To the seeker of truth
Sol, my buddy , my friend on the quest.Oh , have you just opened up a can of worms...so to speak! The question you are asking is an Existential one. I know you're familiar with Sartre and Existentialism(e.g. No Exit). During the mid 90's, I spent quite a bit of time exploring this question you've presented. Which by the way boils down to, "being before essence". Existentialism is an introspective humanism or theory of man, that says: human existence is not exhaustively describable or understandable in either scientific or idealistic terms and relies on a phenomenological approach that emphasizes the analysis of critical borderline situations in mans life. And as I understand it to include, anxiety, suffering and feelings of guilt in order to show the need for making decisive choices which include our own free will. And, making these decisions based upon our knowledge of the fact that they are based on a utilization of man's freedom in an uncertain contingent and apparently purposeless world (ergo) man's existence precedes his essence.
My question at that time was: If man precedes his essence, one must conclude that he has the potential of becoming the exact image of someone else. Perhaps even one's IDOL. Since we make our own meaning, perhaps we can fashion ourselves entirely after someone we believe who has attained their pure being/essence. Granted, this is purely an individual judgment and therefore a purely individual journey, in that sense. By following in someone else's footsteps (i.e. training, book knowledge, societal norms) we lose out on becoming pure beings and accept that we become in a sense a symbol for that which we only desire. And, at this point we no longer go beyond pure potential and remain limited. And as we know now, we are limitless in our potential. We are always learning, growing and gaining new information that informs us that we have no preset limits. We are not an imitation of life. But, a life with pure potential.
We are active participants. The existential thinker believes that if he does not act, and remains only a spectator/ impartial observer he will find fulfillment (this way of thought is false;IMO). We are always and necessarily a participant. And, as such our life is a continual series of decisions. We most certainly do not view the universe impartially or impersonally.
The way I see it; after we embody this skin we move through certain states: Delusion(child), Analysis(pre-adult), Transcendence(quest-i'm gonna go with 30's), and finally Consciousness(the awareness of being embodied), all necessary modes of being if your will is to move beyond the here and now towards a true will and enlightened existance (BLISS).
Breaking the veil, so to speak, becoming embodied, does not mean that we have some sort of pre-determined outcome. We follow the Sun or a path that throughout our lives shifts and changes as we become more aware of the fact that we have control of what we wish our destiny to be. Obiviously some more than others recognise this fact and gain control more easily. The hardest factor to overcome is that we really have no control. We become responsible members of a society. And, IMO, once we become aware of "responsibilty", our freedoms then become limited, then we lose out and our desire to become pure beings with true will has been intercepted by external forces that hold us back. And we follow the sheep(society), we are then one among many. And in my opinion, being, in a mass of sheep asleep is not what I have been striving towards.
Remember that in life there is always "cause and effect", you just have to know how to recognise when it is no longer beneficial to respond and choose to turn away, and say "dude, I'm so outta here."
Misha [a.k.a. Luna] - The Light in the Dark
posted by Misha at
11:13 PM
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