Know Thyself

[mannequin01]

Who are you, or what are you, or how do you see yourself?

Feel free to tell all about yourself in relation to the above title, your history, bloodline, your mentality, your whatever..what makes you you?

[surreptitious57]

I am no one and I know nothing either and am simply passing through like a white cloud in summer
I have no desire to be remembered nor will I since I have not done anything to be remembered for
So come now o insignificant one come and sleep the eternal sleep of deep death now and for ever

[mannequin01]

well, that was rather depressing...

anybody have anything slightly more uplifting?

[surreptitious57]

It may be depressing to you but more importantly it happens to be true. There will come a point in time when the human race will simply
be no more. That does not bother me because I just accept it and neither will it bother anyone else because by then they will all be dead
Free from all suffering forever more. And anyone who thinks that is depressing needs to explain to themselves why exactly they think this

[URUZ]

"Someday the sun will explode and wipe out the earth therefore everything I do right now is meaningless. "


Lol.

[surreptitious57]

Someday the sun will explode and wipe out the earth therefore everything I do right now is meaningless

Meaningless in the grand scheme of things most definitely. But not meaningless in the here and now
However being aware of the inevitable allows me a greater sense of detachment and peace of mind

[URUZ]

Right. Namely you use the fact that a star will blow up 100 million years from now as an excuse to not have to try so hard at stuff.

Sounds.... unfortunate.

[James S Saint]

well, that was rather depressing...

anybody have anything slightly more uplifting?

Throughout the infinite universe, there will always and forever be a person exactly identical to you, down to every atom.

[surreptitious57]

Namely you use the fact that a star will blow up 100 million years from now as an excuse to not have to try so hard

No that is your false interpretation from what I said which has no bearing at all on what I think I should do with my life
Which is to have some purpose and pursue it as much as possible and also try to be the best human being that I can be

[MagsJ]

..and on the 3rd day, I arose.

Biblical or what.

[Meno_]

That one day, one blue and freshly lit day you will discover that you need to try. so hard to be you because by that time you will discover that you are everybody else and that makes you unique. In every situation it is you over and over withstanding the cathaclisms of time of.all the stars always dying, because you will be there either there, or here, bearing witness, but you must have a distance to maintain between the living and the dead in order to prevent the all inescapable loneliness that creation was meant to prevent. How then can you be not but lonely in a crowd and feel amused by what has been done and written down.so that you can learn who you are?
Without the living word, you are no one, and if your gene pool tells you, that they found this all by themselves for your edification then they are lying, in fact they are just reacting to the injustices of not being some one else blaming themselves for having made some.bad choices acquiring more interesting and and challenging choices . Or the choices were ok eons and eons ago, but couldn't be taught you and you did not know whose fault you do not know ,you or the teacher's, but there was a wrong turn sometime , somewhere ,and then the direction was lost and so were you. And now you blame you, me, us,them,they,we,him, for not being them, or me for that matter, and hope that someone will.deliver you now, instead of having to wait those additional trillions of years, when you can be you just the way you are. If you wait it it will happen, but then will you really learn who you really are or have to wait again over and over again other trillions of years?

[WendyDarling]

You are as designed.

[Meno_]

Yes but who designed me as ? Unanswered questions leave open any possibility AS to anything related anything else that may be a transcendent. So the statement ,as you were designed is infective, not reflective as to who you are. It leads to a truism Gertrude Stein would make, or Popeye, I am who I am. It really makes no difference who, or even what I am. Even if, I am programmed to receive.

[WendyDarling]

The Big Sky Daddy of course. Your soul (human souls) was designed right after the solar system (and all systems in the Earth realm) was finished. The story's in the Old Testament. You are nearly as old as the entire solar system (all Earth realm systems), but don't look a day over 30 yrs. old. How old is the Earth realm? Millions of years old or older?

Meno...your soul is an ancient immortal design made of God matter. Lifetime after lifetime you have been reborn to discover who you are and who designed you. Astral projecting is your easiest route to discovery.

[Meno_]

But then its all one grand design in the American Indian Sense of.the All Big Spirit, there is a continuum of indiscreet selves that are not themselves making themselves discreet, therefore.the soul can never be discovered as God making each one unique each into themselves. So you blend into me inseparable and unrecognizable to each other for ever and ever. Then the next phase is if you can never really recognize me, then how can I ever know myself, right?

