Leftovers
When were you born?
When you exited your mother’s womb?
When you were conceived by the union of sperm and egg?
When the etchings of life first began in some long, long ago primordial puddle?
When the quantum mystery first began forming into the universe?
And what makes you so sure you were ever born at all?
What makes you so sure you are anything more
Than an imaginary dream of mind?
* * * *
The universe without is confabulated by the machinations of the universe within.
A quantum tapestry; the cotton candy of imagination spun from practically nothing.
* * * *
The awareness requires no self-imagery, whatsoever.
All notions of any identity, any self, immortal or otherwise,
Are nothing more than the perpetual ramblings of consciousness,
Of ever-churning imagination playing, pretending, deluding itself real.
Neuron trails blazing away this way and that, coining illusion out of nothing.
* * * *
There is only one eternal moment,
And it is ever the prior-to-consciousness awareness
Of the ephemeral right-here-right-now.
* * * *
Without desire there is no fear; without fear there is no you.
Fear is the confabulator of all self-imagery, of all delusion.
* * * *
Imaginary universe.
Imaginary world.
Imaginary you.
* * * *
Even in the inexorable face of complete and unutterable annihilation,
It is more than likely the greater portion of human beings
Will fervently cling to their idolatrous notions
Of one illusory deity or another.
* * * *
What is never born never dies.
Only consciousness endures the illusion of birth and death and life between.
Only awareness is timelessly, immortally changeless.
* * * *
The subtlety of truth is that it can never be grasped in any way imaginable,
Because it is prior to time, prior to space, prior to consciousness.
Utterly, indivisibly, timelessly, flawlessly absolute.
* * * *
What are you but immortal awareness,
Encased, ensnared, in a corporal container,
Playing out a temporal meme born of imagination.
* * * *
Life is a Rolodex of ever-changing perceptions and values.
How any given mind sees its world is never the same for long.
* * * *
The dreamer is the dream.
The dream is the dreamer.
* * * *
Behind the illusory mask,
Behind the imaginary character,
A space, an emptiness, ever unknowable.
* * * *
When mind abides in ever-present awareness,
The world, the universe, as it is known, disappears into timelessness,
And the senses merely function as the un-translated, un-rendered dreammakers they are.
* * * *
Those who contemplate thoughts of this nature
Are drawn to discerning and exploring the singularity
In whatever way their nature-nurture dreamtime has in store.
* * * *
Consciousness does not easily give over its delusional dreamtime
To the quietude of its original nature, of its timeless awareness,
In which it hither-thither vainly moves like clouds in the sky.
* * * *
Awareness is aware of every point and particle of the manifest dreamtime.
It is aware of every kaleidoscoping matrix quantum moment throughout all eternity.
The many creations it omnisciently witnesses are aware of it only rarely, if ever.
To awaken to the awareness, the indelible mystery within and without,
To wander through the reverie, conscious of the omniscience,
Is a center stage role available to all, but offered to few.
* * * *
People come and go in your existence in every imaginable way, from tepid to sweet to bitter.
The brew can be intoxicating or depressing, memorable or scarcely remembered,
But all contribute to your frame of reference, your wily bag of tricks,
Your memories ranging from passionate to indifferent,
From affection to mourning to loathing.
The swirl of thoughts in your mind is but a dream,
But how you perceive it, how you comprehend it, is how you roll.
* * * *
Awareness is the unknowable source of all intelligence.
Creation is but the sequential means of its eternal quantum potential
For dreaming whatever its kaleidoscoping matrix of a mystery has in no-mind store.
* * * *
That voice in your head is nothing more than a recording
Of imagination’s response to the nature-nurture conditioning.
* * * *
Those for whom the limelight is never bright enough,
Those whose avarice can never be satiated,
Those driven to rule over others,
Are caught in a web of self-absorption,
A blaze of vain notion that cannot be quenched,
No matter how inconceivably successful the endeavor.
* * * *
To fully perceive that you are not this manifestation is an unending challenge.
The sensory theater is ever an enticing, hypnotic, call of the sirens.
It is not at all easy to meander in unconditional solitude,
Hypnotized as you are by the cultural paradigm
Founded upon a genetic predisposition
Towards interaction with individual and groups,
That spontaneously evolved in the fierce jungles of long ago.
* * * *
Many are called, few are chosen, fewer still volunteer.
And however it may unfold, if you are contemplating such as this,
Your fate may well be to be an unfathomable eye of the unfolding dream.
* * * *
The world, the cosmos, will consume your body, your mind, your dream, as it does everything else.
The real you, however, is eternally immortal, indivisible, untouched, ever aware.
It is That which is never born, That which never dies.
* * * *
Any cosmos is indifferent to its myriad dreams, yours included.
The truth is that only imagination cares, only imagination bothers.
Your existence is a joke, an absurdity, to which the most sober response
Is a great dollop of irony and doubt, especially toward your fictional persona.
* * * *
The true believer, no matter the belief, is caught in the web of space and time,
And can never perceive that the meme is but a dream.
Freedom is but a word.
* * * *
The joy of aging is spending more and more time
Dealing with all the consequences of whatever you have done
With your very unfathomable, very time-bound, very timeless dreamtime.
* * * *
To perceive the human paradigm
As anything more than a temporal fabrication of vanity,
Is to miss the indivisible, unblemished, immortal awareness permeating all eternity.
The illusory quantum dreamtime is but a means to all the endings
That are harvested from all the beginnings,
None of which ever really truly even once happened.
* * * *
The world, the universe, seemingly offers every imaginable distraction
To seduce hungry minds away from discerning the mystery permeating all creation.
Perhaps a rare few are not enticed at all, and others awaken only after a long and winding quests,
But most are adrift in the labyrinth of greed for their entire dream of space and time,
Gorging in every conceivable way to fill the emptiness that cannot be filled.
Racing to their mortal ends still ravenous for more, more, more.
* * * *
You are the mystery, eternally infinite, indelible, alone.
All else, all other, all new, all old, all anything, all everything,
Are but imaginary notions, no matter how seemingly real and true.
Time and space are but illusion fashioned by the sensory quantum mind.
This ever-present, ever-motionless, unborn-undying moment, is all there truly is.
All experience, all knowledge, all rumination, is ultimately but an inconsequential dream.
* * * *
Even the most subtle words, the most intricate explanations, cannot encapsulate reality,
For that which is indivisible is prior to all things born of the imaginary mind.
It is only in the prior-to-consciousness awareness of the no-mind,
In which the earnest seeker of truth can find solace.
* * * *
The ego, the id, the superego, the character, the persona, the self – call it what you will –
Is nothing more than the sum of imagination’s attachments to all the memories, all the perceptions,
All the recordings in which it harbors, the frame of reference to which it invariably clings.
The echoing that plays over and over as identity, as individuality, as exceptional.
The inexplicable saga born of evolution, the I-am-this-I-am-not-that,
In which the human paradigm perpetually finds fusion.
* * * *
What you are is a quantum configuration.
What could possibly be real or true about that?
Is a statue carved of marble the statue or the marble?
Enjoy the magical mystery tour as best you may,
But try to remember, at least occasionally,
A dream is all it is, was, will ever be,
In the indivisibility of eternity.
* * * *
What is humankind but a cancerous paradigm,
Voraciously bent, both consciously and unconsciously,
On consuming the incredible diversity of this garden world,
In every way, through every means, for every purpose imaginable.
* * * *
If there is truly is no other,
If it truly is naught but a dream,
What part of it is there to experience?
What part of it is there to connect?
What part of it is there to save?
* * * *
The scientists have all their hypotheses and theories.
The mathematicians have all their definitions, axioms, theorems, and proofs.
The philosophers have all their rational arguments, and the meditators have all their zafus and walls,
And all, in the final analysis, find themselves roaming about the same diddly-squat.
* * * *
The no-mind is a state of awareness, a state of perfect detachment,
In which the sensory illusion timelessly kaleidoscopes with nary a trace.
It is a state prior to consciousness, a state prior to all creation, all destruction.
* * * *
Civilizations across all times, all geographies,
Have been established upon every imaginable assumption.
None have long withstood the countless trials, the continuous friction,
With which they have been every moment berated and battered by consciousness.
* * * *
All this knowledge that humankind has fabricated,
All these words, all these numbers, all these notes, all these whatever,
The challenge is to stir them all together, blend them into their quantum indivisibility,
And discern the illusionary matrix in which they timelessly dance.
* * * *
That which is prior to consciousness is also prior to physics.
The quantum theater is but a kaleidoscoping show of light and sound.
Much ado weaving through the timeless spacelessness of ever-present awareness.
* * * *
What is the worship of one deity or another,
But the great dread’s attempt to grasp, to contain,
The indivisible, the nothingness, the emptiness, the void,
With the exceedingly hollow hope for more.
* * * *
What is thought, what is imagination, what is creativity, what is fear,
But an instinctive response of the given brain to oxygen deprivation.
* * * *
What domino or combination of dominos will trigger the collapse?
Will it be natural cause: solar flare, comet, volcanic eruption, climate change?
Will it be human cause: overpopulation and shortages of food, water, and other resources,
Biospheric breakdown, pandemic, economic or technological collapse, nuclear or biological holocaust?
How interesting it would be to have that fictional time machine.
Meanwhile, speculation abounds.
* * * *
Greed is core motivation for humankind.
Consciousness’s insatiable voraciousness for more
Will not be tempered by any force but its inevitable extinction,
Whether by natural cause, or of its own machination.
It is only a question of when and how, not if.
* * * *
Be what you gotta be.
Do what you gotta do.
See what you gotta see.
Feel what you gotta feel.
Shit what you gotta shit.
Like what you gotta like.
Love what you gotta love.
Play what you gotta play.
Hate what you gotta hate.
Hear what you gotta hear.
Taste what you gotta taste.
Think what you gotta think.
Sweat what you gotta sweat.
Dream what you gotta dream.
Breathe what you gotta breathe.
Consume what you gotta consume.
Believe what you gotta believe.
Smell what you gotta smell.
Own what you gotta own.
Toss what you gotta toss.
Kill what you gotta kill.
Die what you gotta die.
* * * *
Being the moment is effortless awareness.
Imagination ever clings to its own creation, its own illusion.
Let go everything, forget everything, rest alone in the timelessness you truly are.
* * * *
Is the journey to eternity a long and winding road,
Or merely the right-here-right-now of this ever-present moment?
Consciousness or awareness, you choose.
* * * *
What is release but letting go of everything imagined and merely being.
It is the first and last freedom; it is the one and only freedom.
It is the immaculate awareness prior to consciousness:
Tranquil, limitless, sentient, mindful, absolute.
That which is prior to birth and death,
Prior to space, prior to time.
* * * *
Pay attention to the kaleidoscoping moment.
Endure and enjoy this brief dream as best ye may.
Time does not exist, but passes very quickly.
* * * *
If you run or stand or sit or lie absolutely present in the here now,
Unattached to, unburdened by, any thoughts, any things,
Breathing in, breathing out, in perfect awareness,
The nothing more, the nothing less, the nothing but,
You will realign with the simplicity, the grace, the harmony,
The indivisible, the eternal virtuousness that nature every moment is.
* * * *
Every time you awaken from a long night’s peaceful slumber, or even a pithy siesta,
Your nature-nurture frame of reference reimagines its temporal rendering of the cosmos,
A quantum mystery that has churned quite efficiently, quite effortlessly, while you were absent.
* * * *
Nature is permeated with an eternal grace
That consciousness through knowing can never attain.
Only in full awakening and surrender to the underlying awareness,
Can any ever realign with the ultimate reality upon which all creation functions.
* * * *
How inevitably absurd, asinine, banal, bizarre, blah, bland, boring, characterless,
Childish, colorless, corruptible, daft, deadly, dry, dreary, dull, dullsville, empty, farcical,
Flat, frustrating, futile, hare-brained, hollow, ho-hum, humdrum, idiotic, illogical, impractical,
Inane, incongruous, insipid, irksome, irrational, juvenile, lackluster, lifeless, ludicrous, meaningless,
Mind-numbing, monochrome, monotonous, mundane, not up to much, pathetic, pointless, puerile,
Purposeless, repetitive, ridiculous, 'same old, same old', senseless, silly, soul-annihilating, stale,
Stodgy, strange, stupid, tame, tedious, tired, tiresome, tiring, trite, trivial, trying, uneventful,
Unexciting, uninspiring, uninteresting, uninvolving, unrelieved, unvaried, vulnerable,
Wearing, and generally wishy-washy the human paradigm has so often become.
* * * *
Self is awareness, awareness is Self.
Timeless, indivisible, unborn-undying, pristine, absolute.
Entirely indifferent to, completely untouched by, any and all imaginary fabrications.
* * * *
Such is the fleeting-ungraspable-immeasurable quantum nature of eternity,
That the senses forever lull all but the most judicious minds
Into a hypnotic state of unavoidable delusion.
Surely as indelibly binding as the instinctual patterning
Of any other creature this ineffable garden orb has ever fashioned.
* * * *
Such is fleeting-ungraspable-immeasurable nature of eternity’s quantum play,
That the senses ever hypnotize the deluded mind into believing it all real and true.
* * * *
Everyone responds to their beginning and middle and endgame in their own unique way.
How could vanity, with all its narcissistic and hedonistic notions, play it any other way?
* * * *
Timeless awareness is continually usurped by time-bound imagination.
Awareness is now, awareness is undying, awareness is eternal life.
Imagination is the dream of past and future, imagination is eternal death.
Knowledge and identification are artificial, knowledge and identification are dead.
To exist in the present, to exist unequivocally, to exist eternally, one must forget everything.
* * * *
Despite all the zeroes to which scientists and engineers subscribe,
Only illusions that quantum allows to be measured are measurable.
* * * *
The adoration, the veneration, the exaltation, the deification, of vanity and greed,
Is conveying the human paradigm, the human condition, the human debacle,
To the lowest common denominator imagination is capable of fostering.
* * * *
You do not exist as anything but a temporal figment of imagination.
You are an invention of a neuron trail evolved of an indivisible mystery,
To which all genesis is nothing more than illusion from quantum square one.
* * * *
Science allows much greater breadth and depth than any other belief system,
And in its purest methodology, has no creed, no dogma, but never-ending investigation.
To settle for less is to settle for the ceaseless inanities of endless delusions
Harbored by the those incapable of embracing the gray.
* * * *
Imagination is the usurper of perpetual, everlasting, undying eternal life,
It has created time and contrived mind into every permutation of self imaginable.
It has woven light and sound into arbitrary meaning, and deified shimmer and vibration.
It has commandeered truth, and interminably manipulated it into deceit after deceit after deceit.
And nature, alas, poor nature, so many crimes in every way, so many crimes to every end.
* * * *
Consciousness is ever fabricating one imaginary more-more-more or another.
Whether tangible or intangible, the indivisible quantum space and time matrix-theater
Can never be more than a kaleidoscoping light and sound show,
No matter the claim, no matter the assertion.
* * * *
If you must have certainty,
If you must have belief,
If you must have faith,
Let it be in the now,
And try to keep up.
* * * *
The forebrain is a movie screen
Upon which you play again and again
The imaginary perceptions you call your life.
* * * *
Consciousness is but a dream of awareness,
Played out in a mortal-quantum-space-time-sensory-mind-body.
Nothing more, nothing less, nothing but.
* * * *
All the mythical creations born of the human paradigm mean diddly-squat.
All are imagined, all are fictitious, all are delusional, from any get-go.
Nothing more than the quest of consciousness for a sanctuary that can never be.
To be attentive, unassuming, vulnerable, to the ever-kaleidoscoping moment, is the truest way.
* * * *
Human consciousness is a vast, ever-churning ocean of metaphors and analogies;
All of which, despite all their sound, despite all their fury, ultimately mean diddly-squat.
