Who- why- where are we ?

[waechter418]

It seems that since we are aware of ourselves we have been trying to find out who, why & where we are and that many of our religions, cosmologies, philosophies and sciences developed around this quest.

The answers differ widely, see for example neurologists, Buddha, Hegel, astrophysicists, Lao Tse or Christian fundamentalists - yet each insists to have the right answer, which is understandable, after all, it is not easy to admit that the quest has been in vain and increases our confusion.

What is going wrong?

[surreptitious57]

Not everyone who thinks they are right actually is

[James S Saint]

Not everyone who thinks they are right actually is

How do you now that you are right about that?

..and that is "what is wrong" .. not knowing how to know.

But look how long it took them to figure out how to fly. Just because it takes Man thousands of years to get over his ego issues, doesn't mean that he can't eventually get there. Man can now absolutely know .. he just hasn't bothered to convince himself of it yet (again, more ego issues).

[surreptitious57]

How do you now that you are right about that

Mutual incompatibility on a very consistent scale

[Amorphos]

If there were an answer, what then? Would we all be wandering around doing the thing we were put here for, or would that washing-up still need doing.

An answer would specifically mean there was a question or reason why existence came into existence. If existence knew how to formulate a question or set of questions as denumerable as those purported in our reality, then it wouldn't need the universe to begin with.

Not to mention that would make existence into a programmed entity designed to find an answer. If it already knows the answers it wouldn't be needed, if it wanted to find answers, it would not build something by what it already knows [a program]. Therefore there are no question in the fundamental nature of reality, it is just a world, and questions and answers may happen in it, but are not it.

[Mr Reasonable]

I don't see anything going wrong.

[waechter418]

The quest itself seems to be the problem - Buddhists, Zen and Taoist thinkers claim that the answers are given, or Selfknowledge manifests, when abandoning the quest (questions)

[Mictlantecuhtli]

The universe and cosmos is either a cosmic random accident or it has always existed being an unsolvable mysterious enigma of phenomena. God and religion are irrelevant.

Purpose is what we make of it. There is no central grand order or specific achievement (purpose) to be unlocked and realized.

[waechter418]

The universe and cosmos is either a cosmic random accident or it has always existed being an unsolvable mysterious enigma of phenomena. God and religion are irrelevant.

Purpose is what we make of it. There is no central grand order or specific achievement (purpose) to be unlocked and realized.

YES SIR !!!

[Arcturus Descending]

It seems that since we are aware of ourselves we have been trying to find out who, why & where we are and that many of our religions, cosmologies, philosophies and sciences developed around this quest.

The answers differ widely, see for example neurologists, Buddha, Hegel, astrophysicists, Lao Tse or Christian fundamentalists - yet each insists to have the right answer, which is understandable, after all, it is not easy to admit that the quest has been in vain and increases our confusion.

What is going wrong?

Maybe nothing is going wrong. Maybe it just is as it is.

Perhaps if we indulge in thinking that we perhaps do not have the right answers, we might have to turn around, walk back down that path and take another, different path.
We each follow our own path upwards or downwards. Mine may be different than yours. Not better just different and more harmonious for me though perhaps even more the struggle for me.

Everything is built on perception. Different kinds of bricks for different kinds of edifices.

[barbarianhorde]

Not everyone who thinks they are right actually is

says you

[Ierrellus]

We are involved in these three experiences: Being, becoming, and belonging. How we express what it is like to be in each experience provides the answers to who, where and why questions.

[waechter418]

The questions dissolve with being Oneself

[Ierrellus]

So long as there are conflicts among constituents of the human trinity--Mind, Body, Soul-- there will be questions about who and what we are.
So long ad Ego determines personality, the above conflicts will flourish.

[Arcturus Descending]

It seems that since we are aware of ourselves we have been trying to find out who, why & where we are and that many of our religions, cosmologies, philosophies and sciences developed around this quest.

The answers differ widely, see for example neurologists, Buddha, Hegel, astrophysicists, Lao Tse or Christian fundamentalists - yet each insists to have the right answer, which is understandable, after all, it is not easy to admit that the quest has been in vain and increases our confusion.

What is going wrong?

I do not see the quest as being in vain. It is all a process and is still going on even though at times it stands on one leg and has the vision of only one eye.

We seem to forget though that we are not all peas in the same pod, not all sardines in the same sardine can.
Instead of furthering our thoughts, observations and experiences, we automatically give in to those beliefs which comfort us and give us warm feelings about our lives.

We forget that as individual peas and sardines we all see life differently, from different perspectives and lenses.
I don't think that there is only ONE truth. Is everything in the Universe just ONE ~~ one kind of species, one kind of galaxy, one kind of snowflake, one kind of tree, one kind of day or night, one kind of smile or laughter, ad continnum?
Is the most valid of truths one which does the least amount of harm, leads to positive results, benefits mankind in an ongoing way and benefits one's self in both a moral and ethical way?
I don't know. What do you think?

We fear that our beliefs will crumble into dust if we question them and if we have that experience, then what must we do ~~ we can do as Nietzsche suggested we must do -- turn those beliefs upside down, inside out, sideways, backwards, forward (lol-paraphrased).
We are afraid to live within Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. (John Keats)

[waechter418]

wise answer - thank you !

[Meno_]

Even if we'll never know, it doesent matter, because all points, ways of being in this world meet at some point, everything is connected in a humongous circuitry , and even that is fleeting in the dizzying whirl of constant change.

The comforting thought is, that however large it gets, it can get larger, where size is only conceivable as to how far away or near an observer gets.

Very very far away, things seem to be frozen, and are very small, in fact they can be very big traveling at very fast velocities.

It all is a matter of perception, and that is why life, to be able to conceive it bit by bit. We are witness to Nothingness and there is Nothingness, because there is always testament.

St. Anselm was right all along!

[surreptitious57]

We fear that our beliefs will crumble into dust if we question them and if we have that experience then what must we do

I can only say what I do which is not to hold onto ideas too much in case they turn out not to be true. Even if they
are they do not matter in the grand scheme of things. And so one should still not be holding on too tightly to them
Any Stoic or Nihilist knows that everything they are is merely ephemeral and one should therefore not fear oblivion

[waechter418]

A MIND IS LIKE A PARACHUTE : IT DOES NOT WORK UNLESS IT IS OPEN


Yes brothers - lets fly !


MIND IS (OUGHT TO BE) WITHOUT GRAVITY

[Arcturus Descending]

A MIND IS LIKE A PARACHUTE : IT DOES NOT WORK UNLESS IT IS OPEN


Yes brothers - lets fly !

Are there to be no sisters along for the ride? I have wings.

[Arcturus Descending]

We fear that our beliefs will crumble into dust if we question them and if we have that experience then what must we do

I can only say what I do which is not to hold onto ideas too much in case they turn out not to be true. Even if they
are they do not matter in the grand scheme of things. And so one should still not be holding on too tightly to them
Any Stoic or Nihilist knows that everything they are is merely ephemeral and one should therefore not fear oblivion

Well, maybe in one sense they are good and important depending on how they guide your life - in a good way.
But you are right also that in the grand scheme of things, at the end of the day, well, I'm not sure here. They may matter a bit. lol
But I agree that we ought not to be holding onto them too tightly - but loosely -- or not even that. Just to be the skeptic, the agnostic.
At the same time, is it right and true to hold some things as truth, even if they are our own truth and they do not interfere with the truth of others or harm them?

Being stoic is a good thing. Being a nihilist though, that would depend on how pessimistic that nihilist is.
I like to think of myself as a more refined nihilist. lol