This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
We should not feel that something else gives life meaning, even some transcendental purpose… The religious aspect of life needs to be re-conceptualized to avoid the error of turning life into only a means to Heaven, Nirvana, or union with God.
Error | God | Heaven | Life | Life | Meaning | Means | Purpose | Purpose |
The Path is one for all; the means to reach the Goal must vary with the Pilgrims.
Means |
Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.
Elie Wiesel, fully Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel
What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It’s too close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically.
Knowledge | Means | Mysticism | Philosophy |
Computational irreducibility tends to make infinite questions undecidable. The presence of universality implies that there must at some level be computational irreducibility… This means that today’s mathematics will be viewed as small and surprisingly uncharacteristic sample of what is possible. If a system is computationally irreducible this means that there is in effect a tangible separation between the underlying rules for the system and its overall behavior associated with the irreducible amount of computational work needed to go from one to the other. And it is this separation that the basic origin of the apparent freedom we see in all sorts of system lie – whether those systems are abstract cellular automata or actual living brains.
Abstract | Behavior | Freedom | Mathematics | Means | System | Will | Work |
The use of creativity as an instrument for personal and social gain is by no means the whole story. In its deeper philosophical implications, creativity is a quest for meaning. It is an attempt to penetrate the mystery of the self, and perhaps the even greater mystery of Being.
Compassion is something you can develop with practice. It involves two things: intention and action. Intention simply means you remember to open your heart to others; you expand what and who matters, from yourself to other people. Action is simply the "what you do about it."
Action | Compassion | Heart | Intention | Means | People | Practice |
The social revolution means much more than the reorganization of conditions only: it means the establishment of new human values and social relationships, a changed attitude of man to man, as of one free and independent to his equal; it means a different spirit in individual and collective life, and that spirit cannot be born overnight.
Individual | Life | Life | Man | Means | Revolution | Spirit |
Niels Bohr, fully Neils Henrik David Bohr
An independent reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation.
Observation | Reality | Sense |
Attachment is a manufacturer of illusions and whoever wants reality ought to be detached.
Raisa Gorbachev, fully Raisa Maximovna Gorbachova née Titarenko
The maltreatment of the natural world and its impoverishment leads to the impoverishment of the human soul. It is related to the outburst of violence in human society. To save the natural world today means to save what is human in humanity.