Of course this 'right'? Is the tickler, because of that irritating uncertainty, right? That can never be an absolute, in that sense, so the anomalie will always stand in the way of true self knowledge. The creator will always be a part of.the creation. Therefore he will become suspect in his participation and.create a mystique, a mystery in his alleged motive to abate loneliness.

[URUZ]

Namely you use the fact that a star will blow up 100 million years from now as an excuse to not have to try so hard

No that is your false interpretation from what I said which has no bearing at all on what I think I should do with my life
Which is to have some purpose and pursue it as much as possible and also try to be the best human being that I can be

Ok, so then what does the sun blowing up in 100 million years have to do with "to have some purpose and pursue it as much as possible and also try to be the best human being that I can be" ?

[James S Saint]

All it means is that you missed the guess at your purpose.
If you can see the futility of your proposed purpose, that wasn't your purpose, try again.

[WendyDarling]

But then its all one grand design in the American Indian Sense of.the All Big Spirit, there is a continuum of indiscreet selves that are not themselves making themselves discreet, therefore.the soul can never be discovered as God making each one unique each into themselves. So you blend into me inseparable and unrecognizable to each other for ever and ever. Then the next phase is if you can never really recognize me, then how can I ever know myself, right?

Of course this 'right'? Is the tickler, because of that irritating uncertainty, right? That can never be an absolute, in that sense, so the anomalie will always stand in the way of true self knowledge. The creator will always be a part of.the creation. Therefore he will become suspect in his participation and.create a mystique, a mystery in his alleged motive to abate loneliness.

Your essence lives each life unchanged. Your soul doesn't change but your memories are wiped and I wish I knew why. Immortality may be too much to ask of a human soul. We can't handle knowing it, knowing that we will never end. Maybe God's lonely so to be merciful to us, we live different human lives throughout eternity. Can a soul ask for death...obliteration...I don't know?

[Meno_]

Have you or anyone be experienced having an obliterated soul? Did they ask for it, or were they condemned to loose it like Faust? Did his deal consisted of knowingly bartering it?

[WendyDarling]

God may not give anyone the choice. He may not believe in killing his offspring even it they beg for it.

[URUZ]

Knowing yourself requires not following these silly thousands years old superstitions that cannot even be meaningfully articulated, much less argued for or demonstrated.

[Meno_]

Knowing yourself requires not following these silly thousands years old superstitions that cannot even be meaningfully articulated, much less argued for or demonstrated.

Did you notice the Faustian allusion?

[URUZ]

Maybe you can be more specific.

[surreptitious57]

Namely you use the fact that a star will blow up 100 million years from now as an excuse to not have to try so hard

No that is your false interpretation from what I said which has no bearing at all on what I think I should do with my life
Which is to have some purpose and pursue it as much as possible and also try to be the best human being that I can be

so then what does the sun blowing up in 100 million years have to do with to have some purpose and pursue it as much as
possible and also try to be the best human being that I can be

I think that it is important to have a sense of perspective and understand that life will not last for ever as we are just passing through
That in no way means one should not strive to make the most of ones own life in the meantime while one still has the chance to do so

[Meno_]

Then unlike me, perhaps ,You don't read widely on ILP ,but don't worry that consists of no more then 2 or 3 forums.

Faust was much more then bartering wisely, betting on being able not to come up with his side odnthe bargain.
He was more , therefore filling his persona with much more, defining a whole historical essence of MAN. That he bet right ,has become a historical venue of epic proportions.

His persona posits hope to all big time gamblers of the spirit, and it defines an age, within which battle lines are drawn on the battle ground between good and evil

How bold those lines are depends on the nature of barter and negotiation. We are the products of those exchanges, and whereby the threat remains undiminished , the results can be viewed as predictably for the better in any case. Just because third world countries have not developed Faustian conscience, does not mean they cannot learn.

Conscience is not.based on superstition, within unlearned people a mystical participation develops out of sheer necessity.

We can not afford to examine a life worth living apart from early social bonding, it is too late in the day for that.

Not in an age where reality and meta reality are being re-integrated

I know You did not bargain for a long narrative, but Faust is a big page turner.