The Balance between Purpose and Awareness

From moment to moment those with the most purpose tend to win. Speed wins the race, power wins the battle. The egg favors the sperm that got there fastest, not the sperm that stopped to think.

However in the bigger picture, wisdom outlasts power. Awareness survives purpose. Evolution favors selectivity when mating. That being said, tacticians have no place in the front-lines and even the wisest general that chooses his battles with the most refined set of principles is lost if he cannot find purpose in the moment. War is not won by strategy alone but by the hearts of the men fighting each individual battle.

As awareness increases, purpose becomes less apprehensible. People become disillusioned to worldly values and get lost intellectualizing reality rather than living it. Or, on the flipside, people get so wound up in themselves and forget the larger game at work, forget that life is bigger than them. They get too caught up in purpose and lose their awareness.

My advice is understand your purpose as finite and limited; ultimately meaningless in an infinite universe. Use this awareness as a tool to find peace, but use the pursuit of your finite purpose as a tool to find happiness.

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Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

From moment to moment those with the most purpose tend to win. Speed wins the race, power wins the battle. The egg favors the sperm that got there fastest, not the sperm that stopped to think.

However in the bigger picture, wisdom outlasts power. Awareness survives purpose. Evolution favors selectivity when mating. That being said, tacticians have no place in the front-lines and even the wisest general that chooses his battles with the most refined set of principles is lost if he cannot find purpose in the moment. War is not won by strategy alone but by the hearts of the men fighting each individual battle.

As awareness increases, purpose becomes less apprehensible. People become disillusioned to worldly values and get lost intellectualizing reality rather than living it. Or, on the flipside, people get so wound up in themselves and forget the larger game at work, forget that life is bigger than them. They get too caught up in purpose and lose their awareness.

My advice is understand your purpose as finite and limited; ultimately meaningless in an infinite universe. Use this awareness as a tool to find peace, but use the pursuit of your finite purpose as a tool to find happiness.

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Evolution is random mutation, it isn't "selective." Also why assume that a greater awareness translates into greater ambiguity in purpose? How can become more aware as their purpose becomes less clear.

I'm glad you asked.

First of all just because something is random doesn't mean its not selective. The most fit will put more copies of themselves in the gene pools. Natural selection is still selection, just based on natural law. As it is observed, natural laws becomes understood. One of these laws is that purpose wins the fight, awareness wins the war. Example: By themselves, aggressive chickens do better than docile chickens. In groups, the docile chickens win out because the aggressive ones damage each others' eggs. The mutation to be aggressive or docile is random, yes, but the evolutionary result is not random, the most fit survive. The question is then asked... what makes one most fit? And the answer can be surprising.

In human terminology, to win a fight you need to have the most purpose you can possibly have. You have to want to win with faith in yourself. On the battlefield, soldiers find faith in god and country in order to find the power to self-sacrifice for a greater good. An aware person understands god and country are finite concepts, irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. But that awareness has no place in the individual battle. The awareness serves to ascertain the best means to win overall. The samurai code tells us to choose death, not suicide but failure. This means don't hesitate to make mistakes even if you know they're mistakes... as long as they're your best possible move. If there was a chance of learning something, that's worth the mistake. Act with purpose, see with awareness.

Finally, your word choice of "ambiguity" shows I didn't explain the concept right. You don't lose your purpose as you gain awareness, you see beyond your purpose. You see the greater peace which requires little care or attachment one way or another. It sees this attachment and purpose as a source of suffering. Nothing more.

But moment to moment, battle to battle, one fights with all their heart. The warrior plans his battles very carefully but when he does pick one he's the grunt, the sperm, the seed and anything he fails is a lesson for next time. This brings fulfillment.

FYI this ideology is not something I thought up but rather something I saw while WILDing. I don't necessarily have faith in it. Out there, it's all just ideas and possibilities. Feel free to tear my argument apart as hard as you can, that's the only way to find what's solid.

An interesting thought. I have to ponder this a bit. This goes around the themes I think a lot.
But for a quick remark about survival, for me it is power. But for me also, power includes wisdom as well as many other factors. Power is everything you have in your disposal to ensure your survival and to cling in the very existence.

If one is immearsed in awareness purpose becomes evident. The purpose you speak of is made of nothing but assumptions. It is a violation of the absolute. It is nothing but conceptual thinking, go beyond it and see what's really going on.