* * * *
The entire human drama
Is nothing more than mundane quantum fiction.
A fact that will be proven to no one as soon as the last human standing falls down.
* * * *
Doing something, doing nothing, what difference, really,
But a brief flurry in the mindscape of imaginary notion.
* * * *
Any belief system that promotes dualistic notion is pure delusion,
And deserves absolutely no consideration, no argument, no regard, whatsoever.
Truth is indivisible, and any division, any boundary, is nothing more than human nonsense.
* * * *
The challenge is letting go of the cacophony ever playing out in our aloneness.
We spend so much time questing the most unadorned reality the mystery has to offer,
Yet there it is: the awareness, the witness, the enigma, peering out from behind every mask.
What need for religion? What need for spirituality? What need for belief, faith, prayer, scripture?
What need for heavens and hells and purgatories, deities and demons, mythologies, icons, sacraments?
What need for messiahs, saints, priesthoods, traditions, superstitions, caste systems, groupthinks?
What need for philosophies, dogmas, ethics, laws, principles, doctrines, idols, mystic powers?
What need for cathedrals, temples, shrines, holy places, titles, hierarchies, dress codes?
What need for dualistic or non-dualistic concepts, or any light or sound shows?
Why worship what you are? Eternity is right here right now, timeless.
Merely being the awareness is all there is: You are it, it is you.
Anything less is nothing more than the trickster mind
Playing its more-more-more imagination game.
* * * *
Brush away the many artifices of mind, of consciousness,
And what is left but uncontaminated awareness.
Nothing more, nothing less, nothing but.
* * * *
In the constant tug of war between consciousness and awareness,
Sometimes you see clearly, sometimes you do not.
So it goes, dust off, move on.
* * * *
What are groups and hierarchies and middlemen but tollbooths
To the freedom that has ever been yours from any imaginable get-go.
* * * *
Awareness: The moment consciousness attempts to define
Or explain or categorize or analyze or evaluate
Or capture or predict or limit or expand it in any way,
You are inexorably drawn into the delusionary morass of illusion.
The indefinable is indefinable; what is not obvious, not unequivocal, about that?
* * * *
Thought is a transitory interloper of eternity.
Space-time is but a distracting illusion of consciousness.
An evolutionary hiccup in the unwritten chronicles
Of the quantum mystery’s pathless nature.
* * * *
There is nothing more to become
Than what you are, have ever been, will ever be.
All else, all other, is imagined.
* * * *
Imagination.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Nothing but.
* * * *
Can anyone's world view, anyone's life perception,
Ever really change, really evolve, really modify, past a certain point,
Beyond the scope of nature-nurture’s given potential.
* * * *
It is the mind no longer enticed by the sensory paradigm,
Done with the dreamtime fabrications of imagination,
That returns to the immaculate eternal awareness
That it is … has always been … will ever be.
* * * *
To be an explorer of consciousness,
You must be an intrinsic part of the experimental process.
The observer and the observed, the perceiver and the perceived, are one in the same.
There is no other.
* * * *
The Faceless One is the one who looks within
And unequivocally perceives the indivisibility of all creation.
The one who pierces through all illusion, through all space, through all time,
And logically, rationally, without doubt, discerns there is no other.
* * * *
What is temporal consciousness but a contraction,
A wrinkle, an oscillation, an ebb and flow,
In the infinite totality of awareness.
* * * *
What is death but the dissolution of consciousness,
The dissolution of all light, all dark, all pleasure, all pain,
All confabulations of the mind born of imagination.
* * * *
Hearing that they are far more, far less, than their fictitious little egos,
Is not something most have either the capacity or interest in fathoming.
* * * *
There is no point,
There never was a point,
Nor will there ever be a point,
No matter how hard you imagine it so.
So it goes, deal with it, get over it, move on.
* * * *
The world, the cosmos, all form, all light, all shadow,
Is but a temporal perception of the mind born of mystery,
In which the quantum ground every moment seamlessly weaves
An ever-changing eternal tapestry of creation-preservation-destruction.
An eternal play to which you are center-stage witness in every form imaginable.
* * * *
Human beings have five senses dialed into their central processing unit.
Even if there were more or less, it would only expand or lessen the perception
Of an always timeless, always temporal, always illusory holographic dream of time.
* * * *
You woke up again this morning with the same mind-body as yesterday.
Same thoughts, same gender, same language, same surroundings,
Same programming, same self-imagery, same appetites, same endorphins.
Mesmerized, you suited up, put on the game face, and stepped out into the dream.
* * * *
How can a dream, as tangible, as substantial as it may seem, ever be measured?
Even science, incisive as it for all practical purposes appears to be,
Is ultimately little more than another fallacious creed.
The mystery is the mystery is the mystery,
Eternally inscrutable,
No matter how penetrating the mind.
* * * *
Imagine if the gladiator contests of Rome had been televised:
Close-ups of men and animals in savage, bloody, lethal competitions,
With slow-motion replays of indescribably painful moments of extermination,
And the mob – eating hot dogs, drinking beer – roaring for its favorites.
Thumbs up or down, so many circuses born of the human mind.
* * * *
How challenging for the mind to switch off its endless quest for security,
For more of every this, every that imaginable in its temporal sensory play.
* * * *
What has been, has always been, and not been.
What will be, will always be, and not be.
All nothing more than quantum essence come to life,
Playing out an ever-streaming, temporal dream of space and time.
* * * *
Every human being ever born has within many potentials.
From fool to sage and every character between, an intricate tapestry is woven.
No one is more or less important than any other, for all are equal in the crest-jewel of consciousness.
The great challenge is to carry on without regret, without remorse, without shame.
And also without the arrogance of pride and its endless hypocrisies.
Not easy to be so flawed, but it is authentic, it is true.
* * * *
Suicide is about being done with your universe and all the vanities,
All the agonies and ecstasies you have played out in its quantum dreamtime.
The means is merely what you have inclination toward and access to.
However you choose do it, and with whatever quality of mind,
Whether passionate or pragmatic, you choose to do it,
The oblivion is the same, the oblivion is the point.
* * * *
Few grasp history well enough not to repeat its underlying patterns again and again.
Intelligence and wisdom cannot long prevail over ignorance any more than light can darkness.
Despite all attempts to attain a greater quality of consciousness, to navigate a more enlightened course,
Humankind seems destined to play out its passionate mind until its inescapable extinction.
Between now and then, who knows what agonies and ecstasies will play out.
* * * *
What a dream this whole friggin’ so-called existence has been.
Nothing more than an ethereal, kaleidoscoping, three-dimensional, touchy-feely,
Subjective, arbitrary, haphazard, space and time matrix,
Quantum mirage of a dream.
* * * *
Brand it, play it spiritual if you feel the need,
But the freedom, the liberation of pure awareness,
Is really just being the timeless here-now you ever are.
It is prior to all conceptions, all theatrics born of imagination.
* * * *
So many distractions, so many smokescreens, so many mirages, so many reflections,
So many interruptions, diversions, desperations, disruptions, commotions,
Disturbances, interferences, entertainments, hobbies, pastimes,
Amusements, recreations, anxieties, bewilderments,
Confusions, agitations, troubles, upsets,
Cover-ups, concealments,
Covers, camouflages, screens, masks,
Blinds, decoys, red herrings, disguises, likenesses,
Facades, considerations, indications, signs, musings, replications,
Reproductions, thoughts, figments, contemplations, deliberations, echoes, images,
Manifestations, ruminations, suggestions, expressions, evidences, illusions, visions, signals, fantasies,
So many delusions, so many hallucinations, so many phantasms, so many imaginings,
So much anything, so much everything, all of which keep you from seeing
How empty and meaningless this dream ultimately truly is.
* * * *
In the ultimate state, you have nothing to do with any of it.
Nothing to do with your temporal reverie of time,
Nothing to do with your illusory little self,
Nothing to do with your corporeal flesh and bones cadaver,
Nothing to do with what was never you or yours in any way, any shape, any form.
* * * *
Unreal as they have ever been, will ever be, all the timepieces
With which humankind surrounds itself, drives itself, measures itself,
Daily unleash an ever-greater crescendo of absurdity
With their tick-tock never-ending.
* * * *
Be especially circumspect about following anyone who asserts some blinding-binding truth.
True believers come and go, and one can only hope their delusions
Journey into obscurity with them.
* * * *
The one is not without the other; the other is not without the one.
It takes two, who knows how many more, to tango a dreamtime ball.
* * * *
All ever-streaming, ever-kaleidoscoping dynamics,
All the beyond-counting causes and effects, effects and causes,
All the influences, all the elements, all the circumstances, all the features,
All the factors, parts, aspects, issues, things, considerations, components, motivations,
That have led to this point in this dreamy mirage of space and time,
Will never be, even by speculation, known.
Boggling and beyond.
* * * *
Physics is all, and all is physics.
The cosmos is a precise, harmonic, mathematical expression,
Created of an impenetrable, indelible, indivisible mystery, a dynamic prior to consciousness,
That cannot for even one moment be undone by any of its creations.
* * * *
Self is without persona or attachment,
Without need or longing, without timeline or itinerary,
Without meaning or purpose, without like or dislike, without desire or fear,
Without any notion or inkling or concern or perception, whatsoever.
* * * *
Human emotion is a mammalian evolutionary trait.
Its reality is nothing more than imagination’s conditioned responses
To the given body’s ever-changing chemical interactions.
It is a cornerstone of the human paradigm.
* * * *
The newborn knows nothing of the agonies and ecstasies of world,
Until the conditioning winds of the given context
Slowly imprint its reality
Into the dream of the given mind-body.
* * * *
Someday, when the human species finally goes extinct,
The mutilated world that remains will whirl round and round just the same.
We have never even once been as essential as our imaginary vanities have deluded us into believing.
* * * *
Believe any who-what-where-when-why-how you will,
There is no supreme divinity out there choreographing your every move.
You are nothing more than eternal awareness, very much alone,
Playing out a temporal, mortal dream of consciousness.
Navigating it free of all claims is the challenge.
* * * *
What does any mountaintop care for what is beneath it?
What does any seafloor care for what is above it?
Up and down are but illusions of gravity,
The reality of quantum physics,
Nothing more, nothing less, nothing but.
* * * *
The entire human drama is from a distance nothing more than noise,
A cauldron of consciousness that has no lasting meaning, whatsoever.
* * * *
Are the ethereal dreams that stream in sleep really any more or less real
Than the three-dimensional ones that kaleidoscope so exactly while awake?
* * * *
If you were to cease-and-desist your imaginary persona,
What need would there be to justify your being
To all the other imaginary personas?
* * * *
Every mind’s universe offers an endless variety of adventures and misadventures.
The choices made every moment will harvest every variety of consequence,
Which will ever navigate to new choices with new consequences.
It is a timeless, perpetual kaleidoscoping, until one moment Death appears,
And the dream merges back into the quantum indivisibility in which it has ever danced.
* * * *
What are so-called good and evil
But relative states of self-absorption, imaginary all the while.
Different states of consciousness founded on different values, different frames of reference.
None of which are in any way lasting or meaningful in the eye of awareness.
* * * *
Maybe if even just one other species on this whirling dreamtime orb
Concocted one creed, one dogma or another about some supreme being,
Would such absurd thoughts be worth giving even an iota of consideration.
* * * *
The truth of awareness, the truth of what you truly are,
Is the ever-present reality awaiting your untarnished discernment.
Mindsets across this dream world may point to it, may ascribe many dogmas to it,
But none in any way have any ownership of it, or of your direct perception of its indelible mystery.
You are indeed very much alone in your inquiry into the essential, immortal nature.
Put behind any who would deny, any who would limit your quest.
* * * *
Every new day begins with the mind’s slumbering dream-state churning into its waking version,
In which it re-concocts its imaginary perception of its world, of its universe,
Evoked by the conditioning of its nature-nurture mirage.
The dream-state into which you awoke at age two
is not the dream-state you awoke to at age ten or fifteen or thirty,
Nor will it, can it, ever be same at any age before Charon arrives to collect his coin.
You are but a dreamer dreaming, and that reverie, no matter how real or true you believe it to be,
Is ultimately nothing more than the momentary cotton candy of time-bound imagination.
* * * *
The entirety of human consciousness is potential within all.
How any partake that banquet, that potpourri of natural selection,
Is founded upon the encoding of the given nature-nurture.
You are current issue of all creation come before.
* * * *
What a wretched species we can be.
Absurd beyond all bounds.
Exceedingly tiring.
* * * *
It is in the stillness of the pure awareness within that you will discern true Self.
The outward show is but time-bound, sensory-based, illusory distraction
From the indivisibility that transcends all beginnings, all endings.
* * * *
There is no time.
No time to be attached, no time to be detached.
The space-time continuum and all its appearances are but a kaleidoscoping illusion,
Of which the sensory mind-body partakes but a sliver of its mystery,
And that only artifice tainted further by delusion.
* * * *
This manifest quantum theater is no less a dream than any nocturnal dream
Merely because you are seeing it, hearing it, tasting it, smelling it, touching it,
Or perceiving it in any other fashion the temporal sensory-mind might allow.
* * * *
A mind free of false problems
Is clear and spacious and vigilant awareness.
It is on the you that you really truly are to change, to evolve.
Gaia is but a brief distraction, an absorbing illusion, nothing more, nothing less.
* * * *
What is death but the end of a nature-nurture manifest dream.
The end of attachment to consciousness, to imagination,
Which is really nothing more than a neural thunderstorm
That beguiles awareness into believing the sensory theater real.
* * * *
All histories are about perspective; none ever exactly the same.
From whatever vantage any me-myself-and-I is viewing the battlefield,
Every world, every universe, is a unique snowflake entirely born of imagination.
* * * *
Good and evil are but human inventions
That could never exist in the ultimate indivisible quantum reality.
Theatrical pretenses of consciousness, at best.
* * * *
For at least brief stretches of time every once and awhile,
Both within and without, subdue all thought, refrain from all wordplay.
Let the temporal, imaginary self go, and just be the ever-present awareness you truly are.
Call it meditation, call it contemplation, call it whatever sound you please.
Sit, stand, recline, walk, sprint, dance; it does not matter.
No need to formalize that which has no form.
Just do it.
* * * *
No one can ever be as absorbed with another’s dream
Anywhere near as much they are with their own.
How far, how deep, how wide, that narcissistic synergy radiates,
Every streaming moment weaves the imaginary tapestry of the human paradigm.
* * * *
Perhaps, and only just perhaps,
Only the greatest masters are free of vanity,
But only insofar as they do not in mind dwell on the world,
And some temporal imaginary role in it.
* * * *
You are in truth nothing more than a random,
Arbitrary, insignificant, timeless smidgeon of consciousness,
A happenstance of the awareness permeating the electromagnetic spectrum.
Your inflated notions are nothing more than a cosmic joke
To which you are in imagination tethered.
* * * *
As illusory as any history is in any given fleeting moment,
It is in the flicker of imagination that we gauge and direct actions
That synergistically fashion a dystopian future we cannot in any way avert.
* * * *
Existence is but an ever-changing dream
That is incessantly tagged with every conceivable notion.
But the ephemeral awareness each and every mind every moment truly is,
Is most definitely, without doubt, exactly the same.
* * * *
Abandon all belief that you are a human being,
Or any other imaginable form of conscious design.
You are awareness: timeless, empty, ever alone.
* * * *
The unborn-undying awareness is the same in all living creatures.
It is only in the ever-streaming outcomes of nature-nurture
That all differences are wrought in the dream of time.
* * * *
Imitation has no truth, no reality, no vibrancy, no joie de vivre, of its own.
It can never be more than a secondhand fabrication of a mind bound in time.
