7 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
    1. I have been dreaming in a troubled sleep Of weary days I thought not to recall; Of stormy days, whose storms are hushed long since; Of gladsome days, of sunny days; alas!

      Xantippe describes a “troubled sleep” filled with memories of “weary days," “stormy days,” "gladsome days" and "sunny days." All of which showcase a wide emotional spectrum that reflects the turbulence and instability of her inner life. As described in the Oxford English Dictionary, “weary” is defined as “having the feeling of loss of strength, languor, and need for rest, produced by continued exertion (physical or mental), endurance of severe pain, or wakefulness; tired, fatigued.” This definition highlights the depth of exhaustion Xantippe experiences, not just physical tiredness, but a profound emotional and psychological fatigue shaped by years of disappointment and suppression. The coupling of “weary” with “stormy” suggests that her life has been a mixture of long-term exhaustion and moments of upheaval. By layering images of fatigue and unrest, Levy conveys an emotional range that establishes the introspective tone of the dramatic monologue. This invites readers to witness Xantippe’s internal thought process, something historical accounts often have denied her. This emotional landscape also functions as a mirror ball to Levy's own inner life by reflecting in fragmented but vivid ways the themes that appear throughout her body of work. In the poems collected in "A Minor Poet and Other Verse," there is a theme of loss and burdens of being human. Her poem, "Sonnet" exemplifies this introspective shift by capturing the same sense of inner weariness, longing, and psychological strain that is felt through Xantippe. By reading "Xantippe: A Fragment" alongside her other poems, we can see how Levy's writing reflects different angles of the same emotional core, all of which emphasize the private struggles that women were expected to keep hidden.

  2. Apr 2025

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  3. Sep 2024
    1. our love of freedom is is one of the ways that we as apparently limited beings return naturally to our original condition

      for - comparison - Rupert Spira - limited human being striving for return to natural condition - Dasietz Suzuki - The elbow does not bend backwards - insight - freedom is our natural state - because in our contracted human form - we desire to return to our original expansive form - Rupert Spira comment - As Dasietz Suzuki observed, within the limitations of our form, there is a freedom - After listening for a 2nd or 3rd time, I noted something I missed on the 1st listening. A metaphor helps - My nickname reflects this desire to return to the original expansiveness. "Bottled up" and existing in a "contracted" human form, - we possess a natural desire to expand out of the contracted human form back into its original, primordial expansive state - This is indicated by our innate desire for freedom

  4. Aug 2023
    1. there's 00:08:43 nothing there that could be secured and here's the important point I think we experienced that we experience it as a sense of lack 00:08:58 that is to say the sense that something is wrong with me something is missing something isn't quite right I'm not good enough and the reality is I think all of us to 00:09:14 some degree have some sense of that some sense of lack even though we might ignore it or cover it up there's there's some sense of that but because it's mostly sort of unconscious in the sense that we don't 00:09:29 really know where it comes from
      • for: sense of lack, sense of self, sense of self and sense of lack, human condition, poverty mentality, alienation, separation, emptiness, emptiness of emptiness, W2W, inequality
      • key insight
        • sense of self is equivalent to
          • sense of lack
          • duality
          • disconnection
          • alienation
          • separation
          • solidification - the opposite of emptiness
      • comment
        • this sense of lack that is intrinsically associated with the sense of self is perhaps the deepest root of our unhappiness
        • this is a key insight for sharing for both those who have too much (the 1%) as well as those who are so materially impoverished and deprived that they are forced to adopt survivalist strategies to stay alive, and if successful, take on a hard edge to survivalism, over-appreciating materialism
        • the same mistake is committed on both end of the disparity spectrum, both groups are still under the illusion that that sense of lack can be filled
  5. Oct 2020
  6. Sep 2018
    1. But in this brightest and kindest world, the philosophical problems themselves become intimidating. A mind that stays at the same capacity cannot live forever; after a few thousand years it would look more like a repeating tape loop than a person. (The most chilling picture I have seen of this is Larry Niven’s story “The Ethics of Madness.”) To live indefinitely long, the mind itself must grow … and when it becomes great enough, and looks back … what fellow-feeling can it have with the soul that it was originally? The later being would be everything the original was, but vastly more. And so even for the individual, the Cairns-Smith or Lynn Margulis notion of new life growing incrementally out of the old must still be valid.

      This idea that the mind must continuously and infinitely expand is the essence of progression and, seemingly, immortality. As humans, we are constantly growing whether its physically, mentally, emotionally. We are constantly learning and progressing while shedding some old ideas, thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, perceptions to become better and more than we once were as individuals and humanity as a whole. It is possible for humans to evolve later into beings that can grow in all aspects, but it is difficult to say that humans could do so in order to breach our minds' capacity and go beyond to reach infinite knowledge and infinite life itself. We are limited by human condition and always capable of more; however, no more matter how much we creep upon it, the infinite will always be out of reach.

    1. Becoming posthuman means exceeding the limitations that define the less desirable aspects of the “human condition.” Posthuman beings would no longer suffer from disease, aging, and inevitable death (but they are likely to face other challenges). They would have vastly greater physical capability and freedom of form

      Posthuman beings contradict the human conditions that apply to my life, and every living being for that matter: immortality is non-existent. The passage alludes that the posthuman evolution will oppose the current human condition, and humanity will be redefine its physical form. A reformation in the modern humans understanding of scarcity is entirely different than that of the posthuman. With increased control over the posthumans physical capability are differing in juxtaposition to the human condition in the twenty first century: Prompting our modern society with the question of whether the human condition makes significant biological changes. The change from the former to the latter intertwines technological advancements with physical capabilities, although to what end? The human condition will be a backbone to the technology that manages the posthumans interpretation of reality.