Philosophy and Moments in Time
This is a rare moment, boys and girls. I'm actually going to post something that's deeply personal to me. I don't expect it to accomplish anything, other than to vent my words to page and avoid a drawn-out and useless argument/discussion later on.
This goes out to my dear friend Pielle, who has matured and found a spiritual awakening. On one hand, she is reallllly cool with how nothing ruffles her anymore (at least, outwardly). On the other, it comes with a philosophical belief that really does not sit well with me. Philosophy is like faith, though. Once we find it, we can't live without it. This is why I don't want to discuss it--she has hers, I have mine, and we're going to have to agree to disagree since we're both convinced ours is the right one. Philosophy, when you get right down to it, is religion in a rarified form. Philosophy skips the bullshit and lets us worship ourselves, rather than coming up with a higher power we lay claim to. Instead of creating/divining a higher power to give our lives meaning, philosophy turns it all inward so we analyze our behavior and reactions to give our lives meaning.
Which brings me to my point. Pielle's philosophical belief states that events only have what meaning we give them. The things that make us happy, mad, sad, etc. only do so because of artificially instilled value that we impose upon them due to our perceptions and experiences.
In micro scale, this is a very valid view. At a personal level, she's absolutely right and I'd go with it. However, I noticed Pielle does not use the "personal level" disclaimer in her beliefs and uses the "always" clause. This is where I have issues. Because if apply basic logic to this philosophy--a sort of action/reaction reflexive law of physics, if you will--her point of view dictates that ALL EVENTS have no meaning whatsoever, unless we value them.
Untrue. Because by extension, her existence has no meaning. The existence of her parents, friends, family, etc. has no meaning. Since her existence has no meaning, her imposed value on her own existence therefore has no merit--anything multiplied by zero equals zero.
I posit an alternate theory. The meaning of existence is to exist. Nothing more, nothing less. These are all moments in time. Ergo, since each moment's raison d'etre is for its own sake, there are no ordinary moments. The purpose of each thing's existence may be PERCEIVED to be humble, or ignoble--a grain of sand is simply a grain of sand--but there is no ordinary. It all has meaning, because it exists. To extend perception to say that grain of sand, that moment, that person only has meaning because I say so is a level of arrogance/conceit that I find deeply disturbing (but very much in human nature. I'm just as guilty of it).
As you can see, this puts me in diametric opposition with one of my dearest and closest friends. She'd smile and say the situation only has merit because I place value upon it. Whereupon I'd respond it has value because the concept exists for its own sake. Woo! Welcome to Chaos Theory! Perception is not the same as meaning, just as "truth" is not the same as "fact".
There is no simple answer, because the concepts are themselves very elemental and basic--the simplest things are the hardest to analyze, because they just ARE. If there is no meaning, could we simply lose hold on our own existence and fade away, because we forget to impose value upon ourselves? Or are we held here by those who impose value upon us? Or is it that the reason for it all is to be, and this very self-inventory I'm doing right now reinforces my state of being?
Believe it or not, I'm stone cold sober. ;)
Anyway, it rankles at me that, to find inner peace, someone I value so highly reached the spiritual plane where nothing has value by default, and we assign purpose to each and every thing that we perceive. This is the same friend who scoffed at me and vehemently told me I was wrong when I ventured the theory that we only do something for personal gain, however small or trivial. Even if the gain is to feel good about ourselves for helping someone else out. Her response at the time was to tell me I was not only wrong, but DAMN wrong--friends will do things for friends for no reason, for its own sake.
But not unless we assign value to it, right?
In the end, my answer is that if it's what gets her by, then I'm happy for her. But she'll never make me a convert. We are. What we choose to do along the way is simply how we will be. If it brings her serenity and more inner understanding, then power to her. It's insidious, these insecurities that crop up--am I wrong? Is she? Are we both? Then what's the truth? Isn't truth just perception of fact...? Ah, but what is fact? And there we have it. The incontrovertible fact of existence is so vast, in so many parts and facets, that we as mortal human beings will never know it. Not in a million lifetimes. At the same time, it's so simple, which is what makes it so hard to fathom.
