Metaphysics

Woodcut from Camille Flammarions 1888.

What you perceive is just a part of the building.
Maybe you are in the library, maybe you are in the basement.

Maybe this universe is just one universe among tons of universes.

Maybe there is a God somewhere who is responsible 
for all the misery and suffering here.

What if the world is not like a castle, maybe it's like a chicken factory farm. 
The chickens have no idea what it looks like outside.
Perhaps all explanations how the world is constructed are wrong.

Science can only give answers to a few of all the questions.

The religions have the answers, but they are not unanimous.
There are so many different ideas about what's really going on out there,
or in there.

Suppose they gave a war and nobody came

You don´t need to read much history to lose all faith in mankind. 
Endless wars and atrocities in the name of Jahve, Jesus Christ, 
Allah, manifest destiny, truth, democracy, freedom...

Thousands and thousands of years of horrors.

Still, most people you meet are decent and friendly.

How do you explain this? What's wrong with us?

What's wrong with you?

Why can't we stop following crazy, bellicose leaders: 
political leaders, religious leaders, generals...?
Is it because we are made to follow leaders, like chimpanzees?

Well, we also have the power to resist our natural urges.
It's difficult, but it is possible.

It's possible to jump off the bandwagon.

But you don´t.

You have to have a band to belong to. You have to have a band leader. 
You can find another group of people to identify yourself with
but you have to belong somewhere. 

You're afraid of being all alone.
You're afraid of traveling alone without a road map.
I can understand that.
Nevertheless, it's possible to defect.

Many people have been able to leave their religious cult.
Many people have been able to stop drinking and leave their drinking buddies.
Many political dissidents have left their home, in search for a new home
in a new country, in a new culture.
Even criminal gang members have been able to leave their gang.

Life is meaningless

If you need a meaning with your life, you have to invent it,

or get it from someone else.
The meaning is not out there somewhere in the yard
like an Easter egg placed there by The Easter Bunny. 

It's wonderful to find a meaning with life. It feels good.

To live a life without meaning or purpose is hard.

We're not made to live without meaning.

Historians have identified 22 000 different Christian churches, 
denominations and sects in the history of Christianity. 
Isn't that amazing, 22 000 different interpretations 
of the same book?

There are also tons of different kinds of Hinduism,

different kinds of Islam, different kinds of Buddhism.

This must reasonably mean that you are free to invent 
your own religion or your own interpretation of a religious teaching,
if you feel like it.

You can, off course, also invent a secular philosophy of life
or some other kind of belief system.

You're free to concoct whatever beliefs you want.

Most people, however, don't have to worry about inventing beliefs 

or the meaning of everything.

They simply believe what they have been told to believe.

Family and friends, school and MSM provide the answers
to all questions about the meaning.

What is real?

Suppose there is no inner reality 
and no outer reality,
no inner space and no outer space.

Suppose there is just one reality, just one space.

Suppose everything is real:

hallucinations, dreams and fantasies,

common sense, planets and stars,

fear, snowstorms and spiders,

etc. etc... You name it.

Who are you really?

How do you deal with your inner idiot?

Do you try to talk sense to him?

Do you keep a low profile to not upset him more?
Are you under his thumb?
Is he under your thumb?

Do you pretend that he doesn't exist?

And how do you deal with your inner dullard

or your inner sissy?

Is the sensible part of you like a clever psychologist,

or is he like a dutiful police officer?

Do inner parts have a gender?

Is your inner idiot a female?

Have you noticed that there is a part of you 

that is not an idiot, not a dullard, not a sissy,

not a psychologist and not a police officer?

The true self

You are not acting from your true self
when you are drunk or stoned,

stressed out, depressed
or possessed by a crazy idea...

Are you yourself 
when you're on antidepressant medication?
What do you think?

Who are you really?
Maybe you are not the one you think you are.
Maybe you are someone else.
Maybe you are a bunch of people.

Is the true self an illusion, as the Buddhists say

or is it the eternal core of your being as the Hindus say?
Is it the part of you that goes to heaven or hell when you die?

Is it just brain chemistry?
Is it just an idea, a thought?

What do you think?

Bad advice

"Know thyself" is not a wise exhortation.

To say “Know thyself” is like saying "Know it all". 

You will never get to know yourself fully.

You can search till the cows come home 
for your true self.
Maybe you can learn a little bit more about yourself
through self-inspection, meditation or psychoanalysis
but you will never get the full story.
Self-awareness is like a movie trailer
to a movie that is not finished yet.

Everything is in constant flux.

You are not the same person today 
as the one you were last year.
and the one you think you are right now 
will be gone in a few years.
You will grow old and frail,
demented, senile or mentally confused.

Once upon a time you were a fetus
and looked like a little rat pup.