We live in an agressive culture, so those who are aggressive seem to flourish, to win, but that's only because we base our ideas of success on material gains. I don't anymore. The only emporer is the emperor of ice cream to quote the Wallace Stevens poem.

It is not those with the strongest drive that win, but those who act most intelligently. In our culture we assume that if you are intelligent or have wisdom you have no passion, you are cold. But this is not true, it's just a side effect of our institutions and conditioning. Go beyond it all.

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Originally Posted by Unelias

An interesting thought. I have to ponder this a bit. This goes around the themes I think a lot.
But for a quick remark about survival, for me it is power. But for me also, power includes wisdom as well as many other factors. Power is everything you have in your disposal to ensure your survival and to cling in the very existence.

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You're right, but different circumstances require a different sort of power. It's like rock paper scissor or sword, shield, eye; assassin, soldier, spy; shell, stinger, antenna. Blunt force is insensitive and unable to learn anything. One naturally inherits millions of years of practice (wisdom) from their genes already but it take careful use of their senses in order to go farther than the bare genes. The soldier relies purely on training in battle because that's all one has in the moment, a combination of practice and instinct. A samurai would say choose death, which is a concept of keeping your eyes open in these situations rather than surrender to panic and pure instinct. This is also something the general looking at his soldiers as pawns on a map is able to do, sacrificing his men for the greater good. This is something we do with our bodies, sacrificing cells to fight infection. For the soldier to be able to self-sacrifice he needs something he can feed on in the moment. This is a finite purpose given infinite importance. Although we cast many seeds, it is the effort and importance our individuals cells/seeds/soldiers have for their individuals goals that create the overall value for the whole.

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Originally Posted by stonedape

If one is immearsed in awareness purpose becomes evident. The purpose you speak of is made of nothing but assumptions. It is a violation of the absolute. It is nothing but conceptual thinking, go beyond it and see what's really going on.

We live in an agressive culture, so those who are aggressive seem to flourish, to win, but that's only because we base our ideas of success on material gains. I don't anymore. The only emporer is the emperor of ice cream to quote the Wallace Stevens poem.

It is not those with the strongest drive that win, but those who act most intelligently. In our culture we assume that if you are intelligent or have wisdom you have no passion, you are cold. But this is not true, it's just a side effect of our institutions and conditioning. Go beyond it all.

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Exactly :) Awareness can allow a person to develop the most awesome, truthful, sacred purpose they can comprehend, but that does not make this purpose mean anything. The void removes it all.

However, when I said success, I didn't necessarily mean the aggressive, materialistic rat race our society is currently (and impermanently) wound up in. I am referring to evolution. Not just putting more copies of yourself in the gene pool, but more copies of your ideas in the idea pool. Whatever works wins out and those who don't utilize new concepts die out. Our current model for a thriving society is a competitive society, and I will not deny that power loves competition. Cooperation has always won out at the end though. Cooperation requires love, sacrifice, compassion and bravery and all those good things our televisions have been telling us to do.

But competition is a means for an end. And we are in a war. It's become so sophisticated most of us don't even know it. But we're fighting it for one side or another. We have a central philosophy about empowerment of the individual, respect for the rights of every cell in our social organism. The United States believes it is fighting for these ideals but its been poisoned by corrosive forces. China believes completely in empowerment of the whole at the expense of the individuals. These things cause social cancer. Ultimately this is not important as truth will win out and if you like your head can be up in the higher planes with the divas floating around in a carefree existence. But most of us come back down to reality after we have WILDs/OOBEs/etc... and we realize our ideas were great up there but they don't necessarily mean jack shit down here. There are still things to fight for. Even in a carefree existence where truth has the lovely attribute of being itself and thus surviving this war of sustainability and corrosion (or rather nestling within the ironic point where the two meet), when one becomes infected by a higher truth than themselves they fight for a greater good. Choosing not to fight for this greater good means you are already a cancer, part of the chaos and corruption. This is fine. Chaos evolves things, chaos is life at work. But when one works for truth, that is their boss.

I am not speaking about passion but about work. Passion is not readily available at 9 AM. If you are a spiritual worker, neither is the fear of poverty. One must find something greater to work for. This is where I make my most difficult claim. We are not struggling to understand the mind. We are not struggling to understand the body. We are struggling for the mind and body to understand each other. We are also struggling to build a bridge between heaven and earth. This sounds like a rapture but it's really just about passing lessons down from above and continuing to pass these lessons until science can test and verify them thus connecting the realm of infinite ideas with our more solid structure. In doing so we can combine the force of sustainability which exists in the afterlife (kingdom of heaven) with the force of sustainability which exists on earth (reason). Sounds conflicting right? Well the two may never hold hands but we can narrow the gap.

