:48am

John Raux won­ders if we will ever develop a col­lec­tive conscientiousness.We see the ter­ri­ble begin­nings of this in mob men­tal­ity where our instincts & wills cave into a movement(numbing impo­si­tion of duty with­out question)what if we devel­oped a social lan­guage more akin to a jazz band find­ing their groove with one another,with new sen­si­tiv­i­ties & sub­tle hints to con­verse about our own parts and the direc­tion of the whole song.

Sept 4 at 12:42

i think we are not fully an indi­vid­ual with­out a com­mu­nity to encour­age and refine us… while we are not truly part of a com­mu­nity with­out hon­estly being our own unique selves. cul­tural pri­or­i­ties and hier­ar­chies ebb with the cul­ture and the times. Love for the other, the stranger, the for­eigner, our neigh­bor… lev­els the soap­boxes and fills in the ditches mak­ing us all on the same page… need­ing a lit­tle grace, a lit­tle time to adapt,and find­ing some hope in a uni­fied body (community)made up of diverse parts(individuals). I think its pretty beautiful.

Sept 6 at 2:25am

Fun­da­men­tal­ists & Darth Vader have a few things in common.They deal jus­tice & use clones to enforce their judgment.They split the world into two sides of the force while not real­iz­ing that every per­son is on both sides,including themselves.Their good inten­tions lead to self destruction.How do we remain faith­ful & walk out our con­vic­tions with­out slaugh­ter­ing the sand peo­ple or fight­ing our own fam­ily w/​lightsabres?

Sept 1 at 8:25

John Raux thinks the Emperor might be more like Anar­chists. Does what­ever is nec­es­sary to get his way. Looks like an activist prop­a­gat­ing free­dom through just war and right­eous use of power yet it is this very self-​aggrandizement that leads to the same destruc­tion as Vader. He is always on the right side at the right time and fash­ion often hides his true inten­tions. Some­times his elec­tric­ity makes you feel trust and some­times its a deadly shock to your sys­tem. bal­ance of the force is found in a place with Names and no –ists.(redemption of Anakin) rela­tion­ships that work through diver­sity and adversity(not by erad­i­cat­ing each other) find lib­er­a­tion & mod­er­a­tion form fam­ily bonds but cer­tainly not per­fec­tion. not to say that we shouldn’t pur­sue our ideals but a lit­tle humil­ity goes a long way.

Sept 1 at 11:59

John Raux thinks fit­ting in & inclu­sion lead to com­mu­nal fit­ness & health​.to fit doesnt mean to be the same. it means hav­ing space for another.inclusion implies time spent in close prox​im​ity​.to host & serve exer­cises the very life of a peo­ple. know­ing first our own needs to help find our place & iden­tity in com​mu​nity​.to hum­ble the proud and give honor to the disgraced,forgiving each oth­ers mistakes.strength through weakness.

August 30 at 8:52 am

John Raux believes that lim­i­ta­tion is the spring­board to creativity.where end­less pos­si­bil­ity may suf­fo­cate ideas or lead us into copy­ing what oth­ers have done due to fear­ing the unknown.Granted, it doesnt have to.How do we cul­ti­vate spaces & rela­tion­ships so they spark imag­i­na­tion & fuel new life within our com­mu­ni­ties? What are our lim­i­ta­tions & how can we use those to prob­lem solve?to guide our dreams? to find inspiration?

August 27 at 7:47am

John Raux thinks learn­ing a new lan­guage changes how we see. how we choose. how we imag­ine. Chal­leng­ing our knowl­edge and under­stand­ing of the world by reorder­ing our thoughts and inten­tions with new sym­bols, sounds, and sub­tleties. Its a mess and a jum­ble at …first.. but the joy of com­mu­ni­ca­tion should not be taken for granted. It is a sacred thing to be truly under­stood… to be known. words are more than what meets the ear.

August 26 at 4:48pm

John Raux feels the aim of war is pas­siv­ity & genocide.PEACE is not pas​sive​.To let peace rule our hearts is not safe​.It is kinetic, res­o­nant, & heal­ing but only when it is vulnerable,innocent & embrac­ing death.Willful blood shed in love is more than sym​bolic​.it is the very redemp­tion of mans vio­lence, hatred,& self destruc­tion. As ambas­sadors of sacrifice,our sword is the spirit,our shield is faith,our hope breathes liberty.

August 25 3:25pm

John Raux thinks diver­sity and adapt­abil­ity are the ancient strat­egy for life.relationships are forged through dif­fi­culty and capacity.Our strengths are weak­nesses and weak­nesses strengths. when alone their are great moun­tains and val­leys, in com­mu­nity the ground is lev­eled by our shared con­texts but dif­fer­ent capac­i­ties. How do we cul­ti­vate kin­ship with­out commonality?In being human?being in the same place?simply being alive?

August 24

John Raux is feel­ing the wait of the move. the ocean, stir­ring out­side while my insides freeze from head­lights illu­mi­nat­ing the road to col­li­sion. the unex­plain­able yearn­ing finds ground in my life while famil­iar explo­ration has set a somber sail to the edge of the world… prepar­ing to leap into the crevasse of mys­ter­ies untold and sto­ries not yet written.

