Stories of Your Life and Others

"As all things are reflections of God, so are all names reflections of the divine name."
"And what is an object's true name?"
"That name which reflects the divine name in the same manner as the object reflects God."
"And what is the action of a true name?"
"To endow its object with a reflection of divine power."

She, like many, had always thought that mathematics did not derive its meaning from the universe, but rather imposed some meaning onto the universe.

Perhaps I would see the soul, the ingredient of consciousness that surpasses physicality.

might determine whether mind could be spontaneously generated from matter, and understand what relates consciousness with the rest of the universe. I might see how to merge subject and object: the zero experience.

much is incorporated within patterns now that the entire universe verges on resolving itself into a picture.

It is a misconception to think that during evolution humans sacrificed physical skill in exchange for intelligence: wielding one's body is a mental activity. While my strength hasn't increased, my coordination is now well above average; I'm even becoming ambidextrous. Moreover, my powers of concentration make biofeedback techniques very effective. After comparatively little practice, I am able to raise or lower my heart rate and blood pressure.

You see, the foundations of our culture were laid in classical Greece, where physical beauty and the body were celebrated. But our culture is also thoroughly permeated by the monotheistic tradition, which devalues the body in favor of the soul.

Beauty has undergone a similar process, thanks to advertisers. Evolution gave us a circuit that responds to good looks— call it the pleasure receptor for our visual cortex— and in our natural environment, it was useful to have. But take a person with one-in-a-million skin and bone structure, add professional makeup and retouching, and you're no longer looking at beauty in its natural form. You've got pharmaceutical-grade beauty, the cocaine of good looks.

For me, one of the things that attracts me to a guy is if he seems interested in me. It's like a feedback loop; you notice him looking at you, then he sees you looking at him, and things snowball from there.

"He wishes I were still a kid. He hasn't known how to act toward me since I grew breasts."
"Well, that development was a shock for him. Give him time to recover."
"It's been years, Mom. How long is it gonna take?"
"I'll let you know when my father has come to terms with mine."