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Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

However, when I said success, I didn't necessarily mean the aggressive, materialistic rat race our society is currently (and impermanently) wound up in. I am referring to evolution. Not just putting more copies of yourself in the gene pool, but more copies of your ideas in the idea pool. Whatever works wins out and those who don't utilize new concepts die out. Our current model for a thriving society is a competitive society, and I will not deny that power loves competition. Cooperation has always won out at the end though. Cooperation requires love, sacrifice, compassion and bravery and all those good things our televisions have been telling us to do.

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It's really not even "what works", I think that idea is a little too vague. It's what's suited to the current environment. The disposable consumer culture certainly doesn't work, at least not in my opinion. People can get by on it, but it doesn't provide them with proper nutrition, both literally and metaphorically. Our bodies and minds are being constantly with garbage, and if you want anything of substance you have to seek it out. I suppose things have always been like that, but it doesn't have to be like that anymore, we just missuse our tools.

Mediocrity thrives at the moment, if that makes any sense.

I have some stuff to say about the rest of your post but I gotta go now.

Please keep in mind I am trying to describe something other than the words I use to describe them. The words are a bridge, not the destination. Please look deeper for the meaning behind them rather than taking them for face value. They are going to be vague because I am describing something I haven't even figured out how to describe in human terms yet. I'm just using "Whatever works." This is more vast than we can grasp with our current concept of reality (but it is important to maintain this concept of reality as a grounds for ideas to be tested upon.) I do not believe this idea was my invention. I'm simply coming up with terms to describe a method which already exists.

It is not just the way the universe works, contained here is a method to enable human beings to accelerate their evolution.

Oh, sorry if it seems like I'm trying to say your wrong or something, I was just saying that what's currently going on "works" but its also destroying us so it doesn't work. But maybe we need things to fall apart so we can rebuild them on a solid foundation.

I wasn't disagreeing I was just trying to expand on what you said.

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Originally Posted by stonedape

If one is immearsed in awareness purpose becomes evident. The purpose you speak of is made of nothing but assumptions. It is a violation of the absolute. It is nothing but conceptual thinking, go beyond it and see what's really going on.

We live in an agressive culture, so those who are aggressive seem to flourish, to win, but that's only because we base our ideas of success on material gains. I don't anymore. The only emporer is the emperor of ice cream to quote the Wallace Stevens poem.

It is not those with the strongest drive that win, but those who act most intelligently. In our culture we assume that if you are intelligent or have wisdom you have no passion, you are cold. But this is not true, it's just a side effect of our institutions and conditioning. Go beyond it all.

---

So, your purpose is to not give in to these material gains and to show other people that it is not fulfilling them either. But it is still a finite thing, and doesn't really matter.

This is a good thread. Because I've been struggling with this recently.

I'm almost independent, (in a way, like I'm out of school, uni etc.), and I'm struggling to merge this concept with my life.
I definitely know that this is all true. We have no purpose and we should jsut basically enjoy life while we have it.
But I also don't feel it properly yet, although I sometimes get glimpses.

I still feel a need to fulfill my egotistic desires.
For instance I want to go back to university and study some form of Science.
I know this doesn't make any difference at all to anything though. And I'd just be pursuing something which doesn't matter.

But, I could just pretend that it has a purpose, and go with it. But I feel that I am just deluding myself and wasting the time I have in a way.

I feel similarly about another idea I have which is just to save up money and buy farmland and live off it, or just go live in a forest or something. But then I think that I might eventually feel that egotistic desire again to do something "pointful" with my life.

I dunno, it is a hard thing to reconcile, which is why I think this is a great thread.
And I've just been watching Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" so I'm definitely in the mindset hehe :)

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Originally Posted by stonedape

Oh, sorry if it seems like I'm trying to say your wrong or something, I was just saying that what's currently going on "works" but its also destroying us so it doesn't work. But maybe we need things to fall apart so we can rebuild them on a solid foundation.

I wasn't disagreeing I was just trying to expand on what you said.

