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I don’t believe ‘the truth always comes out’, but it often does, especially within the surface signals of day-to-day news. Good brief video breakdown. ABN
Tag: semiotics
AI tune with deep Jewish symbolism
Symbolism of Green in Judaism
Religious and Biblical Significance
Green, derived from the Hebrew yarok (יָרֹק), is deeply rooted in Jewish texts as a symbol of life, vegetation, and renewal. It appears in the Torah in reference to grass (yerek, יֶרֶק) and pasture (Job 39:8), emphasizing sustenance and divine provision. The color is linked to the primordial state of tohu (chaos) before creation, described in the Gemara (Chagigah) as marked by a green line, representing the world’s initial, unformed potential. This ties into the Kabbalistic concept of Ohr HaMakif (enveloping light), where green symbolizes transcendent renewal and spiritual insight.
Kabbalistic and Mystical Interpretations
In Kabbalah, green is associated with balance and harmony. It is seen as a synthesis of red (passion, justice), white (mercy, purity), and azure (wisdom), reflecting the integration of divine attributes. Rabbi Isaac Arama (15th century) interpreted green as the middle path between extremes, aligning with the ethical principle of moderation in character development. This idea resonates with the broader Jewish value of shvil ha-zahav (the golden mean).
Modern National Symbolism
Since the October 7, 2023, attacks, the green uniform of the IDF has become a powerful unifying symbol for Jews worldwide. Unlike the ornate garments of the Kohen Gadol, the IDF’s practical green fatigues represent resilience, sacrifice, and national solidarity. This shift reflects a transformation in Jewish identity—from ancient priestly glory to contemporary collective defense and hope.
Cultural and Linguistic Notes
- The phrase “green with envy” appears in the story of Joseph, whose brothers’ jealousy over his “coat of many colors” led to his betrayal—symbolizing how unchecked emotion can distort moral vision.
- In Talmudic literature, green (yarok) also describes bodily fluids and mold (Leviticus 13:49), linking it to both life and decay, underscoring its dual nature.
The green body of The Hulk is not intentionally symbolic of Jewish identity, but the character has been interpreted through a Jewish lens due to his creators and thematic parallels.
- Creator Background: Stan Lee (born Stanley Lieber) and Jack Kirby (Jacob Kurtzberg), both Jewish, co-created The Hulk in 1962. While Lee did not overtly inject Jewish themes into his work, he explicitly compared The Hulk to the Golem—a clay protector from Jewish folklore—highlighting a subconscious cultural resonance. The Hulk, like the Golem, is a powerful, misunderstood being created through science (radiation) rather than magic, embodying both strength and vulnerability.
- Color Choice: The Hulk was originally intended to be gray, but due to printing difficulties, the color shifted to green in the second issue. This practical decision, not symbolic intent, established the character’s iconic look.
- Metaphorical Interpretations: Some writers and fans interpret The Hulk as a Jewish allegory—a figure of exile, inner turmoil, and defensive power. Articles such as “Hulk the Jew” draw parallels between Bruce Banner’s struggle to suppress his alter ego and Israel’s defensive posture in the world: peaceful by nature but feared when provoked.
Jewish Roles in Star Trek
Key Jewish Creators and Actors
- Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and William Shatner (Kirk), both sons of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, brought their cultural experiences to the show. Nimoy explicitly linked Spock’s outsider status to the Jewish diaspora experience—logical, reserved, and different.
- Walter Koenig (Chekov) is also Jewish, making three of the original bridge officers played by Jewish actors.
The Vulcan Salute: A Jewish Symbol
Nimoy based Spock’s iconic “Live long and prosper” hand gesture on the Kohen’s blessing (Birkat Kohanim) from Jewish tradition. The two-fingered V-shape mirrors the Hebrew letter shin (ש), symbolizing Shaddai (Almighty God). Though modified for television, the salute is widely recognized as rooted in Judaism.
FIML from a Buddhist point of view: What is it and what does it do?
FIML is fundamentally a communication technique with wide-ranging implications for many other aspects of being human.
