Philosophy, for me, has always been a means of putting PERCEPTION before JUDGEMENT.  In the Buddhist story of the man and the horses, where his horse runs away (Maybe BAD maybe GOOD) but later returns with a pack of six wild horses (Maybe GOOD maybe BAD) whereupon his son breaks his leg when thrown from one of the wild horses he is trying to train (Maybe BAD maybe GOOD) and is passed over as the local Warlord conscripts all able bodied men to go to war (Maybe BAD, maybe GOOD), a war in which all those conscripted are overcome and killed by superior enemy forces.

As the Tai-Chi symbol of the Yin/Yang NONDUALITY suggests, putting PERCEPTION (of the transforming relational continuum) before JUDGEMENT may make sense.

These options of PERCEPTION and JUDGEMENT arise the gap between PHILOSOPHY (investigations into ‘what could be’) and RELIGION (knowledge of what is’).

This difference can crop up in regard to THANKS-GIVING as is explored in the following;

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Mixing and matching (or attempts thereto) of philosophical investigations and personal theologically inspired emotions is pretty much impossible.  A segue is needed to pass from the one universe into the other.  A professing of religious belief that is based on love and faith is a powerful animating force.  It is a force that brings with if JUDGEMENT that can divide the people of the world into separate groups, each embracing with their full heart, the understanding of their particular group, as can divide them from other groups with differing understandings.

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