Monday, March 1, 2010

Fluffy bunnies of absolute surrender

I'd like to offer an alternate kind of answer to the free will pre-determinism question:

"why do you care?"

I don't mean this in a belligerent way. I mean this seriously.

what is it, that drives you to find the answer to this question? are you afraid of being powerless? are you afraid of being responsible? what answer are you looking for? what you want? Do you want to feel safe and taken care of and perfect? Do you want to feel totally free and expressive and powerful? why not try giving yourself that, direct, and short-cut the search for somebody's explanation of reality that lets you have that feeling. And certainly don't allow a persuasive world-view/explanation that gives you the answer your afraid of, to convince you of it's truth. It's your candy shop, everything is available, choose what you want. Your wish is the Universes command. Lots of people have talked very well and clearly about mechanics for tapping into this. (If demand arises, I will either write something or plagiarize something or link to something.)

I've used this analogy before, and I like it: Life is like this; your sitting in a bar, next to the universe. The universe is looking pretty nice, so you turn to it/him/her and say, "hey, who are you?" and the universe replies, in a flirty voice, "whoever you want me to be." and winks.

Free will? sure. Pre-determinism? Sure. Both at the same time? Sure, if your into that kind of thing.

the question that keeps popping into my mind these days, is: what makes you happy? because I can no longer find a good reason not pursue that with all the flaming razor intent I can muster. even if that requires me to douse the fire and exchange the razor for some fluffy bunnies.

3 comments:

  1. And if you want the universe to simply be itself, I suppose you must simply be yourself, and either it will follow suit or you'll never really know, but you'll be enjoying yourself too much to really care?

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  2. another way to talk about it: how could the universe be anything but itself? It's always itself. The question is simply do you accept what is, or not. Reality won't stop, but how much it is enjoyed will change.

    It's like standing on the beach with giant surf: you can fight the waves, and have your ass bruised from being thrown against the ground again and again, or you can relax and give yourself to the flow and ebb of the ocean, and be gently delivered back to shore.

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  3. Hmm.

    So you can accept reality without defining it? You can know it . . . partially, but not fully, and yet enjoy it fully?

    The point I failed to make was that the universe seems to have a degree of unfathomability, and in desperately wanting to know it as it is, well, that seems rather hopeless because as much as one tries to expand one's perspective, how could one's perspective be infinite? How can a person, being a tiny piece within the universe, know the universe as a whole? as some external reality? In seeking to know the universe as it is and neglecting the fact that we are a tiny part of it, . . . well, it's tempting to try to be an observer. To just ask, "Universe, what are you?" And it continues what it does, and you're trying to stand still on the shore and watch, and the waves keep coming and tugging at you.

    So perhaps the question becomes, "What is my place in the universe?"

    And for that I suppose you have to jump into the ocean and find out.

    So I guess the question is, can you be anything other than yourself? Can you go against your own nature? Can you deny your participatory existence in the pursuit of reality? Or must you know yourself to have any hope of knowing the universe?

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