We are all responsible for what we do, but not by choice. The only "choice" we have is whether or not to be aware of our responsibility, and even that is more of a gift than a choice (though it certainly appears as more of a choice from the limited "individual" perspective). It is a gift that we are all born with; that is, all living things are fundamentally aware of their responsibility for what they do. But, in our present world, we humans systematically compel our children to squander this gift, usually in the name of some intellectual idea or another.
By responsibility I mean that everything we do has infinite consequence. It is only in this context that responsibility has any meaning at all. So-called "individual responsibility" is, by this definition, an oxymoronic contradiction of terms. You cannot be individually responsible when everything you do has infinite consequence for every living thing, not just you. Furthermore, everything you do is a consequence of what every living thing has ever done in the past. (I use the term "living things" for convenience only, and it does not matter in this case what I actually mean by "living" - I simply mean everything and anything capable of experiencing the illusion of choice, and it also does not matter how you define choice here either) Modern scientists refer to this as the butterfly effect, and it is a mathematically proven concept. But, few people realize the direct implication, that the "choice" to blink, or not blink, not only could have major consequences for everyone on the planet, but inevitably WILL have major consequences!
Most people who come to this realization run from it in fear. Because the next logical leap appears to go over a very dangerous cliff: If every choice, good or bad, has major consequences that are completely unrelated to the nature of said choice, then it ultimately can't matter what we do. In order to refute this "chaotic" view of destiny, most people resort to a system of adamant denial, usually in the form of some religious belief or another.
But, the abyss of chaos is only an illusion to begin with, created by our belief in a separate existence from the Universe. And inventing some god of order only ends up reinforcing the illusion of chaos; or as the Buddha says, "There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it."
The correct solution then is to surrender the illusion of individual responsibility and accept the universal responsibility that nature has endowed us all with. It is a responsibility that defies reason, and transcends life itself, making a mockery of death. Choice is seen as the illusion it is, and chaos no longer challenges order, but becomes one with it. Riddles for sure, but only for someone who still fears the abyss, and hence has not yet stepped into it with both eyes open.
(J.D. 7-1-2014)
Saturday, August 16, 2014
The Wisdom of Shit
I recently asked a friend of mine to check out an organization on the Internet for me called the "Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy". My friend laughed at my request because he thought it was a joke (the organization AND my request). After I assured him I was no joking he asked me, with a bit of chuckle remaining in his voice out of respect I suppose, why I would want to know anything about such an obviously "BS" organization. I told him, yes, it was obviously BS, but it was a real organization too, and as such I hoped to find some useful information about the nature of the "beast" (i.e. deception based organization) that shat such shit.
I realized after reflecting on this conversation that it is part of my own nature to question what I don't understand, even when the object of my confusion stinks to high heaven, as in this case (metaphorically speaking of course). Small children normally have no qualms about investigating a pile of dog poop in the grass. For some reason, that I do not rue, this kind of curiosity has never left me (thanks no doubt to my "psychopathic" nature). I still believe, and believe strongly, that the best evidence for understanding something, from organisms to organizations is the content (and hence "smell") of the shit that comes out of it. This is actually an established scientific technique that doctors and scientists have relied upon for hundreds of years. In fact, recent studies indicate that nature herself has been relying on it all along. Dogs for example identify all sorts of critical information about another animal simply by smelling its shit.
So, it shouldn't surprize my friend (and later in that same conversation he admitted that it didn't surprize him after he thought about it) that I would ask for information about an organization that in my opinion "stinks". I am simply concuring with Brian, the dog from the hit adult cartoon "Family Guy", when he once said, "Everything I need to know about a person I can gleen from (sniffing) their assholes."
(J.D. 6-19-2014)
I realized after reflecting on this conversation that it is part of my own nature to question what I don't understand, even when the object of my confusion stinks to high heaven, as in this case (metaphorically speaking of course). Small children normally have no qualms about investigating a pile of dog poop in the grass. For some reason, that I do not rue, this kind of curiosity has never left me (thanks no doubt to my "psychopathic" nature). I still believe, and believe strongly, that the best evidence for understanding something, from organisms to organizations is the content (and hence "smell") of the shit that comes out of it. This is actually an established scientific technique that doctors and scientists have relied upon for hundreds of years. In fact, recent studies indicate that nature herself has been relying on it all along. Dogs for example identify all sorts of critical information about another animal simply by smelling its shit.
So, it shouldn't surprize my friend (and later in that same conversation he admitted that it didn't surprize him after he thought about it) that I would ask for information about an organization that in my opinion "stinks". I am simply concuring with Brian, the dog from the hit adult cartoon "Family Guy", when he once said, "Everything I need to know about a person I can gleen from (sniffing) their assholes."
(J.D. 6-19-2014)
The Mother of Reality
If it weren't for certain forces of nature that we usually call "evil", merely because from our perspective they cause us to experience pain and suffering, then none of us would be here at all; which is to say, there would BE no experience.
I usually like to define evil as the product of fear and ignorance, which results in the emotion we call hate, and affects the behavior or other projection of reality that we call evil. But, that's just one way of defining it, and there are many.
Another way to define evil - keeping in mind that we're still talking about the same phenomenon - is as, anything that invokes inbalance, or "injustice" in a normally harmonious, or ordered, system, such as our personal life or social community. This definition is usually the one we use when we think about crime, and is commonly used by the aficionados of justice to justify their devotion to "restoring order" via their written (i.e. invented) laws.