* * * *
You are really nothing more than the timeless awareness playing out whatever appearance
The given mind-body has been conditioned to pretend for the duration of illusion
It has been allotted by the nature-nurture of the quantum mystery.
Enjoy it as best ye may, but try not to take it too personal.
* * * *
The human paradigm is based on collective enterprise,
And all groupthink is steeped in one absurdity or another.
Standing alone free and clear with as quiet a mind as possible,
Is the only way to minimize the arbitrary delusions of assumption.
* * * *
All groupthink is founded upon one false notion or another.
To stand completely alone is the only freedom from absurdity.
* * * *
The mind born of nature-nurture is a quagmire of endless boundaries,
Endless permutations of consciousness playing out a given set of limitations.
Only in pure awareness do all borders dissolve into their quantum indivisibility.
Into the infinity of potentials the grand unicity ever has at the ready.
* * * *
Human emotion is nothing more
Than a concoction of biochemical secretions,
To which consciousness attaches in every way imaginable.
* * * *
Despite all your wishing and hoping
To be somewhere else other than right-here-right now,
It just ain’t ever-never going to happen.
* * * *
We are all shaped of the same indivisible quantum clayness.
Each and every one imagining existence real and true in their own very unique way.
All are nothing more than touchy-feely, three-dimensional dreams,
To which only vain notion can be attached.
* * * *
Passion, delusional as it is,
Spins a great sense of purpose and meaning to nothing.
It is a cotton candy sort of thing.
* * * *
Awareness is about being; consciousness is about becoming.
The creator of time can never be content with its timeless origin.
* * * *
The stream of human consciousness is the play of stories ebbing and flowing,
Rounding one corner after another, all its many individual drops collectively playing out history.
Carrying in it every narrative since the first thought of self, of “I am,” came to mind.
How attached are you to your me-myself-and-I vanity is the question.
* * * *
The imaginary you is a function of fluctuating consciousness.
Consciousness is a function of the quantum synergy.
The quantum is a function of still awareness.
Awareness is a function of ageless eternity.
Eternity is a function of the ineffable mystery.
All of which comes full circle back to the real you.
* * * *
Each day the mind-body awakens to a universe it has in imagination built
Into an immense edifice confined by the many choices the given life has woven together,
That in the ultimate indivisible reality are of absolutely no weight, whatsoever.
* * * *
All these voices own unique little dreamtime of a universe.
Perceptions, perceptions, perceptions, perceptions.
Nothing more, nothing less, nothing but.
* * * *
It is in the untainted, absolute awareness, that you truly are.
The quantum matrix, the play of space and time, is but a finite, temporal means.
Your immortality, your indivisibility, your inexplicability,
Is prior to any and all dreams.
* * * *
What are you but a dream of perception,
In a dream of consciousness,
In a dream of mind,
In a dream of time,
In a dream of eternity.
* * * *
Beneath the discerning lens of a microscope,
Humankind would be neither as large, nor as exceptional,
As its hollow vanity every moment imagines.
* * * *
What more are you than an arbitrary state of perception,
Born into a time-bound, nature-nurture seed-line,
Within an indivisible evolutionary context.
* * * *
Return to the primordial awareness
That you ever are before all the conditioning of consciousness,
Before the nature-nurture that shaped you into believing the sensory illusion real and true.
* * * *
All that is created must inevitably be destroyed,
But it is that moment of creation that is the artist’s ecstasy.
Its preservation is but a shadow of that perception.
* * * *
Who is anyone to tell another what is true or false,
What is right or wrong, what is sane or insane, what is light or dark.
Each and every one must discern and endure the cosmos
They very much alone every moment create.
* * * *
What are the passions? What are sorrow, anger, lust, love,?
What are fervor, ardor, enthusiasm, eagerness, zealousness, vigor,
Fire, fieriness, energy, fervency, animation, spirit, spiritedness, fanaticism,
But temporal-worldly-mundane-secular-mortal concoctions.
Attachments born of the imagined mind-body
Caught in the dream of time.
* * * *
You can tell those who perceive themselves on the losing end of the culture wars
By the way they continually refashion their labels and symbols,
And work so hard for recognition and approval;
Only just maybe discerning that empowerment is born within.
Assume it so, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, are the way of the warrior.
* * * *
The senses are but mortal devices fashioned by evolution
That are but streaming smokescreens to the indelible, indivisible reality.
Mirages imagined by a nature-nurture mind snared in its dreamy fabrication of time.
Only through doubt, only through detachment, will true Self be discerned.
* * * *
The quest for truth is about discerning the ultimate true nature.
To fixate on pleasures like love or bliss, or any other emotional notions,
Is nothing more than the mind’s never-ending thirst for mundane gratification.
Serious inquiry is its own singular, disciplined point and purpose.
Poignant sidebars are but time-bound upshots.
* * * *
Look within, and what is there but a stillness, a nothingness, an awareness,
To which imagination fabricates every conceivable meaning and purpose.
* * * *
From all beginnings to all ends, from your beginning to your end,
Everything perpetually, everlastingly, enduringly, immutably, immortally, done and undone.
Everything patterned, everything fated, everything destined, everything kismet.
Change, nothing more than imaginary, sensory-inspired notion.
A quantum dreamer dreaming a quantum design;
Every moment instantaneously, simultaneously indivisible.
* * * *
How to forget everything?
Let go everything false, everything imaginary, everything of space and time,
Everything not here, everything not now.
* * * *
The sovereign, indivisible, enigmatic aloneness in which you dwell, in which all things dwell,
Cannot be bought or sold or traded or encapsulated by any word or number or image or symbol.
It is a matchless state, an absolute state; it is the stage, the backdrop, the source, of all dreams of time.
* * * *
It takes practice to give your imaginary self
Over to the entirety of the indivisible awareness.
The vanity of the mind-body is not easily left behind.
* * * *
A replete and content existence may well be less about what is accomplished,
Than the attention, the awareness, that is given to as many fleeting moments as possible.
Time is but the illusion-delusion of sensory-inspired memory, and the imagination it casts future past.
Eternal life is in the perpetual birth and death of each and every indivisible instant.
* * * *
Watch … listen … smell … taste … feel … anything you please,
And know it is nothing more than a sensory-inspired illusion,
That it does not really exist in anything but imagination,
A holographic mirage born within a quantum mind.
* * * *
Memory, evolved in the jungles of Africa
As a means to survival in the long, oh so long ago,
Has become a means to every trivial pursuit imaginable.
* * * *
The smorgasbord of human passions is a ceaseless buffet
Of every imaginary ecstasy, of every imaginary agony.
How full-to-the-gills of it will you be before it is over?
* * * *
The you that is consciousness, and the you that is awareness, are mutually exclusive.
One is born of imagination; the other – prior to life, prior to death – never born at all.
* * * *
In history’s breadth and depth,
You are but a shallow, linear, hollow scratch.
Your significance, an imaginary monolith in your mind, is nil.
* * * *
No matter how immense, no matter how tiny,
It is a you-eat-you universe, a you-eat-you dream.
Compassion and ethics are but token notions.
* * * *
Doubt, skepticism, cynicism, uncertainty, critical thinking,
Naturally evolve in a mind inordinately bent on unlocking its mystery,
A mind resolved on discerning the reality of consciousness emanating from within.
* * * *
The gap between awareness and consciousness
Is the same as the one between eternity and time.
* * * *
You are this set of biological functions, you are not this set of biological functions.
You are this set of bodily networks, you are not this set of bodily networks.
You are this set of perceptions, you are not this set of perceptions.
You are this set of memories, you are not this set of memories.
You are this set of truths, you are not this set of truths.
You are this set of falsehoods, you are not this set of falsehoods.
You are this set of likes, you are not this set of likes.
You are this set of dislikes, you are not this set of dislikes.
You are this set of successes, you are not this set of successes.
You are this set of failures, you are not this set of failures.
You are this set of references, you are not this set of references.
You are this set of preferences, you are not this set of preferences.
You are this set of intentions, you are not this set of intentions.
You are this set of desires, you are not this set of desires.
You are this set of fears, you are not this set of fears.
You are this set of reflections, you are not this set of reflections.
You are this set of pleasures, you are not this set of pleasures.
You are this set of pains, you are not this set of pains.
You are this set of vanities, you are not this set of vanities.
You are this set of sensations, you are not this set of sensations.
You are this set of connections, you are not this set of connections.
Your story, your tale, your narrative, your history, your sense of self,
Is but a temporal play of imagination in eternity’s misty mystery,
And is, for all practical purpose, forgotten as soon as it began.
* * * *
What is perception, what is thought, what is imagination, but lightning storms in the cranium,
Given whatever meaning and purpose the winds of nature-nurture have determined.
Call it conditioning, call it habituation, call it teaching, call it programming,
Call it patterning, call it imitating, call it copying, call it designing,
Call it indoctrination, call it domestication, call it brainwashing, call it whatever.
It is what it is, and we as a species have played out, and will always play out, the resulting theater.
* * * *
The ways and means the vanities dream up to play out their ceaseless absurdities
Morph in every conceivable permutation, but are ever the same monkey,
Thinly disguised by yet another shade-of-gray layer of sparkle.
* * * *
Laws, commandments, regulations, rules, decrees, edicts, directives,
Principles, maxims, axioms, dictums, morals, scruples, codes,
Tenets, ethics, mores, values, traditions, beliefs, et cetera,
Are artifices of human invention, as are all the ceaseless deities
Fabricated to give the carrots of desire and sticks of fear greater heft.
* * * *
The United States of America:
A constitutional republic whose democratic notions about freedom and equality
Have always been a little more than suspect.
* * * *
Attend, perceive, observe, discern, recognize, embrace, synergize, gestalt,
The birth and death, the creation and destruction, of every moment,
As often as the body-mind in the given circumstance allows.
* * * *
Every moment is a new reckoning, none a continuum,
But for imagination’s inclination for time-bound assumptions.
Discern the causeless, discern the effectless, of each and every moment,
And you will be the enlightened witness that nature has ever inspired.
* * * *
What can ever truly touch the indivisible nothingness prior to all manifestation,
Prior to all the creation-preservation-destruction of quantum design.
This vast mystery is but a timeless, kaleidoscoping light show
To which consciousness is but imaginary witness.
* * * *
Fashioned by consciousness in the ever-kaleidoscoping theater of space and time,
We all together, each in our own unique frame-of-reference way,
Are co-creating, co-preserving, co-destroying.
* * * *
Discern pure awareness,
Prior to all conditioning,
Prior to all said and done,
Prior to all conscious design.
* * * *
Were it not but for all your imaginary, self-absorbed notions,
Would you really be anything more than a vessel filled with air?
* * * *
Be the indelible mystery of your all-but-infinite universe and its immeasurable unknown.
Be all it is and is not, from its intangible beginning to its intangible ending,
And from its intangible before to its intangible after, as well.
This little mind-body and its fabricated identity
To which you are so vainly attached
Is but a very brief, a very hollow dream.
* * * *
Looking back at the long and winding rolodex of perception of your dreamy existence,
Did it ever really happen, is it really happening right now,
And what makes you so sure?
* * * *
The weight of your world, of your universe,
Is but a sensory-laden, imaginary one.
Atlas shrugged, and you can, too.
* * * *
All creation is really as modern as it is ancient; all creation is really as ancient as it is modern.
The relativity of the dreamtime you are streamlessly witnessing, and believing so real,
Is tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of years, both ago and hence.
Each and every part and particle very much eternally ever-present
In all the incalculable pasts, all the incalculable futures, that the indelible awareness
In every way and shape and manner, simultaneously permeates in this indivisible quantum theater.
* * * *
Why on earth do you need the sanction of any other?
Be your own law, be your own sovereign, be your own herald,
In your indivisible, ever-present, imaginary kingdom.
* * * *
The mind is swept up by the windy senses
Into an imaginary existence fashioned by nature-nurture.
To discern the ultimate reality, awareness must release into its eternal abyss.
True nature, true Self, is prior to any and all dimensions in this beyond-boggling mystery you are.
* * * *
To be at peace, to align with the eternal way,
You must discern the final course, the ultimate tack.
You must leave behind the sphere of imaginary knowing.
You must still the busy mind into its eternal unknown,
Into the awareness prior to little-self consciousness.
* * * *
Heraclitus and Freud wrote of the same smoky truth:
A man’s character – the whimsical dance of imagination – is his fate.
Anatomy – the indivisible dance of physics and chemistry and biology – is destiny.
* * * *
We are all very much alone in our own little cosmos,
Peering out from a mask that can never be seen,
A dreamy mystery that can never be known.
* * * *
Yes, you may well be quite bright, but rest assured, few if any of us,
Is near the wag that the delusions of vanity so inevitably incline.
* * * *
Awareness moves not.
It is ever-present, ephemeral, eternal.
Only a very still, very composed, very attentive mind,
Can discern it the singular source of all consciousness, of all dreamtime,
Of all creation, of all preservation, of all destruction.
And from before all beginnings,
To after all endings,
It is all the you, you truly are.
* * * *
Is it the hardwired, programmed, conditioned consciousness,
That spawns intelligence, that contrives all thought and action?
Or the awareness that underlies all forms throughout all creation?
* * * *
What a mesmerizing, absorbing thing the sensory mind.
Over and over it is drawn into the delusion of illusion.
You must be very still, very attentive, very discerning,
To be the timeless, indivisible absoluteness you truly are.
It requires a courageousness that transcends birth and death.
* * * *
Living and dying each and every moment is the way of the mind given over
To the mysterious ever-emanating nowness of eternal awareness.
Space-time is but the illusion of the neuron trail.
* * * *
What is the tongue but a nerve-ridden muscular organ
That the mind employs to perceive sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and unami.
The same process is true of eyes with light, ears with sound, nose with smell, skin with touch.
Through illusions fostered by flesh, all universes are born into imagination,
And through imagination, every delusion imaginable
Plays out in the dream of time.
* * * *
Every living creature has its own point of view, its own universe.
Plants, animals, protists, fungi, archaebacteria, eubacteria,
All play out their timeless dreamtime real in their own unique way,
But what is real, and is any perspective really any more so than any other?
* * * *
Every game has its rules, and there are so many games.
But what of the eclectic mind that crosses any and all boundaries.
The awakened mind that morphs without restraint any way it may choose.
The god-mind functions in a state of beingness that transcends all notions of sanity.
Some are set up on one rostrum or another, some are crucified, some become garden statues.
Who knows how many stroll freely, anonymously, watchfully, among the harried herd.
And likely some just call it a life, and blow their brains back into the oblivion.
Seers wander the dream untethered to the boundaries of humankind.
The quantum source abides all.
It is indifferent to any and all and every difference.
Black and white, good and evil, yes and no, dualities of any make or model,
Are but the ephemeral whimsies of temporal imagination.
* * * *
The mystery of awareness peers out through the creations of its quantum theater,
Interacting in every way imaginable as the given patterning and scenario dictate.
* * * *
Your cosmos is whatever you perceive it to be,
And no one else’s will ever, or can ever be the same.
You are very much alone to the abyss of your awareness,
No matter how zealously you may long for it to be otherwise.
* * * *
There ain’t no dark side, there ain’t no light side, there ain’t no side at all.
There just be a streaming dream of awareness that ain’t no dream at all.
* * * *
Your perfection is in everything imagined.
Your perfection is not in anything imagined.
* * * *
What are sight and sound and taste and smell and feeling,
But vibration interpreted by the mind steeped in illusion.
* * * *
This right-here-right-now is all that matters.
Everything before, everything hence, means nothing.
All is but a passing dream to which you may subscribe or not.
* * * *
Chances are, that wherever you journey, no matter how far, you will always be you;
With all your assumptions, all your behaviors, all your prejudices, all your boundaries;
All filtered by time-bound consciousness timelessly streaming through pristine awareness.