FIML removes mistakes from communications between partners. FIML reduces or eliminates neurotic feelings. FIML encourages honesty, integrity, responsibility, and many other virtues. It greatly improves communication. It transforms beliefs in a static self, a personality, an ego, or a set autobiography to a more realistic understanding of the dynamic nature of being, speaking, listening, remembering, functioning. FIML skills are useful when dealing with people other than the FIML partner. FIML greatly reduces the need to rely on external standards (public semiotics) for self-definition and/or communication. FIML elevates consciousness in the sense that FIML practice is done consciously and improvements are made in partners’ consciousnesses. FIML works directly with partners’ experiences and thus is a deeply experiential practice that generates experiential understanding.
FIML greatly supports Buddhist practice and though FIML is not specifically a traditional Buddhist teaching, it does not contradict any core Buddhist teaching. For many people, FIML may be a very good tool to use with the Dharma. This is so because FIML allows each partner to identify kleshas (mistaken interpretations) the moment they arise and to correct them with input from their partner. FIML also helps partners experience the reality of no-self, impermanence, emptiness, and dependent origination. When these truths are experienced together with a partner, both partners are able to deeply confirm the validity of their insights as both share in this confirmation. Both partners will notice kleshas being eliminated and both will be able to confirm this to each other, through explicit statements to each other and also through observations of each other.
FIML practice also helps partners understand and experience how the First and Second Noble Truths actually operate in their lives. When one partner discovers a klesha through a FIML query, they will see very clearly how their mistaken interpretation, if not corrected, could be the source of suffering. When they correct their mistake, they will see how eliminating a klesha is liberating and how it produces a bit of “enlightenment” (Third and Fourth Noble Truths).
FIML practice encourages honesty between partners and many other virtues. FIML partners will directly experience the importance of being honest with their partner and treating them with the utmost respect and integrity. This strengthens partners’ understanding of the Buddha’s teachings on morality (sila).
FIML’s emphasis on fully understanding the roles of language and semiotics supports the Buddha’s teachings on Right Speech (for language) and wisdom (for semiotics). In the Prajna Sutras, “dharmas of the mind” (laksana) very closely correspond to the modern English word semiotics as that word is used in FIML practice. By focusing on this word and concept and experiencing with a partner how semiotics affect everything we think and do, partners will gain great insight into the kind of consciousness described in the Diamond Sutra—a consciousness without the “marks” or “characteristics” (laksana, semiotics, signs) of a self, a human being, a sentient being, or a being that takes rebirth.
FIML accomplishes most of what it does by being a technique that is called up quickly, the moment it is needed. FIML queries almost always lead to long and interesting discussions, but the basic technique must be done quickly. The moment either partner feels a klesha arising, they should stop and query their partner about what is/was in their mind. After hearing your partner’s honest answer, compare it to what you had thought. The better data from your partner should eliminate that particular klesha after a small number of its appearances. Remember, your partner’s data is better because you asked them quickly enough for them to be able to recall with great accuracy what really was in their mind during the moments you were asking them about. If you wait too long or get into long stories or theories, or become emotional, you will miss the chance to catch that klesha. When you do catch a klesha, feel good about it. That means there is one less hindrance in your mind.
Non-Buddhists will experience the same results from FIML practice as Buddhists, though their understanding of these results will be framed differently. We have discussed FIML from a non-Buddhist point of view in many other posts. Interested readers are encouraged to browse some of those posts for more on that angle.
Can semiotics, language, and education trap us?
Education frees us from whatever ignorant state came before it. But it can also trap us in a different sort of ignorance.
For example, someone who feels lost and alone may join a street gang and learn many new things while forming new alliances. But that same person may well trap themselves in a criminal life-style. Once learned, the education a gang provides can prevent gang members from learning even better things.
I believe all education can be like that if we are not careful. To be clear, education in this context refers to learning anything.
Another way to say the above is once we learn or take on a new semiotic matrix or code, we may become trapped by it. Many people who fell for the semiotics of the Obama campaign retained their “belief” in him long after he had shown himself to be a disappointment. Because many of his supporters are good people, they were trapped in his attractive, but false, semiotic matrix of hope and change.
Similarly, another person may learn that his religion is wrong and take on the semiotics of “science” without realizing for many years that science has limits and that it can operate in ways that resemble fundamentalist religion.
I think we can say with few reservations that it is axiomatic that semiotics, language, and education can trap us even as they free us from whatever state came before them. They do not always trap us, but they almost always can trap us if we are not careful.
A microcosmic example of how language can trap us might be this: you say something sort of muddled, get called on it as if your statement were much more specific, and before you know it you find yourself trapped in defending a point of view you never held.
