Thread: sloth goes insane. (Please read)

I found this in my English class, and thought of you..

"I went to the woods because
I wished to live deliberatly.
To front only the essential facts of life,
And to see if I could
Not learn what it had to teach
And not, when I came to die
Discover that I had not lived"
~Thoreau

"I went to the woods because
I wished to live deliberatly.
To front only the essential facts of life,
And to see if I could
Not learn what it had to teach
And not, when I came to die
Discover that I had not lived"
~Thoreau

And that is not a sarcastic gesture.

Interesting. I happen to be reading Walden right now, lol.

On Existential Depression
Existential depression is caused by wanting to have meaning when a part of us thinks that meaning doesn't exist.

The solution to existential depression is counter intuitive, which is probably why it isn't well known.

We grow up in a life where everyone around us jumps from one 'important' and 'meaningful' thing to another, never seeing the pointlessness of it all.
We think this is normal so adopt the behavior, but we constantly fight ourselves because part of us sees how pointless it really is.

Our base state is where we see how pointless everything is.
However, this state does not create existential depression.
It's the conflict between the pointless state and the part of us that wants meaning that creates existential depression.

We enter suicidal states only when we are unable to find a solution. (ie, we are unable to find something that has meaning.)
The solution, which is now obvious, is to remove all feelings of meaning and importance so that we return to our natural state.

If everything is meaningless, then everything is unimportant. If everything is unimportant than nothing is more important than anything else.
When the feelings of meaning and importance are removed, our existential depression disappears.

And so, I no longer cowl in the hole.

By Langston Hughes ~
"Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams.
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field
Covered with snow."

Why does it always have to be all or nothing?
Why is searching for an answer you'll never find such a terrible fate to everyone? maybe we have found this giant, illusive answer, and it wasnt good enough, so we discarded it and kept digging. we need to learn to live in a state where everything is pointless and not worth effort? depressing, and boring if you ask me.
Always searching for some grand realization. Some blinding epiphany.
why can't looking for meaning, BE the meaning?
The ride, is the destination, type of shit.
say you find this grand answer or meaning, and realize it was more fulfilling while searching. not to mention more fun.
I know I'll never find the answer to existance, but that doesnt mean im going to stop searching. at the end of day, this shit is interesting to think about, so why deny myself the grinning dizziness, because I'll never have concrete proof?

im sure a coma is easier than life, but i'd rather be awake. I'd rather have shit be real, good or bad, than perfectly plastic.

i dont know though. just spouting shit off, before i walk to Mc.Donalds and ingest loads of anti-nutrition. that'll sharpen my brain up.

I agree sort of. As I said, most of my time is study and walking; oddly, while not getting the answers I desire causes pain, not searching causes more. Consequently, I do not live in a society that cannot understand such things and live a paradox of being starved of that which I need most while realizing that such a thing does not even exist, and at the same time I do the only thing which can bring me any sort of meaning: searching for truths. In these years I have learned things that I would die to preserve. Is not even one such thing worth the effort?

Ultimately, we all must die anyway. I must be myself and no one else while I am still alive; I feel "optimism" (in the word's misunderstood and popular use, literally in this case meaning "lying to oneself"), complacency, and other variations of emotional death to be worse than death itself.

Originally Posted by awoke

Why does it always have to be all or nothing?
Why is searching for an answer you'll never find such a terrible fate to everyone? maybe we have found this giant, illusive answer, and it wasnt good enough, so we discarded it and kept digging. we need to learn to live in a state where everything is pointless and not worth effort? depressing, and boring if you ask me.
Always searching for some grand realization. Some blinding epiphany.
why can't looking for meaning, BE the meaning?
The ride, is the destination, type of shit.
say you find this grand answer or meaning, and realize it was more fulfilling while searching. not to mention more fun.
I know I'll never find the answer to existance, but that doesnt mean im going to stop searching. at the end of day, this shit is interesting to think about, so why deny myself the grinning dizziness, because I'll never have concrete proof?

im sure a coma is easier than life, but i'd rather be awake. I'd rather have shit be real, good or bad, than perfectly plastic.

i dont know though. just spouting shit off, before i walk to Mc.Donalds and ingest loads of anti-nutrition. that'll sharpen my brain up.

