Re: CHAT: The Fabulous Personalities of Conlang

>Stephen DeGrace wrote:
>
>
> >--- In conlang@y..., Andy Canivet <cathode_ray00@H...>
> >wrote:
> >> Speaking of that... how many conlangers also have a
> >freakish interest in
> >> philosophy, religion, & mysticism?
>Moi aussi. Mysticism definitely, (comparative) religion yes-- from the POV
>of Jos. Campbell, e.g..; most philosophy, unfortunately, causes severe
>MEGO.
Sorry... MEGO?  Megolomania?

Yes - I really ought to read some more Joseph Campbell - I'm only familiar
with the power of myth - although my meditation teacher told me that
Campbell is really just a more accessible reformulation of Jung.  There's a
good book called "Ego and Archetype" which is along similar lines - the
mystic journey as a re-integration of ego (immediate conciousness and
self-image) and dynamic ground (sense-experience and the unconcious mind) -
the conscious being trying to understand itself in the world - basically
it's the age old hero-quest pattern, but with some interesting psychological
results.

As for philosophy - it's a lot like writing.  Just as anybody who can put
pen to paper might fancy himself a writer, any jerk with an opinion can call
himself a philosopher - and there is lots of that going on in these heady
post-modern days.  But take a look at Stoicism (and maybe Epicureanism too),
then read Chuang-Tzu and maybe the Buddha - these guys were "lovers of
wisdom" in the true sense of the word.  The essence of Stoicism is to try
and become like Socrates - to make the unexamined life which is not worth
living into an examined, conscious and deliberate attempt to overcome the
stupid assumptions we all have about ourselves and the world that keep us
from being happy.

>
>Thank you! An interesting site.  It seems I (personally) have gone >from
>Xnty to Deism.  Kash religion, if it ever gets formulated, would seem to be
>more
>like Shinto with a dash of Deism (the idea of a creator-god/force that
>takes
>no further interest in, and does not intervene in,  affairs of the world).
>(ObConlang:  They refer to _e parahambesa_ more or less "The First Cause"
>(<
>def.art, par- 'honorific', ahan 'create', mesa 'one'.)
Kash?  Sounds a like Taoism (sort of)

You just reminded me - does anybody have a good list of particularly
religious / mental / phenomenological / psychological words in Sanskrit or
related languages (Pali, etc.)?  Like Pali, the language I'm working on now
is intended to include a extensive and highly codified set of terms for
psycholgical states, etc., particularly those that relate to meditation &
mystical practice.  English simply does not have a lot of words for this
sort of thing (for example, Prajna, or Dukha - both words that require an
entire paragraph to properly define in English) - but my knowledge of these
terms is quite limited.

Andy


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