Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Feb 4, 2012, 3:43 pm
Let’s get back to the question of whether or not it is wrong to kill. One of the reasons this is such a confusing question is this idea of “nature,” and what is “natural.” We need only look out at nature to see what we would consider to be violence and murder galore. It is the way of the ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jan 26, 2012, 4:44 pm
One of the questions I have had when it comes to enlightenment, and the Buddhist philosophy, is in regards to the idea that it is wrong to kill another living being, an idea which strikes me as so similar to the Christian commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” The problem that I have with dogmas, ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jan 18, 2012, 2:04 pm
One of the things I find myself struggling with is the fact that you can’t always combat violence with passivity. One of the reasons for this is the obvious fact that violence can end the life of the passive, who therefore no longer has the opportunity to defend or express his position and ideas. ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jan 4, 2012, 11:34 am
I, again, find myself pondering the ideas of sacrifice and forgiveness. I am still confused about this idea many Christians have that “Jesus died for our sins.” This, of course, well-encompasses the issues involved in sacrifice, as well as forgiveness and redemption. I do not think I believe in...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Dec 10, 2011, 5:07 pm
When one talks about ‘changing the world,’ he or she is really talking about people, and the effects that people have had on the environment. The way to ‘change the world’, then, is to change people. And wise people will understand that that really means that the way to change the world is t...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Nov 19, 2011, 6:09 pm
As is typical with stupid people, as well as smart and manipulative people, the supposed “merits” of war, and the human experience within it, are often conflated, mixed up with each other. While it is true that the human experience in war can sometimes be profound and extraordinary, war itself ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Nov 8, 2011, 3:05 pm
One of the complexities involved with “love” and relationships is that often “selfless” acts are done for ultimately selfish reasons. For example, the way —— was with certain men she had encounters with. The things she did may seem selfless and “for him,” but they were really all ab...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Oct 31, 2011, 2:33 pm
I wonder about how and why people fall in love with each other. It seems to me that, more often than not, the reasons why one person falls in love with another person are more about him/herself than the other person. I think that this speaks, very much, to what real love is and what it is not. Man...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Oct 22, 2011, 10:48 am
The tools that people use against people like me are many, and they are often subtle and complex. They make you feel that you are wrong, stupid, arrogant, that you don’t get it. By the means of their conditioning—that they do not understand the way things really are—they are unable to really l...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Oct 10, 2011, 7:21 pm
One of the things I need to resist, and I think I have been doing it very well lately, is the pressure to jump into the system. People want to push you into the system, even if they realize that you may not fit in it well. It is hard for me to trust most people, because it is like Invasion of the B...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Sep 22, 2011, 11:49 am
I was thinking about how hard it is to be the only person that really believes in me, and how much better, and, in many ways, easier, it is when someone you really care about and respect and love believes in you, how wonderful that could be. But I do not have that, and so I feel that I need to find ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Sep 4, 2011, 1:35 pm
History is riddled with class conflict, the rich trying to control the poor. And complications inevitably arise when, rich or poor, wealth and material things are valued over kindness, tolerance, and love, so that the poor want to be rich, and the rich want to stay rich, so the rich exploit this des...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Aug 18, 2011, 11:17 am
Though deep down it is that which we fear most, that which is contrary to everything we truly are, it never ceases to amaze me just how much effort and energy people expend to be alone. Though we go through our lives blindly reaching out for connection, for solace, safety, understanding, in the end ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Aug 1, 2011, 6:41 pm
I am visited again by the recurring idea that I am living in a conditioned, structured, perhaps or perhaps not arbitrary, or at least particular, reality; and that this reality around me, this particular system of ideas, of the way things are, is not one into which I fit very well. I do not conside...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jul 22, 2011, 1:20 pm
It’s kind of strange, but I feel that I am not really much more wise than when I was young. I sort of feel that I have always had wisdom, and that life—the circumstances, baggage, illusions, people, etc. of my life—have kept me away from it, made it hard for me to access it, but that it is all...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jul 5, 2011, 2:25 pm
I remember when I was studying a lot of philosophy, and when things were pretty bad, that I was feeling pretty hopeless, that I was thinking about life: “Is this it? Is this all there is?” I had gotten to a point where I was feeling like I had a pretty solid understanding of people and the way t...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jun 20, 2011, 12:16 pm
The thought just occurred to me that this is what the Jesus story is ultimately about: letting go. It is about the “death” of what you are in order to be who you are. It is about a dying of the old, of your old illusory life, in order to be “resurrected” as who you really are. This is why th...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jun 10, 2011, 1:05 pm
That line from Fight Club: that it’s only when we lose everything that we’re free to do anything. Is this true? I don’t know, but there is much truth in it. I think that most people, including myself, instinctively (or, out of fear, if we are to be honest with ourselves) think that, well, you...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - May 30, 2011, 7:53 pm
