"When the mood comes, I order a carriage; when I feel tired, I rest. A thousand thanks to heaven and earth for freeing me for such leisure. I feel sorry for the white-haired official who works the station; he's cast an entire life between the hooves of a horse."

--Yi Kyubo in "Written Under the Upper Story of Yosong Posthouse"

Why the website?

I am giving my books, songs, and artwork away for free, because I am a disabled veteran and if I sold them, I would jeopardize my pension. Another reason is that I think too many things in life cost too much money. Where most people who want a free culture express these views by stealing music and movies, because they think they cost too much money, I have taken a proactive approach and have instead released my books, songs, and artwork for free.

The greatest things in life are free and the greatest works have no copyright. If I want my work to last, the best way to do it is to not sell my copyright and license it for free distribution. Like most good writers and revolutionary thinkers, I will likely be thought of as more important after I die. As it is, the only writers who make much off their books are people who are already famous.

The website also allows me to reach people all over the world with similar interests with relatively little cost. And as media is going more and more digital, it makes sense to make use of this relatively new media.

Logo Explanation

I should explain what the logo is meant to be representing. The guy is a pen, which is me, which comes from my first poem in Philosophy Core, called Creative Process, where I refer to myself as doing Tai Chi, with my pen being my body. The idea is based on "the pen is mightier than the sword" so I created "the Bible is mightier than the pen".

The Bible is shooting out flames because in Ephesians it talks about spiritual warfare and the Bible is the only armament that is offensive. (It means offensive instead of defensive. These are common terms used in combat. The sword is the only spiritual weapon. All the other armaments expressed in Ephesians are protective and defensive in nature like a shield, a helmet, a breastplate, etc.)

The flames are meant as in James when it talks about being purified by fire or struggles with temptation in our lives. Isaiah also was purified by a live coal to his lips by a Serpahim. So the usage of fire is not evil or anything violent. Think of it as purifying.

I would ideally like it to show the sword turned inward to his chest, symbolizing like in many fantasy books that when they defeat the great evil force in the world, they are left with the greatest task, which is to defeat the evil within. The Bible is said to be a 2 sided sword, with the ability to cut between bone and marrow, and show the truth. Christ's tongue is said to be a 2 edged sword in Revelations, to defeat the Devil with. The reason I didn't show this is it looks like he is committing suicide.

The spiritual warfare is not against people, ideas, or even spirits. It is about fighting for the purity of our own minds. It is an internal thing. Like the Native American proverb "my greatest enemy is myself." This purity is in regard to our own sins and does not refer to purity in any other sense. But this is a process, not an outcome, as it is not possible for us to live without sin.

This warfare is only spiritual in the sense that it is not militant, social, economic, or political. This is for my own moral and ethical development and consists of practical qualities I try, with Christ's help, to cultivate like humility, compassion, kindness, and seriousness and do not correspond to anything supernatural.

Philosophical Issues 

The ideas come together like this: I don't think that anything happens as an accident. I think there is a reason for everything and everything fits together to form a meaning. We just aren't able to understand it because of our limitations. We assume that because we have free choice the universe can't be planned. We think that because of suffering and uncertainty that life is meaningless, because we can't accept that God places limits on himself too. I accept that there is meaning in life with faith, not by reason. God respects and values our freedom to the extent that he will allow us to spend forever in Hell if we want to reject His love and His plan for our lives by the simple step of praying a prayer of accepting that God is greater than us. God also allows much suffering to happen on earth because he values people and want them to carry out His plan for reducing the world's suffering. Unfortunately, few people follow God's lead and because of this we are primarily responsible for the world's suffering. 

Family Values

The main problems that this site deals with are not things I learned from reading, but things I have felt from an early age. My family was influential in fostering my imagination, independence, and my concern for others. Naturally I was interested in philosophical problems of suffering, uncertainty, and free will. Recently, I have had to learn about limits very quickly to deal with a recent living situation. So it is natural that I devoted a website to sharing with the world some of the the things that are important to my family.

Get to the Books

At the Ben Academic Fast Track website