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I would argue we don't need to replace the system because paradigms tend to work differently. Soon enough people will have changed their mindset that a new form of society will come to exist without the destruction of the old one, just unnoticed because the changes aren't occurring in governments but in the hearts and actions of individual people. As Chris Abani said "The world is never saved by grand messianic gestures but in the simply accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion." These flowers of ideal will continue to cast seeds, just like I'm casting a seed here. I don't even fully understand this seed, I'm trying to explain it out partially just to help me figure out what terms to use to describe this new method. But it will spread for the extent that it's true and the wise critics in our minds will tear apart ideas that aren't agreeable with our world structure the same way our body fights infection.

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Originally Posted by tommo

So, your purpose is to not give in to these material gains and to show other people that it is not fulfilling them either. But it is still a finite thing, and doesn't really matter.

This is a good thread. Because I've been struggling with this recently.

I'm almost independent, (in a way, like I'm out of school, uni etc.), and I'm struggling to merge this concept with my life.
I definitely know that this is all true. We have no purpose and we should jsut basically enjoy life while we have it.
But I also don't feel it properly yet, although I sometimes get glimpses.

I still feel a need to fulfill my egotistic desires.
For instance I want to go back to university and study some form of Science.
I know this doesn't make any difference at all to anything though. And I'd just be pursuing something which doesn't matter.

But, I could just pretend that it has a purpose, and go with it. But I feel that I am just deluding myself and wasting the time I have in a way.

I feel similarly about another idea I have which is just to save up money and buy farmland and live off it, or just go live in a forest or something. But then I think that I might eventually feel that egotistic desire again to do something "pointful" with my life.

I dunno, it is a hard thing to reconcile, which is why I think this is a great thread.
And I've just been watching Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" so I'm definitely in the mindset hehe :)

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Consider the conception and perception of time and infinity. By focusing on infinity and attempting to perceive it, one comes to realize the moment is all that exists and time is an illusion. It is an illusion but it has some value as we use it to plan events and without it... we wouldn't know where to go next. The question is: If life is meaningless, what's the point in doing anything?" when the question ought to be "if life is meaningless, what's the point in getting butt-hurt over anything?

Knowledge is a powerful force of preservation and obtaining knowledge in Science would transform you into a powerful force of reason and understanding thus further enabling mankind to manifest that which still exists and mere possibility.

In the broadest scope, the universe expands and collapses, there was no beginning and there will be no end. We will continue expanding and collapsing for eternity. What does this mean to the Buddhist? It means all life will plunge in samsara and then slowly reawaken into Nirvana then plunge back into samara for the freedom to experience this awakening all over again. Now let's observe the Hindus for the next step down, the Brahmic eras. Above the realms of heaven are realms of ineffable consciousness which I can neither understand nor explain. Everything below this realm (heaven, earth, hell) gets purged at the end of the brahmic era and whoever comes back down first thinks themselves God and begins acting as such until the brahmic era ends and he, along with everything else, is purged once again.

Even further down to the bible and conspiracy theorists, earth itself has the specific purpose of evolving a sentient race with the explicit means of connecting the mind and body, finding harmony with technology and reconciling god and science. Earth is isolated in its own stream of expectation and wouldn't be able to see aliens even if they did visit because our expectation-driven reality is blocking their existence out from this planet.

We can see very, very far. Especially with things like DMT or advanced meditation. But we still live right now, in the moment and we're still fighting a war to ensure we succeed where every previous incarnation of the human race has failed. Or if you prefer rejecting the idea of previous advanced human civilizations then that's fine too, the postulation is unnecessary to accept the fact that there is still much work to be done. We are not wise and elightened sages (not yet ;)) but through practice and failure we gain knowledge and awareness to improve our circumstances along with everyone around us. One must more or less surrender to the moment and surrender to their work.

Assuming you're a straight male, think of the resistance you feel when approaching a female. The advice already exists: fail until you figure them out. But most people don't think like that, they think when that perfect girl comes along they'll suddenly bottle neck half a decade of practice into one pick-up attempt. Because they're too attached to things that don't exist and afraid of failure. Failure teaches us how to become successful. If someone spend their entire life succeeding they learn nothing and may have entered this world with superior genes but they gain no strength, no wisdom.