One thing that both of these definitions have in common, indeed that all definitions of evil require, is the concept of disrupted order. Whether order is disrupted by an act of hate, or one of greed and avarice, or even by mere random chance, if our perception of order is disturbed then we experience the pain of the loss and suffer because of so-called evil.
Most people who use the "justice definition" of evil in order to justify doing evil to others (as I once did and as the entire so-called "Criminal Justice System" does routinely) seldom stop to consider the implications of what they are doing (i.e. propagating the very "evil" that they profess to be against). No one likes to admit that they are evil, especially not those who do the most evil of all (i.e. politicians, religious leaders, law makers, law keepers, etc...). But, something that even those who study and write about such human falacies (i.e. philosophers, social scientists, mystics, etc...) seldom consider is that this systematic and ignorant propagation of evil is also a fundamental and necessary part of nature, not just living nature, but all of nature, indeed. All of existence.
If there were no force in nature that could cause the disruption of order, or if such forces could be somehow completely suppressed (by other forces for example), then the Big Bang itself would never have occured.
We don't know a lot about the Big Bang, but we do now it happened, and we also know that whatever caused it to happen was something that disrupted the order of nothingness. Actually, the term "nothingness" is a misnomer in this context, but the very basic principles of known physics tells us that nothing can happen without a fundamental disruption of order. This is the core principle behind quantum physics, and is commonly referred to as the "uncertainty principle".
Basically, what I'm saying, is that "evil" is a critical and indespensible part of our reality. In fact, you could even truthfully say that evil is the mother of all reality!
(J.D. 7-4-2014)
I usually like to define evil as the product of fear and ignorance, which results in the emotion we call hate, and affects the behavior or other projection of reality that we call evil. But, that's just one way of defining it, and there are many.
Another way to define evil - keeping in mind that we're still talking about the same phenomenon - is as, anything that invokes inbalance, or "injustice" in a normally harmonious, or ordered, system, such as our personal life or social community. This definition is usually the one we use when we think about crime, and is commonly used by the aficionados of justice to justify their devotion to "restoring order" via their written (i.e. invented) laws.
One thing that both of these definitions have in common, indeed that all definitions of evil require, is the concept of disrupted order. Whether order is disrupted by an act of hate, or one of greed and avarice, or even by mere random chance, if our perception of order is disturbed then we experience the pain of the loss and suffer because of so-called evil.
Most people who use the "justice definition" of evil in order to justify doing evil to others (as I once did and as the entire so-called "Criminal Justice System" does routinely) seldom stop to consider the implications of what they are doing (i.e. propagating the very "evil" that they profess to be against). No one likes to admit that they are evil, especially not those who do the most evil of all (i.e. politicians, religious leaders, law makers, law keepers, etc...). But, something that even those who study and write about such human falacies (i.e. philosophers, social scientists, mystics, etc...) seldom consider is that this systematic and ignorant propagation of evil is also a fundamental and necessary part of nature, not just living nature, but all of nature, indeed. All of existence.
If there were no force in nature that could cause the disruption of order, or if such forces could be somehow completely suppressed (by other forces for example), then the Big Bang itself would never have occured.
We don't know a lot about the Big Bang, but we do now it happened, and we also know that whatever caused it to happen was something that disrupted the order of nothingness. Actually, the term "nothingness" is a misnomer in this context, but the very basic principles of known physics tells us that nothing can happen without a fundamental disruption of order. This is the core principle behind quantum physics, and is commonly referred to as the "uncertainty principle".
Basically, what I'm saying, is that "evil" is a critical and indespensible part of our reality. In fact, you could even truthfully say that evil is the mother of all reality!
(J.D. 7-4-2014)
Thursday, August 14, 2014
The Way, The Truth and The Life
I have recently said that the epiphany that caused me to stop killing and turn myself in didn't change any of my personal viewpoints about the world , but it did make me realize that my viewpoints were limited and selfish. That cause me to stop BELIEVING in my own views, and forced me to surrender to the "views" of the Universe. I didn't know what those views were, but I knew with a certainty that they DID exist, if only because I exist (the logic behind this statement is well established by minds far more astute in such things than mine will ever be; take Descartes' "Cogito ergo sum" for example: I think, therefore I am, is the conclusion he came to based on this same line of reasoning). Suddenly my views became just that, MY views. I took responsibility for my own views for the first time. And, I no longer felt the need to validate my views by imposing them onto other people, either by argument or by force (e.g. I was imposing my views of justice by attacking society through the kidnap, rape and murder of children). I saw plainly via this epiphany that my views could never be validated. By their very nature they were inherently true only for me, and false in all other contexts. This is why I now insist that any real concept of God (i.e. the source of all being) must be direct and personal, not canned as with most religions. It seems plain to me when I read the Bible (as I have often) that Jesus wasn't trying to establish a new system of belief (i.e. religion), but was trying to free people from ALL belief systems, so they could experience the source of their being (i.e. God) directly through the Living Truth. He not only insisted he was the Way, the Truth and the Life, but he further insisted that we all are! Of course, most Christians will argue, and insist their view is the only correct one - but, such people don't concern me, I was once like them, and understand completely why it is so important to them that others believe as they do, and conversely, that they believe as others do, though now I only believe as I do, and express that belief without expecting others to believe the same.
(J.D. 7-2-2014)
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