A teenager might want to learn about psychology and in doing so learn what the word personality means. Then they might decide that their personality is of some type. Then they may get trapped in molding themselves according to their understanding of that personality type. The same thing can happen with astrological signs—you read yours when you are young and retain for many years, if not a lifetime, some sense that you belong to the semiotic matrix indicated by that sign.
In good science, real skeptical science, bold science that demands explanations of facts, traps are usually discovered and overcome quickly. But science has a limited range and it cannot do very much for the emotions, subjectivity, or authentic uniqueness of each individual.
Individuals can overcome some individual or subjective traps through science and general learning, but they can never overcome them all in those ways. Our deepest and most significant subjective states can never be well understood through generalities.
And if those subjective states contain errors or traps (as they surely do), they can only be cleared up by observing those errors or traps as they function in real-world situations.
An especially alert and intelligent gang member might gain insight into what his gang membership is doing to him and how it is trapping him. But he will surely retain many of the gang’s subjective interpretations of the world around him even after he has left the gang. His comprehension of cultural semiotics—the semiotic matrix that he perceives around him—will remain deeply imbued with the gang’s interpretations long after he has left.
For example, the former gang member may retain a sense of pride that makes him quick to anger. He may retain feelings of fear or non-belonging after leaving the gang. Psychotherapy may help in these areas, but a practice like FIML will do even more because FIML will allow the person to see how their former interpretations of the world are still actively functioning even though they may have repudiated the general semiotics of those interpretations.
Joining the gang liberated him from his former state, and then leaving the gang liberated him from the strictures of gang life. But in both cases, his new education has imposed a new semiotic code that can easily trap him in new mistakes and miseries.
The same can be said about all of us concerning almost anything we learn, which means practically anything we do. If we do not come to fully understand how our subjective states—our interpretations–actually function within the semiotic codes we have taken on, we will be trapped in the new state even as we have been liberated, partially, from the former state.
See also: Negative effects of joining a gang last long after gang membership ends.
MSNBC edits Alex Pretti’s appearance to slant the news
Why you can’t fix it with generalities
Psychological, cognitive, emotional, or communicative problems cannot be fundamentally corrected by using general analyses or generalized procedures. You can teach someone to think and see differently, even to behave differently, by such procedures, but you cannot bring about deep change by using them. The reason this is so is change through generalizations does little more than substitute one external semiosis for another. The person seeking change will not experience deep change because all they are essentially doing is importing a different explanation of their “condition” into their life.
This happens with Buddhists who remain attached to surface meanings of the Dharma as well as to people seeking mainstream help for emotional problems. Any change will feel good for a while in most cases, but after some time stasis and a recurrence of the original problem, or something similar to it, will occur. You cannot become enlightened by importing someone else’s ideas. You cannot achieve deep transformation by replacing one inculcated semiosis with another. You cannot find your authentic “self” by using the static ideas of others.
The way around this problem is to use a technique that is at its core entirely dynamic. Buddhist mindfulness, which stresses attentiveness in and to the moment, is a dynamic technique. The problem with this technique in the modern world is it is not well-suited to the cacophony of signs and symbols that surround us almost all the time. Mindfulness too often entails being mindful of a cultural semiosis that is itself a tautology, a trap that does not contain within itself an obvious exit.
Mindfulness coupled with FIML practice overcomes this problem because the interactive dynamism of FIML gives partners a tool that strengthens mindfulness while at the same time affording them the opportunity to observe in the moment how their habitual semiosis operates, and why it operates that way. FIML gives partners the means to create a rational leverage-point that they can both share and use to grapple with neurotic issues that have always eluded generalized treatments.
FIML does not tell partners how to be or what to think. It describes nothing more than a technique that gives partners access to their deep “operating systems.” If you hack your “operating system” with FIML practice, you will find that you are able to eliminate neuroses (kleshas in Buddhist terms) and replace them with a semiosis (subculture) of your and your partner’s own choosing. To do FIML, partners must have a deep ethical, emotional, and intellectual commitment to each other, but it is important to recognize that these are not static or generalized ideas. They are dynamic principles upon which the transformational behaviors of FIML are built.