* * * *
So, you are totally open, totally inclusive, totally loving,
Except all those many times when you are not, eh?
Such a tough show pretending to be so perfect.
What intermittent cronies, heart and mind can be.
We all suffer from one variety of miasma or another.
* * * *
Those who believe themselves free of vanity only delude themselves.
Consciousness has an insatiable proclivity for chasing its own tail round and round.
In pure awareness, the one and only you is timelessly, indivisibly free,
But only until consciousness stirs, however slightly.
* * * *
How long before you take that final journey?
How long before the imaginary you evaporates
Into the indivisible tranquility of pure awareness?
How long before the last word really-truly-finally is?
* * * *
And from what might you hope you can be rescued?
Misfortune? Conflict? Suffering? Pain? Death?
If you truly fathomed what life and death are,
You might well perceive eternity’s harmonic ballet
Playing out each and every twinkling before your very eyes.
That birth and death are but temporal illusions of mind-body consciousness.
That the you to which you subscribe is in reality nothing more than a figment of imagination.
Eternal life is the stillness of the unborn-undying awareness you every instant are,
Witnessing the reverie of a quantum matrix born of a quantum mind.
* * * *
Tranquility is an inward state.
An outward sensory reflection may seem the cause,
But it is a mind in sync with the quantum beingness from which it is fostered.
Even in the most chaotic arena imaginable, serenity can reign
In the fearlessness of unblemished awareness.
* * * *
Can you waylay all the pitter-patter chatter of imaginary identity, and just be?
Can you release your consciousness from all its fictional attachments
To culture, politics, religion, finance, gender, education,
Emotion, language, race, caste, et cetera.
Can you be just the stillness of pure awareness?
* * * *
Never assume any history to be totally true.
Every witness, every mind, has its own confined perception.
None ever in any way exactly the same; none ever in any way entirely accurate.
Every soldier on a battlefield has his own unique account.
* * * *
So many on the lower rungs of any given society trying so hard to attain equality
With those they perceive to be in some higher caste, and by doing so ever remain subjugated.
Stand aloof from all cultural reference points, stand free of all imaginary notions.
None need impinge upon the sovereignty of your true essential nature.
* * * *
From the ultimate quantum view,
The so-called evil deed is as indivisible as the good one.
Consciousness is not in any way as important to the infinity of eternity
As the egocentric, ethnocentric, geocentric, heliiocentric mind, in its limited visions assumes.
The temporal individual-tribal mind is to be transcended, not embraced.
* * * *
Time is a function of imagination.
Awareness is a function of eternity.
* * * *
We are one and all the same essence, the same gold, the same creation, the same source, come to life.
With but five senses, we have each fashioned, we have each imagined, immense universes.
Why should we not all together celebrate the mystery that has stitched together,
Within and without each of us, a timeless, indivisible quantum matrix,
Through which each very much alone abides their given lot.
A singular vision that relatively few feel called to clearly realize.
* * * *
What is will but the psychic synergy of desire and fear.
The fear of not being, the fear of not having, the fear of not feeling.
Of craving this or that, and fearing it will not be, or that it will not forever last.
An insatiable hunger for more that can never be quenched, no matter the dreamtime allotted.
* * * *
Dead or alive, what difference but a flurry of imagination,
Which, from the beginning to the end, is in truth, nothing.
* * * *
What torture it can be to exist, to live, to be or not be, in this mortal realm,
And for what but vain notion, for bits and pieces of the countless pleasures life can offer.
And what from that, but endless variations of pain and suffering,
And motley stews of related bother.
* * * *
Life is born of patterns, predispositions, instincts,
But it is imagination that transcends the origins of matter,
And how probable is that in the farthest reaches of time and space?
There are billions and billions, maybe even trillions and trillions of galaxies,
But the dreamtime of humankind will never discover, never know, anything firsthand
About the all-but-infinite mysteries playing out in the all-but-infinite shores.
The fictions of paper and screen will be as far as we ever travel.
* * * *
Has it occurred to you that you might have total control over the churning movement of your mind,
Total control over the thunderstorms flashing about in the synapses of the given brain.
Perfect equanimity may be attainable if you are able to be detached enough
To not care about anything your universe might set before you.
You need not allow the mundane into your sanctum
But for the desire and dread that have so shaped your dreamtime.
To respond rather than react to the given kaleidoscoping is the challenge for all.
* * * *
Even if there is a supreme being, or even many, so what?
All things great to small are born of the same timeless source.
As an ant is to you, you are to any wave or particle of the mystery.
All else is but vanity born of one imaginary notion or another.
* * * *
You have never really been in control of anything in this ephemeral dreamtime.
Rest assured you will have even less say after you dissolve back into the mystery.
* * * *
I who am, I what am, I where am, I when am, I why am, I how am,
How can any me, any myself, any I, ever be anything but the same mystery,
The same upwelling, the same unknown, the same abyss, the same quantum essence,
Eternally ever-present, timelessly streaming, indivisibly emanating, unremittingly enduring,
Ever witnessing the kaleidoscoping dream of creation and preservation and destruction,
Through the awareness of the given seed, and its passage through the winds of mind.
* * * *
Why would you need to believe in,
To worship, to venerate, to adulate, to idolize,
Some imaginary, iconic, dualistic, on-high Olympian deity,
When you can linger in non-dualistic awareness,
When you can simply be the entirety,
Timelessly transient.
* * * *
You create your own yoke – heavy or light or nonexistent –
It is up to you and the level of attachment to your dreamtime.
* * * *
What is the persona but a defensive psychic shield against the harshness of your universe.
An imaginary identity with which you daily manage your world as it fashioned you.
Alas, what happened to the courage with which you wandered your childhood?
* * * *
The corporal body is but a means to a dream,
A temporal reverie of the three-dimensional kind.
* * * *
That most primal thing, fear, has been key in molding this imaginary you,
A conditioned identity that you every day wake up believing real and true.
A state of mind, a state of attachment, a sword by which you live and die.
* * * *
It has to be a harmonic orchestration; how else could it seamlessly function?
Duality is but a deception of consciousness inspired by the sensory mind-body.
* * * *
Are you this earthly, temporal, finite, mortal body?
Are you that of which this body is made?
Or are you that which is prior to all form and context,
Prior to consciousness and its innumerable channels of speculation.
Prior even to that inexplicable awareness by which all dreams of time are perceived.
* * * *
The mystery is whatever it pleases you to believe, and none of it all the while,
Because no thought, no dream of consciousness, can or has ever or will ever, touch it.
And to believe, to assert otherwise, is nothing more than self-absorbed delusion.
* * * *
Prince or pauper, warrior or coward,
Scholar or imbecilic, saint or sinner,
The dream of time passes the same.
What difference but vain notion.
* * * *
All belief, all tradition, all dogma, all speculation, is nothing more than imaginary confabulation
Of the mind ever seeking security, ever assuming there must be an answer to the insoluble unknown.
* * * *
The mind ever tries to control the what is, but it never can, never has, never will,
Because the space-time born of consciousness is not real,
Never has been, will never be.
* * * *
There is no observer, only observing.
There is no listener, only listening.
There is no taster, only tasting.
There is no feeler, only feeling.
There is no smeller, only smelling,
And those are but senses feeding into a neural transmitter,
An evolutionary mind whose existence is an unverifiable assumption,
That has yet to be proven more than a temporal illusion born of imagination.
If any other fellow earthling played our absurd game, we would snicker and snigger.
* * * *
The world will do everything it can
To drag you back to its illusion
Inspired by your delusion.
* * * *
What is an eclipse but one relatively large piece of orbiting dust
Getting between another relatively large piece of dust and a nuclear-powered flashlight.
Yet another relatively inflated example of much ado about nothing
In the relativity of the human absurdity.
* * * *
The jellyfish have survived 650 million years because they are born
Without any hope or expectation or desire for anything more than serenely drifting along.
Unlike human beings, who really should be called human becomings,
Just being has always been more than enough.
* * * *
Absurdity.
More absurdity.
Even more absurdity.
* * * *
Delusion.
More delusion.
Even more delusion.
* * * *
Illusion.
More illusion.
Even more illusion.
* * * *
Mindless perception.
More mindless perception.
Even more mindless perception.
* * * *
Creativity.
More creativity.
Even more creativity.
Soundbites
Is anything ultimately any more than a relatively brief synergistic exercise in temporal perception?
* * * *
To be bound by the perception of one’s origin is inconceivable for a critical thinker.
* * * *
What is the human paradigm but imagination measuring itself in every way imaginable.
* * * *
What is the human paradigm but a dream ensconced in the synapses of mortal hardware.
* * * *
The one-percenters have embraced destruction and chaos for a few mansions more.
* * * *
Yet another suit dreaming of conquest.
* * * *
So much effort imagining, believing, pretending, you care.
* * * *
Real faith requires no word or act, no belief or creed.
* * * *
The infringement of imagination is an infraction upon your eternal nature.
* * * *
The first breath, the last breath, and naught but a dream between.
* * * *
Only imagination imagines itself alive.
* * * *
Yet another zombie wandering its delusional mindscape.
* * * *
Name that delusion.
* * * *
Let us not confuse the dramas of human consciousness with the un-drama of awareness.
* * * *
For all eternity, for all time, two very different states of consciousness.
* * * *
You are born alone, you die alone, and for a while between, you pretend you are not alone.
* * * *
Hope is dead. Long live hope.
* * * *
All you know is what you think you know; nothing more than the dust and shadows of illusion.
* * * *
Ethereal awareness, ephemeral consciousness.
* * * *
Consciousness measures, awareness streams.
* * * *
Consciousness ebbs and flows; awareness streams.
* * * *
What a burden to care about so many things, especially if you are only pretending.
* * * *
The immortality of youth is a many-splendored illusion-delusion.
* * * *
All fates are but mirages born of imagination.
* * * *
Better to focus on reality than the illusion of reality.
* * * *
The dream is not more real now than the day you exited the womb.
* * * *
The mind’s capacity for self-aggrandizement, imaginary as it is, is a ceaseless wonder.
* * * *
Whatever hope there was, washed away in the pain.
* * * *
Hope for the best; plan for the worst.
* * * *
Outside your memory, does anyone or anything really exist?
* * * *
What notion can a dream long harbor?
* * * *
All else is imaginary.
* * * *
The imaginary Me-Myself-and-I awakens again.
* * * *
There they go again, mucking about in all their imaginary differences.
* * * *
All emotional notions are nothing more than human poppycock.
* * * *
Absurdity will out.
* * * *
It is a dream, and then it is not.
* * * *
Your dream is whether it is all about yesterday or today or tomorrow.
* * * *
The universe is but an imaginary sheen in your imaginary mind.
* * * *
All differences are but vain notions fabricated in the mind’s eye.
* * * *
The timeless prior-to-consciousness moment is where its at, has ever been, will ever be.
* * * *
Life and death are the same but for the consciousness that creates all differences.
* * * *
Memories are but slowly dissolving perception undone in mind’s conception.
* * * *
Consciousness is the inherent flaw that all must endure.
* * * *
Memory is an erstwhile taskmaster.
* * * *
Without memory, did anything ever really happen?
* * * *
Another day a-streamin’ in the dreamin’.
* * * *
The fog of consciousness masks the eternal awareness, and time plays on.
* * * *
Imagination is the time machine.
* * * *
All history is nothing more than the pretense of imagination.
* * * *
What is pride, what is vanity, but a mind absorbed in its imaginary delusions.
* * * *
The frontal lobe is the theater of human consciousness.
* * * *
What’s your delusion?
* * * *
Questions of a thousand dreams.
* * * *
It is not what you want to be; it is what you want to pretend.
* * * *
Perception, perception, perception.
* * * *
Imagination is always running away with itself.
* * * *
Creativity is its own reward.
* * * *
What is memory for the sage but a set of perceptions from which to mine wisdom.
* * * *
Religious and spiritual are states of imagination to which ignorance and delusion cling.
* * * *
The illusions of the flesh are of but relatively short duration.
* * * *
A singular vision that relatively few are beckoned-chosen-allowed to clearly perceive.
* * * *
Absurdity from dawn to dusk, and all the dark hours before and after.
* * * *
How long can virtue withstand the winds of fierce and bitter consciousness?
* * * *
Consciousness does not easily relinquish its imaginary universe.
* * * *
The garden is still very Darwin-esque, despite all the safety nets we pretend will save us.
* * * *
Only the dead have seen the end of absurdity.
* * * *
How much does imagination require to see it is but an illusion?
* * * *
How can you imagine any speculation but less true?
* * * *
What is death but a dream forever extinguished.
* * * *
Consciousness an insatiable beast that will not easily die.
* * * *
No projection of imagination, no matter how lucid, how fearless, has ever been real.
* * * *
Truth or delusion, you decide.
* * * *
What is any given cosmos but a sensory body, a brain, and a mind imagining it so.
* * * *
Illusion, more illusion, even more illusion.
* * * *
Absurdity, more absurdity, even more absurdity.
* * * *
Delusion, more delusion, even more delusion.
* * * *
Creativity, more creativity, even more creativity.
Breadcrumbs
Oh, for a time machine from which to view all creation, all dissolution.
Alas that dreamtime does not exist as more than imaginary filament.
* * * *
In some musty, ancient, gray basement of the Ivory Tower, reside I,
Knowing enough to know I perchance know a little something,
But very little compared to the ethereal layers of the scholarly keep above,
Spiraling so high, so pristinely, so unequivocally, into the exalted realms of imagination.
* * * *
Bookstores and libraries and boxes of books at yard sales always make me drowsy.
Something to do with the overwhelming concentration of consciousness, methinks.
* * * *
Just a few four-letter words to which I yield little or no attachment:
Love, hate, hope, good, just, luck, fair, cute, nice, pink,
Work, time, herd, fate, true, gawd …
* * * *
These breadcrumbs will hopefully assure there will be no pedestal placed beneath this scribe.
That all sages and fools, all saints and demons, are all the same ineffaceable mystery,
That everything, that everyone, are all created of the same quantum illusion.
It is a nothing-more-nothing-less dream from any get-go to any finale imaginable.
* * * *
Granted, dystopian collapse may be eluded before this lifetime’s exit,
But to even for a second believe calamity cannot happen
Would be a imprudent error of judgment.
Always good policy to hope for the best, plan for the worst.
* * * *
Way more than this wee brain craves or needs,
Or is even able to wrap its head around
At this stage of its mortal dream,
Its sojourning reverie.
* * * *
Am so over our kind and all our bullshit, all our absurd self-absorption,
The last wheezing breath will be a sigh of relief that it is finally over.
* * * *
Perhaps the dream will find use
For these many thoughts, perhaps not.
‘Tis the nature of any gift to not know its fate.
* * * *
Why in any god’s name would I want to fit in to any part of this inanely absurd paradigm?
* * * *
My faith is so strong, no word or act, no belief or creed, is required.
* * * *
I have been allotted the destiny to discern that awareness, that vision, that insight, that wisdom,
Which has been perceived by many thinkers across all times and geographies.
The concepts and symbols and dogmas may vary greatly,
But the source is ever the same.
* * * *
Field notes from yet another observer of the unmanifest underpinning of the dreamtime show.
* * * *
Another anonymous dreamer a-dreaming away.
* * * *
Even this ethereal aphoristic view is pitted with delusion,
But it is as holistic as this finite, mortal mind
Has as yet discerned to imagine.
* * * *
Throughout its so-called religious history, the Middle East has been a lead sponsor
Of a delusional, dangerous madness, that threatens egalitarian ideas with annihilation.
* * * *
Be grateful that I do not have the power of some ancient, wrathful god,
For the flood this mind imagines would make Noah’s seem but a puddle.