1. ignorance, and acceptance, are completely different.
2. people dream in comas, if you were in a coma your whole life, it would be your life.

Originally Posted by Never

I agree sort of. As I said, most of my time is study and walking; oddly, while not getting the answers I desire causes pain, not searching causes more. Consequently, I do not live in a society that cannot understand such things and live a paradox of being starved of that which I need most while realizing that such a thing does not even exist, and at the same time I do the only thing which can bring me any sort of meaning: searching for truths. In these years I have learned things that I would die to preserve. Is not even one such thing worth the effort?

Ultimately, we all must die anyway. I must be myself and no one else while I am still alive; I feel "optimism" (in the word's misunderstood and popular use, literally in this case meaning "lying to oneself"), complacency, and other variations of emotional death to be worse than death itself.

I, personally, was suicidal, when it came to not finding answers. Why i was?
because, my life was centered around the big picture. the constant why.
ive come to realize, that searching for the ever elusive, and all intangible question, is pointless. ignorance is no better.

total acceptance, brings peace, not pain.

i accept, that people around me, are ignorant, in that, they are conditioned, to be submissive to authority and majority, and disputive and rejecting, of ingenuity, and idealism.

i accept life. i understand, that it is, as it is.

why want anything? i already have the world, and beyond.

i look not to the memories of the past, nor the hopes of the future. all i need is here. and always will be.
to be happy with everything, you must be happy with nothing, because, in essense, they are the same.
everything dies with nothing.
everything dies alone.
death is the ultimate equaliser of people,
and even the richest and most popular man,
will die with nothing,
and no-one.

Death -- The Equaliser
At birth, be one,
New Mother, new son,
To be happy, with all,
Be happy, with none.

All live with nothing,
All live alone,
The world's richest woman,
Without a true home.

The most popular man,
No glimpse of a chance,
No escaping of death,
The end of your dance.

Not hopes, of the future,
Nor memories, of past,
All alone,
We shall die, at last.

to be happy with everything, you must be happy with nothing, because, in essense, they are the same.

This is where you lose me. What is happiness to you then, in actual experience rather than in theory? With such subjective words our points can be lost or misunderstood easily, and I wish to understand what you are really aiming for.

"Happiness" cannot for me be attained until I feel whole, and how can one feel whole when one cannot live naturally, when one is forced to reside in this factitious and superfluous fantasy that man has created? I am nagged by a constant need to "be". Instead of "being" I feel that I am in a state of half-existence. Like I am hooked up to life support and asked to smile at the florescent bulbs set up in place of the sunrise.

I have mastered my emotions before, but I never found happiness, rather "satisfaction"; more like "lack of agony"; boredom and emptiness being it's primary replacement.

Originally Posted by Never

This is where you lose me. What is happiness to you then, in actual experience rather than in theory? With such subjective words our points can be lost or misunderstood easily, and I wish to understand what you are really aiming for.

"Happiness" cannot for me be attained until I feel whole, and how can one feel whole when one cannot live naturally, when one is forced to reside in this factitious and superfluous fantasy that man has created? I am nagged by a constant need to "be". Instead of "being" I feel that I am in a state of half-existence. Like I am hooked up to life support and asked to smile at the florescent bulbs set up in place of the sunrise.

I have mastered my emotions before, but I never found happiness, rather "satisfaction"; more like "lack of agony"; boredom and emptiness being it's primary replacement.

