DGs Favourite Tolkien Dust Jackets

 

Tolkien's favourite draft dust jacket design for The Fellowship of the Ring

One of the dust jacket designs for The Fellowship of the Ring

Dust jacket design for The Two Towers

Dust jacket design for The Return of the King 
The empty throne awaiting return of the King:
"In this place will I abide and my heirs until the World's end"

* Dust jacket designs by Tolkien circa March 1954 - images taken from The Tolkien Estate *

Victorian Hypocrisy and the Whitechapel Fiend

The Domestic Goblin attempts to read They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper written by Bruce Robinson which consists of 764 pages...

Started reading on:

Friday 3rd July 2026 at 21:30.

Notes DG made along the way

The problem for the Victorians was that they equated 'evil' with 'insane'.

Jack the Ripper was a killer in a killer state, and in my view more likely to have been an Englishman than a citizen of any other nation.

Concealing the Ripper was not a Masonic conspiracy, but a conspiracy of Her Majesty's executive, which almost without exception were Freemasons. 

It was a conspiracy of the System. The man [...] was 'in house' and unquestionably revelling in the security he'd spun about himself. The secrecy of Freemasonry.

Evolving homicidal signature.

He killed mother-angels who proved herself lower than the filthiest whore and cut out their 'cunts' as a trophy.

James Maybrick.

"The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing."

The Victorian authorities knew perfectly well that they were looking for a Freemason (or rather, that they were protecting one). But they didn't yet know who he was.

===

(Information from the internet: 

In the early morning of 30 September 1888, cigarette maker and salesman Joseph Lawende saw a man talking to a woman believed to be Catherine Eddowes, the fourth victim of the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. 

Lawende and two companions spotted the couple standing at the entrance of Church Passage, which led directly into Mitre Square, at approximately 1:35 a.m.—just ten minutes before Eddowes' mutilated body was discovered in the square. Because of the timing, police officials considered Lawende the most crucial witness who potentially looked upon the face of the Whitechapel murderer.

Despite providing a detailed description, Lawende consistently maintained both during his police interviews and at the official coroner's inquest that he would not be able to identify the man again if he saw him. He noted that the street lighting was poor, the encounter was brief, and he paid little attention at the time because the couple did not appear to be acting suspiciously).

===

We shall never know what Joseph Lawende saw.

The Commissioner of Police wasn't interested in detecting but in the strategy of avoidance. He was precisely the reason Jack the Ripper was never caught.

It became apparent that I wasn't investigating a mystery but why it was a mystery.

The Met were no longer a police force, but as a result of the efforts of certain senior officers had actually become a force for non-detection.

Grape skins and stones.

It was a common prejudice amongst the ruling classes that only Jonnie Foreigner carried a dastardly knife.

Matthew Packer, the Berner Street fruit seller.

Mr Durward Lely's tour dates and destinations coincided with letters.

Spurs on the S.

George Street and Conduit Street.

Tall and dark [...] handsome Gentleman.

Michael Maybrick and Toynbee Hall.

Moab. Midian.

Smoker the dog detective.

Maggots don't lie. They leave that to the Victorian police.

In such a crime the victim is the only witness.

The Canonical Five. Mary Jane Kelly was the only one murdered indoors.

Richard Whittington.

Transvestism is featured in the City letters, just as the joys of murder are in the Mets.

"If the police have a series of five homicides that demonstrate the same MO, we advise looking most closely at the earliest one, for it will most likely have 'gone down' closest to where the killer lived or worked or hung out...often that first crime is not thoroughly planned, but succeeding ones will display greater forethought."

(Robert Ressler - Psychological Profiler of violent offenders).

The fiends apparent termination of his homicidal activity seemed inexplicable. Why had he stopped? The general consensus to this day is that either:

1. He was incarcerated in a nut-house or possibly in prison for some other crime
2. He was a short-arsed seafarer currently in foreign parts or
3. He was dead

Or maybe the Ripper hadn't stopped killing at all. What had stopped was the police associating him with his crimes. 

Meanwhile a conveniently screwed-up non-entity called Montague J. Druitt stuffed his pockets with rocks and jumped into the river. They pulled his corpse out of the Thames on the last day of December 1888 and were happy to conclude that this innocent stiff was Jack the Ripper.

