"Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle. As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes afterward is oblivion.

The Cosmos is change. Our life is what our thoughts make it. How much time she gains who does not look to see what her neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what she does herself, to make it just and holy. All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you. All is ephemeral ~ fame and the famous as well.

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to. Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too shall be swept away. All that happens is as usual and familiar as the rose in spring and the crop in summer."

quotations from books II and IV of "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (A.D. 121~180) a Roman emperor (161~180) and Stoic philosopher

the ancient Stoic philosophy

East meets West is a two-way street. It always has been, and it always shall be.

quotations from the "Dao De Jing"

"Humans join spokes together in a wheel, yet it is the center hole (for the axle) that allows the wagon to move. We shape clay into a pot, but it's the emptiness inside that holds whatever we wish. We hammer wood for a house, yet 'tis the inner space which makes it livable. Humans work with Being, but Non-being is what we utilize."
Chapter 11

"Returning is the motion of the Dao.
Yielding is the way of the Dao.
All things are born of Being.
Being is born of Non-being."
Chapter 40

"The Dao gives birth to One.
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.
All things have their backs to the Female and stand facing the Male.
When yang and yin combine,
all things achieve harmony."
Chapter 42

"In the beginning was the Dao. All things issue from it; all things return to it. To find the origin, trace back the manifestations. When you recognize the children and find the mother, you shall be free of sorrow."
Chpater 52

"I have just three things to teach:
SIMPLICITY, PATIENCE, & COMPASSION. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions & in thoughts, you return to the source of Being. Patient with both friends & enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world."
Chapter 67

"Humans are born soft & supple; dead, they are stiff & hard. Plants are born tender & pliant; dead, they are brittle & dry. Thus, whoever is stiff & inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft & yielding is a disciple of life. The hard & stiff shall be broken. The soft & supple shall prevail."
Chapter 76

the ancient Daoist philosophy

WU WEI (Chinese)

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." ~ an old French Proverb describing the cyclic nature of the material world and human societies ~ cycles within cycles ~ succession after succession

karma & reincarnation (palingenesis)

PANTA RHEI (pronounced pahn-tah RAY) ~ Greek: "All things are in flux."

"It is wise to listen, not to me but to the Word (Logos), and to confess that all things are one. This world ever was, and is, and shall be, ever-living Fire (cosmic energy), in measures being kindled and in measures going out. You could not step twice into the same river, for other waters are ever flowing on to you. The opposite is beneficial; from things that differ come the fairest attunement. All things are born through strife." fragments from "On the Universe" by the Hellenic philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (circa 540 ~ circa 480 B.C.)

"Underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you are one with all that is. It is through the world and ultimately through YOU that the Unmanifested knows itself. You are here to enable the divine purpose of the Universe to unfold. Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness." Mr. Eckhart Tolle (born in 1948 in Lunen, Germany)

PAY IT FORWARD ~ a phrase made famous by Robert Anson Heinlein (1907~1988) an American science fiction writer ~ his most influential novels are "Starship Troopers"
(published in 1959) and "Stranger in a Strange Land" (1961) ~ kindly PAY IT BACK (reactive) and then PAY IT FORWARD (proactive) ~ a concept first found in Mr. Heinlein's novel "Between Planets" (1951)

Karma Yoga (AKA Buddhi Yoga) is a discipline of action ~ altruistic, compassionate, empathetic, philanthropic, selfless service to humanity ~ a way of life leading to higher planets and Cosmic Consciousness

cybercitizen & cybrarian TJ ~ a CULTURE VULTURE living in a VULTURE CULTURE

~ a chronicler of modern times ~
~~ TJ108 the cunning linguist ~~
~~ a Swedish-American lad & ~~
~~ blue-eyed Asian aficionado ~~

Asgard ~ Bifrost ~ Midgard ~ Yggdrasil

"As above (in the celestial realms), so below (in the terrestrial realm). The macrocosm is in the microcosm and vice versa." paraphrased from the "Emerald Tablet" of Hermes Trismegistus ~ thrice-great Hermes ~ Thoth

PHILOSOPHIA BIOU KYBERNETES
Greek: "Philosophy (is) the guide of life." the motto of the Phi Beta Kappa Society

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages."

a quotation from act II scene vii of "As You Like It" (1599~1600) by Mr. William Shakespeare (1564~1616)

SOL INVICTUS (Latin)

"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well." Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694~1773) in a letter to his son dated 10 March 1746

TCP/IP = Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

"All is flux; nothing stays still. Nothing endures but change." Heraclitus of Ephesus (circa 540 ~ circa 480 B.C.)

EXISTENCE = alternating changes ~ successions ~ vicissitudes ~ fluctuations of state and condition ~ cycles within cycles

"The goal of life is living in agreement with nature." Zeno of Citium (circa 335 ~ circa 263 B.C.) a Hellenic philosopher and the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy

Some call it magic, the search for the Grail.

"Democracy, too, is a religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses. The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." Mr. H.L. Mencken (1880~1956)

Just say "No!" to the New World Order.

Fie on the Illuminati and the NWO (New World Order). Freedom forever!

EST MODUS IN REBUS (Latin)

Alchemy is characterized by the Great Work (Magnum Opus) ~ which includes
the quest for the philosophers' stone, transmutation, and transcendence.

OMNIS (Latin) ~ OM (Sanskrit)

SYNCHROMYSTICISM

Ultimately, all of the answers must come from within. ^_^