I accept, that man has created a factitious and superfluous fantasy world.
I accept it.
I accept, that it is true; That the nature of this "man's" world, is as such.
Nothing anyone can do, could shake me.
Come up to me, and shout things at me, tell me im useless, my ideas are rubbish. Get the world to join in.
I shall not move.
I accept this as the reality of the world, and as such, i can view it so.
It's not a bad thing for me that it is so.
It may be for others, who are drawn between accepting the world, or trying to change it.
It is also not a good thing. It is totally neutral.
Though, by nature, we are not neutral.
By nature, we are happy. We are peaceful. Only when we choose to let something interrupt that peace, do we mask it with other personal emotion.
Happiness, is the only thing that brings happiness.
You can take a step back from reality every so often, and marvel at the "good" you think you have done. You will be happy.
It does not bring happiness. You bring happiness.
Even love does not bring happiness. At least not true love. True love, brings helpless sorrow, for you can not ever do something that would be so signifigant for the loved, as everything, is trepid in comparison to the emotion.
Hate, does not bring happiness.
Happiness, is found within, in those few moments of peace, and with happiness, all other emotion disappears. At least for those few seconds/minutes/hours/days/months/years.
I am not alien to this world. I can never feel unaccepted by it, because i accept it, regadless of it's everchanging face.
I, am existence.
No matter what happens, whether i know about my heritage (referring to the creation of life), or not. It doesn't matter to me.
I am who i am.
Knowledge will not change that.
In essence, i am purely existence.
There have been layers, wrapped around me.
Layers of human conditioning.
Ignorance.
Misunderstanding.
Ego.
Curiosity.
Oh, that insatiable curiosity.
Fueled forever, regardless of the question or the answer.
Cured only by such acceptance, that everything is, as it is.
I seek not to "better" myself.
Standing before death. I am no-one.
I am nothing.
As is everyone else,
and in turn, nothing, is everything.
"Lack of agony", is just neutrality, in other words, it is ignorance.
Ignorance, that you are already at the utmost of perfection.
You are existence.
How could you possibly want anything else?
The search, for the reason and the why,
are only there, because you are not happy.
Not happy, with what you have,
and in reality, you have nothing.
You need nothing,
and because this is so, you have everything.
There is no doubt of this reality.
You can only be unhappy, if you are materialistic.
Understanding that you have everything, means that materialism, is non-existential.
It is an illusion, created by our ignorance, of the truth.
The truth, that everyone is equal.
The only proof of this being, the inescapable death.
Which is as real, as the very air you are breathing...

I don't understand; but then, do we ever really understand anything?

I cannot "accept" or "believe" what I cannot at least inwardly know to be true.

If you knew you were to die in the next half an hour, you would stop thinking about what would happen next.

You would accept it.

You wouldn't care about the new shoes you just bought,
because, they are so insignifigant.

Yet 5 minutes ago, they were the only thing on your mind.

This happens to everyone on their deathbed.

Even the most popular, and richest man in the world.

He suddenly, realizes, nothing mattered. Only that which makes him happy at that moment.

So he calls over his children, and tells them how much he loves them, and happiness wells up inside him, bringing tears to his eyes, at just seeing them.

Then, he lays down to die.

Stops wondering what is going to happen next,
because for all he knows, this is the end of his existence.

Money, no longer matters.
That person that robbed his house last week, no longer matters.
He holds no grudge, he releases, all materialism.

The thousands that have died before him, are now his equals, because, regardless of what he has "achieved" in life, it no longer matters. He is purely equal.
The little family owning nothing in ethiopia, are equals to him now.
He owns nothing. He is about to be reclaimed by death.

So, here you are, you have only so many minutes left.

All your memories flash before your eyes, for the last time before those eyes, the future is non-existent now. You are going to die. The past is now gone. The future is now gone. There is only the now.
You have accepted death, and here it comes.

I live my life, from this view. Every single day passes, as it could be my last.

I do what i do, simply because i choose to. It is not bad, it is not good.
Though, the happiness is here, every second, and it can not be removed.

. . .