August 18 at 7:36am

John Raux thinks humans need to stop procreating,start adopt­ing. stop overconsumption,learn to be con­tent with what we already have.replace insti­tu­tions that are moti­vated by wealth,growth and power with com­mu­ni­ties of health,depth and rela­tional time.Will any­thing live if all the world’s resources are used for ourselves?Domination/occupation plagues us who have lost our faith.we can­not risk love but must in order to survive.

August 12 at 8:27am

John Raux assumes death is a space­time coor­di­nate, and yet is it not also on a pil­grim­age along­side life. From our food to the costs of rela­tion­ship, it seems to be under­stood that through death we are given life. Some­times we can see where our jour­ney is lead­ing and so we walk on water with a sure focus. Other times there is only a dry place where the river once was, call­ing out our risky love to tra­verse sure death.

August 10 at 9:00am

John Raux won­ders why we set our­selves up for disaster.Forcing live pegs into dead holes. Cul­turedIn­stinc­tu­al­Cancer, Pre­ma­tureEmo­tional­Mortem, SpiritualAnorexia.Does our health really hinge on a mix of logic and the roll of the dice?Avoiding pain, loss, and suf­fer­ing only numbs our­selves with apa­thy and disillusionment.Our per­fect ideal is screwed and yet through our long suf­fer­ing we find a true expres­sion of uncon­di­tional love.

August 8 at 8:53am

Why should we desire greener grass when there is good grass all around?or should we care for the places with no grass at all?Is a half glass of water only good when we are thirsty or when it is full?Does an empty glass not speak of a quenched thirst?…Is Poten­tial real­ity or is that just my imagination?Do we hold at capac­ity or invest into mystery?What are you dream­ing up to live out? (imag­i­na­tion real­iz­ing potential)

August 6 at 6:26pm

John Raux thinks con­tem­pla­tion and art are nearly synonymous…blurring the lines of inspi­ra­tion and rev­e­la­tion. They are our rela­tion­ship with cul­ture, ideas, aes­thet­ics, con­text, form, and prac­tice that exca­vate and ani­mate our lives. Some peo­ple yell out “what does it mean?!” with­out time nor authen­tic inter­est to actu­ally seek and pon­der. tis a time to see new sto­ries and repent of paint­ing the false gods of fashion.

August 1 at 8:34am

John Raux is won­der­ing what our hearts long for? but not so much the cul­tural “desire” of the mind, per­suaded by soap opera snakes and game show rules.The whis­per that speaks our names into the deep­est parts of our true desire, but often goes unno­ticed. Do you need anything?I take care of myself. Do you have time to share?Im never free. Are those gifts for me?Im sav­ing them for myself. Who told you of your naked­ness? Adam…

July 31 at 9:37am

John Raux dreams about a road that remem­bers itself as a rock, a pet that remem­bers its pack and the pro­vi­sion for its life in the wild, a city for­get­ting that it wants to be more and so it set­tles and returns to the ground, the wheel becom­ing lost which returns the speed of man to his own legs giv­ing him grace to remem­ber to nur­ture his fam­ily, the com­mu­nity of life(flora and fauna) that sur­rounds and keeps him.

July 30 at 11:07am

John Raux is not the cen­ter of the uni­verse, even though ALL his per­spec­tive spins around him­self. Human­ity is not the height of evo­lu­tion, even though ALL of its cul­ture is manip­u­lat­ing God’s image to their will and self­ish pur­poses. Prob­a­bly the most sur­pris­ing things about humil­ity is that it pro­duces joy within sobri­ety, hos­pi­tal­ity within hos­til­ity, beauty within fragility, and love with­out position.

July 29 at 8:39am

John Raux feels the call to silence and still­ness… to clean and empty our bur­dened souls… to be filled with aware­ness and new inspi­ra­tion… to remem­ber pas­sions long for­got­ten… to remove the roles of mas­tery and con­quest and be renamed in the mys­tery and poetry of life… to exhale(give)… to inhale(receive)…

July 28 at 11:08am

John Raux rejoices in this new day… I pray for new vision…that tears would be shed to restore sight, hault war, and cre­atively find peace… that honor would empty itself and feed the poor and make time for those in dis­pair… that beauty and new rela­tion­ships would inspire sim­plic­ity and aban­don stress in the face of love, grace, and truth.

July 27 at 8:42am

John Raux thinks our obses­sion with wealth and fear of loss con­sumes our­selves and squan­ders the resources that we have to address our needs of rela­tion­ship and health and then replaces them with fan­tasies of rape and rob­bery. the time to breathe fresh air, to remem­ber your hearts true desire(and chase after it), and to stop tak­ing your bless­ings for granted and start bless­ing oth­ers… is now.

July 26 at 8:57am

John Raux thinks we need to love the peo­ple in our lives, in our way, in our view and be com­pelled out of stances of ret­ri­bu­tion, moral judg­ment, and false humil­ity. we are at war with our­selves and need to remem­ber the courage, imag­i­na­tion, and resilience nec­es­sary to be not only non-​violent but also peacemakers.

July 25 at 5:06pm