In other words do the very best you possibly can... but in a "fuck-it" way. Just because you stand no chance against a superior chess master does not mean you'll learn nothing. On the contrary you'll advance more quickly. You just can't be afraid to fail. Awareness allows us to do this because it removes attachment from our endeavors. But if you feel lost in intellectualizing a useless universe... perhaps you aren't putting enough effort into improving your skills and pursuing your endeavors. We naturally feel resistance against thing we want to do. In fact the more important it is to us, the more resistance we feel. That's an attachment born from blindness to what lies beyond our dreams. Sometimes we can't find peace and then work though, sometimes we have to work and then find peace. Sometimes we just have to fight the resistance even if we hate it and every excuse we have says no.

There are millions of seeds, and yours may be inconsequential to the world. Or it may be everything because the fact is every opportunity you come across is completely unique, never to be repeated, never to be found again. Whether you take it or not is ultimately inconsequential but in a battlefield a lot of people may be counting on one man's bravery. Though he's among hundreds charging the enemy... though he stands little chance of being the guy to laze that artillery and get our support rolling in... maybe he's the only one who won't get shot in the face. Maybe he needs to run faster or they'll never make it. Maybe that girl you decide you don't need to talk to is an heiress that wants your penis. In life most things are unlikely but when chance presents itself it is worth fighting for. Cast many seeds... you never know which will hit.

But obviously be as aware as possible and when casting a seed make the best effort you can. The warrior must be patient. If we jump at every opportunity our actions are half-assed at best. Use your awareness you choose your battles, use your sense of purpose to win those battles. In order to build this awareness... one needs to go out and fail a lot. Trying to learn an instrument or write a book? Only way to do it is suck for so long you've ran out of ways to suck at it and have no alternative left but to sound good.

We don't need to do anything, unless we want to keep certain things the way the are or change other things. But I think that if we don't take drastic measures to change our culture at the moment we will end up in some kind of post apocalyptic place, at least here in america.

If we don't change the "government"(which I put in quotes because I'm extending it to include major corporations, media, banks etc), or at least reject it, things will continue to change for the worse. Some things are getting better, but I think that our culture is still veryy aggressive, egoic morons are still followed by the masses. And in many ways this is getting worse. Rather than using the internet as a tool of liberation it's used just to build up a stronger ego, by most at least.

More than just love and compassion are needed(though I suppose if people showed compassion and love to themselves they would be allright). We need to look critically at our way of being and stop doing things that are clearly not sustainable. Otherwise we will destroy ourselves. And those in power do not want this kind of change and are fighting it. The next 50 years should be interesting.

Do you think this kind of change in the hearts of people is occuring at the moment? I think it is in some people but I think overall we're still pretty lost.

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Originally Posted by tommo

So, your purpose is to not give in to these material gains and to show other people that it is not fulfilling them either. But it is still a finite thing, and doesn't really matter.

This is a good thread. Because I've been struggling with this recently.

I'm almost independent, (in a way, like I'm out of school, uni etc.), and I'm struggling to merge this concept with my life.
I definitely know that this is all true. We have no purpose and we should jsut basically enjoy life while we have it.
But I also don't feel it properly yet, although I sometimes get glimpses.

I still feel a need to fulfill my egotistic desires.
For instance I want to go back to university and study some form of Science.
I know this doesn't make any difference at all to anything though. And I'd just be pursuing something which doesn't matter.

But, I could just pretend that it has a purpose, and go with it. But I feel that I am just deluding myself and wasting the time I have in a way.

I feel similarly about another idea I have which is just to save up money and buy farmland and live off it, or just go live in a forest or something. But then I think that I might eventually feel that egotistic desire again to do something "pointful" with my life.

I dunno, it is a hard thing to reconcile, which is why I think this is a great thread.
And I've just been watching Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" so I'm definitely in the mindset hehe :)

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Bahhh, everything matters. Brushing your teeth matters. If you don't do it your teeth will rot. If you do it improperly you can mess your gums up. If you don't think about what ingredients are in the toothpaste you end up poisening the water supply with fluride like the vast majority of people.

I try not to have a purpose when I do something outside of doing that something, but this is not my purpose, this is my method, because it allows me to merge with what is more completely.

If I have a "purpose" then that is liberation. To live without being controlled by social conditioning.

And it's not that we have no purpose, but just that purpose, like everything else is impermanant.

Don't do it if you don't see any purpose to do it. Do what thou wilt. You determine your own purpose, or at least you should. God is a creation of man used to get other men to join their purpose. Be your own God, define what should be based on your own intellect.

