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Sun 4 Jan, 2004 02:55 am
Couldn't think of a title for this. Hmm my mind seems to speed of for no reason. It goes too fast, my mind screams. Every so often I find myself with a distinct, strong philosophy. Then, one, little, tiny, miniscule action transpires and my mind completely and utterly falls apart and I don't know who I am or what anything is and it's just generally a bad feeling. Then, in a numb analytical state, a new philosophy is formed, all of which is very akward.
Currently, my philosophy of sort.... I don't believe in teleology, I don't believe their is God or some form of which. Since nothing matters later, the only thing that is real, is NOW. Everything that matters is now. Everything matters because Nothing does. This all makes so much since because I love art. I'm an artist, and this whole philosophy works with it perfectly. Everything matters that is now, and everything now is beauty, and everything that is seen and known and not known, is art. ART. Everything matters because nothing does.
Thanks for listening.
And yet, *art* is almost the antithesis of *now*. Action and reaction are now, but Art is a perceptual effect which results from memories of what was, and anticipation of what could be, which elicit a different view of what *is*. It is this alteration of perception which so often embodies art. Stripped of its past and its future, the instant we live in loses all but its life.
*Art* is the colored glass of the window we choose to see through. *Now* is the feeling of the air that fills our lungs while looking through that window (or reading this sentence).
----------------------
Why are you wearing that silly "rabbit" suit...
Why are you wearing that silly "man" suit?
I like your quote. And I'll reply to what you said soon, I'm far too adrenalized now.
Now isn't anything except what has happened and what is to come. There is nothing more than past and future, now is the fine non existant line between the two. Life is what fills our lungs, now is what the window is.
It could be said that *now* is the only thing which exists, and that past and future are merely illusions of memory and deduction.
If we didn't have any memory (even the slightest bit of it, like a bacteria), and we couldn't therefor deduce anything, then *now* would be the only thing that exists. Right?
Best Regards,
truth
Very good, insightful points, Rosborne and NNY. Rosborne, I love the quote because it shows that "now" and "then" are mere abstractions. To REALLY point to "now" one must refer to some living event like feeling one's breath or tasting sugar.
And, as I've noted elsehwere, a zen master once said that the past doesn't exist (anymore) and the future doesn't exist (yet) and the present is nothing more than the non-existent future becoming the non-existent past. Yet if anything exists it does so in this "empty" present (now).
At the same time, on a different level of discourse this zen master would reject/ignore all notions of past, present and future. There is only the tasting of sugar IF that's what you are actually experiencing.
That's the whole South Eastern Asia Buddhist philosophy. They talk about how man tries to run from something bad, which only prolongs it, and tries to cling to something good, which gives it a fleeting presence. The teaching says that the way to live life, is in the "now". To let everything be taken in and past, good and bad, with the same amount of attention. Doing any different would only lead your life more astray.
I look at it a little differently JL. The past and the future *do* exist, but they don't exist as different forms of the present. Past and future are part of what it is to be human, since we have the ability to conceive of such notions.
Those philosophies which seek to live in the purity of a single perception, don't expand human consciousness, but diminish it. Those that seek to visit a different perspective and understand its place in the scheme of things are more honest.
We cannot escape what we are, but if we're not careful, we can delude ourselves into thinking that any particular perspective is better than the whole, which it cannot be.
No, I must say, I rather enjoy their whole concept, You must leave your ego to see everything clearly. When in the ego, you grip and run from past and future concepts, and don't except now as simply now. If you don't run and tag along with preconcieved concepts of contentment, the whole path to enlightenment is really beautiful and interesting.
NNY wrote:No, I must say, I rather enjoy their whole concept, You must leave your ego to see everything clearly. When in the ego, you grip and run from past and future concepts, and don't except now as simply now. If you don't run and tag along with preconcieved concepts of contentment, the whole path to enlightenment is really beautiful and interesting.
Yes, but are you *visiting* the concept, or living it to the exclusion of all others? That was my point.
truth
Rosborne, I thoroughly appreciate your comment. Enlightenment is not everything. From this side of enlightment, I take great pleasure in aspects of my ego-driven activities, e.g., art, literature, social relationships. And it is our particular genius to create and enjoy illusions.
Nevertheless, I believe it is best to know what is unreal and what is real. The latter frees us from our greatest existential fears, like our inevitable death, our fundamental aloneness, life's ambiguities and uncertanties. I guess it's best to enjoy our illusory world (for example, to entertain notions of "future" and "past") as long as we know it is illusory, to have regular glimpses of Reality.
truth
Twyvel,
Tears drip from eyes, but not from "my" eyes.
When I was in the 6th grade, a boy wrote a poem:
The Present is Now,
Now
or even Now...
I don't know what the hell that means. Do you?
I have NEVER forgotten it....because it was so odd to me (I do write poetry...but maybe he had the NNY philo even at age 11)
It only means there is no not-now,
truth
True, Twyvel, but that's not what the poem says--as far as I can see.
Onyx, you're among keen mindies here, but you are too. The habitues speak in advanced furbelows. Especially jl and twyvel. Make 'em 'splain, eh?
Or we could force them to start a course...
cough.
If it means there is no not-now.
But does not say there is no not-now.
Then it must say what it does not mean.
And mean what it does not say.
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