* * * *
In the never-ending tug of war between consciousness and awareness,
Sometimes I see clearly, and sometimes I do not.
So it goes, dust off, move on.
* * * *
Breadcrumbs is a section for all my vain bile and malice.
Good therapy for the little self’s perpetual notions of grandeur,
And other ceaselessly elaborate and hollow notions of the human kind.
* * * *
In most every ditty, something to unlock in perception’s rainbow.
Not quite koans, but close enough for this mind’s roguish purpose.
* * * *
Before you enter this thinker’s house, please be sure to check your limitations
And beliefs and conclusions and assumptions and fears and desires at the door.
* * * *
Am I absurd beyond all doubt, or simply a jester, a life force willing to lend itself
To exploring, to plumbing the unfathomable depths as deeply, and in such manner,
As the singular, indivisible, indelible aloneness of the given body-mind will allow.
* * * *
Whether or not awareness has through this set of eyes
Discerned its Self as clearly, as lucidly, as other minds might
Does not matter one iota of a particle of a smidgeon.
All fates are but mirages born of imagination.
* * * *
What an absurd, pathetic hoax the human drama has become.
What is the cosmos to me anymore but a muse for more thoughts,
More thoughts than anyone but myself will ever even begin to peruse.
* * * *
There was an epoch saga to inhale, to witness, to compose,
And disperse across the globe in the many ways
This contemporary dreamtime offered.
This is what I was born to do.
How utterly amazing
To have been given the opportunity.
* * * *
Alas that nearly every day I reel from weary antipathy
Toward all the ugly and fat and stupid and vain people
That so abundantly burgeon in my wandering presence.
Alas that I am all-knowing, all-accepting, all-benevolent,
Only in the most detached recesses of spotless awareness.
Consciousness is the inherent flaw that all must endure.
Corollaries of Yaj Ekim
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:
Four score and seven years ago
Our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,
Conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Yaj Ekim’s Corollary:
Do not be deluded about the fact that the United States of America,
With its Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and who knows how many laws,
Was founded upon the genocide of the Americans who inhabited it long before Columbus,
The enslavement of tribal peoples abducted from their village homes in Africa,
And destruction and annihilation all across the planet ever since.
George Orwell in Animal Farm:
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Thucydides in the History of the Peloponnesian Wars:
Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power,
While the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
* * * *
Jason Brown:
I just don’t ‘like’ women anymore.
Yaj Ekim’s Corollary:
Certainly not as easy once the overpowering delusion of that lower brain diminishes.
* * * *
Doug Honeywell’s candid response to these writings:
Nice words, but they don’t do anything for me.
Yaj Ekim’s Corollary:
Not sure they do all that much for me, either, frankly,
But they keep bubbling into consciousness,
And I ain’t got nothing much better to do most daze.
Temporal gratification of the creative mind; ain’t it wonderful.
* * * *
George Santayana:
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Yaj Ekim’s Corollary:
Only the dead have seen the end of absurdity.
* * * *
Sandra Maa (Sandra Heber-Percy):
Referring to a caricature of a donkey pursuing the Carrot of Enlightenment
That is attached to the Stick of Desire tied on its back, Sandra asks:
Is the promise of infinite bliss the carrot for the donkey?
Yaj Ekim’s Corollary:
If there is no more carrot, no more stick, no more seeking, no more seeker,
Who is left to hee, who is left to haw, in that infinite liberation?
Existence, and all the illusions and delusions to which so many are so attached,
May be very painful, but is it better than nothing? … And who is asking? ... Who is answering?
Possible Last Words & Epitaphs
Goodbye Absurd World
59 Moments to the Way It Is (And Is Not)
The Scribe’s Guide to the Great Whatthe#$*!
59 Moments to Me, My Self, and I
59 Moments to Truth or Consequences
59 Moments to Diddly-Squat
59 Moments to Okey-Dokey
59 Moments to Eternity
59 Moments to Oblivion
59 Moments to Laissez-Faire
59 Moments to So It Goes
59 Moments to Fearlessness
59 Moments to Timelessness
59 Moments to Truth
59 Moments to Born Anew
59 Moments to Nirvana
59 Moments to Passé
59 Moments to Godlessness
59 Moments to God
59 Moments to Rationalism
59 Moments to Existentialism
59 Moments to Annihilation
59 Moments to Common Sense
59 Moments to Discernment
59 Moments to Critical Thinking
59 Moments to Gumption
59 Moments to Grit
59 Moments to Resourcefulness
59 Moments to Imagination
59 Moments to Inventiveness
59 Moments to Creativity
59 Moments to Wit
59 Moments to Born Again
59 Moments to Ingenuity
59 Moments to Enterprise
59 Moments to Reality
59 Moments to Absurdity
59 Moments to Humility
59 Moments to Hopelessness
59 Moments to Minimalism
59 Moments to Evermore
59 Moments to Hedonism
59 Moments to Discipline
59 Moments to Narcissism
59 Moments to Ecstasy
59 Moments to Heaven
59 Moments to Hell
59 Moments to Buddha
59 Moments to Null and Void
59 Moments to Emptiness
59 Moments to Nothingness
59 Moments to Now
59 Moments to Here
59 Moments to Here Now
59 Moments to Negation
59 Moments to Anarchy
59 Moments to Skepticism
59 Moments to Cynicism
59 Moments to Pessimism
59 Moments to Doubt
59 Moments to Nihilism
59 Moments to Bullshit
59 Moments to Om
59 Moments to Quantum
59 Moments to Abyss
59 Moments to Agnostic
59 Moments to Atheism
59 Moments to Freethinking
59 Moments to Belief
59 Moments to Death
59 Moments to Eternal Life
59 Moments to Nonbelief
59 Moments to Illusion
59 Moments to Delusion
59 Moments to Matrix
59 Moments to Craving
59 Moments to Satisfaction
59 Moments to Contentment
59 Moments to Immortality
59 Moments to Solitude
59 Moments to No Other
59 Moments to Detachment
59 Moments to Singularity
59 Moments to Totality
59 Moments to Absoluteness
59 Moments to Indivisibility
59 Moments to Success
59 Moments to Failure
59 Moments to Happiness
59 Moments to Sorrow
59 Moments to Joy
59 Moments to Oneness
59 Moments to Ecstasy
59 Moments to Infinity
59 Moments to Infinitesimalibility
59 Moments to Peace
59 Moments to Freedom
59 Moments to the Beyond the Pale
59 Moments to Perfection
59 Moments to Imperfection
59 Moments to Tranquility
59 Moments to Bliss
59 Moments to Meditation
59 Moments to Contemplation
59 Moments to Acuteness
59 Moments to Obtuseness
59 Moments to Heaven
59 Moments to Hell
59 Moments to Perdition
59 Moments to Brahman
59 Moments to Samadhi
59 Moments to the End of Time
59 Moments to the Beginning of Time
59 Moments to the Success in Failure
59 Moments to the Failure in Success
59 Moments to Future-Past
59 Moments to Serendipity
59 Moments to Dharma
59 Moments to Artha
59 Moments to Karma
59 Moments to Moksha
59 Moments to Go
59 Moments to Dreamtime
59 Moments to Pause
59 Moments to Stop
59 Moments to Separation
59 Moments to Unity
59 Moments to By Golly
59 Moments to the Great Pfft!
59 Moments to Manifest Destiny
59 Moments to Unmanifest Destiny
59 Moments to the End Before All Beginnings
59 Moments to the Beginning After all Ends
59 Moments to Ad Infinitum
59 Moments to Et Cetera
Definitions
absurdity | əbˈsərdədē, əbˈzərdədē |
noun
(plural absurdities)
the quality or state of being ridiculous or wildly unreasonable:
Duncan laughed at the absurdity of the situation | the absurdities of haute cuisine.
these artworks convey a sense of the absurdity of contemporary life:
preposterousness, ridiculousness, ludicrousness, incongruity, inappropriateness,
risibility, idiocy, stupidity, foolishness, folly, silliness, inanity, insanity;
unreasonableness, irrationality, illogicality, pointlessness, senselessness; informal craziness.
* * * *
agnostic | aɡˈnästik |
noun
a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known
of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena;
a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.
adjective
relating to agnostics or agnosticism.
• (in a nonreligious context) having a doubtful or noncommittal attitude toward something:
until now I've been fairly agnostic about electoral reform.
noun
as far as I know, Stevens was an atheist, or at least an agnostic:
skeptic, doubter, doubting Thomas, cynic;
unbeliever, nonbeliever, rationalist; rare nullifidian.
ANTONYMS believer, theist.
* * * *
assumption | əˈsəm(p)SH(ə)n |
noun
1 a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof:
they made certain assumptions about the market |
[with clause] : we're working on the assumption that the time of death was after midnight.
2 the action of taking or beginning to take power or responsibility:
the assumption of an active role in regional settlements.
3 (Assumption) the reception of the Virgin Mary bodily into heaven.
This was formally declared a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church in 1950.
See also Dormition.
• the feast in honor of this, celebrated on August 15.
4 archaic arrogance or presumption.
1 an informed assumption: supposition, presumption, belief, expectation, conjecture, speculation,
surmise, guess, premise, hypothesis; conclusion, deduction, inference;
rare illation, notion, impression.
2 the assumption of power by revolutionaries: seizure, arrogation, appropriation,
expropriation, commandeering, confiscation, hijacking, wresting.
3 the early assumption of community obligation:
acceptance, shouldering, tackling, undertaking.
* * * *
atheism | ˈāTHēˌizəm |
noun
disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.
atheism was not freely discussed in his community:
nonbelief, disbelief, unbelief, irreligion, skepticism, doubt, agnosticism; nihilism.
* * * *
atheist | ˈāTHēəst |
noun
a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods:
he is a committed atheist.
why is it often assumed that a man of science is probably an atheist?
nonbeliever, disbeliever, unbeliever, skeptic, doubter, doubting Thomas, agnostic; nihilist.
ANTONYMS believer.
* * * *
awareness | əˈwernəs |
noun
knowledge or perception of a situation or fact:
we need to raise public awareness of the issue | there is a lack of awareness of the risks.
• concern about and well-informed interest in a particular situation or development:
a growing environmental awareness | his political awareness developed.
the level of public awareness is questionable:
consciousness, recognition, realization; understanding, grasp, appreciation, knowledge, insight;
familiarity; informal light-bulb moment; formal cognizance.
* * * *
belief | bəˈlēf |
noun
1 an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists:
his belief in the value of hard work | a belief that solitude nourishes creativity.
• something one accepts as true or real; a firmly held opinion or conviction:
we're prepared to fight for our beliefs |
contrary to popular belief, Aramaic is a living language.
• a religious conviction: Christian beliefs |
I'm afraid to say belief has gone | local beliefs and customs.
2 (belief in) trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something:
a belief in democratic politics | I've still got belief in myself.
1 it's my belief that age is irrelevant: opinion, view, conviction, judgment,
thinking, way of thinking, idea, impression, theory, conclusion, notion.
2 belief in the value of hard work: faith, trust, reliance, confidence, credence.
ANTONYMS disbelief, doubt.
3 traditional beliefs: ideology, principle, ethic, tenet, canon;
doctrine, teaching, dogma, article of faith, creed, credo.
* * * *
believer | bəˈlēvər |
noun
1 a person who believes that a specified thing is effective, proper, or desirable:
a firm believer that party politics has no place in local government | a believer in ghosts.
2 an adherent of a particular religion; someone with religious faith.
a cause with few believers:
devotee, adherent, disciple, follower, supporter.
ANTONYMS infidel, skeptic.
* * * *
cancer |ˈkansər|
noun
the disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body:
he's got cancer | smoking is the major cause of lung cancer.
• a malignant growth or tumor resulting from the division of abnormal cells:
most skin cancers are curable.
• a practice or phenomenon perceived to be evil or destructive and hard to contain or eradicate:
racism is a cancer sweeping across Europe.
* * * *
caste | kast |
noun
each of the hereditary classes of Hindu society,
distinguished by relative degrees of ritual purity or pollution and of social status:
members of the lower castes | a man of high caste.
• the system of dividing society into hereditary classes.
• any class or group of people who inherit exclusive privileges or are perceived as socially distinct:
those educated in private schools belong to a privileged caste.
• Entomology (in some social insects) a physically distinct individual
with a particular function in the society.
There are four basic classes, or varnas, in Hindu society:
Brahman (priest), Kshatriya (warrior), Vaishya (merchant or farmer), and Shudra (laborer).
she could not marry outside her caste:
class, social class, social order, rank, level, stratum, echelon, status; dated estate, station.
* * * *
common sense | ˌkämən ˈsens |
noun
good sense and sound judgment in practical matters:
[as modifier] : a common-sense approach | use your common sense.
I had the common sense to phone an ambulance instead of yelling at him to get up:
good sense, sense, native wit, sensibleness, judgment, levelheadedness, prudence, discernment,
canniness, astuteness, shrewdness, wisdom, insight, perception, perspicacity;
practicality, capability, resourcefulness, enterprise;
informal horse sense, gumption, savvy, smarts, street smarts.
ANTONYMS folly.
* * * *
conscience | ˈkän(t)SHəns |
noun
an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide
to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior:
he had a guilty conscience about his desires | Ben was suffering a pang of conscience.
her conscience would not allow her to remain silent:
sense of right and wrong, moral sense, inner voice;
morals, standards, values, principles, ethics, beliefs;
compunction, scruples, qualms.
* * * *
consciousness | ˈkän(t)SHəsnəs |
noun
the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings:
she failed to regain consciousness and died two days later.
• the awareness or perception of something by a person:
her acute consciousness of Mike's presence.
• the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world:
consciousness emerges from the operations of the brain.
1 she failed to regain consciousness:
awareness, wakefulness, alertness, responsiveness, sentience.
ANTONYMS unconsciousness.
2 her acute consciousness of Luke's presence:
awareness of, knowledge of the existence of, alertness to, sensitivity to, realization of,
cognizance of, mindfulness of, perception of, apprehension of, recognition of.
* * * *
contemplation | ˌkän(t)əmˈplāSH(ə)n |
noun
the action of looking thoughtfully at something for a long time:
the road is too busy for leisurely contemplation of the scenery.
• deep reflective thought: he would retire to his room for study or contemplation.
• the state of being thought about or planned.
• religious meditation.
• (in Christian spirituality) a form of prayer or meditation
in which a person seeks to pass beyond mental images and concepts
to a direct experience of the divine.
1 the contemplation of beautiful objects:
viewing, examination, inspection, observation, survey, study, scrutiny.
2 the monks sat in quiet contemplation:
thought, reflection, meditation, consideration, rumination, deliberation,
reverie, introspection, brown study; formal cogitation, cerebration.
* * * *
cult | kəlt |
noun
a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object:
the cult of St. Olaf.
• a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices
regarded by others as strange or sinister: a network of Satan-worshiping cults.
• a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing:
a cult of personality surrounding the leaders.
• [usually as modifier] a person or thing that is popular or fashionable,
especially among a particular section of society: a cult film.
1 a religious cult: sect, denomination, group, movement,
church, persuasion, body, faction.
2 the cult of eternal youth in Hollywood:
obsession with, fixation on, mania for, passion for, idolization of,
devotion to, worship of, veneration of.
* * * *
cynicism | ˈsinəˌsizəm |
noun
1 an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest;
skepticism: public cynicism about politics.
• an inclination to question whether something will happen or whether it is worthwhile; pessimism: cynicism about the future.
2 (Cynicism) a school of ancient Greek philosophers, the Cynics.
theirs was a childhood of absent parents and broken promises, so cynicism was hardly a surprise:
skepticism, doubt, distrust, mistrust, suspicion, disbelief; pessimism,
negativity, world-weariness, disenchantment.
ANTONYMS idealism.