And by the way, you wanting to save up money and get a farm or live in the jungle is just as egoic as you wanting to go back to school. And that doesn't make either of those things wrong.

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Originally Posted by stonedape

And it's not that we have no purpose, but just that purpose, like everything else is impermanant.

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Haha, that's true I suppose.

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Originally Posted by stonedape

And by the way, you wanting to save up money and get a farm or live in the jungle is just as egoic as you wanting to go back to school. And that doesn't make either of those things wrong.

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Maybe. The reason I say one is more egoic than the other is because it is purely a pursuit of "more" in a way.
You're probably correct though.

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Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

From moment to moment those with the most purpose tend to win. Speed wins the race, power wins the battle. The egg favors the sperm that got there fastest, not the sperm that stopped to think.

However in the bigger picture, wisdom outlasts power. Awareness survives purpose. Evolution favors selectivity when mating. That being said, tacticians have no place in the front-lines and even the wisest general that chooses his battles with the most refined set of principles is lost if he cannot find purpose in the moment. War is not won by strategy alone but by the hearts of the men fighting each individual battle.

As awareness increases, purpose becomes less apprehensible. People become disillusioned to worldly values and get lost intellectualizing reality rather than living it. Or, on the flipside, people get so wound up in themselves and forget the larger game at work, forget that life is bigger than them. They get too caught up in purpose and lose their awareness.

My advice is understand your purpose as finite and limited; ultimately meaningless in an infinite universe. Use this awareness as a tool to find peace, but use the pursuit of your finite purpose as a tool to find happiness.

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Sure, one finite goal at a time.

However, after happiness, after peace, what do? Am I supposed to be perpetually searching for these warm, buttery muffins? Care to elaborate what matters of awareness henceforth?

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Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

You're right, but different circumstances require a different sort of power. It's like rock paper scissor or sword, shield, eye; assassin, soldier, spy; shell, stinger, antenna. Blunt force is insensitive and unable to learn anything. One naturally inherits millions of years of practice (wisdom) from their genes already but it take careful use of their senses in order to go farther than the bare genes. The soldier relies purely on training in battle because that's all one has in the moment, a combination of practice and instinct. A samurai would say choose death, which is a concept of keeping your eyes open in these situations rather than surrender to panic and pure instinct. This is also something the general looking at his soldiers as pawns on a map is able to do, sacrificing his men for the greater good. This is something we do with our bodies, sacrificing cells to fight infection. For the soldier to be able to self-sacrifice he needs something he can feed on in the moment. This is a finite purpose given infinite importance. Although we cast many seeds, it is the effort and importance our individuals cells/seeds/soldiers have for their individuals goals that create the overall value for the whole.



Exactly :) Awareness can allow a person to develop the most awesome, truthful, sacred purpose they can comprehend, but that does not make this purpose mean anything. The void removes it all.

However, when I said success, I didn't necessarily mean the aggressive, materialistic rat race our society is currently (and impermanently) wound up in. I am referring to evolution. Not just putting more copies of yourself in the gene pool, but more copies of your ideas in the idea pool. Whatever works wins out and those who don't utilize new concepts die out. Our current model for a thriving society is a competitive society, and I will not deny that power loves competition. Cooperation has always won out at the end though. Cooperation requires love, sacrifice, compassion and bravery and all those good things our televisions have been telling us to do.

But competition is a means for an end. And we are in a war. It's become so sophisticated most of us don't even know it. But we're fighting it for one side or another. We have a central philosophy about empowerment of the individual, respect for the rights of every cell in our social organism. The United States believes it is fighting for these ideals but its been poisoned by corrosive forces. China believes completely in empowerment of the whole at the expense of the individuals. These things cause social cancer. Ultimately this is not important as truth will win out and if you like your head can be up in the higher planes with the divas floating around in a carefree existence. But most of us come back down to reality after we have WILDs/OOBEs/etc... and we realize our ideas were great up there but they don't necessarily mean jack shit down here. There are still things to fight for. Even in a carefree existence where truth has the lovely attribute of being itself and thus surviving this war of sustainability and corrosion (or rather nestling within the ironic point where the two meet), when one becomes infected by a higher truth than themselves they fight for a greater good. Choosing not to fight for this greater good means you are already a cancer, part of the chaos and corruption. This is fine. Chaos evolves things, chaos is life at work. But when one works for truth, that is their boss.

