Birth. Life. Death. A meaningless cycle, really. But you can give life a meaning if you want to. From my standpoint, a life is only meaningful if you take the time to learn the essence of the universe and become “one” with it. It is the only way that your essence won’t be isolated from everything else when it becomes unchained from your physical body. It is only then that you can vanish from all existence and become the universe itself.
That put a really poetic twist on an actually very simple idea. Who are we as individuals? Nothing. We are simple manifestations of our surroundings. I don’t care what about us you think is “individual,” it ultimately came from somewhere around us. Our appearances, thoughts, ideas, bodies - they all came from our surroundings and lineage, be it our ancestors, food, or the simple reaction to outside stimuli. Therefore, in truth, there really is no “I” distinguishable from everything else. Individuality is an illusion - how can we break from that?
Wait. We already are part of the universe. There is no becoming; there is only changing the configuration of our atoms. This is nothing magical or amazing. It happens every 2 months; your body usually cycles out most of its cells by then and you have an entirely new form every few months. Also, what is this “essence” thing you just dropped out of nowhere? If by essence, you mean the enigmatic configuration of neurons that gives way to the odd phenomenon we call “consciousness” (whether it is even real is subject to debate), then that is entirely ephemeral. Our essence will die when we are dead. There is no “joining,” no “becoming,” only shifting. And unfortunately, as far as I know, the “me” that I am familiar with will be completely and utterly gone, never to return except in a different form, which is entirely irrelevant to this form of consciousness.
You and I are looking at the concept “essence” differently. Where I say it is “preserved” or “becoming,” you say it is “shifted.” To me, there seems to be no difference there, nor in anything else that you have been suggesting.
I think this has to do with the limit of language I had previously described. I feel that what we seem to be in conflict on are actually the same thing. They’re two sides of the same coin. Here’s a video illustrating why language is limiting — especially pay attention to the last few seconds of this segment.
Would you be interested in publishing on this blog? Let me know.
it seems to me like you dudes are actually in furious agreement
Hey Puss, sorry, have we met? If not, welcome!