In hoc signo vinces
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Translation from Latin: In this sign you will win. As a semiotician I like the use of Latin and the word sign. As a Buddhist I can support this ethos if it is reasonable and wholesomely unites the traditional West against those who are destroying it. As an American of Baltic extraction, gotta admit I cringe at knights in armor bearing crosses. Even still, I support Christian unity and wise resistance against the enemies of the West, many of whom are recent invaders and many of whom are ancient infiltrators. I believe a good many Eastern Europeans think the way I do. Both recent and ancient experience has taught us you have to be practical and work every angle to defeat a powerful pathocracy. ABN
Micro, meso, and macro FIML
Micro FIML practice is basic to all FIML practice.
(A description of micro FIML can be found here: How to do FIML.)
Basic or micro FIML provides a sturdy foundation for many other kinds of interpersonal discussions. This is so because basic FIML makes partners confident that they can say what they think without fearing that their partner will significantly misunderstand them.
Why is that? The reason is if your partner interprets what you have said in a palpable—and especially a negative—way, they will ask you about it. Once they have asked you, you can clarify what you meant, change it, expand on it, explain it, or do anything else you want with it as long as you are being honest.
Basic FIML explicates all new clouds that appear on the horizon. If your partner speaks or communicates in a way that causes a small cloud to appear on your horizon and you have time, bring it up immediately using the basic FIML technique linked above. If you don’t have time to bring it up immediately, do it later when you do have time if the cloud is still there. Even if the cloud is gone, it can still be interesting to bring it up later because you can discuss the incident and learn more about yourselves from that. Very small incidents are often the most interesting because data points are clear and strong emotions are not likely to be aroused.
No FIML partner should ever carry around a shadow of misgiving or negativity about their partner without saying something about it. This is where meso and macro levels of FIML come into play.
Meso and macro FIML come into play when you discover that even though you have been doing basic FIML perfectly and dealt with every cloud that appeared on your horizon, still there is a shadow or haze developing in your mind.
You can’t remember when it started or how it started, but you know it is there.
If you have been doing basic FIML and are reasonably skilled in it, you should be able to bring up the matter of a gathering haze in your mind and clear it with your partner. Maybe you partner is spending too much time away from you or too close to you. Maybe you are starting to feel weird about something they keep saying. No single incident of their saying whatever it is has bothered you enough to mention it, but they keep saying it and that is getting to you. Once you notice anything like that, just bring it up and discuss it at a meso level while relying on basic micro FIML practice to steer you toward a good resolution that works for both of you.
Another example of a meso discussion might be something like: you are a bit tired, your partner says something and you respond in what seems a pleasant way to you and they respond to that in a way that seems sharp or restrictive to you. Since you are tired, you don’t do basic FIML at the right moment but instead respond sharply to what you had perceived as their sharpness.
If your partner questions you on that and/or if you notice it yourself, just do a meso FIML discussion that brings in all of the factors you are aware of. Your habit of doing basic FIML will make it much easier to have conversations on meso or macro levels than if you had never done basic FIML at all.
A macro level FIML discussion might entail a growing shift in your understanding of any macro subject—science, religion, philosophy, politics, etc.
As with meso discussions, macro discussions will be much easier and more enjoyable if partners know how to do basic FIML.
Basic FIML solves most communication problems by helping partners be honest with each other in ways that are helpful and productive without being phony. Basic FIML also helps partners sail past the many minor snags that can occur in conversations, such as quibbling over word choices, minor details, tone of voice, gestures, and so on.
This happens because basic FIML will already have provided many examples of small snags and how to overcome them. It does take some practice to get to this point, but it is not much harder than learning to sew or make pizza. Requires some work and there are better and worse results, but once you get going the benefits should be clear enough to keep you going.
In my view, FIML will not work for partners only if a misinterpretation is not addressed, not honestly addressed, or not substantially addressed from the micro level on up. If you always jump in at meso and macro levels, you will almost certainly cause more problems than you will solve.
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See also: Micro, meso, and macro levels of human understanding.
Internalizing semiotics
This photo is interesting because it shows a kid in the 1950s internalizing symbols or semiotics in much the same way as he internalizes language and ideas.
SCOTLAND 1984
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Love the squirmy use of her sharpest word ‘targeted’. And the super-soft tone of voice. Cold, deadly sexy Nurse Ratchet. Mind-control at its best. No true Scotsman will resist. ABN
Why generalities don’t work
You cannot achieve satisfying communication by using general ideas or general role models.
For example, many Buddhists use a general sense of “compassion” or a vague understanding of “Buddhist wisdom” to get along with other people. This strategy can work for light duties at a Buddhist temple or for projecting a basic sense of who you are to other people, but it won’t be deeply satisfying.
