Aristillus
Rising Star
- Merits
- 194
Hi There,
At the start of life there begins an 'epic' tale. From the first protesting intake of breath to the last, rasping exhalation of old age, life writes a many chaptered story of non-fiction within a book - hardbound by flesh and bone: but the 'physic' of the book is not the story; neither is it the 'hero' or the 'heroine'...truly, for such are simply 'virtual' psychological constructs that evolved as the story grew and lengthened out of the cyclic years of dynamic interaction with other heroes and heroines, of whom, life equally writes.
Life, your life, is one phenomenological story entwined and interconnected with that of other phenomenological stories that make up all that that we term human existence, and thus, it makes our presence here on this planet - our existential incubator - a multi-faceted experience. Sometimes, as if peering through a glass darkly, we may catch glimpses of uncommon 'existential' aspects, and find ourselves suddenly confronted with a 'behind-the-veil' reality, and in direct contact with what is normally 'opaque' and 'hidden'. On such occurrences in our lives we find ourselves encountering those rare chances of self-discovery and self-enlightenment that guide us, provocatively, into a conscious understanding of who and what each of us really are.
Thus it became for me -as life wrote its indelible print upon my memory - an unfolding story of an unconscious quest, seeking answers to unconscious questions upon the meaning of mine own existentialism. Whence, during quiet moments, I would silently ponder what purpose was there to man's existence? Why are we here and what happens when we die?
I did not understand at the time of my framing these profound questions the error of the manner in my asking them. By pluralizing the questions I did not realize that whatever answers I thought to have received would be quite general, and would only be relevant to me by small degrees: they were neither specific nor focussed towards what I was really asking, for I was really asking about 'me', 'my' existence, 'my' role, 'my' purpose, 'my' own learning.
I should have posed the questions in the 'singular': What is the purpose to 'my' existence? Why am 'I' here? What will happen when 'I' die? One's life is, after all, about one's 'self'! Why?
If you and I were to read the same book, our conscious experience of doing so would be quite different. What we each take from it, and how we respond to it will be different. There would, of course, be some common agreement about certain aspects, but each of our conscious experience of the book itself, we cannot share in: such experience is personal and private and non-immersive to the other.
Thus it is with the 'life' experience. By being 'alive' and 'existing' we share in the dynamics of living, but we cannot share in each other's conscious experience of doing so. My conscious experience of 'you, is not your conscious experience of 'you', and vice versa: hence, one's life experience is a phenomenological dynamic pertaining to one's 'self' through the virtual constructs of 'character' and 'personality' that emerged gradually over the years from the story that life wrote in your memory.
When you awaken each morning, you do so to the same virtual psychological constructs of character and personality through which your 'self' is expressed, and was expressed the day before, and the day before that, and so on back into your past. Indeed, you are so cognitive of your own 'self's' character and personality expressions that you feel that you could not possibly ever awaken to someone else's character and personality in your own self-sentient experience. Nor could you; you cannot have (or be the bearer of) someone else's personal and private memories without actually having lived their life experience exactly as they had lived it.
Thus, we are drawn to a conclusion that life is - for each of us individually - a personal and private experiential dynamic, and that the tale that is begun at birth, ending only in each of our individual death, is the telling of a journey...but does 'death' actually end that journey?
The preamble I provide to the statement in the title of the thread is merely a canvas device to give placement to each and every one of us in the condition and circumstance of being alive and self-sentiently aware. All manner of organisms are alive, but not all organisms are as self-aware to the level that we are, nor do they ask the same profound questions as we do.
Seemingly, we are born with no map, no chart or star to guide us through the many terrains of the life experience. We seem to simply wander willy nilly until we are able to cognize a more deliberate perspective on what we should or need to do. The purpose of life is to ask questions, and the best of the questions is that which asks...what purpose does life carry?
The purpose of life is to give itself purpose and meaning, hence the human organism's level of sentient awareness. Defaultly, we carry biological necessities; we need to eat and grow and procreate in order to carry the species into the future, but with regard to our psyche and psychology, we are still evolving within our biological incubator of the spirit...and we are not doing a very good job of it.
Our intelligence has become a Damocles sword upon which we self-harm and cut ourselves. With reason and logic we have disconnected spirit from experience and reduced it to myth. Yet knowledge is the reward of experience, and the food of psychical growth, made opaque by the ego construct. So the trick is...to ask questions and seek understanding with reason and logic, but allow wisdom to percolate into spirit, and the connection can be re-made.