I am not speaking about passion but about work. Passion is not readily available at 9 AM. If you are a spiritual worker, neither is the fear of poverty. One must find something greater to work for. This is where I make my most difficult claim. We are not struggling to understand the mind. We are not struggling to understand the body. We are struggling for the mind and body to understand each other. We are also struggling to build a bridge between heaven and earth. This sounds like a rapture but it's really just about passing lessons down from above and continuing to pass these lessons until science can test and verify them thus connecting the realm of infinite ideas with our more solid structure. In doing so we can combine the force of sustainability which exists in the afterlife (kingdom of heaven) with the force of sustainability which exists on earth (reason). Sounds conflicting right? Well the two may never hold hands but we can narrow the gap.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

I would argue we don't need to replace the system because paradigms tend to work differently. Soon enough people will have changed their mindset that a new form of society will come to exist without the destruction of the old one, just unnoticed because the changes aren't occurring in governments but in the hearts and actions of individual people. As Chris Abani said "The world is never saved by grand messianic gestures but in the simply accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion." These flowers of ideal will continue to cast seeds, just like I'm casting a seed here. I don't even fully understand this seed, I'm trying to explain it out partially just to help me figure out what terms to use to describe this new method. But it will spread for the extent that it's true and the wise critics in our minds will tear apart ideas that aren't agreeable with our world structure the same way our body fights infection.



Consider the conception and perception of time and infinity. By focusing on infinity and attempting to perceive it, one comes to realize the moment is all that exists and time is an illusion. It is an illusion but it has some value as we use it to plan events and without it... we wouldn't know where to go next. The question is: If life is meaningless, what's the point in doing anything?" when the question ought to be "if life is meaningless, what's the point in getting butt-hurt over anything?

Knowledge is a powerful force of preservation and obtaining knowledge in Science would transform you into a powerful force of reason and understanding thus further enabling mankind to manifest that which still exists and mere possibility.

In the broadest scope, the universe expands and collapses, there was no beginning and there will be no end. We will continue expanding and collapsing for eternity. What does this mean to the Buddhist? It means all life will plunge in samsara and then slowly reawaken into Nirvana then plunge back into samara for the freedom to experience this awakening all over again. Now let's observe the Hindus for the next step down, the Brahmic eras. Above the realms of heaven are realms of ineffable consciousness which I can neither understand nor explain. Everything below this realm (heaven, earth, hell) gets purged at the end of the brahmic era and whoever comes back down first thinks themselves God and begins acting as such until the brahmic era ends and he, along with everything else, is purged once again.

Even further down to the bible and conspiracy theorists, earth itself has the specific purpose of evolving a sentient race with the explicit means of connecting the mind and body, finding harmony with technology and reconciling god and science. Earth is isolated in its own stream of expectation and wouldn't be able to see aliens even if they did visit because our expectation-driven reality is blocking their existence out from this planet.

We can see very, very far. Especially with things like DMT or advanced meditation. But we still live right now, in the moment and we're still fighting a war to ensure we succeed where every previous incarnation of the human race has failed. Or if you prefer rejecting the idea of previous advanced human civilizations then that's fine too, the postulation is unnecessary to accept the fact that there is still much work to be done. We are not wise and elightened sages (not yet ;)) but through practice and failure we gain knowledge and awareness to improve our circumstances along with everyone around us. One must more or less surrender to the moment and surrender to their work.

Assuming you're a straight male, think of the resistance you feel when approaching a female. The advice already exists: fail until you figure them out. But most people don't think like that, they think when that perfect girl comes along they'll suddenly bottle neck half a decade of practice into one pick-up attempt. Because they're too attached to things that don't exist and afraid of failure. Failure teaches us how to become successful. If someone spend their entire life succeeding they learn nothing and may have entered this world with superior genes but they gain no strength, no wisdom.

In other words do the very best you possibly can... but in a "fuck-it" way. Just because you stand no chance against a superior chess master does not mean you'll learn nothing. On the contrary you'll advance more quickly. You just can't be afraid to fail. Awareness allows us to do this because it removes attachment from our endeavors. But if you feel lost in intellectualizing a useless universe... perhaps you aren't putting enough effort into improving your skills and pursuing your endeavors. We naturally feel resistance against thing we want to do. In fact the more important it is to us, the more resistance we feel. That's an attachment born from blindness to what lies beyond our dreams. Sometimes we can't find peace and then work though, sometimes we have to work and then find peace. Sometimes we just have to fight the resistance even if we hate it and every excuse we have says no.

