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Weakness
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| Halcyon+On+On |
I don't have a blog, so bear with me - this may be a lengthy one.
Verify this statement: we are all weak, strength is only an illusion.
As I grow older, I find myself becoming more and more cynical. It's not as though I ever had "faith" in humanity or that I consider myself having 'lost' something of that matter, or that I even consider this a sort of realization or enlightenment of sorts. In fact, it may be quite the opposite; this could be a dumbing down of morals, a rationalisation of the world not dissimilar to religion. But I can't quite escape the long-argued yet unresolved idea that there is no such thing as personal strength. You can cite stories of perserverence all you want - and perhaps they display uncommon amounts of survivability within specific people - but there shall come a day when those people shall die, their story forgotten, that once so important event that changed their lives or the lives of others in such a drastic way to be lost in a time that no longer even exists.
I find individuality to be an illusion for the most part. That's not to say that there is a particular amount of credit or stregth within conforming to a group mentality - it's moreso to denounce personal efforts of people to extricate themselves from a society hell-bent on what is, quite honestly, group-approved individuality for the betterment of the whole. Perhaps there is more strength in the group, but in this sense - what is strength? Is it nothing more than ability or aptitude in achieving set goals? That seems far too ephemeral to put any degree of "faith" in. At this point, it isn't hard for me to see why people would put their supposed "faith" within something they believe will last forever - god, government, etc. But fanaticism seems to be the last resort of a desperate humanitarian and ideals change with time, before eventually dying as a once-proud Sun would succumb to the currents of what it cannot control.
Am I being dismal? Am I being bleak? Perhaps I just need to spend more time in the sun. But despite numerous periods of my life spent outdoors, there seems nothing more powerful than the resilience of nature. Maybe this is not in despite at all - maybe this, itself, is the causality of such a belief.
We are all animals. Sorry, theists, but it's true. God as a benevolent being is a delusion. It is an idea we have devised to name something we could not possibly understand. Perhaps we can improve. Perhaps we can 'expand'. But the nature of such endeavours is as Sisyphean as worship. The only progression we have within our grasp lies in the persistence of loss - God becomes smaller and smaller the more that we know, but what could we, as a mere animal, ever understand? If there is an eternal Creator - or even one greater than ourselves - It would consider us much in the same way you would consider an hastily-erected sand castle at the beach: a 'creation' by means of manipulation of particles, yet a vessel devoid of an intellect comparable to yourself - unfeeling, unknowing that its form will only last so long as it takes for the tide of things to rise and bring it back to whatever form it was before. We can scarce realize our dependency upon terrestrial comforts, much less view ourselves as infinitesimal bits of time-old stardust vibrating at the abyssmal speed of consciousness.
But is such a thing so terrible? Is being a part of other creatures - being a participator of nature - really all that bad? Is being weak such a fault when its considerable inevitability is as eventual as the universe surviving without our consideration of its expanses? We must seem an unimportant accident of matter. Not because of our imperfections, but because of our ungrateful and unrealizing nature - but that, in itself, is yet another rite of insignificance in the grand scheme of things that are impossibly removed from the realm of human consideration.
This is not to denounce the value of science nor religion - I believe they've both merits unto themselves. But disconnect yourself from society and your species for just a moment. Try to sever all of those life-long cords that the social organism has attempted to connect. Do you see yourself breathing? |
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| Silky Johnson |
No man is an island? Is that what you're saying?
edit: And I'm pretty sure Lira already made this thread, months ago. |
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| eRRaTiK |
| quote: | Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
I find individuality to be an illusion for the most part. |
I believe that we are all connected - humans, animals, nature, planet, spirit, consciousness. |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| quote: | Originally posted by jennypie
No man is an island? Is that what you're saying? |
It's more complicated than that. But why is no man an island? Why would that be true when everything we have created has lead to this state where everyone is encouraged to be an island so long as you are still a part of the community of islands?
And yeah, I don't doubt Lira made a thread similar to this. These aren't original ideas at all. But that doesn't mean they have been effectively resolved in any sense. |
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| Silky Johnson |
| quote: | Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On
It's more complicated than that. But why is no man an island? Why would that be true when everything we have created has lead to this state where everyone is encouraged to be an island so long as you are still a part of the community of islands?
And yeah, I don't doubt Lira made a thread similar to this. These aren't original ideas at all. But that doesn't mean they have been effectively resolved in any sense. |
Whoa hey now, no need to get defensive. I actually only asked that for clarity on your thoughts. :p |
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| eRRaTiK |
Deepak Chopra
Wayne Dyer
Esther & Jerry Hicks - Teachings of Abraham
Neil Donald Walsch
Steve Pavlina
John Demartini
Dalai Lama
... get reading.
They all have varying, yet relatively consistent, opinions on this topic. |
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| callme:gsmile: |
hey we are all weak, for instance i am hiding from my family in my "studio" geting wasted until grandma gets so wasted that she passes out and we can decorate her.
[olive]you're not alone[/olive] |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| quote: | Originally posted by eRRaTiK
I believe that we are all connected - humans, animals, nature, planet, spirit, consciousness. |
And do you also believe that your beliefs have any bearing upon this system? Belief is a weakness in itself - disconnected from some sort of nihilistic purpose, a 'belief' is not much more than fancying yourself some sort of 'God' in the sense that your perception can change the reality of things. But if reality is a subjective sort of illusion, and in that sense there are infinite degrees of its effect, then wouldn't beliefs be only a illusion within an illusion? Sort of a God-eat-God kind of reasoning. |
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| Silky Johnson |
| I still don't understand what you're getting at, lol. Maybe I read your post too fast. :/ |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| quote: | Originally posted by jennypie
Whoa hey now, no need to get defensive. I actually only asked that for clarity on your thoughts. :p |
Oh, I wasn't being defensive at all. haha
If anything, this is a relinquishment of defense.
It's absolutely true that these are neither my ideas, or, in any whole sense, somebody else's. Maybe that is why I made this thread in the first place - there is much to discuss as it draws upon our collective consideration of the world we live in. |
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| eRRaTiK |
Well if you follow/learn the teachings of Buddhism/Zen... it is attachment and desire that keep us from obtaining true happiness/enlightenment.
| quote: | | You are not just a meaningless fragment in an alien universe, briefly suspended between life and death, allowed a few short-lived pleasures followed by pain and ultimate annihilation. Underneath your outer form, you are connected with something so vast, so immeasurable and sacred, that it cannot be spoken of - yet I am speaking of it now. I am speaking of it now not to give you something to believe in but to show you how you can know it for yourself. |
-- Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| Strength is just being able to do stuff that lots of other people can't. |
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