married and divorced...

[Shostakovich]

My father who is in his 80's now told me not too long ago that all of life (human existence) can be reduced to just two things; sex and money.

Money is just a means of fulfilling desires.  It's the desires that people chase after.   

For most, instinctive urges are the strongest motivations in life.  You'll do far more to get a meal when hungry, get a good night's sleep when deprived and, in general, stay alive than you will to get sex.  Sex is not necessary as the celibate life proves.  In any event let's call it what it is, the instinctive desire for reproduction.  Once room and board are secured the attention quickly turns to sex.  This proves that, mostly, people are not very far from the animal - they eat their meal in a nice restaurant maybe, but they are constellated around instinct primarily.  But that does not mean that people are necessarily limited in that way, though, if you have a mind bound by instinct the products of those who have moved beyond it will largely remain obscure.  Make no mistake, however, people have moved beyond instinct and find in it a passion that in fact over-rules instinct, as when a soldier sacrifices his life for his comrade or a mother lifts the VW to save the child.  But these are momentary flashes while sustaining sacrifice for purpose is something different, as the case of Bohdidharma (founder of Zen) illustrates.  After coming to Japan he found the climate not too friendly to his teaching, so he sat for 9 years in meditation.  If he was fed he ate, if sheltered took refuge from the elements.  If offered a prostitute, he kept meditating.  Eventually they figured that he was an extraordinary man.  People like that leave the rat race of sex and money far behind.

   

[Seeker]

Money is just a means of fulfilling desires.  It's the desires that people chase after.   

For most, instinctive urges are the strongest motivations in life.  You'll do far more to get a meal when hungry, get a good night's sleep when deprived and, in general, stay alive than you will to get sex.  Sex is not necessary as the celibate life proves.  In any event let's call it what it is, the instinctive desire for reproduction.  Once room and board are secured the attention quickly turns to sex.  This proves that, mostly, people are not very far from the animal - they eat their meal in a nice restaurant maybe, but they are constellated around instinct primarily.  But that does not mean that people are necessarily limited in that way, though, if you have a mind bound by instinct the products of those who have moved beyond it will largely remain obscure.  Make no mistake, however, people have moved beyond instinct and find in it a passion that in fact over-rules instinct, as when a soldier sacrifices his life for his comrade or a mother lifts the VW to save the child.  But these are momentary flashes while sustaining sacrifice for purpose is something different, as the case of Bohdidharma (founder of Zen) illustrates.  After coming to Japan he found the climate not too friendly to his teaching, so he sat for 9 years in meditation.  If he was fed he ate, if sheltered took refuge from the elements.  If offered a prostitute, he kept meditating.  Eventually they figured that he was an extraordinary man.  People like that leave the rat race of sex and money far behind.

   

Dude, you continue to amaze me.   I applaud your post.

 

[Shostakovich]

Okey-Doke - seems we have a quorum.  If Sandro now would sing my praises that would round it out.  I'd then lord the likes of this over him:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Rw-CsXK1OwQ&feature=related[/youtube] 

[Seeker]

Okey-Doke - seems we have a quorum.  If Sandro now would sing my praises that would round it out.  I'd then lord the likes of this over him:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Rw-CsXK1OwQ&feature=related[/youtube] 

Don't let it go to your head.   

[BrianW]

Good to see another Nietzsche fan on board. "The Gay Science" and "Ecce Homo" are among my favorite books.

"I...am a wanderer and a mountain climber, Zarathustra said to his heart. What returns, what finally comes home to me is my own self. Alas, I have begun my loneliest walk, but whomever is of my kind cannot escape the hour...the hour which says to him, only now are you going your way to greatness."

[Shostakovich]

Good to see another Nietzsche fan on board. "The Gay Science" and "Ecce Homo" are among my favorite books.

"I...am a wanderer and a mountain climber, Zarathustra said to his heart. What returns, what finally comes home to me is my own self. Alas, I have begun my loneliest walk, but whomever is of my kind cannot escape the hour...the hour which says to him, only now are you going your way to greatness."

" ... 'Tis the stillest word that brings the storm, thoughts that come on dove's feet guide the world"

Don't forget "Daybreak"