* * * *
deism | ˈdēˌizəm, ˈdāˌizəm |
noun
belief in the existence of a supreme being,
specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe.
The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries
that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason
but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.
Compare with theism.
* * * *
deity | ˈdēədē, ˈdāədē |
noun
(plural deities)
a god or goddess (in a polytheistic religion): a deity of ancient Greece.
• divine status, quality, or nature: a ruler driven by delusions of deity.
• (usually the Deity) the creator and supreme being (in a monotheistic religion such as Christianity).
• a representation of a god or goddess, such as a statue or carving.
the deities of ancient Greece:
god, goddess, divine being, supreme being, divinity, immortal;
creator, demiurge; godhead.
* * * *
delusion | dəˈlo͞oZHən |
noun
an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained
despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument,
typically a symptom of mental disorder: the delusion of being watched.
• the action of deluding or the state of being deluded:
what a capacity television has for delusion.
was her belief in his fidelity just a delusion?
misapprehension, misconception, misunderstanding, mistake, error,
misinterpretation, misconstruction, misbelief; fallacy, illusion, fantasy.
* * * *
dogma | ˈdôɡmə |
noun
a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true:
the rejection of political dogma | the Christian dogma of the Trinity.
a dogma of the Sikh religion:
teaching, belief, tenet, principle, precept, maxim, article of faith,
canon; creed, credo, set of beliefs, doctrine, ideology.
* * * *
doubt | dout |
noun
a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction:
some doubt has been cast upon the authenticity of this account |
they had doubts that they would ever win.
verb
1 [with object] feel uncertain about: I doubt my ability to do the job.
• question the truth or fact of (something): who can doubt the value of these services? |
[with clause] : I doubt if anyone slept that night.
• disbelieve (a person or their word): I have no reason to doubt him.
• [no object] feel uncertain, especially about one's religious beliefs.
2 [with clause] archaic fear; be afraid: I doubt not your contradictions.
noun
1 there was some doubt as to the caller's identity:
uncertainty, unsureness, indecision, hesitation, dubiousness, suspicion, confusion;
queries, questions; formal dubiety.
ANTONYMS certainty.
2 a weak leader racked by doubt:
indecision, hesitation, uncertainty, insecurity, unease, uneasiness, apprehension;
hesitancy, vacillation, irresolution.
ANTONYMS confidence, conviction.
3 there is doubt about their motives:
skepticism, distrust, mistrust, doubtfulness, suspicion, cynicism,
uneasiness, apprehension, wariness, chariness, leeriness;
reservations, misgivings, suspicions; formal dubiety.
ANTONYMS trust.
verb
1 they doubted my story:
disbelieve, distrust, mistrust, suspect, have doubts about, be suspicious of,
have misgivings about, have qualms about, feel uneasy about,
feel apprehensive about, query, question, challenge.
ANTONYMS trust.
2 I doubt whether he will come:
think something unlikely, have (one's) doubts about, question, query, be dubious.
ANTONYMS be confident.
3 stop doubting and believe!
be undecided, have doubts, be irresolute, be ambivalent, be doubtful, be unsure,
be uncertain, be of two minds, hesitate, shilly-shally, waver, vacillate.
ANTONYMS believe.
* * * *
duality | d(y)o͞oˈalədē |
noun
(plural dualities)
1 the quality or condition of being dual:
the novel's deep duality about human motive.
• Mathematics the property of two theorems, expressions, etc.,
of being dual to each other.
• Physics the quantum-mechanical property
of being regardable as both a wave and a particle.
2 an instance of opposition or contrast
between two concepts or two aspects of something;
a dualism:
the photographs capitalize on the dualities of light and dark, stillness and movement.
there was a duality in her feelings towards Johnny:
doubleness, dualism, duplexity, ambivalence;
dichotomy, polarity, separation, opposition, difference.
* * * *
ego | ˈēɡō |
noun
(plural egos)
a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance: a boost to my ego.
• Psychoanalysis the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious
and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.
Compare with id and superego.
• Philosophy (in metaphysics) a conscious thinking subject.
the defeat was a bruise to his ego:
self-esteem, self-importance, self-worth, self-respect, self-image, self-confidence.
* * * *
egocentric | ˌēɡōˈsentrik |
adjective
thinking only of oneself, without regard for the feelings or desires of others;
self-centered: their egocentric tendency to think of themselves as invulnerable.
• centered in or arising from a person's own existence or perspective:
egocentric spatial perception.
Ivy has finally outgrown her egocentric friends:
self-centered, egomaniacal, egoistic, egotistic, self-interested, selfish,
self-seeking, self-absorbed, narcissistic, vain, self-important.
ANTONYMS altruistic.
* * * *
excellence | ˈeks(ə)ləns |
noun
the quality of being outstanding or extremely good:
a center of academic excellence | the award for excellence in engineering.
• archaic an outstanding feature or quality.
a center of medical excellence:
distinction, quality, superiority, brilliance, greatness, merit, caliber, eminence, preeminence, supremacy;
skill, talent, virtuosity, accomplishment, mastery.
Areté (Greek: ἀρετή), in its basic sense, means "excellence of any kind".
The term may also mean "moral virtue".
In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence
was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function:
the act of living up to one's full potential.
Robert M. Pirsig, On the Nature of Areté,
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
The hero of the Odyssey is a great fighter, a wily schemer,
a ready speaker, a man of stout heart and broad wisdom
who knows that he must endure without too much complaining what the gods send;
and he can both build and sail a boat, drive a furrow as straight as anyone,
beat a young braggart at throwing the discus,
challenge the Pheacian youth at boxing, wrestling, or running;
flay, skin, cut up and cook an ox, and be moved to tears by a song.
He is in fact an excellent all-rounder; he has surpassing areté.
Areté implies a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization.
It implies a contempt for efficiency … or rather a much higher idea of efficiency,
an efficiency which exists not in one department of life but in life itself.
* * * *
fallacy | ˈfaləsē |
noun
(plural fallacies)
a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument:
the notion that the camera never lies is a fallacy.
• Logic a failure in reasoning which renders an argument invalid.
• faulty reasoning; misleading or unsound argument:
the potential for fallacy which lies behind the notion of self-esteem.
the fallacy that the sun moves round the earth:
misconception, misbelief, delusion, mistaken impression, error, misapprehension,
misinterpretation, misconstruction, mistake; untruth, inconsistency, myth.
* * * *
freedom | ˈfrēdəm |
noun
the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint:
we do have some freedom of choice | he talks of revoking some of the freedoms.
• absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government:
he was a champion of Irish freedom.
• the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved:
the shark thrashed its way to freedom.
• the state of being physically unrestricted and able to move easily:
the shorts have a side split for freedom of movement.
• (freedom from) the state of not being subject to
or affected by (a particular undesirable thing):
government policies to achieve freedom from want.
• the power of self-determination attributed to the will;
the quality of being independent of fate or necessity.
• unrestricted use of something:
the dog is happy having the freedom of the house when we are out.
• archaic familiarity or openness in speech or behavior.
1 a desperate bid for freedom:
liberty, liberation, release, deliverance, delivery, discharge;
literary disenthrallment; historical manumission.
ANTONYMS captivity.
2 revolution was the only path to freedom:
independence, self-government, self-determination, self-rule, home rule,
sovereignty, nonalignment, autonomy; democracy.
ANTONYMS dependence.
3 freedom from local political accountability:
exemption, immunity, dispensation; impunity.
ANTONYMS liability.
4 freedom to choose your course of treatment:
right, entitlement, privilege, prerogative;
scope, latitude, leeway, flexibility, space, breathing space, room, elbow room;
license, leave, free rein, a free hand, carte blanche, a blank check.
ANTONYMS restriction.
* * * *
gestalt | ɡəˈSHtält | (also Gestalt)
noun
(plural gestalten | -ˈSHtältn, -ˈSHtôltn | or gestalts)
Psychology
an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.
* * * *
God | ɡäd |
noun
1 (in Christianity and other monotheistic religions)
the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority;
the supreme being.
2 (god) (in certain other religions) a superhuman being or spirit
worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes;
a deity: a moon god | an incarnation of the god Vishnu.
• an image, idol, animal, or other object worshiped as divine or symbolizing a god.
• used as a conventional personification of fate:
he dialed the number and, the gods relenting, got through at once.
ORIGIN Old English, of Germanic origin;
related to Dutch god and German Gott.
* * * *
grace | ɡrās |
noun
1 simple elegance or refinement of movement:
she moved through the water with effortless grace.
2 courteous goodwill:
at least he has the grace to admit his debt to her.
• (graces) an attractively polite manner of behaving:
she has all the social graces.
3 (in Christian belief) the free and unmerited favor of God,
as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.
• a divinely given talent or blessing:
the graces of the Holy Spirit.
4 (also grace period) a period officially allowed for payment of a sum due
or for compliance with a law or condition,
especially an extended period granted as a special favor:
another three days' grace.
5 a short prayer of thanks said before or after a meal:
before dinner the Reverend Newman said grace.
6 (His, Her, or Your Grace) used as forms of description or address
for a duke, duchess, or archbishop: His Grace, the Duke of Atholl.
7 (the Graces or the Three Graces) (in Greek mythology)
three beautiful goddesses (Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne)
believed to personify and bestow charm, grace, and beauty.
verb [with object and adverbial]
do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one's presence:
she bowed out from the sport she has graced for two decades.
• (of a person or thing) be an attractive presence in or on; adorn:
Ms. Pasco has graced the front pages of magazines like Elle and Vogue.
1 she has the natural grace of a ballerina:
elegance, stylishness, poise, finesse, charm;
gracefulness, dexterity, adroitness; deftness, fluidity of movement, fluency, flow, suppleness,
smoothness, ease, effortlessness, naturalness, neatness, precision, agility, nimbleness, light-footedness;
informal poetry in motion; rare flowingness, lightsomeness.
ANTONYMS stiffness, inelegance
2 he at least had the grace to look sheepish:
courtesy, courteousness, politeness, manners, good manners,
mannerliness, civility, decorum, decency, propriety, breeding, respect, respectfulness;
consideration, thought, thoughtfulness, tact, tactfulness, diplomacy, etiquette;
humorous couth.
ANTONYMS effrontery
3 the artist's fall from grace:
favor, approval, approbation, acceptance, commendation, esteem,
regard, respect, preferment, liking, support, goodwill.
ANTONYMS disfavor
4 he was granted a house by grace of the king: favor, good will, generosity, kindness, benefaction, beneficence, indulgence.
5 they have been given five days' grace to decide:
deferment, deferral, postponement, suspension, putting off/back, adjournment,
delay, shelving, rescheduling, interruption, arrest, pause;
respite, stay, moratorium, reprieve;
North American tabling;
North American Law continuation;
rare put-off.6 say grace: prayer of thanks, thanksgiving, blessing, benediction.
* * * *
group·think| ˈɡro͞opˌTHiNGk |
noun
the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group
in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility:
there's always a danger of groupthink when two leaders are so alike.
* * * *
gumption | ˈɡəmpSH(ə)n |
noun
informal shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness:
she had the gumption to put her foot down and head Dan off from those crazy schemes.
informal we never thought Clarence would have the gumption to stand up to the committee –
and actually get what he wanted:
initiative, resourcefulness, enterprise, ingenuity, imagination;
astuteness, shrewdness, acumen, sense, common sense, wit, mother wit, practicality;
spirit, backbone, pluck, mettle, nerve, courage, wherewithal;
informal get-up-and-go, spunk, oomph, moxie, savvy, horse sense, (street) smarts.
* * * *
heaven | ˈhevən |
noun
1 a place regarded in various religions as the abode of God (or the gods) and the angels,
and of the good after death, often traditionally depicted as being above the sky.
• God (or the gods):
Constantine was persuaded that disunity in the Church was displeasing to heaven.
• Theology a state of being eternally in the presence of God after death.
• used in various exclamations as a substitute for “God”:
heaven knows! | good heavens!
2 (often heavens) literary the sky, especially perceived as a vault
in which the sun, moon, stars, and planets are situated:
Galileo used a telescope to observe the heavens.
3 informal a place, state, or experience of supreme bliss:
lying by the pool with a good book is my idea of heaven.
1 the good will have a place in heaven: paradise, nirvana, Zion;
the hereafter, the next world, the next life, Elysium, the Elysian Fields, Valhalla;
literary the empyrean.
ANTONYMS hell, purgatory.
2 a good book is my idea of heaven:
bliss, ecstasy, rapture, contentment, happiness, delight, joy, seventh heaven;
paradise, Utopia, nirvana.
ANTONYMS misery.
3 (the heavens) he observed the heavens:
the sky, the skies, the upper atmosphere, the stratosphere, space;
literary the firmament, the vault of heaven, the blue, the (wild/wide) blue yonder, the welkin,
the empyrean, the azure, the upper regions, the sphere, the celestial sphere.
* * * *
hell | hel | noun
a place regarded in various religions as a spiritual realm of evil and suffering,
often traditionally depicted as a place of perpetual fire beneath the earth
where the wicked are punished after death:
irreligious children were assumed to have passed straight to the eternal fires of hell.
• a state or place of great suffering; an unbearable experience:
I've been through hell | he made her life hell.
exclamation used to express annoyance or surprise or for emphasis:
oh, hell – where will this all end? | hell, no, we were all married.
• (the hell) informal expressing anger, contempt, or disbelief:
who the hell are you? | the hell you are!
1 they feared they would be consumed by flames in hell:
the netherworld, the land/abode of the dead, the infernal regions, the Inferno,
the nether regions, the abyss;
the abode of the damned, eternal damnation, eternal punishment, perdition;
hellfire, fire and brimstone;
Bible Gehenna, Tophet, Abaddon;
Judaism Sheol;
Greek Mythology Hades, Tartarus, Acheron;
Roman Mythology Avernus;
Scandinavian Mythology Niflheim;
literary the pit, the shades; archaic the lower world.
ANTONYMS heaven
2 he made her life hell:
a misery, purgatory, hell on earth, torture, agony, a torment, a nightmare, an ordeal, a trauma;
suffering, affliction, anguish, wretchedness, woe, tribulation, trials and tribulations.
ANTONYMS paradise
* * * *
hope | həʊp |
noun [mass noun]
1 a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen:
he looked through her belongings in the hope of coming across some information |
[count noun] : I had high hopes of making the Olympic team.
• [count noun] a person or thing that may help or save someone:
their only hope is surgery.
• grounds for believing that something good may happen:
he does see some hope for the future.
2 archaic a feeling of trust: our private friendship,
upon hope and affiance whereof, I presume to be your petitioner.
verb [no object]
want something to happen or be the case: he's hoping for an offer of compensation |
[with clause] : I hope that the kids are OK.
• [with infinitive] intend if possible to do something:
we're hoping to address all these issues.
* * * *
hypocrisy | həˈpäkrəsē |
noun
(plural hypocrisies)
the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs
to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.
must politics be the perennial benchmark of hypocrisy?
dissimulation, false virtue, cant, posturing, affectation, speciousness, empty talk,
insincerity, falseness, deceit, dishonesty, mendacity, pretense, duplicity;
sanctimoniousness, sanctimony, pietism, piousness;
informal phoniness, fraud.
ANTONYMS sincerity.
* * * *
hypothesis | hīˈpäTHəsəs |
noun
(plural hypotheses | -ˌsēz | )
a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence
as a starting point for further investigation:
professional astronomers attacked him for popularizing an unconfirmed hypothesis.
• Philosophy a proposition made as a basis for reasoning,
without any assumption of its truth.
ORIGIN late 16th century: via late Latin from Greek hupothesis ‘foundation’, from hupo ‘under’ + thesis ‘placing’.
his “steady state” hypothesis of the origin of the universe:
theory, theorem, thesis, conjecture, supposition, postulation, postulate,
proposition, premise, assumption; notion, concept, idea, possibility.