If you are happy not because of what you have, but because of who you are, then you are in a great position. But I do not think that this is as easy as many people would think, for I do not think it is as easy to know who you are as many people think it is. I think, rather, that it is the hardest th...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - May 20, 2011, 7:35 pm
Going along with Spinoza’s take on the Adam (and Eve) story, it seems that the point of the story may be that humans can either do things as a child (out of fear of evil, or desire for reward) or as an adult (out of love of “God,” or reality, or what is) and that Adam, being the first human, a...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - May 13, 2011, 5:34 pm
The importance of motivation—it is interesting to me the difference between doing what is right and good out of fear of punishment or hope of reward—or some other selfish motive—and, on the other hand, doing what is right and good because it is right and good. Now, those who fall into the for...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - May 4, 2011, 7:28 pm
Spinoza seems to be an egoist in the sense that he contends that all things try to persevere in their own beings. Many ‘egoists’ express a similar idea, which is that all beings are, ‘by nature,’ selfish, in that their prime motivation is self-preservation and self-satisfaction. But I think ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Apr 24, 2011, 1:46 am
It simply makes me want to puke when people extol the supposed “virtues” of the 1950s—”Family values”, fighting the evil communists, the glory and honor of war, an utterly hypocritical closed-door immigration policy, etc. For what I see when I look at that time is repression, delusion, den...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Apr 15, 2011, 4:11 pm
Recognize the inherent hypocrisy of “conservatives” who decry government control of our lives and, at the same time, would have an organized religion (Christianity) dictate to people what they should believe and how they should live. Basically, it’s a fucking bald-faced lie. Are they so stupi...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Apr 8, 2011, 12:23 pm
How can we help people help themselves? We can give them information. We can teach them to think for themselves. We can show them a perspective—a way of seeing things—that they did not have/see before. We can teach them to have dignity. We can teach them about illusion vs. reality, to questio...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Mar 31, 2011, 11:20 am
Do we have the right to do what we want to our children, or do we have a responsibility to do what we can for them? We do not have the right to do whatever we want to and with our children. Children are not property, they are not “owned.” I have often pondered whether I think that having and c...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Mar 19, 2011, 7:29 pm
I am excited about striking out on my own, but I’m also a bit scared. Just now, the thought occurred to me that I was sort of hiding in that relationship, hiding from the world, from getting out there and being myself, of living life without fear. What was it about S, or the way I was when I was ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Mar 13, 2011, 1:12 pm
I find the issues, complexities, and dilemmas of war to be very interesting. Aside from the seemingly pointless inquiry into what is “fair” or moral in a war, the big question seems to be if there is such a thing as a justifiable war, and if there is, what are its characteristics? I do not beli...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Mar 8, 2011, 3:54 pm
That conversation that I had with T the other night at the bar, where he was, again, admonishing me for not being more like him, that I should “loosen up” and be okay with. I think the idea that we should do anything simply because we do not fear it is stupid. Just because you do not fear somet...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Feb 24, 2011, 4:14 pm
I find the predictability of people to be very interesting—how easily you can predict what one person will do, and how hard it is to predict what another will do. Even though, for example, we may be able to predict a co-worker’s behavior in “the office” every day—and we probably make assu...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Feb 17, 2011, 2:08 pm
The other night, I was watching The Last Temptation of Christ, and (probably because of the inherent religious overtones) I was having some trouble understanding the struggle between what some people call “the spirit and the flesh.” The yearning to be divine, while at the same time being all-too...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Feb 8, 2011, 4:20 pm
(See “Hypocrisy in Morality” for the first part of this discussion.) Most people have it backwards—morality does not determine motivations and values, values and motivations determine morality. This is why organized religion has it wrong, because it functions on the former—false—principle...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Feb 2, 2011, 1:03 am
Notion: Fighting for a cause (like in war) is different than committing a crime out of hate or greed, or even perceived need. There is no honor in committing a crime. On certain levels, this is an interesting issue, two seemingly valid opposing viewpoints. But the lines blur, don’t they? I propos...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jan 23, 2011, 2:03 pm
If there is a “Conspiracy,” it is a conspiracy of fear and ego; they are the conspirators. It is a “conspiracy” of desire for power, wealth, status; a conspiracy of weakness, arrogance, and presumption. These are the ties that bind those who wield—and are wielded by—them. People may not...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Jan 14, 2011, 12:27 am
The idea of “faith” is very important. But we must be very, very careful with faith, for blind faith is not only dangerous, but, I think, ultimately counter-productive. Faith does not have to be blind. It is important here to define our terms, to know what we mean by “faith.” Most people m...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Dec 14, 2010, 12:58 pm
I’ll be traveling for about a month, and won’t be able to post during that time. But I’ll start posting material again in January 2011. In the meantime, feel free to dive into the archives. There is a lot of material in there which you might have missed if you mostly read from the RSS feed.
