What is this mad and shameful weakness?

What is this mad and shameful weakness?

FSCJ Center for eLearning | PHI2010-Mod3PeterBrooksMahabharataKrishna_talkstoPrinceArjuna

What is this mad and shameful weakness? Stand up and fight.

I’m in anguish. I can’t see where my duty lies. Teach me.

What is Krishna doing?

He is speaking to Arjuna.

What is he saying?

He’s telling Arjuna that victory and defeat are the same. He’s urging him to act but not to reflect on the fruit of the act. He says to him, seek detachment. Fight without desire.

You say, forget desire, seek detachment. Yet you urge me to battle, to massacre. Your words are ambiguous. I am confused.

Krishna tells him, don’t withdraw into solitude. Renunciation is not enough. You must act. Yet action mustn’t dominate you.

In the heart of action, you must remain free from all attachment.

How can I put into practice what are you demanding of me? The mind is capricious, unstable. It’s evasive, feverish, turbulent, tenacious. It’s harder to subdue than taming the wind.

You must learn to see with the same eye a mound of earth and a heap of gold, a cow and a sage, a dog and the man who eats to dog. There’s another intelligence beyond the mind.

Passion drags us away. Darkness dulls our senses. How can I find this intelligence? With what will?

To reply to this question, Krishna led Arjuna through the tangled forest of illusion. He began to teach him the ancient yoga of wisdom and the mysterious path of action. He spoke for a long time, a very long time between the two armies preparing to destroy themselves.

All men are born into illusion. How can one reach the truth if one is born in illusion?

Slowly, Krishna led Arjuna through all the fibers of his spirit. He showed him the deepest movements of 1

his being and his true battlefield, where you need neither warriors nor arrows, where each man must fight alone. It’s the most secret knowledge. He showed him the whole of truth. He taught him how the world unfolds.

I feel my illusions vanish, one by one. Now, if I’m capable of contemplating it, show me your universal form. I see you. In one point, I see the entire world, all of the warriors hurl themselves into your mouth. And you grind them between your teeth. They wish to be destroyed. And you destroy them. Through your body, I see the stars. I see life and death. I see silence. Tell me who you are. I’m shaken to the depths. And I am afraid.

I am all that you think, all that you say. Everything hangs on me, like pearls on a thread. I am the earth’s scent and the fire’s heat. I am appearance and disappearance. I am the trickster’s hoax. I am the radiance of all that shines. I am time grown old. All beings fall into the night. And all beings are brought back to daylight.

I have already defeated all these warriors. But he who thinks he can kill and he who thinks he can be killed are both mistaken. No weapon compares the life that informs you. No fire can burn it. No water can drench it. No wind can make it dry. Have no fear and rise up, because I love you.

Now you can dominate your mysterious and incomprehensible spirit. You can see its other side. Act as you must act. I myself am never without action. Rise up.

My illusion is dissolved, my error destroyed. By your grace, now I’m firm. My doubts are dispersed. I will act according to your word.

THINKING PHILOSOPHY Analysis of Arguments

First step: Recognizing and argument. Recognizing statements

Second step: Distinguishing the statements that are premises from the conclusion.

Third step: Determining whether arguments are inductive or deductive. An argument is inductive if its conclusion provides information in addition to the information contained in the premises. An argument is deductive if the conclusion is inferred solely from the information contained in the premises.

Fourth step: Identifying the kind of inductive or deductive argument with which you are dealing. An inductive argument is a generalization if the conclusion generalizes beyond the evidence cited in the premises. An inductive argument is an analogy if it asserts that something IS true of one thing because of its similarity to another thing.

Types of deductive arguments: Modus ponens Modus tollens Hypothetical syllogism Disjunctive syllogism Dilemma

Some Logic Symbols stands for “If … then” stands for “therefore” __________ (a line) marks the division between premises and conclusion. ~ stands for “not.” V stands for “or.”

• (Kessler, 2013, p. inside back cover page.) Reference Kessler, G. E. (2013). Voices of Wisdom. Boston, MA: Wadsworth.