* * * *
iconoclast | īˈkänəˌklast |
noun
1 a person who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions.
2 a destroyer of images used in religious worship.
• historical a supporter of the 8th- and 9th-century movement in the Byzantine Church
which sought to abolish the veneration of icons and other religious images.
• historical a Puritan of the 16th or 17th century.
in terms of the money culture in Washington,
she is iconoclast: critic, skeptic; heretic, unbeliever,
dissident, dissenter, infidel; rebel, renegade, mutineer.
* * * *
illusion | iˈlo͞oZHən |
noun
a thing that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses:
the illusion makes parallel lines seem to diverge by placing them on a zigzag-striped background.
• a deceptive appearance or impression:
the illusion of family togetherness | the tension between illusion and reality.
• a false idea or belief: he had no illusions about the trouble she was in.
1 he had destroyed her illusions:
delusion, misapprehension, misconception, false impression;
fantasy, fancy, dream, chimera; fool's paradise, self-deception; false consciousness.
2 the lighting increases the illusion of depth:
appearance, impression, semblance; misperception, false appearance;
rare simulacrum.
3 it's just an illusion:
mirage, hallucination, apparition, figment of the imagination, trick of the light, trompe l'oeil;
deception, trick, smoke and mirrors.
4 Houdini's amazing illusions:
(magic) trick, conjuring trick; (illusions) magic, conjuring, sleight of hand, legerdemain.
* * * *
imaginary | iˈmajəˌnerē |
adjective
1 existing only in the imagination:
Chris had imaginary conversations with her.
2 Mathematics (of a number or quantity)
expressed in terms of the square root of a negative number
(usually the square root of −1, represented by i or j).
See also complex.
his imaginary friends:
unreal, nonexistent, fictional, fictitious, pretend,
make-believe, mythical, mythological, fabulous, fanciful, storybook, fantastic;
made-up, dreamed-up, invented, concocted, fancied;
illusory, illusive, a figment of one's imagination;
archaic visionary.
ANTONYMS real, actual.
* * * *
imagination | iˌmajəˈnāSH(ə)n |
noun
the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts
of external objects not present to the senses:
she'd never been blessed with a vivid imagination.
• the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful:
technology gives workers the chance to use their imagination.
• the part of the mind that imagines things:
a girl who existed only in my imagination.
1 a vivid imagination: creative power, fancy, vision; informal mind's eye.
2 you need imagination in dealing with these problems:
creativity, imaginativeness, creativeness;
vision, inspiration, inventiveness, invention, resourcefulness, ingenuity;
originality, innovation, innovativeness.
3 the album captured the public's imagination:
interest, fascination, attention, passion, curiosity.
* * * *
ineffable | inˈefəb(ə)l |
adjective
too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words:
the ineffable natural beauty of the Everglades.
• not to be uttered: the ineffable Hebrew name that gentiles write as Jehovah.
1 the ineffable, surging joy of the Beatles:
indescribable, inexpressible, beyond words, beyond description, begging description;
indefinable, unutterable, untold, unimaginable;
overwhelming, breathtaking, awesome, marvelous, wonderful, staggering, amazing.
2 the ineffable name of God:
unutterable, not to be uttered, not to be spoken, unmentionable, forbidden, taboo.
* * * *
in·fi·nite | ˈinfənət |
adjective
1 limitless or endless in space, extent, or size; impossible to measure or calculate:
the infinite mercy of God | the infinite number of stars in the universe.
• very great in amount or degree: he bathed the wound with infinite care.
• Mathematics greater than any assignable quantity or countable number.
• Mathematics (of a series) able to be continued indefinitely.
2 Grammar another term for nonfinite.
noun
(the infinite) a space or quantity that is infinite:
beyond the infinite, the space traveler is transformed.
• (the Infinite) God: intimations of the infinite.
1 the universe is spatially infinite:
boundless, unbounded, unlimited, limitless, without limit,
without end, never-ending, interminable, cosmic;
measureless, immeasurable, fathomless, unfathomed, bottomless;
extensive, vast.
ANTONYMS limited
2 an infinite number of small birds:
countless, uncountable, inestimable, indeterminable,
innumerable, numberless, immeasurable, incalculable, untold, very many;
great, vast, enormous, immense, prodigious, multitudinous;
rare innumerous, unnumberable.
ANTONYMS limited; small
3 she bathed the wound with infinite care:
very great, immense, supreme, absolute, total, real;
endless, unending, unlimited;
informal no end of.
ANTONYMS very little
* * * *
in·fin·i·tes·i·mal| ˌinfinəˈtes(ə)m(ə)l |
adjective
extremely small: an infinitesimal pause.
noun
Mathematics an indefinitely small quantity; a value approaching zero.
USAGE
Although this long word is commonly assumed to refer to large numbers,
infinitesimal describes only very small size.
While there may be an infinite number of grains of sand on the beach,
a single grain may be said to be infinitesimal.
a tiny fish with infinitesimal white scales:
minute, tiny, minuscule, extremely small, very small;
microscopic, nanoscopic, barely perceptible, imperceptible, inappreciable,
indiscernible, invisible to the naked eye; Scottish wee; informal teeny,
teeny-weeny, teensy-weensy, eensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy, itty-bitty;
British informal titchy, tiddly;
North American informal little-bitty.
ANTONYMS huge
* * * *
insight | ˈinˌsīt |
noun
the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing:
this paper is alive with sympathetic insight into Shakespeare.
• a deep understanding of a person or thing:
the signals would give marine biologists new insights into the behavior of whales.
• Psychiatry new understanding by a mentally ill person of the causes of their disorder.
1 your insight has been invaluable:
intuition, discernment, perception, awareness, understanding, comprehension,
apprehension, appreciation, penetration, acumen, perspicacity, judgment, acuity;
vision, wisdom, prescience; informal savvy.
2 an insight into the government:
understanding of, appreciation of, revelation about;
introduction to; informal eye-opener about.
* * * *
intuition | ˌint(y)o͞oˈiSH(ə)n |
noun
the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning:
we shall allow our intuition to guide us.
• a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning:
your insights and intuitions as a native speaker are positively sought.
1 he works according to intuition: instinct, intuitiveness; sixth sense, clairvoyance, second sight.
2 this confirms an intuition I had: hunch, feeling (in one's bones), inkling, (sneaking) suspicion, idea, sense, notion; premonition, presentiment; informal gut feeling, gut instinct.
* * * *
political correctness | pəˈlidəkəl kəˈrek(t)nəs |
(also political correctitude)
noun
the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes,
of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize,
or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.
* * * *
Jesus | ˈjēzəs | (also Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth)
the central figure of the Christian religion.
Jesus conducted a mission of preaching and healing (with reported miracles)
in Palestine in about ad 28–30, which is described in the Gospels.
His followers considered him to be the Christ or Messiah and the Son of God,
and belief in his resurrection from the dead is the central tenet of Christianity.
ORIGIN from Christian Latin Iesus, from Greek Iēsous,
from a late Hebrew or Aramaicanalogous formation based on Yĕhōšûă‘ ‘Joshua’.
* * * *
knowledge | ˈnäləj |
noun
1 facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education;
the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject: a thirst for knowledge |
her considerable knowledge of antiques.
• what is known in a particular field or in total;
facts and information: the transmission of knowledge.
• Philosophy true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion.
2 awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation:
the program had been developed without his knowledge |
he denied all knowledge of the overnight incidents.
1 his knowledge of history | technical knowledge:
understanding, comprehension, grasp, command, mastery;
expertise, skill, proficiency, expertness, accomplishment, adeptness, capacity, capability;
informal know-how.
ANTONYMS ignorance.
2 people anxious to display their knowledge:
learning, erudition, education, scholarship, schooling, wisdom.
ANTONYMS ignorance, illiteracy.
3 he slipped away without my knowledge:
awareness, consciousness, realization, cognition, apprehension, perception, appreciation;
formal cognizance.
ANTONYMS unawareness.
4 an intimate knowledge of the countryside:
familiarity with, acquaintance with, intimacy with.
5 inform the police of your knowledge:
information, facts, intelligence, news, reports, hot tip;
informal info, (the) lowdown.
* * * *
language | ˈlaNGɡwij |
noun
1 the method of human communication, either spoken or written,
consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way:
a study of the way children learn language | [as modifier] : language development.
• any nonverbal method of expression or communication:
a language of gesture and facial expression.
2 the system of communication used by a particular community or country:
the book was translated into twenty-five languages.
• Computing a system of symbols and rules for writing programs or algorithms:
a new programming language.
3 the manner or style of a piece of writing or speech:
he explained the procedure in simple, everyday language.
• the phraseology and vocabulary of a certain profession, domain, or group of people: legal language.
• (usually as bad/strong language) coarse, crude, or offensive language: strong language.
1 the structure of language:
speech, writing, communication, conversation, speaking, talking, talk, discourse;
words, vocabulary.
2 the English language:
tongue, mother tongue, native tongue;
dialect, patois, slang, idiom, jargon, argot, cant;
informal lingo.
3 the booklet is written in simple, everyday language:
wording, phrasing, phraseology, style, vocabulary, terminology, expressions, turns of phrase,
parlance, form/mode of expression, usages, locutions, choice of words, idiolect;
informal lingo.
* * * *
lyrical | ˈlirik(ə)l |
adjective
1 (of literature, art, or music) expressing the writer's emotions
in an imaginative and beautiful way:
the poet's combination of lyrical and descriptive power.
• (of poetry or a poet) lyric: Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads.
2 relating to the words of a popular song: the lyrical content of his songs.
1 lyrical love poetry: expressive, emotional, deeply felt, personal, subjective, passionate, lyric.
2 she was lyrical about her success:
enthusiastic, rhapsodic, effusive, rapturous, ecstatic, euphoric, carried away.
ANTONYMS unenthusiastic.
* * * *
materialism | məˈtirēəˌlizəm |
noun
1 a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort
as more important than spiritual values.
2 Philosophy the doctrine that nothing exists except matter
and its movements and modifications.
• the doctrine that consciousness and will are wholly due to material agency.
See also dialectical materialism.
* * * *
monotheism | ˈmänōˌTHēizəm |
noun
the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.
* * * *
megalomania | ˌmeɡələˈmānēə |
noun
obsession with the exercise of power, especially in the domination of others.
• delusion about one's own power or importance
(typically as a symptom of manic or paranoid disorder).
* * * *
metaphysical | ˌmedəˈfizək(ə)l |
adjective
1 relating to metaphysics: the essentially metaphysical question of the nature of the mind.
• based on abstract (typically, excessively abstract) reasoning:
an empiricist rather than a metaphysical view of law.
• transcending physical matter or the laws of nature:
Good and Evil are inextricably linked in a metaphysical battle across space and time.
2 of or characteristic of the metaphysical poets.
1 metaphysical questions: abstract, theoretical, conceptual,
notional, philosophical, speculative, intellectual, academic.
2 Good and Evil are inextricably linked in a metaphysical battle:
transcendental, spiritual, supernatural, paranormal.
* * * *
moral | ˈmôrəl |
adjective
1 concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior
and the goodness or badness of human character:
the moral dimensions of medical intervention | a moral judgment.
• concerned with or derived from the code of interpersonal behavior
that is considered right or acceptable in a particular society:
an individual's ambitions may get out of step with the general moral code |
the moral obligation of society to do something about the inner city's problems.
• [attributive] examining the nature of ethics
and the foundations of good and bad character and conduct:
moral philosophers.
2 holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct:
he prides himself on being a highly moral and ethical person.
noun
1 a lesson, especially one concerning what is right or prudent,
that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience:
the moral of this story was that one must see the beauty in what one has.
2 (morals) a person's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning
what is and is not acceptable for them to do: the corruption of public morals |
they believe addicts have no morals and cannot be trusted.
adjective
1 moral issues: ethical, social, having to do with right and wrong.
2 a moral man: virtuous, good, righteous, upright,
upstanding, high-minded, principled, honorable, honest, just,
noble, incorruptible, scrupulous, respectable, decent, clean-living, law-abiding.
ANTONYMS dishonorable.
3 moral support: psychological, emotional, mental.
noun
1 the moral of the story: lesson, message,
meaning, significance, signification, import, point, teaching.
2 he has no morals: moral code, code of ethics,
(moral) values, principles, standards, (sense of) morality, scruples.
* * * *
nihilism | ˈnīəˌlizəm, ˈnēəˌlizəm |
noun
the rejection of all religious and moral principles,
in the belief that life is meaningless.
• Philosophy extreme skepticism maintaining that nothing in the world has a real existence.
• historical the doctrine of an extreme Russian revolutionary party c. 1900
which found nothing to approve of in the established social order.
she could not accept Bacon's nihilism, his insistence that man is a futile being:
skepticism, negativity, cynicism, pessimism; disbelief, unbelief, agnosticism, atheism.
* * * *
nirvana | nərˈvänə, nirˈvänə |
noun
(in Buddhism) a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self,
and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth.
It represents the final goal of Buddhism.
• another term for moksha.
• a state of perfect happiness; an ideal or idyllic place:
Hollywood's dearest dream of small-town nirvana.
there are no shortcuts to nirvana:
paradise, heaven; bliss, ecstasy, joy, peace, serenity, tranquility; enlightenment.
ANTONYMS hell.
* * * *
op·ti·mism| ˈäptəˌmizəm |
noun
1 hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something:
the talks had been amicable and there were grounds for optimism.
2 Philosophy the doctrine, especially as set forth by Leibniz,
that this world is the best of all possible worlds.
• the belief that good must ultimately prevail over evil in the universe.
such statements reflect the growing optimism among members of the profession:
hopefulness, hope, confidence, buoyancy, cheer, good cheer,
cheerfulness, sanguineness, positiveness, positive attitude.
ANTONYMS pessimism
* * * *
panpsychism | panˈsīˌkizəm |
noun
the doctrine or belief that everything material, however small,
has an element of individual consciousness.
* * * *
paradox | ˈperəˌdäks |
noun
a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition
that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true:
in a paradox, he has discovered that stepping back from his job
has increased the rewards he gleans from it.
• a statement or proposition that,
despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises,
leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory:
a potentially serious conflict between quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity
known as the information paradox.
• a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities:
the mingling of deciduous trees with elements of desert flora
forms a fascinating ecological paradox.
the paradox of war is that you have to kill people in order to stop people from killing each other:
contradiction, contradiction in terms, self-contradiction, inconsistency, incongruity;
oxymoron; conflict, anomaly; enigma, puzzle, mystery, conundrum.
* * * *
perception | pərˈsepSH(ə)n |
noun
the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses:
the normal limits to human perception.
• the state of being or process of becoming aware of something through the senses:
the perception of pain.
• a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression:
Hollywood's perception of the tastes of the American public |
we need to challenge many popular perceptions of old age.
• intuitive understanding and insight:
“He wouldn't have accepted,” said my mother with unusual perception.
• Psychology & Zoology the neurophysiological processes, including memory,
by which an organism becomes aware of and interprets external stimuli.
1 our perception of our own limitations:
recognition, awareness, consciousness, appreciation, realization, knowledge, grasp,
understanding, comprehension, apprehension; formal cognizance.
2 popular perceptions of old age: impression, idea, conception, notion, thought, belief, judgment, estimation.
3 he talks with great perception:
insight, perceptiveness, percipience, perspicacity, understanding, sharpness, sharp-wittedness,
intelligence, intuition, cleverness, incisiveness, trenchancy, astuteness,
shrewdness, acuteness, acuity, discernment, sensitivity,
penetration, thoughtfulness, profundity;
formal perspicuity.
