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Showing posts with the label soul

περιπέτεια (peripetia)

Much of my pain and disappointment has stemmed from my expectation. I expected to receive much from the world on the account of who I am—whatever that may be. I saw people with wealth, and I thought I deserved that same wealth; when I saw that the path to wealth crossed decades and generations, I came to resent wealth and the wealthy for many of the wealthy did not need to cross the violent and vast river of trial-and-time.  I grew resentful, fearful, and hesitant as time passed—feeling as if I was trapped in a devious mechanism whose purpose was to drain my life and soul to sustain the livelihoods of those that stood on the shoulders of generations. I saw that I was a man living in the shadows of vampiric titans and kniving gods. I attempted to brush away this image as being the result of bruised and temporarily wounded ego, but my heart told me that this was the truth: the world is a tragic place for a tiny man who dares to look up with open eyes.  Regardless, I sense the ne...

Will and the Ape

When you're writing a story, you're supposed to know what your protagonist wants. If you don't do that, then you don't have a real character. And that strikes me as a really obvious metaphor for real life: if you don't really know what you want, then you don't have a really well-developed character. If you don't know what you want in a particular situation,  then someone else will want on your behalf,  and you will serve them.  This is a rule with few exceptions. ... It's important to get to a place where you can act according to your subjective experience–your visceral, unedited reactions; that is, your natural reactions. Most people tend to be alienated from their natural reactions, their "true will".  Natural, uncensored, candid, flowing—I have found these to be a suitable goalpost for crafting (nearly all) my reactions to social situations. However, the challenge is that human nature is ape-like, impish, infantile,...

Nature; Mater Profundus

Nature becomes herself naturally. But to both see and experience the world of man as a natural process is a more difficult task requiring attention and perspective. Everywhere you look, there is nature. Both urban sidewalks and the mountains are her domain. She lives in the suburbs, the city centers, the mountains, the reefs, the rivers, and the bays. You will see her ripping herself apart as she tediously cuts through mountain rocks and concrete slabs with her tiny blades made of grass. Without nature's self-destructive blessing, there is no life.  Blessed are the busy thriving cities clogged with traffic and bloated with thoughtless pedestrians, for nature has given them her kiss of life. Cursed is the Sea of Tranquility, for it knows only peace. There are believers who would end the human race on behalf of the planet; their will is the will of nature and life. There are believers who would end the Earth on behalf of the human race; their will is the will of nature and li...

Alchemical Fragments 1.1

There was I, in a luke-warm black sea. Above me was a sky or cavern-ceiling. Dim constellations of dubious form. I kept swimming. When I could not swim, I floated. I closed my eyes; Accepted despair. I awoke to a rhythmic beating of wings, carrying me up. ... The alchemist says, "The spirit must be rescued from the waters. "It cannot be sieved or filtered. It must rise of its own volition." ... The water floats, as a sphere, touching not the glass of the retort. The soul circumambulates until it gives up its spirit. The spirit is lifted to escape the retort, guided by the principle of the air, the angel, the wind of paradise. ... The angel is four wings, brown and white. ... The black water is found in the deep, gathered in abyssal wells, carried up, in dark earthen vessels. Placed in the alembic, the black water gathers, like an orb, reluctant to touch the ignoble, the lowly the earthly, the common, the things on the sur...

Aphorisms you never asked for Pt. 1 v1.3

If you don't believe anything I write here, you're going to have a bad time. If you believe everything I write here, you're going to have a worse time than I did. ... Live the life of a thousand aphorisms. ... You can't own what you worship. (It owns you.) ... Strife is the law of life. You don't need to spend long seeking it out. Strife will find you. ... Listen, it is not necessary to pursue pleasure nor greatness nor wealth. It is sufficient to live a life dedicated to mindfully avoiding suffering. ... The Logos  is the word (stories, narratives, values in the form of the written and spoken word) that carved their way through time and death and war and famine and plague and generation. Seek it. Learn from it. Its other name is History.  ... God, they say, is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent—all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful. Man, is omnivore— all-consuming. ... At the center of being is void. When the self tries t...

Deus ex Techne — The Felicitous Harvester v1.2

There is a thought experiment that goes something like this: Try to imagine the best possible future. Then, try to live your life in a way so that future can come true. The highest good (that I can think of) is a collective human project in which we overcome death and suffering. We rescue the dead from death—past and future. If humans continue to pursue technology, we may eventually reach the point where we can overcome death. We may be able to reach the point where consciousness is no longer dependent upon a biological human body. If can we master time, matter, and biology, then, I suppose, future-people can harvest the consciouses, the souls, of people moments before they die. The metaphysics of time travel and the ontology of the human soul are beyond the scope of this post. However, the idea is that  it might be possible to go back in time and snatch souls before death ; that's the gist. What I have described here is the only form of universal salvation I can think of...