• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

You Must Cultivate Your Own Garden - Voltaire

BSM1

What? Me worry?
I'm saying that is not possible. We are each other's business. Our well being depends on everyone else's.

Au contraire (see what I did there), my business is absolutely none of your business, and vice versa...
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Au contraire (see what I did there), my business is absolutely none of your business, and vice versa...
There are 2 kinds of posters on RF.
If they were my neighbors.....
Some would report all my projects to the building department.
Others would trade vegetables & seedlings.
It's the collectivists vs the cooperationists.
 

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
There are 2 kinds of posters on RF.
If they were my neighbors.....
Some would report all my projects to the building department.
Others would trade vegetables & seedlings.
It's the collectivists vs the cooperationists.
good comparison
the hull-less oats and barley i grew this year actually did alright, considering the carnage this season played on the other crops.....I have a few packets of seed i could swap for some of those tasty carrots m8 :D
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Au contraire (see what I did there), my business is absolutely none of your business, and vice versa...
Of course it is. Nearly everything you touch throughout your day was made by someone else. Everything you do in a day is being enabled and supported by someone else. Even who you are is a concept being defined as much by others, as by yourself. You wouldn't even exist but for a long line of someone else's 'business'.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Of course it is. Nearly everything you touch throughout your day was made by someone else. Everything you do in a day is being enabled and supported by someone else. Even who you are is a concept being defined as much by others, as by yourself. You wouldn't even exist but for a long line of someone else's 'business'.
Isn't this missing the point of the OP?
See post #15 for my inference approved by the bear.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Isn't this missing the point of the OP?
See post #15 for my inference approved by the bear.
When the suffering of others is not your concern, your suffering will not be theirs. And the suffering then increases, for everyone. Hiding from the suffering of others in your own little 'garden' only empowers it. And sooner or later it will come for you.

Remember that greed, and the violence and abuse it fosters, has no innate limitation. Those who succumb to it will NEVER be satiated. They WILL come for you and yours, eventually. Even if you do manage to get through life unscathed, yourself, your children and/or grandchildren, won't.
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
Of course it is.

No, it isn't

Nearly everything you touch throughout your day was made by someone else.


Completely irrelevant

Everything you do in a day is being enabled and supported by someone else.


Totally not true

Even who you are is a concept being defined as much by others, as by yourself.

Now this is just laughable (if you feel that you are defined by others, then you have my deepest sympathy)

You wouldn't even exist but for a long line of someone else's 'business'.

Rubbish
When the suffering of others is not your concern, your suffering will not be theirs. And the suffering then increases, for everyone. Hiding from the suffering of others in your own little 'garden' only empowers it. And sooner or later it will come for you.

Remember that greed, and the violence and abuse it fosters, has no innate limitation. Those who succumb to it will NEVER be satiated. They WILL come for you and yours, eventually. Even if you do manage to get through life unscathed, yourself, your children and/or grandchildren, won't.

Hyperbole (and smells more like a rant than truth).
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
When the suffering of others is not your concern, your suffering will not be theirs. And the suffering then increases, for everyone. Hiding from the suffering of others in your own little 'garden' only empowers it. And sooner or later it will come for you.

Remember that greed, and the violence and abuse it fosters, has no innate limitation. Those who succumb to it will NEVER be satiated. They WILL come for you and yours, eventually. Even if you do manage to get through life unscathed, yourself, your children and/or grandchildren, won't.
OK....you got a completely different message.
It seems that we each see that which serves us.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
brilliant, but in this time it comes off like marie antoinette
let them cultivate their own garden.......people have been dispossessed and such ready access is mostly, well denied, thus, one concludes that one must contend with the tyrants and evils that are plaguing collective butt from sheer necessity

That garden cultivator in the OP would change his tune if the Sultan's men came to his place and carried off his sons for the army and his daughters to be used by the men in the military.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Don't let the drama of politics ruin ones equanimity.

That's one of my weaknesses. There is a Muslim legend that Ali who was known for his prowess in battle was once fighting an enemy. When the enemy was about to be slain he spat into Ali's face. Ali dropped his sword. When asked why, Ali said that he had become angry and could not dispatch the enemy because of that anger.

I have far to go to reach that state.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
There are 2 kinds of posters on RF.
If they were my neighbors.....
Some would report all my projects to the building department.
Others would trade vegetables & seedlings.
It's the collectivists vs the cooperationists.

And some would be in the middle - reporting egregious misdeeds to the building department while being on good terms other times.

As some have said something like: some believe that the world is black and white while other totally believe that there are shades of grey and the first person is totally wrong. :D:rolleyes:;)
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
And some would be in the middle - reporting egregious misdeeds to the building department while being on good terms other times.

As some have said something like: some believe that the world is black and white while other totally believe that there are shades of grey and the first person is totally wrong. :D:rolleyes:;)
The old "there are x kinds of people" story
can allow for a continuum between the kinds.
Ya gainsay'n, nurple purple'n, lily fondle'n,
tin can crush'n, sock smell'n, ladle licker!
 

Wu Wei

ursus senum severiorum and ex-Bisy Backson
That garden cultivator in the OP would change his tune if the Sultan's men came to his place and carried off his sons for the army and his daughters to be used by the men in the military.

“Sai Weng Shi Ma”

塞翁失馬焉知非福 (Saiweng Shima, Yanzhi Feifu). It is the story of “The Old Man Who Lost His Horse” and all Chinese know it.

During the Han Dynasty—in the third century B.C.—an old man living on China’s border one day lost his horse. His neighbors all said what terrible luck that was, and sympathized with the old man. But Sai Weng said: “Maybe losing my horse is not a bad thing after all.”

Lo and behold, the next day the old man’s horse returned, together with a beautiful female horse alongside him. All the neighbors exclaimed: “What great luck!” But the old man responded: “Maybe this is not such good luck after all.”

The old man had a strong young son. The boy fell in love with the new horse and rode her every day. One day the new horse got spooked by a wild animal and threw the boy from her back. He broke his leg very badly and was permanently crippled.

All Sai Weng’s neighbors said: “What a tragedy, your strong son will never walk without pain again.” But the old man again said: “Maybe this is not such a bad thing after all.”

And so it went that when the New Year came, the emperor’s army passed through the border region and recruited all able young men to fight in the frontier war. Because the old man’s son was crippled he could not fight and was left in the village to farm with his father. Sai Weng said to his neighbors: “You see, it all turned out okay in the end. Being thrown from the horse and breaking his leg saved my son from fighting in the war and almost certain death. So it was in the end a lucky thing after all.”
 

Wu Wei

ursus senum severiorum and ex-Bisy Backson
To sum up and give the RF profanity filters a workout.....basically, to me, the whole "You Must Cultivate Your Own Garden" comes down to, "Don't let the ******** get you down"...or I suppose, to some extent, to quote Andy Dufresne "Get busy living or get busy dying". But in this case it is who you choose to help you live or who you choose to help you die.
 
Last edited:

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
That garden cultivator in the OP would change his tune if the Sultan's men came to his place and carried off his sons for the army and his daughters to be used by the men in the military.
or herded them into reservations to take the minerals under the farm, etc
 
Top