* * * *
pes·si·mism| ˈpesəˌmizəm |
noun
‘a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen;
a lack of hope or confidence in the future:
the dispute cast an air of deep pessimism over the future of the peace talks.
• Philosophy a belief that this world is as bad as it could be
or that evil will ultimately prevail over good.
formerly he had been prone to pessimism, full of gloomy predictions about the future:
defeatism, negative thinking, negativity, expecting the worst, doom and gloom, gloom, gloominess;
hopelessness, lack of hope, cynicism, fatalism, depression, despair, melancholy, despondency,
dejection, angst, distrust, doubt; German Weltschmerz; informal looking on the black side.
* * * *
philosophy |fəˈläsəfē|
noun
(pl. philosophies)
the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence,
especially when considered as an academic discipline.
See also natural philosophy.
• a particular system of philosophical thought: Schopenhauer’s philosophy.
• the study of the theoretical basis of a particular branch of knowledge or experience:
the philosophy of science.
• a theory or attitude held by a person or organization
that acts as a guiding principle for behavior:
don't expect anything and you won't be disappointed, that's my philosophy.
* * * *
pride | prīd |
noun
1 a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements,
the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated,
or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired:
the team was bursting with pride after recording a sensational victory |
a woman who takes great pride in her appearance.
• a person or thing that is the object or source of a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction:
the swimming pool is the pride of the community.
• literary the best state or condition of something; the prime:
in the pride ofyouth.
2 consciousness of one's own dignity:
he swallowed his pride and asked for help.
• the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's importance:
the sin of pride.
3 a group of lions forming a social unit.
verb
(pride oneself on/upon) be especially proud of (a particular quality or skill):
she'd always prided herself on her ability to deal with a crisis.
1 their triumphs were a source of pride:
self-esteem, dignity, honor, self-respect, self-worth, self-regard, pride in oneself.
ANTONYMS shame.
2 take pride in a good job well done:
pleasure, joy, delight, gratification, fulfillment, satisfaction, a sense of achievement.
3 he refused her offer out of pride:
arrogance, vanity, self-importance, hubris, conceit, conceitedness, self-love, self-adulation,
self-admiration, narcissism, egotism, superciliousness, haughtiness, snobbery,
snobbishness; informal big-headedness; literary vainglory.
ANTONYMS modesty, humility.
4 the bull is the pride of the herd:
best, finest, top, cream, pick, choice, prize, glory, jewel in the crown.
ANTONYMS dregs.
5 the rose-covered trellis was the pride of the gardener:
source of satisfaction, pride and joy, treasured possession, joy, delight.
* * * *
prophet | ˈpräfət |
noun
1 a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God:
the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah.
• (the Prophet) (among Muslims) Muhammad.
• (the Prophet) (among Mormons) Joseph Smith or one of his successors.
• a person who advocates or speaks in a visionary way about a new belief, cause, or theory:
a prophet of radical individualism.
• a person who makes or claims to be able to make predictions:
the anti-technology prophets of doom.
2 (the Prophets) (in Christian use) the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
and the twelve minor prophets.
• (in Jewish use) one of the three canonical divisions of the Hebrew Bible,
distinguished from the Law and the Hagiographa, and comprising the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve minor prophets.
the queen was disturbed by the prophet's interpretation of her dreams:
seer, soothsayer, fortune teller, clairvoyant, diviner; oracle, augur, sibyl.
* * * *
reality | rēˈalədē |
noun
(plural realities)
1 the world or the state of things as they actually exist,
as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them:
he refuses to face reality | Laura was losing touch with reality.
• a thing that is actually experienced or seen, especially when this is grim or problematic:
the harsh realities of life in a farming community | the law ignores the reality of the situation.
• a thing that exists in fact, having previously only existed in one's mind:
the paperless office may yet become a reality.
• the quality of being lifelike or resembling an original:
the reality of Marryat's detail.
• [as modifier] relating to reality TV: a reality show.
2 the state or quality of having existence or substance: youth, when death has no reality.
• Philosophy existence that is absolute, self-sufficient, or objective,
and not subject to human decisions or conventions.
1 distinguishing fantasy from reality:
the real world, real life, actuality; truth; physical existence.
ANTONYMS fantasy.
2 the harsh realities of life: fact, actuality, truth.
3 the reality of Steinbeck's detail: verisimilitude, authenticity, realism, fidelity, faithfulness.
ANTONYMS idealism.
* * * *
religion | rəˈlijən |
noun
the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power,
especially a personal God or gods:
ideas about the relationship between science and religion.
• a particular system of faith and worship: the world's great religions.
• a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance:
consumerism is the new religion.
the freedom to practice their own religion:
faith, belief, worship, creed; sect, church, cult, denomination.
* * * *
religious | rəˈlijəs |
adjective
relating to or believing in a religion:
both men were deeply religious, intelligent, and moralistic | religious music.
• (of a belief or practice) forming part of someone's thought about or worship of a divine being:
he has strong religious convictions.
• belonging or relating to a monastic order or other group of people
who are united by their practice of religion:
religious houses were built on ancient pagan sites.
• treated or regarded with a devotion and scrupulousness appropriate to worship:
I have a religious aversion to reading manuals.
1 a religious person: devout, pious, reverent, godly,
God-fearing, churchgoing, faithful, devoted, committed.
ANTONYMS atheistic, irreverent.
2 religious beliefs: spiritual, theological, scriptural, doctrinal,
ecclesiastical, church, faith-based, churchly, holy, divine, sacred.
ANTONYMS secular.
3 religious attention to detail:
scrupulous, conscientious, meticulous, sedulous, punctilious, strict, rigorous, close.
ANTONYMS slapdash.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT WORD
religious, devout, pious
Religious basically means ‘relating to a religion’ (the patriotic and religious duty of any Jew)
or ‘believing in a religion’ (the word is regarded by many religious people with considerable
disapproval), and both senses are neither critical nor approving. Only in the second sense can religious
be used after the verb to be, or be qualified by an adverb, to express the degree of someone's
commitment (he wasn't a churchgoer, but very religious). Sometimes it is used in an extended sense
to suggest that someone attaches particular importance to a secular object or pursuit; there may be
a critical suggestion that such devotion is misplaced (he always had a religious obsession with fame).
Devout is used to indicate a deep and genuine religious commitment (he was a devout Quaker
and would not allow a pub in the village), and is an approving word. It is also used to convey total
or uncritical enthusiasm for or commitment to a secular object (a devout soccer fan).
Pious, too, can convey religious commitment (donations to the Church from pious laymen)
but is now mainly used pejoratively to denote hypocritical religiosity
(I know what's under that pious face of yours).
* * * *
sapient | ˈsāpēənt |
adjective
1 formal wise, or attempting to appear wise.
• (chiefly in science fiction) intelligent: sapient life forms.
2 relating to the human species (Homo sapiens):
our sapient ancestors of 40,000 years ago.
noun
a human of the species Homo sapiens.
* * * *
sentient | ˈsen(t)SH(ē)ənt |
adjective
able to perceive or feel things:
she had been instructed from birth in the equality of all sentient life forms.
any sentient creature should have the good sense to avoid something so dangerous:
(capable of) feeling, living, live; conscious, aware, responsive, reactive.
* * * *
skepticism | ˈskeptəˌsizəm | (British scepticism)
noun
1 a skeptical attitude; doubt as to the truth of something:
these claims were treated with skepticism.
2 Philosophy the theory that certain knowledge is impossible.
1 his ideas were met with skepticism:
doubt, doubtfulness, a pinch of salt; disbelief, cynicism, distrust, mistrust,
suspicion, incredulity; pessimism, defeatism; formal dubiety.
2 he passed from skepticism to religious belief:
agnosticism, doubt; atheism, unbelief, nonbelief.
* * * *
soul | sōl |
noun
1 the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
• a person's moral or emotional nature or sense of identity:
in the depths of her soul, she knew he would betray her.
2 emotional or intellectual energy or intensity,
especially as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance:
their interpretation lacked soul.
• African-American culture or ethnic pride.
• short for soul music.
3 the essence or embodiment of a specified quality:
he was the soul of discretion | brevity is the soul of wit.
• an individual person: I'll never tell a soul.
• a person regarded with affection or pity: she's a nice old soul.
1 seeing the soul through the eyes:
spirit, psyche, (inner) self, inner being, life force, vital force;
individuality, makeup, subconscious, anima;
Philosophy pneuma; Hinduism atman.
2 he is the soul of discretion:
embodiment, personification, incarnation, epitome, quintessence,
essence; model, exemplification, exemplar, image, manifestation.
3 not a soul in sight:
person, human being, individual, man, woman, mortal, creature.
4 their music lacked soul:
inspiration, feeling, emotion, passion, animation, intensity,
fervor, ardor, enthusiasm, warmth, energy, vitality, spirit.
* * * *
speculation | ˌspekyəˈlāSH(ə)n |
noun
the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence:
there has been widespread speculation that he plans to quit
| this is pure speculation on my part | these are only speculations.
his resignation fuelled speculation of an imminent cabinet reshuffle:
conjecture, theorizing, hypothesizing, supposition, guesswork; talk;
theory, hypothesis, thesis, postulation, guess, surmise, opinion, notion;
prediction, forecast; informal guesstimate.
* * * *
spiritual | ˈspiriCH(o͞o)əl |
adjective
1 relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things:
I'm responsible for his spiritual welfare | the spiritual values of life.
• (of a person) not concerned with material values or pursuits.
2 relating to religion or religious belief: the tribe's spiritual leader.
noun
(also Negro spiritual)
a religious song of a kind associated with black Christians of the southern US,
and thought to derive from the combination of European hymns
and African musical elements by black slaves.
1 your spiritual self: nonmaterial, incorporeal, intangible;
inner, mental, psychological; transcendent, ethereal, otherworldly,
mystic, mystical, metaphysical; rare extramundane.
ANTONYMS physical.
2 spiritual writings: religious, sacred, divine, holy,
nonsecular, church, ecclesiastical, faith-based, devotional.
ANTONYMS secular.
* * * *
superstition | ˌso͞opərˈstiSH(ə)n |
noun
excessively credulous belief in and reverence for supernatural beings:
he dismissed the ghost stories as mere superstition.
• a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation
leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or a practice based on such a belief:
she touched her locket for luck, a superstition she had had since childhood.
1 the old superstitions held by sailors: myth, belief, old wives' tale; legend, story.
2 medicine was riddled with superstition:
unfounded belief, credulity, fallacy, delusion, illusion;
magic, sorcery; informal humbug, hooey.
* * * *
supposition | ˌsəpəˈziSH(ə)n |
noun
an uncertain belief: they were working on the supposition that his death was murder |
their outrage was based on supposition and hearsay.
her supposition is based on previous results:
belief, surmise, idea, notion, suspicion, conjecture, speculation, inference,
theory, hypothesis, postulation, guess, feeling, hunch, assumption, presumption.
* * * *
theism | ˈTHēˌizəm |
noun
belief in the existence of a god or gods,
especially belief in one god as creator of the universe,
intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures.
Compare with deism.
* * * *
theory | ˈTHirē |
noun
(plural theories)
a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something,
especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained:
Darwin's theory of evolution.
• a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based:
a theory of education | music theory.
• an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action:
my theory would be that the place has been seriously mismanaged.
• Mathematics a collection of propositions to illustrate the principles of a subject.
1 I reckon that confirms my theory:
hypothesis, thesis, conjecture, supposition, speculation, postulation, postulate,
proposition, premise, surmise, assumption, presupposition;
opinion, view, belief, contention.
2 modern economic theory:
principles, ideas, concepts; philosophy, ideology, system of ideas, science.
* * * *
true believer
noun
(plural true believers)
Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning:
see true, believer. : A strict follower of a doctrine.
One who believes dogmatically in something regardless of evidence
or even conclusive proof that the thing is false or was staged;
one who has true-believer syndrome.
* * * *
truth | tro͞oTH |
noun
(plural truths | tro͞oT͟Hz, tro͞oTHs | )
the quality or state of being true: he had to accept the truth of her accusation.
• (also the truth) that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality:
tell me the truth | she found out the truth about him.
• a fact or belief that is accepted as true: the emergence of scientific truths.
1 he doubted the truth of her statement:
veracity, truthfulness, verity, sincerity, candor, honesty;
accuracy, correctness, validity, factuality, authenticity.
ANTONYMS dishonesty, falseness.
2 it's the truth, I swear: what actually happened, the case, so;
the gospel (truth), the honest truth.
ANTONYMS lies.
3 truth is stranger than fiction: fact(s), reality, real life, actuality.
ANTONYMS fiction.
4 scientific truths: fact, verity, certainty, certitude; law, principle.
ANTONYMS lie, falsehood.
ORIGIN Old English trīewth, trēowth‘faithfulness, constancy’(see true, -th2).
* * * *
understanding | ʌndəˈstandɪŋ |
noun [mass noun]
the ability to understand something;
comprehension: foreign visitors with little understanding of English.
• the power of abstract thought;
intellect: a child of sufficient intelligence and understanding.
• an individual's perception or judgment of a situation:
my understanding was that he would try to find a new supplier.
• sympathetic awareness or tolerance:
a problem that needs to be handled with understanding.
• an informal or unspoken agreement or arrangement:
he and I have an understanding | he had only been allowed to come
on the understanding that he would be on his best behavior.
adjective
1 sympathetically aware of other people's feelings;
tolerant and forgiving: people expect their doctor to be understanding.
2 archaic having insight or good judgment.
noun
1 test your understanding of the language:
comprehension, apprehension, grasp, mastery, appreciation, assimilation, absorption;
knowledge, awareness, insight, skill, expertise, proficiency;
informal know-how; formal cognizance.
ANTONYMS ignorance.
2 it was my understanding that this was free:
belief, perception, view, conviction, feeling, opinion, intuition, impression,
assumption, supposition, inference, interpretation.
3 she treated me with understanding:
compassion, sympathy, pity, feeling, concern, consideration, kindness,
sensitivity, decency, humanity, charity, goodwill, mercy, tolerance.
ANTONYMS indifference.
4 we had a tacit understanding:
agreement, arrangement, deal, bargain, settlement, pledge, pact,
compact, contract, covenant, bond, meeting of minds.
adjective
an understanding friend:
compassionate, sympathetic, sensitive, considerate, tender, kind, thoughtful,
tolerant, patient, forbearing, lenient, merciful, forgiving, humane;
approachable, supportive, perceptive.
verb
1 he couldn't understand anything we said:
comprehend, grasp, take in, see, apprehend, follow, make sense of, fathom;
unravel, decipher, interpret;
informal figure out, work out, make head(s) or tail(s) of,
get one's head around, get the drift of, catch on to, get;
British informal twig.
2 she understood how hard he'd worked:
appreciate, recognize, realize, acknowledge, know, be aware of, be conscious of;
informal be wise to; formal be cognizant of.
3 I understand that you wish to go:
believe, gather, take it, hear (tell), notice, see, learn;
conclude, infer, assume, surmise, fancy.
exclamation I want out, understand? get it, get the picture,
see, right, know what I mean, get my drift, capisce, comprende.
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wisdom |ˈwizdəm|
noun
the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment;
the quality of being wise.
• the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment: some questioned the wisdom
of building the dam so close to an active volcano.
• the body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period:
the traditional farming wisdom of India.
wisdom, understanding, knowledge, sense, insight, perception, astuteness,
intelligence, acumen, prudence, sagacity, good judgment, penetration.
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word association | wərd əˌsōsēˈāSHən, əˌsōSHēˈāSHən |
noun
the spontaneous and unreflective production of other words
in response to a given word, as a game, a prompt to creative thought or memory,
or a technique in psychiatric evaluation