Like in my other thread, who is your favorite guru, teacher, spiritual leader, philospher? Who opens your mind the most, who inspires you?
MARIE LAVEAU! Free woman of color, and she had a whole city at her feet! XXX Pa faire to sega are moi
Erich Fromm. Just ignore the socialism in his writings. J.L. Mackie Joseph Fletcher David Hume Jeremy Bentham Richard Rorty Edited Robert to David. Who the hell is Robert Hume? Oops!
For me a major inspiration is my husband. We are both intrigued (and some may say obsessed) with the human condition. We love to talk about sociology, politics, religion, and histroy while bringing eachother new revalations in philosophy and our general world-view. Sometimes our conversations can turn to heated debate, but we always learn something new from eachother and have helped eachother look more objectively at the world and the human species. My husband would tell you that it was Daniel Quinn (his book Ishmael) that first heated up his intrest in the human condition, and I would have to tell you it was my husband that first inspired me (of course at that point he wasn't my husband yet). And now? Well I just eat the stuff up. I find inspiration in learning and understanding others world views, and why they may think and act the way they do. I'll read almost anything, but I think it is the everyday person who inspires me most.
A few teachers, eastern and western who have inspired me, not in any special order of 'preference'. Sri Ramakrishna, Yogananda, Alan Watts, D.T.SUzuki, G.I.Gurdjieff. P.D.Ouspensky, Aliester Crowley, William Blake, Teilhard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo, St. Therese, Swami Shivananda, R.A.Wilson, Carlos Casteneda, Tim Leary, Aldous Huxley, Satprem and many more.
tim's degree was in clinical psychology... but when he was touring the college circuit (sometimes with his old nemesis g gordon liddy) back in the 80s, he billed himself as "a stand-up philospher"...
heh... tim said solitary confinement was very educational - he finally had time to actually meditate...
timothy leary was a tripping, drugged out psychologist who discovered LSD..but a fucking brilliant one at that