"No Brother may be admitted to a Lodge unless he is personally known to, and vouched for by one of the brethren present, or unless he be well vouched for after due examination". You didn't just waddle in.

24th October.

Carlo Fara.

The Cahills. 324 Heaton Road, Manningham.

Little Johnnie Gill, aged 7.

The Floating Ripper.

The Homicidal Milkman.

Horus.

Strictures of Ezekiel.

William Barritt.

===

Finished reading on:

Saturday 18 July 2026

12:56

Morisaki Bookshop

Owned by uncle Satoru.

Located on Sakura Street in Jimbocho.

Containing approximately six thousand books.

Specialising in literature of the modern era.

Everything was diffused with the scent of the Showa era.

===

The dampness after a morning rain.

===

"My boat travels lightly, drifting aimlessly at the mercy of the current."

===

Don't be afraid to love someone. When you fall in love, I want you to fall in love all the way. Even if it ends in heartache, please don't live a lonely life without love. Love is wonderful. I don't want you to forget that. Those memories of people you love, they never disappear. They go on warming your heart as long as you live.

===

* Post inspired by 'Days at the Morisaki Bookshop' written by Satoshi Yagisawa *

Sous Vide

Manners are the guiding principles of putting people at their ease, of not embarrassing others and of generally putting yourself second.

Good manners are selfless, not selfish.

Every situation involves a code of behaviour, whether people like it or not.

Etiquette evolves and changes rather than being frozen in a bygone era.

Where it was once about gaining skills to catch a husband or preparing to inherit the family seat, today etiquette helps us progress at work, make friends from all walks of life and simply become a kind, compassionate person whom others want to be around.

If polite conversation was an Olympic sport, Team GB would trounce every other nation.

It is still social suicide to ask what someone does for work as the first question. If you are at some professional networking event, then fair enough - your career has taken you there.

The big five topics remain taboo for small talk: sex, politics, money, health and religion.

Gravy is always ladled and never poured, even if the gravy boat has a spout. That is for the ladle to rest. The gravy is ladled over the meat and nowhere else.

* Extracts taken from 'Just Good Manners' written by William Hanson *

Bonus:

Etiquette is the guidelines to human interaction to have a pleasant time and to treat people with respect, tolerance and civility.

Etiquette is contextual.

Etiquette classes teaches confidence without arrogance.

If in doubt, don't do it.

Do you know the Bishop of Norwich?

(William speaking on Jaack Maate's Happy Hour Podcast).

The Abridged Version of Astrophysics

The Domestic Goblin read Neil deGrasse Tyson's 'Astrophysics for People in a Hurry' so you don't have to

The parts the DG understood

We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out - and we have only just begun.

Among all constants, the speed of light is the most famous. No matter how fast you go, you will never overtake a beam of light.

We cannot see, touch or taste  the source of 85% of the gravity we measure in the universe. This mysterious dark matter which remian undetected except for it's gravitational pull on natter we see, may be compised of exotic particles that we have yet to discover or identify.

Dark matter is our frenemy. We have no clue what it is. It's kind of annoying. But desperately need it in our calculations to arrive at an accurate description of the universe. Scientists are generally uncomfortable whenever we must base our calculations on concepts we don't understand, but we'll do it if we have to. 

As we've known from the beginning, dark matter does indeed exert gravity, to which ordinary matter responds. But that's it. After all these years, we haven't discovered it doing anything else. For now, we must remain content to carry dark matter along as a strange, invisible friend, invoking it where and when the universe require it of us.

===

Butter

Rika has dinner with Reiko and Ryosuke

~ Bagna Cauda served with a plentiful variety of steamed winter vegetables and a rich anchovy sauce.

~ Thinly cut slices of warmed salt pork.

~ Tofu and leek gratin.

~ Rice cooked in an earthenware pot with vegetables and chopped oysters.

~ Miso soup.

~ Dessert: homemade candied chestnuts; chiffon cake baked with amazakeband rice flour; and cups of gingery chai.

Victim statements

~ I've been lonely so long that if I can find a woman to take care of me when I'm old, I don't really care how ugly she is.

~ I'm not bothered about what she's like, so long as she' the domestic type who'll make me dinner.

~ She might be fat, but she's a real cosseted princess type. There's something unworldly Nd untouched about her.

Le Salon de Miyuko

~ A women-only cooking school set up by Miyuko Sasazuka in the affluent Nishi-Azabu district of Tokyo with fees starting from 15,000 yen per lesson.