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Dec 6, 2010, 2:23 pm
The concept of sacrifice is interesting to me. What is a “sacrifice?” What is a worthy sacrifice? To me a worthy thing to sacrifice is one’s illusions, one’s clinging to one’s beliefs, certainties, illusions, and assumptions. When one sacrifices her own illusory existence, she is sacrific...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Nov 29, 2010, 3:51 pm
It is interesting to read about soldiers who seem like moral people, soldiers who see a difference between fighting and murder. Obviously, there are liars and scoundrels both in the army and not in the army. How you behave in a given situation doesn’t necessarily have to do with being in the milit...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Nov 20, 2010, 1:07 pm
The tendency of people to sanctify the dead illustrates their inability to accept and grapple with the complex realities of human life. It is an avoidance of reality. It betrays the discomfort people feel with honestly and courageously facing themselves with an open mind, of challenging their belief...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Nov 13, 2010, 4:05 pm
I find it interesting, and a bit annoying, that whenever someone dies, usually a young adult, they are effusively sanctified by the people who knew them. They were the most amazing, extraordinary, kind, brilliant, promising person you could ever meet. The dead person is purified, made out to be a sa...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Nov 5, 2010, 2:35 pm
It is funny how so often in life something happens which acts as a trigger, or a catalyst, or a puff to blow away the fog, which helps or allows us to see what we should do. For example, job ending helped me to see that I should be doing what I said I should do: start living my life the way I think ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Oct 29, 2010, 4:15 pm
We are controlled by our conceptual frameworks, by our beliefs, our assumptions, our arrogance, our ignorance, our illusions; but to awaken is to learn to take control, to learn to control our beliefs and assumptions, not let them control us. That is power, that is freedom. True power is not contro...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Oct 20, 2010, 2:47 pm
I want to see what I can contribute. It’s not so much that I want to make the world a “better” place, for I think that is a more slippery and elusive slope than most people think. “Better” is an arbitrary and subjective concept. Rather, I want to contribute what I can to this life. What d...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Oct 13, 2010, 11:00 am
It may be that everything that makes up ‘the mind’ and ‘the spirit’ is a product of  ‘neurons’ and ‘neurotransmitters’ in the brain, that it is an ‘organic’ process. But why should the workings of the brain, which we hardly understand at all, necessarily preclude spirit, charact...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Oct 2, 2010, 1:36 pm
To live by other people’s judgments and beliefs is to live a lie, to live a life of illusion. I do not think, in any way, that people should live by “my beliefs,” or the way I think they should live. The only way this could be said is that I do believe that everyone should question their own ...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Sep 24, 2010, 6:02 pm
Most people live contrary to what they really want, but are so often too lazy, greedy, confused, arrogant, or ignorant to see. For to get what they really want would mean giving up their crutches, taking off the training wheels, trying to live life without clinging to the illusions of their conditio...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Sep 17, 2010, 2:23 pm
I think that perhaps all we can “know” are illusions as illusions. I suppose I need to find other people who know what I know. I do not think it will be easy, but it will probably continue to be very lonely. It’s funny to me how many people completely miss the point and think that these thing...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Sep 8, 2010, 7:19 pm
One of life’s difficulties is that people tend to think and speak in extremes and generalities. We say a person is nice—are they nice all the time? If they are nice most of the time and occasionally are very mean, what then? Part of the problem is that we may not be the same person from one mom...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Sep 1, 2010, 4:25 pm
It sometimes seems to me that the world is full of givers and takers—those who are generous and selfless, and those who are greedy and selfish. But, this is not to say that one is (at least, as they appear on the surface) better or worse than the other. Many people who outwardly seem to give reall...
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Robert Walker posted an article on Robert Walker Online - Aug 24, 2010, 2:09 pm
One of the things about which I am most passionate is true freedom, real freedom—(the) freedom from controlling conditioning and ideology, religious, political, or personal. I am angry about the way the world is run by big business, that money is more valuable than people and life. That money is t...
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