There are millions of seeds, and yours may be inconsequential to the world. Or it may be everything because the fact is every opportunity you come across is completely unique, never to be repeated, never to be found again. Whether you take it or not is ultimately inconsequential but in a battlefield a lot of people may be counting on one man's bravery. Though he's among hundreds charging the enemy... though he stands little chance of being the guy to laze that artillery and get our support rolling in... maybe he's the only one who won't get shot in the face. Maybe he needs to run faster or they'll never make it. Maybe that girl you decide you don't need to talk to is an heiress that wants your penis. In life most things are unlikely but when chance presents itself it is worth fighting for. Cast many seeds... you never know which will hit.

But obviously be as aware as possible and when casting a seed make the best effort you can. The warrior must be patient. If we jump at every opportunity our actions are half-assed at best. Use your awareness you choose your battles, use your sense of purpose to win those battles. In order to build this awareness... one needs to go out and fail a lot. Trying to learn an instrument or write a book? Only way to do it is suck for so long you've ran out of ways to suck at it and have no alternative left but to sound good.

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Btws, my mind's inevitalby decided to subtitle this thread The Masturbation of Omnis Dei.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by InvisibleWoman

Sure, one finite goal at a time.

However, after happiness, after peace, what do? Am I supposed to be perpetually searching for these warm, buttery muffins? Care to elaborate what matters of awareness henceforth?

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Just come back to what is. Do not search for it, it is right here. After the bliss, you do the dishes. Just stay with your awareness, with what is, and it will be apparent what to do. And if it isn't apparent, think about it, or ask someone for advice or just talk to someone about it.

I came in at a really BAD time, but I have some words of wisdom that, if not already conveyed, should help. If not, that sucks, and move on.

Live and let love.


Take from it what you will.

Sorry to rez my own thread like this, but I find the contrast rather startling between my recent attitude and the one I had merely 6 months ago. It's crazy how far I've fallen.

Unfortunately I don't think you can balance these things because they're both in the same stream and entirely inevitable. If you're awareness is such, your purpose will be such also. Because purpose is defined by awareness, there is no point that either term can ever be meaningless; what is meaningful and purposeful to one is self-sufficient, and that goes for everybody.

You advise to "...understand your purpose as finite and limited; ultimately meaningless in an infinite universe." but does this really make any difference at the core? I mean, is that not merely a shift of purpose and awareness?

There is no meaning to ultimately gain from any endeavor which leads one to the conclusion that there is no reason to pursue any endeavor when in reality it should lead one to realize there's no reason not to pursue any endeavor. Rather than respond with hopelessness, one should take the meaninglessness of the universe as a ticket to do fuck all.

But, as I have attempted to explain in this thread, there are smaller victories that can lead us to profoundly positive changes. And so we would be inclined to pursue them despite their meaninglessness in comparison with the infinite.

We can use our awareness of infinity to detach ourselves from the results of our actions, but our knowledge of the possible positive changes to derive the best actions. Awareness immunizes us from consequence, it allows us to stare into the face of death with our eyes open. Purpose allows us to face that death, to make that action in the first place, to sync with our nature.

So, what I am getting from this thread is you need a balance of awareness and purpose to evolve in whatever way you desire. The fact that your desires are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things is also irrelevant to that irrelevance.

I have yet to figure out what I want my purpose to be, I am only aware that what I am currently doing is not sustainable in my mind or what I want my purpose to be.

Purpose is not something I'm describing as destiny so much as having a purposeful attitude, free of doubt. While doubt is a healthy way to make decisions, it is not healthy when completing those decisions because competition will exploit any weakness.

So in other words your purpose would be to follow through with the best possible decision you can make in your current situation, and to not let doubt pester you about it. You miss every shot you don't take. That doesn't mean you should not plan your shots carefully, but if the result of inaction would be the same as failure, then there's no reason to fear failure or let the possibility of failure impede you.

I really think everyone, on a spiritual journey to enlightenment, enlightened, or completely caught up in the game, needs to read this thread.

I like the thread, but please forgive me that I speed-read through it, as the walls of text are massive and I have a short attention span at the end of the day :P I think awareness is a good thing, and purposes only limits you. Do whatever fits and the sky is the limit. Yes you guessed it right, I am rather an opportunist. I don't believe there is a bigger purpose for us in the universe, so one can create his own, and change it whenever he wants.