===

~ In principle, all women should give themselves permission to demand good treatment.

===

~ P.S. I'm really curious about the recipe for the beef stew that you made for Mr Yamamura. I'd be delighted if you'd share it with me.

===

~ I learned from my late father that women should show generosity towards everyone. But there were two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine.

===

~ Add Echire butter and soy sauce to freshly cooked rice. Cool butter and warm rice. 

~ It tastes like you're falling.

~ It was a taste that could only be described as golden.

===

Tarako Pasta

~ Spaghetti with Calpis butter, pollock roe and shiso leaves.

~ Fish roe and butter makes for a truly exquisite pairing!

~ The blend of pink and fresh green puts me in mind of a countryside field in April.

===

Traditional izakaya dishes 

~ Braised burdock root

~ Edamame 

~ Atka mackerel

~ Tofu simmered in dashi

===

New Years Day food served in Tokyo Detention House

~ Ozoni soup

~ Red and white manju

~ Tiered bento box containing a selection of osechi

~ Deep-fried chicken

~ Nishime

~ Pork kakuni

~ Grilled fish

~ Simmered prawns

~ Kazunoko

~ Yokan

~ Datemaki

~ Pink and white kamaboko

~ Kuri-kinton

~ Kuromame

~ Fruit

~ Pure white rice 

===

Traditional dishes particular to the Niigata region 

~ Noppe (a simmered vegetable stew made with ratovabd shitake).

~ Hizunumasu (pickled cartilage from the salmon's head).

===

Dinner for One at Joel Robuchon 

~ Amuse bouche of lemon rind jelly

~ Bread and butter

~ Chilled avocado and snow crab topped with caviar and pomegranate seeds

~ Grilled foie gras accompanied by dried persimmons sauteed in butter

~ Flounder in white lemony sauce

~ Caramelised pork served with truffles and silky corn mash plus a popping candy surprise

~ Dessert: an Impressionist painting composed of fig confit and mascarpone, cakes, and coffee

===

Soup for indigestion made by Reiko

~ Scallions, daikon, goji berries and ginger.

===

Japanese bistro currently in vogue on the main Kagurazaka district

Healthy meals that use plenty of organic vegetables: 

~ Tofu caprese

~ Root vegetable ratatouille 

~ Brown rice paella with basket clams

===

Teppanyaki at Miyazaki

~ Water shield

~ White asparagus spears in white sauce 

~ A selection of grilled vegetables

~ Aged sirloin steak 

~ Rice cooked in garlic butter and the leftover meat juices

~ Dessert: caramelised apple with ice-cream 

===

Ramen restaurant on Yasukuni-dori in Shinjuku

Salt butter ramen with harigane noodles to be consumed:

~ Immediately after having sex

~ At three or four in the morning 

~ The colder the weather the better

~ Plenty of butter

===

Quatre quarts / pound cake

150g egg

150g flour

150g butter

150g granulated sugar

Optional: 

Zest of organic Japan-grown lemon

Vanilla essence

Glaze finished product with rum

===

Kajii's recommendations for restaurants and food to try in Niigata (Snow Country)

~ Praline cake eaten at festivities and gatherings

~ Raisin and buttercream swirl pastries 

~ Le Lecturer yokan

~ Butter from Sado Island

~ Kenshin junmai ginjo sake

~ Buttery waffles at the chain of restaurants owned by Kaji's local yoghurt factory 

~ The place in the old town serving a bowl of rice and topped with a large cutlet

~ The set meal served on a tray in the restaurant that specialised in rice cooked on a traditional stove 

===

Akiyama's Dairy Farm

The milk tasted like sunlight spreading out across the tongue.

Yoghurt waffle with whipped butter.

===

Masako cooks sekihan 

Red rice and cream stew.

===

Macaroni gratin.

===

Madame's cookery school

~ Soupe de poisson

~ Carrot, onion and cumin pie

~ Lamb with orange

~ Strawberry mousse

~ Crepe Suzette

~ Sea urchin with beurre blanc sauce

~ White asparagus in a hollandaise sauce.

===

~ Roast turkey stuffed with giblets, chestnuts, pine nuts and mochi rice.