The problem is very simple to state but harder to fix. The problem is we misunderstand each other very often and in very significant ways and these misunderstandings cannot be simply smoothed over with generalities.
Humans are deeply affected by their interactions with other humans. All those little mistakes in speaking and listening lead to big misunderstandings in our relationships, often rather quickly.
I cannot think of another way to deal with this fundamental problem except through FIML practice or something very much like it. When we communicate with people we care about, we have to have ways to restate our meaning, take it back, query each other, probe relevant semiotics. If we don’t, we will misunderstand each other in serious ways.
Face-blindness (memory) test
| This is an interactive version of the Exposure Based Face Memory Test. Introduction: The human brain has a special module that is used to recognize faces. People with prosopagnosia, also known as “face blindness”, have difficulty remembering faces. Every time they see a face it looks to them like a face they have never seen before and such people have to use other information such as hair, voice, and body to recognize others. The Exposure Based Face Memory Test was developed as an open source measure of face memory and was designed with a procedure that is both closer to the demands on face memory experienced in every day life, and minimizes administration time. Procedure: In this test you will be shown a long series of faces. For each face you must say if you have been shown that person before, or if this is a new face you have not been shown yet. It should take 2-5 minutes to complete. This test can only be taken once. It is spoiled if you have seen any of the faces before. So if want accurate results, make sure to take it seriously the first time. Participation: You use of this assessment should be for educational or entertainment purposes only. This is not psychological advice of any kind. Additionally, your responses to this questionnaire will be anonymously saved and possibly used for research or otherwise distributed. |
This is a quick test which will give you some sense of whether you have or do not have face-blindness. I scored better than just 16.5% of people who have taken the test, which does not qualify as prosopagnosia, though I do have moderate-significant face-blindness. One aspect of this condition not yet studied, far as I know, is I sometimes see the faces of people I should recognize as distorted, sometimes rather weirdly so, sometimes just a bit weirdly; this happens just before I fully recognize them by voice or some other prompt. If you have face-blindness it is probably a good idea to tell people you meet about it. Some people react with surprise and confusion but many have heard of prosopagnosia and appreciate getting the information. Human faces form a semiotic ‘language’ which people with excellent face-recognition probably greatly enjoy. Easily recognizing/ remembering faces facilitates building social relationships. Not easily recognizing faces causes a delay in fully receiving into your mind the social presence of another person, thus making it more difficult to build social relationships. I have probably spent more time thinking about language and interpersonal communications than most people because I largely remember people initially or click with them through their speech idiosyncrasies more than by remembering their faces. ABN
Semiotics for Beginners
This essay by Daniel Chandler is good introduction to semiotics and a good way to help readers better understand how we are using the term on this site. I highly recommend the essay for anyone interested in thought, culture, language, or psychology. But it will be especially useful for Buddhists because having some idea of what semiotics is all about can be a great help in understanding many of the teachings of the Buddha. The deep significance of fundamental Buddhist concepts like emptiness and dependent origination may become clearer and more useful when viewed from a semiotic point of view.
Buddhists might also take note that semiotics is difficult to define and/or get a grasp of and in this resembles some of the more abstract or philosophical teachings of the Buddhist tradition, particularly the work of Nagarjuna. Semiotics is the study of meaning, how we communicate it and what it is. Buddhism, one might say, is the study of how meaning pertains to the self, or the illusion of the self, and how our perceptions of the world around us are built out of a welter of ever-changing codependent meanings–semiotics.
We use the term semiotics on this site because it greatly facilitates our discussions of FIML practice. Terms like semiotics, emptiness, dependent origination, and so on were not created to make subjects obscure but rather to clarify them.
Christmas concert at Trump-Kennedy Center is canceled after woke host pulls out in protest of rebrand
A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Trump Kennedy Center was canceled after the show’s woke host pulled out in protest of President Donald Trump.
Famed drummer and vibraphone player Chuck Redd has been presiding over holiday Jazz Jams at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William Keter Betts.
But he canceled the annual concert, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, this year after being ‘saddened’ by the performance hall’s rebrand.
‘When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,’ Redd told AP in an email Wednesday.
As of last Friday, the performance center in DC‘s façade reads The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
This is a good example of the power, the cognitive and emotional valence, of psycholinguistics. ABN
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