But it doesn't matter. It exists because it must, and it has value because it is so.
This goes out to my dear friend Pielle, who has matured and found a spiritual awakening. On one hand, she is reallllly cool with how nothing ruffles her anymore (at least, outwardly). On the other, it comes with a philosophical belief that really does not sit well with me. Philosophy is like faith, though. Once we find it, we can't live without it. This is why I don't want to discuss it--she has hers, I have mine, and we're going to have to agree to disagree since we're both convinced ours is the right one. Philosophy, when you get right down to it, is religion in a rarified form. Philosophy skips the bullshit and lets us worship ourselves, rather than coming up with a higher power we lay claim to. Instead of creating/divining a higher power to give our lives meaning, philosophy turns it all inward so we analyze our behavior and reactions to give our lives meaning.
Which brings me to my point. Pielle's philosophical belief states that events only have what meaning we give them. The things that make us happy, mad, sad, etc. only do so because of artificially instilled value that we impose upon them due to our perceptions and experiences.
In micro scale, this is a very valid view. At a personal level, she's absolutely right and I'd go with it. However, I noticed Pielle does not use the "personal level" disclaimer in her beliefs and uses the "always" clause. This is where I have issues. Because if apply basic logic to this philosophy--a sort of action/reaction reflexive law of physics, if you will--her point of view dictates that ALL EVENTS have no meaning whatsoever, unless we value them.
Untrue. Because by extension, her existence has no meaning. The existence of her parents, friends, family, etc. has no meaning. Since her existence has no meaning, her imposed value on her own existence therefore has no merit--anything multiplied by zero equals zero.
I posit an alternate theory. The meaning of existence is to exist. Nothing more, nothing less. These are all moments in time. Ergo, since each moment's raison d'etre is for its own sake, there are no ordinary moments. The purpose of each thing's existence may be PERCEIVED to be humble, or ignoble--a grain of sand is simply a grain of sand--but there is no ordinary. It all has meaning, because it exists. To extend perception to say that grain of sand, that moment, that person only has meaning because I say so is a level of arrogance/conceit that I find deeply disturbing (but very much in human nature. I'm just as guilty of it).
As you can see, this puts me in diametric opposition with one of my dearest and closest friends. She'd smile and say the situation only has merit because I place value upon it. Whereupon I'd respond it has value because the concept exists for its own sake. Woo! Welcome to Chaos Theory! Perception is not the same as meaning, just as "truth" is not the same as "fact".
There is no simple answer, because the concepts are themselves very elemental and basic--the simplest things are the hardest to analyze, because they just ARE. If there is no meaning, could we simply lose hold on our own existence and fade away, because we forget to impose value upon ourselves? Or are we held here by those who impose value upon us? Or is it that the reason for it all is to be, and this very self-inventory I'm doing right now reinforces my state of being?
Believe it or not, I'm stone cold sober. ;)
Anyway, it rankles at me that, to find inner peace, someone I value so highly reached the spiritual plane where nothing has value by default, and we assign purpose to each and every thing that we perceive. This is the same friend who scoffed at me and vehemently told me I was wrong when I ventured the theory that we only do something for personal gain, however small or trivial. Even if the gain is to feel good about ourselves for helping someone else out. Her response at the time was to tell me I was not only wrong, but DAMN wrong--friends will do things for friends for no reason, for its own sake.
But not unless we assign value to it, right?
In the end, my answer is that if it's what gets her by, then I'm happy for her. But she'll never make me a convert. We are. What we choose to do along the way is simply how we will be. If it brings her serenity and more inner understanding, then power to her. It's insidious, these insecurities that crop up--am I wrong? Is she? Are we both? Then what's the truth? Isn't truth just perception of fact...? Ah, but what is fact? And there we have it. The incontrovertible fact of existence is so vast, in so many parts and facets, that we as mortal human beings will never know it. Not in a million lifetimes. At the same time, it's so simple, which is what makes it so hard to fathom.
But it doesn't matter. It exists because it must, and it has value because it is so.