===

* Information taken from the book 'Butter' written by Asako Yuzuki *

Pastasciutta

Information taken from 'The Futurist Cookbook' written by Filippo Tomaso Marinetti 

~ All the defenders of pasta and implacable enemies of Futurist cooking are melancholy types, content with their melancholy and propagandists of melancholy.

 ~ Pasta - the gloomy satisfaction of stopping up a black hole. This voracious hole is an incurable sadness.[...] nothing can fill it. Only a futurist meal can lift their spirits.

~ Pasta is anti-virile because a heavy bloated stomach does not encourage physical enthusiasm for a woman, nor favour the possibility of possessing her at any time.

~ The habitual and exaggerated use of pasta certainly causes obesity and exaggerated abdominal volume. The great consumers of pasta have slow and Pacific characters, while meat eaters are quick and aggressive (Prof. Nicola Pender - Clinician).

~ To vary our foods is a biological law; experience shows the constant repetition of the same food is a cause of damage (Prof. Senator U. Gabbi - Clinician).

~ I believe that the use of pasta may be harmful to intellectual workers, to people who lead a sedentary life and, above all, to people who allow themselves meat and other dishes as well (Prof. Senator Albertoni).

~ It's a matter of taste and of the price in the market. In any case the best thing is a mixed diet and never one based on a single food (Prof. A. Herlitzka -Physiologist).

~ The nutritive value of pastasciutta does not offer any special characteristics that might make it preferable to those of other types of farinaceous foods (Prof. Antonio Riva - Clinician).

~ Pasta cannot be considered a food which is easily digested because it dilates the stomach and unlike bread does not undergo a sufficient preparation through mastication (Prof  Dr C. Tarchetti).

~ The Duke of Bovino, Mayor of Naples, declared that the Angels in Paradise eat nothing but vermicelli with tomato sauce.

~ Cavaliere Pettini, head chef to the King of Italy, says: It is beyond doubt that all farinaceous foods weigh the body down and in consequence are a threat to the intelligence. He also says: The necessity of innovations, of modernism in cooking too, a business which must also respond to the times and even lead them.

~ Schopenhauer styled [pasta] the food of the resigned. Alas, even our upper classes, the intellectuals, even the so-called leaders don't know how to feed themselves properly.

~ Surgeon, Giovanni da Vigo, gave an explicit formal warning against the abuse of pasta, the prescription for a bloated sixteenth century: all the pasta dishes must be used very infrequently.

~ Libero Glaucoma Silvano wrote: wasn't it time to do something about that barbaric food [...] I'm speaking of macaroni in a sauce.

~ Dacovio Saraceni wrote: macaroni was born and raised among the Ostrogoth who often enjoyed comforting themselves with him.

~ Audisio wrote: yes, pasta really is a dictatorship of the stomach.

~ Marinetti wrote in his manifesto: no more spaghetti for the Italians.

~ It is not just a question of replacing pasta with rice, or of ordering one dish to another, but of inventing new foods.

===

Bonus quote from an unknown source:

"Scientists have found that the gene for low IQ is biologically paired with that of a fondness for pasta".

The Italian Futurist Movement

 Banquet for the Milanese Futurists

15th November 1930

The Penna d'Oca restaurant 

Oie grasse

Ice cream on the moon

Tears of the god 'Gavi'

Consumato of roses and sunshine

Mediterranean favourite zig, zug, zag

Roast lamb in lion sauce

Little salad at daybreak 

Blood of Bacchus 'from the Ricasoli estate'

Well-tempered little artichoke wheels

Spun sugar rain

Exhilarating 'cinzano' foam

Fruit gathered in Eve's garden

Coffee and liqueurs

===

The First Futurist Dinner

8th March 1931

The Holy Palate Restaurant 

Intuitive Antipasto

Sunshine Soup

Totalrice (Italian style risotto seasoned with beer, wine and fondue)

Aerofood (tactile with sounds and smells)

Ultravirile

Sculpted Meat

Edible Landscape

Italian Sea

Mediterranean Salad

Chickenfiat

Equator + North Pole

Elasticake

Network in the Sky

Fruits of Italy

Wines by Costa

Beers by Metzger

Spumanti by Cora

Perfumes by Dory

===

Examples of Definitive Futurist Dinners

Wedding Banquet

A tureen of magnificent soup (rice, chicken livers and beans in quail broth)

