Zen and the art of interstellar genocide.

[dogscoff]

The recent thread about turn processing time has got me thinking about better ways for me to spend my between- turn time.

I have always had an interest in Buddhism and certain eastern philosophies, and so I was wondering if anyone knew of any good Online resources for learning about meditation. I'm particularly interested in any kind of speed meditation, which could be practised in periods of, say 6 or 7 minutes spaced 15- 40 minutes apart, with occasional short breaks for tactical combat.

Hopefully, through patient and detached study of my own mind and self, I can gain a wider knowldge of the nature of the universe, perhaps resulting in some gnarly new stellar manipulation techs.

Remember, all compounded things are impermanent. Especially when Null Space Cannons get involved.



--
Dogscoff: about 24% serious.

[geoschmo]

"The Art of War by Sun Tzu" http://www.sonshi.com/learn.html

Not exactly meditation philosophy, but it is Eastern, and makes for good reading. Might actually help you win a few games.

Geo

[dogscoff]

That's a great read. Is that really it though? I'm into chapter 6 already, I thought the famous Art of War would be a huge, 10,000 page tome which takes 6 months to read and 12 years to understand.

I'm not belittling it because (according to that website) it can be read in 45 minutes, I'm just surprised.

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SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M>M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Work out your code at http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/se4main.htm

[This message has been edited by dogscoff (edited 29 August 2001).]

[CW]

quote:

---

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

---

I have the original Chinese Version at my place, and once upon a time I even attempted to read it but I gave up. The grammer they used so many years ago was totally different from modern Chinese. Ancient generals used to MEMORISE the whole book, I wonder how they did it!

[dogscoff]

QUOTE:
Ancient generals used to MEMORISE the whole book, I wonder how they did it!
/QUOTE

It probably wasn't such a big deal back then. Before telecommunications, widespread literacy and post-it notes people had far better memories, just out of necessity. Think about all the long and complex mythologies, stories and songs that were propogated for genrations by illitrate people by word of mouth.

Think about your average soap actor, commiting hundreds of lines of drivel to mmory every week...

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SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M>M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Work out your code at http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/se4main.htm

[geoschmo]

quote:

---

Originally posted by dogscoff:
That's a great read. Is that really it though? I'm into chapter 6 already, I thought the famous Art of War would be a huge, 10,000 page tome which takes 6 months to read and 12 years to understand.

I'm not belittling it because (according to that website) it can be read in 45 minutes, I'm just surprised.

---

I believe it is complete. I think I know what Suz Tzu would say...Do not confuse a quantity of words with a quality of wisdom.

Geo

[geoschmo]

Just for grins I looked at copies for sale on some book sites. Some were as small as 130 pages, and that's with pictures and other annotations, examples etc. I don't know exactly how much of that is Sun Tzu's words...

Geo

[Rich04]

Trivia question. How many people on this list know that The Art of War was only one volume of a larger number studied by ancient Chinese generals?

[CW]

I do. And I wonder how they memorised so much! (yes I MEAN memorising!)

[Sean92]

Another good book on strategy is "A Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi.