Today when I got home from school I just sat around thinking for awhile...the thoughts sounded good so I decided to write them down. Tell what you think (or if it makes sense). All Illusions are Equal I have come to see humans as Gulliver did - just another species. Truly, we are some great mutation (from the original mutation of life itself), but in the end we are just as animal as the next variety. What makes us so unique? We are concept fabricating machines. People speak of the real world as an objective reality. What the hell is an objective reality? This would mean equal. An equal reality is an inherent contradiction. Reality is defined by differences, inequalities, distinctions - this is the only way in which existence is at all percievable. You must realize that an objective reality by definition must be devoid of perception (else it become subjective, for all perception is subjective). Our interpretations of reality are as much a part of it as our direct sensation of it. A reality not clothed in our valuations, concepts, and ideas would be unrecognizable to us. It would also be devoid of any fire, passion, artistry or anything else worth living for. I misled you earlier - there actually is an objective reality. It is called death. What are our realists and objectivists now? Decadents. Those who claim to strive for a world more "real," (by that they mean more logical and equal) are actually suffering from an excess of reality. What they strive for is at best a blander, staler reality, and at worst - death. Reality in full color is simply too much for them. It is too rich. Just a taste and - nausea! Thus the retreat into stoicism, asceticism, cold logic, and every other pale ghost of a reality, every other lifestyle characterized by an avoidance of reality. What do they all have in common? A desire to minimize the intensity of experience to something that no longer overwhelms them. A reduction to something equally illusory as our world, simply without any flavor. In comparison, even the young man that commits suicide shows a greater respect for life, and less of an inclination towards death. A life ended in the throes of passion is a life lived, andnot merely endured. And there is more to this short life than a thousand lives lived by these sickly creatures the realists. The leaf. What was this visual sensory stimuli before it was a leaf? What was the leaf before it had a name? What was the name before it had a meaning? And what was the meaning before the interpretation? A naked thing, no different from the bark, the tree, the sky, or this whole flurry of perception in front of us. In other words, before our interpretation it was nothing, nothing at all. And what was what I just wrote but yet another interpretation, another illusion. So why write? For understanding is still sometimes possible, even where explanation is not.
Oh it makes sense. Those who are driven by their reality so strongly they fail to see there may be no reality at all. Being is more than we can comprehend, thousands of years have passed and still we can't see this. We can only wonder what our existance here means. But until death will we understand, if then ... And if we're not here to see it, does it happen? These are very good thoughts, ones that should be deliberated by us all. Thoughts that should not be lost in what most of us take to be reality.
Weatherman. That was beautiful. Thankyou. It reminds me of a story I am writing now, I will share just a few quotes with you. I feel you'll enjoy it: "What you see is never seen, what you touch is never touched. Such things are dreams, but I will let you glimpse at what happens when you begin to wake up." "Simply look. I point to the clouds to show you something. I do not say it is right or wrong. I simply say: ‘ Look.’ From that moment, you may judge as you will. Or, perhaps, you will not judge. Perhaps you will simply ‘see’." "each species has an imagination, does it not? a story, a tale to live out, each in its own way? your flower has a different legacy than the butterfly's." I understand what you are portraying with these words... Yes, these words. Merely symbols pointing to that which is beyond the named, and within the nameless. The thoughtless. That which is between 'is' and 'is not'. Thankyou for sharing.
"What you see is never seen, what you touch is never touched. Such things are dreams, but I will let you glimpse at what happens when you begin to wake up." I like. Sorry it took me awhile to respond. After I started this thread I forgot about it for awhile. It's strange. I got really deep into existentialism about a year ago, and then put it down for awhile. Over the past few months I did alot of mushrooms, and lately all of this information is coming back, but it's so much more meaningful than when I read it originally. It's real understanding occurring. I really want to invest in a tape recorder so I can just record my thoughts as they come. If forget so much good material, and I can't think sitting down in front of the computer or at a desk. I need to find inspiration on the move.