A tray of Milanese saffron risotto and an abundance of truffles

Sauteed mushrooms 

Fernet for everyone 

A Dinner of White Desire

 Twenty fresh white eggs injected with a delicate perfume of acacia flowers

A large turren of cold milk with cubes of mozzarella cheese and sweet white Muscat grapes 

A tray laden with piece of coconut studded with nougat enclosed in layers of butter and arranged on a bed of boiled rice and whipped cream

Undiluted abuse, grappa or gin

Serves ten

* Information derived from 'The Futurist Cookbook' written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti *

Osric Wolf

The Quill of Osric Award nominees for the best crime novel by a Cotswold author are:

• James Langford for The Return of Lulu And Lucia

• Uncle Mirth for Goodbye, Mr Kafka

• Jack Wilmot for The Eye of Lykos

• Walter Mitford for The Stiletto Dagger

Father Brown: Series 11, Episode 6

Domestic Goblin's Journey into Moral Philosophy and Ethics

After watching 'The Good Place' in 2019/2020 and re-watching it again in 2022; the Domestic Goblin was inspired by Chidi Anagonye and Eleanor Shellstrop to improve her mind by reading extensively into moral philosophy and ethics.

Moral philosophy and ethics is the search for answers to the following four questions:

1. What are we doing?
2. Why are we doing it?
3. Is there something we could do that’s better?
4. Why is it better?

List of books to read:

• How To Be Perfect written by Michael Schur
• A Treatise of Human Nature written by David Hume
• Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals written by Immanuel Kant
• The Metaphysics of Morals written by Immanuel Kant
• The Nicomachean Ethics written by Aristotle
• Tao Te Ching written by Lao Tzu
• What We Owe to Each Other written by T. M. Scanlon

Summarising notes

How To Be Perfect

~ This sandwich is morally problematic. But it’s also delicious. Can I still eat it?

~The leopard can, but won't, change his spots.

~ How do we deal with loved ones whose beliefs and behaviours cause us pain and deemed incompatible with our sense of integrity? 

• Maybe we try to get to the bottom of their views, find their root cause and work to change this person's mind. 

• Maybe we explain that while they may think they are just expressing an opinion or making a joke, their words risk damaging our relationship with them and that remaining silent as they say these things threatens our own sense of integrity.

~ What people who want to sound fancy say and what they actually mean:

• Kafkaesque = eerie
• Surrealist = weird looking
• Ironic = annoying
• Existential = dark/sad/bleak/despairing
• Freudian = penis related
• Post-modern = recent
• Orwellian = I got banned from social media for being racist

~ Know thyself. Nothing in excess.

A Treatise of Human Nature

This was supposed to be an easy start with an empirical investigation into human nature. Hardly. After page 20, DG's eyes started to glaze over. 

DG was distracted and could not concentrate on any of the contents.

Moving onto Immanuel Kant...

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

1) Formal philosophy = logic.

2) Material philosophy = laws of nature and laws of freedom:

2a) Laws of nature = physics (doctrine of nature).

2b) Laws of freedom = ethics (doctrine of morals).

Logic can have no empirical part.

Grounds taken from experience is empirical.

Concept of duty and conforming to duty.

To preserve one's life; to be beneficient where one can (helping people who are less fortunate than you are); and to assure one's own happiness can be deemed as indirect duty.

There is also duty of action out of respect for the law. Is there any moral worth to direct duty?

Everything in nature works in accordance with laws. Only a rational being has the capacity to act in accordance with the representation of laws, that is, in accordance with principles, or has a will. Since reason is required for the derivation of actions from laws, the will is nothing other than practical reason.

Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law of nature. (If you do an action, then everyone else should also be able to do it).

Maxim: the reason(s) for your action.

So act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at

the same time as an end, never merely as a means.

(Ask whether your action can be consistent with the idea of humanity as an end in itself).

As a rational being, and thus as a being belonging to the intelligible world, the human being can never think of the causality of his own will otherwise than under the idea of freedom.

The Metaphysics of Morals

The moralist says that there is only one virtue and one doctrine of virtue, that is, a single system that connects all duties of virtue by one principle.

Duty is that action to which someone is bound. It is therefore the matter of obligation, and there can be one and the same duty (as to the action) although we can be bound to it in different ways.

An action that is neither commanded nor prohibited is merely permitted, since there is no law limiting one’s freedom with regard to it and so too no duty. Such an action is called morally indifferent.

