Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

The thing about playing with infinity is that you can't put it in a box. It is liberty at its pinnacle... because it has no pinnacle. It goes on forever. If there are countless ideas, concepts, systems, forms, strategies, and games, then there is not a single problem in your life, or in the universe in general, that doesn't have a solution somewhere. Applying infinity to random concepts and mixing it with a variety of subjects blows them up and expands them beyond limits, which is why it gives you so much liberty when you play with it. Meditating on infinity and the boundless and meditating on different infinite concepts, like countless forms of love or countless degrees of glory and countless forms of beauty, stretches your mind to the maximum and expands your consciousness, even if you can't fathom the infinite entirely...but no one can.  It's like lifting weights, the more you do it, the more you are able to comprehend. The more you are able to build and access in yo...

  The difference between art and science is science is limited by its own rules, even blinded by them, while art can transcend the infinite and outlast the eternal. (A play on words that proves my point) Art is only as limited as your imagination is...only as limited as how many ways you can play with infinity. While science has to follow a set of structured procedures and rules in order to work and achieve its goals, art doesn't need those rules to operate. Art can be as ordered or Chaotic, as simple or complex, as you want it to be. War is an art because the rules bend and break based on will and opportunity, so treating it strictly as a science would inhibit your creativity. Parenting would be better suited as an art because of how complex children can be and how complex relationships can be. Since art is where infinity can come alive, art is where reality can get its most complex, and most beautiful. Science has to be limited in order to create the order and structure it needs ...

  In Heaven, I am going to have and experience countless forms of beauty. Each one unique. Each one special. Each one can go up in intensity and complexity forever. I will take the form of these countless types of beauty one at a time, or all at once. In heaven, I am going to experience countless forms of Love. Each one unique. Each one special. Each one can go up in intensity forever. I will bathe in Oceans upon Oceans of Love. When I get to Heaven, I will experience countless unique types of Glory. Each one special. Each one can go up in intensity and complexity forever. I will climb mountains upon mountains of Glory. In Heaven I will experience countless forms of Liberty. Each one unique. Each one special. I will explore worlds upon worlds and realms upon realms of Liberty. (I call this meditation "blowing up a concept." You take a random abstract concept and apply it to and multiply it by infinity, creating countless possible forms, categories, complexities, and propertie...

  Enlightenment is a complicated concept. There are varying explanations as to how it exists, why it exists, or whether or not it exists at all. Enlightenment is usually a positive term, as it should be, but coming to such a state is considered, usually rightly considered, to be an extremely difficult undertaking. So difficult, in fact, that some think true Enlightenment is more myth than fact. Setting aside skepticism, I want to engage in a thought experiment highlighting the difference between static, permanent Enlightenment, where you achieve a sort of "pinnacle" of enlightenment that is a solid, definable accomplishment that you need not achieve any further accomplishments, and a concept called "Exponential Enlightenment."  Exponential Enlightenment is where you grow toward Enlightenment exponentially, but never reach a definable sudden achievement that stops the growth and makes further growth unnecessary. You never reach a pinnacle because there is no pinnacle...

There is an artist from another dimension. A painter of sorts. His paintbrush paints the stories of people's eternal lives. He paints their ups and downs, their sins and successes, their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, their loves, their hates, their beauty, their darkness... their redemption. He is the redemption artist. He relishes the opportunity to paint a redemption story. When a mistake happens for one of his "paintings," he savors the opportunity to paint the person's redemption from that mistake.  He has a soft spot for the worst of people because their mistakes make the best redemption stories.  This artist knows the first rule of glory. Glory never comes from doing easy things.  The more tragic and horrible the mistake was for a person, the harder it is to redeem... but the more beautiful and glorious it is when you redeem it.  The redemption artist thoroughly enjoys painting redemption stories of the worst of people because the paintings are often ...

  There are three primary causes of hatred. Resentment, Fear, and disgust. Resentment is probably the most common cause of hate, but disgust is by far the most lethal. You can respect what you fear, even if you hate it, and avoid the dangers of it, and resentment is usually directed at things equal to or more powerful than the resentful person, but disgust can lead you to harm even harmless things and people and dehumanize or devalue them into almost nothing in terms of value and treat them as if it were an imperative and moral good to Eradicate them from the world.  Disgust hatred is the most lethal because of this. There are a few ways to combat the three main causes of hatred. For resentment, the best measure to take against it before it leads to hate is forgiveness. Letting go, moving on from the wrong, detaching yourself from the bitterness of the situation, and, if it becomes possible, a mediation, compromise, and reparation in the situation. Understanding the causes and...

What Color is a mind? A Class of first graders sat down for a lesson. The lesson was on tolerance and treating people fairly. The world in its busted up state had so many problems with racism and hate because of differences and colors that, obviously, many first graders have a hard time understanding it. The teacher drew stick figures in various colors and sizes holding hands around a heart. She talked to the kids and said "people come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. We share this world together and the differences between us is what makes the world beautiful." A little boy in the back row, who is often quiet in class and keeps to himself, asked the teacher, "what color is a mind, teacher?" The teacher, taken aback by this unusual question, looked a little baffled and confused. She looked at the boy and said "I honestly don't know if a mind has a color, buddy." Unsatisfied, the boy asked the teacher another question, "what shape is a ...

 "Have you asked yourself before, 'how would I have treated Jesus if I was alive with him?' A question worth a thousand pictures, for sure.  Most people would seem pretty confident that they would have praised Him, called Him Lord, even prostrated at His feet in full submission to His glory, but the answer for almost all of us was never such a simple 'I love Jesus and would be nothing but reverent.' In order to get the real answer to this question, you have ask yourself how you've treated the people you don't like or are uncomfortable around. What you say behind their backs and to their peers.  The deplorables, the mentally ill or disabled, the unpredictable, the obnoxious, the annoying, the person who wronged you or crossed you, the transients, the losers, the weak, the broken, the 'hurt people who hurt people,' the perverse, the sick, the sinners, the tax collectors.  You judge how close someone is to Jesus not by how they treat the people who are...