At the start of life there begins an 'epic' tale. From the first protesting intake of breath to the last, rasping exhalation of old age, life writes a many chaptered story of non-fiction within a book - hardbound by flesh and bone: but the 'physic' of the book is not the story; neither is it the 'hero' or the 'heroine'...truly, for such are simply 'virtual' psychological constructs that evolved as the story grew and lengthened out of the cyclic years of dynamic interaction with other heroes and heroines, of whom, life equally writes.
Life, your life, is one phenomenological story entwined and interconnected with that of other phenomenological stories that make up all that that we term human existence, and thus, it makes our presence here on this planet - our existential incubator - a multi-faceted experience. Sometimes, as if peering through a glass darkly, we may catch glimpses of uncommon 'existential' aspects, and find ourselves suddenly confronted with a 'behind-the-veil' reality, and in direct contact with what is normally 'opaque' and 'hidden'. On such occurrences in our lives we find ourselves encountering those rare chances of self-discovery and self-enlightenment that guide us, provocatively, into a conscious understanding of who and what each of us really are.
Thus it became for me -as life wrote its indelible print upon my memory - an unfolding story of an unconscious quest, seeking answers to unconscious questions upon the meaning of mine own existentialism. Whence, during quiet moments, I would silently ponder what purpose was there to man's existence? Why are we here and what happens when we die?
I did not understand at the time of my framing these profound questions the error of the manner in my asking them. By pluralizing the questions I did not realize that whatever answers I thought to have received would be quite general, and would only be relevant to me by small degrees: they were neither specific nor focussed towards what I was really asking, for I was really asking about 'me', 'my' existence, 'my' role, 'my' purpose, 'my' own learning.
I should have posed the questions in the 'singular': What is the purpose to 'my' existence? Why am 'I' here? What will happen when 'I' die? One's life is, after all, about one's 'self'! Why?
If you and I were to read the same book, our conscious experience of doing so would be quite different. What we each take from it, and how we respond to it will be different. There would, of course, be some common agreement about certain aspects, but each of our conscious experience of the book itself, we cannot share in: such experience is personal and private and non-immersive to the other.
Thus it is with the 'life' experience. By being 'alive' and 'existing' we share in the dynamics of living, but we cannot share in each other's conscious experience of doing so. My conscious experience of 'you, is not your conscious experience of 'you', and vice versa: hence, one's life experience is a phenomenological dynamic pertaining to one's 'self' through the virtual constructs of 'character' and 'personality' that emerged gradually over the years from the story that life wrote in your memory.
When you awaken each morning, you do so to the same virtual psychological constructs of character and personality through which your 'self' is expressed, and was expressed the day before, and the day before that, and so on back into your past. Indeed, you are so cognitive of your own 'self's' character and personality expressions that you feel that you could not possibly ever awaken to someone else's character and personality in your own self-sentient experience. Nor could you; you cannot have (or be the bearer of) someone else's personal and private memories without actually having lived their life experience exactly as they had lived it.
Thus, we are drawn to a conclusion that life is - for each of us individually - a personal and private experiential dynamic, and that the tale that is begun at birth, ending only in each of our individual death, is the telling of a journey...but does 'death' actually end that journey?
The preamble I provide to the statement in the title of the thread is merely a canvas device to give placement to each and every one of us in the condition and circumstance of being alive and self-sentiently aware. All manner of organisms are alive, but not all organisms are as self-aware to the level that we are, nor do they ask the same profound questions as we do.
Seemingly, we are born with no map, no chart or star to guide us through the many terrains of the life experience. We seem to simply wander willy nilly until we are able to cognize a more deliberate perspective on what we should or need to do. The purpose of life is to ask questions, and the best of the questions is that which asks...what purpose does life carry?
The purpose of life is to give itself purpose and meaning, hence the human organism's level of sentient awareness. Defaultly, we carry biological necessities; we need to eat and grow and procreate in order to carry the species into the future, but with regard to our psyche and psychology, we are still evolving within our biological incubator of the spirit...and we are not doing a very good job of it.
Our intelligence has become a Damocles sword upon which we self-harm and cut ourselves. With reason and logic we have disconnected spirit from experience and reduced it to myth. Yet knowledge is the reward of experience, and the food of psychical growth, made opaque by the ego construct. So the trick is...to ask questions and seek understanding with reason and logic, but allow wisdom to percolate into spirit, and the connection can be re-made.
:lol: 