An action is called a deed insofar as it comes under obligatory laws and hence as the subject, in doing it, is considered in terms of the freedom of his

choice. By such an action the agent is regarded as the author of its effect, and this, together with the action itself, can be imputed to him, if one is previously

acquainted with the law by virtue of which an obligation rests on these.

External objects that are yours or mine: I shall not call an apple mine because I have it in my hand (possess it physically), but only if I can say that I possess it even though I have put it down, no matter where. 

In the same way, I shall not be able to say that the land on which I have lain down is mine because I am on it, but only if I can assert that it still remains in my possession even though I have left the place.

So there follows from pro-creation a duty to preserve and care for its offspring; that is, children, as persons, have by their procreation an original innate (not acquired) right to the care of their parents until they are able to look after themselves, and they have

this right directly by law without any special act being required to establish this right.

From a practical point of view, it is a necessary idea to

regard the act of pro-creation as one by which we have brought a person into the world without their consent and on our own initiative, for which deed the parents

incur an obligation to make the child content with their condition so far as they

can. 

They cannot destroy their child as if the child were something they had made (since a being endowed with freedom cannot be a product of this kind) or as if the child were their property, nor can they even just abandon the child to chance, since they have brought not merely a worldly being, but a citizen of the world into a condition which cannot now be indifferent to them even just according to concepts of right.

From this duty there must also arise the right of parents to manage and develop the child, the right not only to feed and care for the child but to educate them, to develop them both pragmatically, so that in the future the child can look after themselves and make their way in life, and morally, since otherwise the fault for having neglected the child would fall on the parents. 

Parents have the right to do all this until the time of their child's emancipation when they renounce their parental right to direct him as well as any claim to be compensated for their support and pains up till now. After they have completed the child's education, the only obligation (to their parents) with which they can charge the child is a mere duty of virtue, namely the duty of gratitude.

The Nicomachean Ethics

All knowledge and every pursuit aims at some good: happiness, living well and doing well. 

Different people will have different views as to what happiness means or looks like.

Pleasure (life of enjoyment).

Honour (political life).

Self-sufficiency (contemplative life).

What is the function of mankind?

A complete life.

Money-making is a compulsion. Wealth is not the good we are seeking; it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.

Happiness is prized and divine.

Virtue is intellectual and moral.

Moral excellence is concerned with pleasures and

pains; it is on account of the pleasure that we do bad things, and on account of the pain that we abstain from noble ones. 

Virtue and vice are concerned with the same things. 

Objects of choice:

1. the noble 
2. the advantageous 
3. the pleasant

Objects of avoidance: 

1. the base
2. the injurious
3. the painful

Three kinds of things found in the soul:  

1. Passions
2. Faculties 
3. States of character

Passions

Appetite, anger, fear, confidence, envy, joy, friendly feeling, hatred, longing, emulation, pity, and the feelings that are accompanied by pleasure or pain.

Faculties

What we are capable of feeling, such as becoming angry or being pained or feeling pity.

States of character 

How well or badly we stand with reference to the

passions, for example, we stand badly when we feel violently angry and we stand well if we feel  moderately angry; and similarly with reference to the other passions.

Passions and actions can be done in excess, defect or intermediate.

(Then it starts to feel like Aristotle is stuck in a loop repeating himself under different chapter titles...until near the end, he moves into friendship).

To be happy we will need virtuous friends.

We should neither be friendless nor have an excessive number of friends.

Friends made with a view to utility or friends made with a view to pleasure - a few is enough.

But in regards to good friends - great friendship too

can only be felt towards a few people.

Do we need friends more in good fortune or in bad?

The presence of friends seems desirable in all circumstances.

Another question that arises is whether friendships should or should not be broken off when the other party does not remain the same. 

(Then Aristotle goes on further repetitive loops until the end of the book...)

Tao Te Ching / 道德經 / Scripture of Morality 

8) Not to honour men of worth will keep the people from contention; not to value goods which are hard to come by will keep them from theft; not to display what is desirable will keep them from being unsettled of mind.

9) Therefore in governing the people, the sage empties their minds but fills their bellies, weakens their wills but strengthens their bones. He always keeps them innocent of knowledge and free from desire, and ensures that the clever never dare to act.

 

10) Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

105) There is no crime greater than having too many desires;

There is no disaster greater than not being content;

There is no misfortune greater than being covetous.

