Is/ought

“No ought from is” would be
an is-statement
fundamental to any conceivable ought

(
unless the denial of all oughts including all ought-nots,
a statement of maximal possible ought-ness
derived from the non-ness of ought-ness,
no-ought from not,
ought ought-not from is not,
anti-ought ought from not-is is.
)

.

No one who believes it means it,
as meaning is the ought of is,
without which there could be
neither belief nor who,
and therefore neither being
(
much less
nothing
)
nor statement.

What purposes are served
by the presumption of purposelessness?

12 comments on “Is/ought

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  1. Ought-O lives! Love the parentheticals. (0: I know that symbol there just ruined everything–which is the ought-to, or ought-2 point. I didn’t make it up. It’s just the goofier, clown with a nose version of the smiley face text symbol. As opposed to sad-clown… )0:
    (0:

  2. Is/scought. That should be my blog name. It could be turned into a whole Snoop Dog language. Iss/le my is/scis/le. Is/scought my Is/ought.
    Sorry.
    It was bad enough that I turned Otto into a sock-puppet the first time around.
    Now you final write a poem like I’ve been requesting, and what do I do? I Is/schought all over it.
    Sorry.
    (0:

    • Could do a major name-game with “Scott.” By now you must have been through countless permutations of scat (both types), ska, scout, Scot, even before you start breaking it into pieces or throwing in the rest of your name.

      Didn’t one of the wisebeings you’ve encountered somewhere along the line give you a new name or special name or names? Or is it a secret?

  3. Not a secret. You remember. It was part of the segment excerpted from Yogic Love on the old website. In it, I tell the story of getting my Buddhist first name: Dorje. The first time I wrote it into the computer, spell check wanted to change it to Dork. I thought that was perfect.

  4. Oughtstanding.

    It depends on what the definition of is is.

    Maybe ethics is what we do while we’re trying to figure that out.

    So Scott – my understanding of Tibetan naming is the first name is the teacher with whom you take refuge, and the second is “your” name. So what’s your name?

  5. Song. My name second name is Song. Dorje Song. It’s perfect and the lama was so right. I live to sing.
    CK: Kendall is here with me. We’re drinking vodka tonics. She says she said, “So…you come out for kirtans.” You said, “What”? That went on three times and then you walked away. I thought I parented you better than that.

    • That’s not exactly how I remember it, Scott/Kendall. I remember her saying something like “So… you only come out for kirtans?” and my saying something like “Yeah, that’s it.” In truth I’m not aware of what other opportunities for me to display my lack of social fluency I may have missed. As for Saturday in purtikler, I may have failed to pick up on whatever other signals amidst the music and scene, and I didn’t see much opportunity for conversation. if I inadvertently offended her, I’m sorry, and it certainly wasn’t my intention, and, if I knew how, I would express nothing but good positive nice open approval of Kendall. My failure may suggest that I am or have become remarkably maladroit in my old age – which is why I come out only for kirtans and why even that may be too much.

      You still haven’t said how to pronounce “Dorje.”

  6. CK: Kendall told me not to tell you that she ended up puking tonight. Light weight. I thought I parented her better than that. Anyway, you pronounce Dorje Door-jay. It refers to the diamond symbol and it stands for “eternal embrace.” So don’t worry about your social fluency. No matter what, I’m bound to give out yoga hugs for all time.

  7. Oh, and there’s another kirtan tomorrow night, Saturday. Sura’s peeps. Temple Bhajan Band. Anam Cara at 6:30. Since the website you built is responsible for everything Anam Cara you should be there fluencily. It’s free.

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