105a) Hence in being content, one will always have enough.

121) The court is corrupt,

The fields are overgrown with weeds,

The granaries are empty;

Yet there are those dressed in fineries,

With swords at their sides,

Filled with food and drink,

And possessed of too much wealth.

This is known as taking the lead in robbery.

121a) Far indeed is this from the way.

194) Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. 

Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good. 

He who knows has no wide learning; he who has wide learning does not know.

195 ) The sage does not hoard.

Having bestowed all he has on others, he has yet more;

Having given all he has to others, he is richer still.

196) The way of heaven benefits and does not harm; the way of the sage is bountiful and does not contend.

Hua Hu Ching / 化胡經 / Scriptures of Hu

The Integral Way:

The practice of undiscriminating virtue: taking care of those who are deserving; also, and equally, taking care of those who are not. When you extend your virtue in all directions without discriminating, your feet are firmly planted on the path that returns to the Tao. 

To embrace all things: one holds no anger or resistance toward any idea or thing, living or dead, formed or formless. Acceptance is the very essence of the Tao. To embrace all things means also that one rids oneself of any concept of separation [...] one enters in the harmonious oneness of all things.

To practice virtue is to selflessly offer assistance to others, giving without limitation one's time, abilities, and possessions in service, whenever and wherever needed, without prejudice concerning the identity of those in need. If your willingness to give blessings is limited, so also is your ability to receive them. 

Those who wish to attain oneness must practice undiscriminating virtue. They must dissolve all ideas of duality: good and bad, beautiful and ugly, high and low. They will be obliged to abandon any mental bias born of cultural or religious belief. Indeed, they should hold their minds free of any thought which interferes with their understanding of the universe as a harmonious oneness. The beginning of these practices is the beginning of liberation.

Stop striving after admiration.

To the ordinary being, others often require tolerance. To the highly evolved being, there is no such thing as tolerance, because there is no such thing as other.

Do not go about worshipping deities and religious institutions as the  source of the subtle truth To do so is to place intermediaries between yourself and the divine, and to make of yourself a beggar who looks outside for a treasure that is hidden inside his own breast. If you want to worship the Tao, first discover it in your own heart. Then yourworship will be meaningful.

To the ordinary person, the body of humanity seems vast. In truth, it is neither bigger nor smaller than anything else.

To the ordinary person, there are others whose awareness needs raising. In truth, there is no self, and no other. 

To the ordinary person, the temple is sacred and the field is not. This, too, is a dualism which runs counter to the truth. 

Those who are highly evolved maintain an undiscriminating perception. Seeing everything, labeling nothing, they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness.

The clairvoyant may see forms which are elsewhere, but he cannot see the formless. The telepathic may communicate directly with the mind of another, but he cannot communicate with one who has achieved no-mind. The telekinetic may move an object without touching it, but he cannot move the intangible. 

Such abilities have meaning only in the realm of duality. Therefore, they are meaningless. Within the Great Oneness, though there is no such thing as clairvoyance, telepathy, or telekinesis, all things are seen, all things understood, all things forever in their proper places.

The highest truth cannot be put into words. Therefore the greatest teacher has nothing to say. He simply gives himself in service, and never worries.

Choose food, clothing, and shelter that accords with nature. Rely on your own body for transportation. Allow your work and your recreation to be one and the same. Do exercise that develops your whole being and nor just your body. Listen to music that bridges the three spheres of your being. Choose leaders for their virtue rather than their wealth or power. Serve others and cultivate yourself simultaneously. Understand that true growth comes from meeting and solving the problems of life in a way that is harmonizing to yourself and to others. If you can follow these simple old ways, you will be continually renewed.

The Integral Way depends on decreasing, not increasing; to correct your mind, rely on not-doing. Stop thinking and clinging to complications; keep your mind detached and whole.  Eliminate mental muddiness and obscurity; keep your mind crystal clear. Avoid daydreaming and allow your pure original insight to emerge. Quiet your emotions and abide in serenity. Don't go crazy with the worship of idols, images, and ideas; this is like putting a new head on top of the head you already have. Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.

Dualistic thinking is a sickness. Religion is a distortion. Materialism is cruel. Blind spirituality is unreal. Chanting is no more holy than listening to the murmur of a stream, counting prayer beads no more sacred than simply breathing, religious robes no more spiritual than work clothes. If you wish to attain oneness with the Tao, don't get caught up in spiritual superficialities. Instead, live a quiet and simple life, free of ideas and concepts. Find contentment in the practice of undiscriminating virtue, the only true power. Giving to others selflessly and anonymously, radiating light throughout the world and illuminating your own darknesses, your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all beings. This is what is meant by embodying the Tao.

Those who want to know the truth of the universe should practice the four cardinal virtues:

1. The first is reverence for all life; this manifests as unconditional love and respect for oneself and all other beings. 
2. The second is natural sincerity; this manifests as honesty, simplicity, and faithfulness. 
3. The third is gentleness; this manifests as kindness, consideration for others, and sensitivity to spiritual truth. 
4. The fourth is supportiveness; this manifests as service to others without expectation of reward. 

The four virtues are not an external dogma but 

a part of your original nature. When practiced, they give birth towisdom and evoke the five blessings: health, wealth, happiness, longevity, and peace.

Do you think you can clear your mind by sitting constantly in silent meditation? This makes your mind narrow, not clear. 

Integral awareness is fluid and adaptable, present in all places and at all times. That is true meditation. Who can attain clarity and simplicity by avoiding the world? The Tao is clear and simple, and it doesn't avoid the world. 

Why not simply honour your parents, love your children, help your brothers and sisters, be faithful to your friends, care for your mate with devotion, complete your work cooperatively and joyfully,

assume responsibility for problems, practice virtue without first demanding it of others, understand the highest truths yet retain an ordinary manner? That would be true clarity, true simplicity, true

mastery.

The mystical techniques for achieving immortality are revealed only to those who have dissolved all ties to the gross worldly realm of duality, conflict, and dogma. 

As long as your shallow worldly ambitions exist, 

the door will not open. 

Devote yourself to living a virtuous, integrated, selfless life. Refine your energy from gross and heavy to subtle and light. 

Use the practices of the Integral Way to transform your superficial worldly personality into a profound, divine presence. By going through each stage of development along the Integral Way, you 

learn to value what is important today in the subtle realm rather than what appears desirable tomorrow in the worldly realm

 Then the mystical door will open. and you can join the unruling rulers and uncreating creators of the vast universe.

A person's approach to sexuality is a sign of his level of evolution. 

Unevolved persons practice ordinary sexual intercourse. Placing all emphasis upon the sexual organs, they neglect the body's other organs and systems. Whatever physical energy is accumulated is summarily discharged, and the subtle energies are similarly dissipated and disordered. It is a great backward leap. 

For those who aspire to the higher realms of living, there is angelic dual cultivation. Because 

every portion of the body, mind, and spirit yearns for the integration of yin and yang, angelic intercourse is led by the spirit rather than the sexual organs. Where ordinary intercourse is effortful, angelic 

cultivation is calm, relaxed, quiet, and natural. Where ordinary intercourse unites sex organs with sex organs, angelic cultivation unites spirit with spirit, mind with mind, and every cell of one body with 

every cell of the other body. Culminating not in dissolution but in integration, it is an opportunity for a man and woman to mutually transform and uplift each other into the realm of bliss and wholeness. 

The sacred ways of angelic intercourse are taught only by one who has himself achieved total energy integration, and taught only to students who follow the Integral Way with profound devotion, seeking 

to purify and pacify the entire world along with their own being. 

However, if your virtue is especially radiant, it can be possible to open a pathway to the subtle realm and receive these celestial teachings directly from the immortals.

 What We Owe To Each Other 

The Domestic Goblin started reading Scanlon very slowly in April 2022 and she hopes that by the time this blog post is automatically published in August 2022, she would have finished reading the contents and produced a summary here. 

However, seeing as Eleanor Shellstrop took centuries to work her way through its dense prose, this may not happen!

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August 2022 update: As you can see from the above paragraph, the Domestic Goblin has still yet to finish reading the Scanlon book.

However, according to a Philosophy lecturer on the TV show 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt', "a truly moral person would even give away their organs to those in need. Of course, if everyone did that in the real world, there would just be this pile of organs. Utilitarianism is just one theory. 

Kant's categorical imperative says something totally different and according to ethical egoism, being selfish is the only true morality. 

John Stuart Mill said taking sufficient enjoyment in life is actually necessary [in order] to act morally."

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