Being
Contents
Definition
Applications
Basic Message of Sermon On the Mount
As far as I can tell, the basic message of the Sermon on the Mount is something like, "assume that Being is good, and that your role is to further that good, and that the most appropriate way to do that is to tell the truth and to concentrate on the day." Something like that. That strikes me as… Well, it strikes me as extraordinarily wise.[1]
Fundamental Constituent Elements Of Our Own Reality Are Not Material
I think that you can’t really understand what makes up virtue until you modulate or modify your notion of what constitutes being. This is a hard thing to do.Modern people are fundamentally materialistic. And there’s some utility in that: we’re masters of material transformation. And the fact that we’re materialist in our scientific philosophy has made us extremely powerful, maybe too powerful, for our morality. Extremely powerful from a technological perspective, but it’s blinded us to certain things. And I think one of the things that it’s really blinded us to is the nature of our own being. Because we make the assumption that the fundamental constituent elements of reality are material. We fail to notice that the fundamental constituent elements of our own reality are not material. They’re emotional, they’re motivational, they’re dreams, they’re visions, they’re relationships with other people. They’re conscious: they’re dependent on consciousness. And self-consciousness. And we have absolutely no materialist explanation whatsoever either for consciousness or self-consciousness. And we don’t deal well, from a materialist perspective, with the qualities of being. And everyone knows those qualities exist, I mean for most people there’s nothing more real than their own pain. Pain transcends rational argument in that you can’t argue yourself out of it: it’s just there. And, materialist or not, there are very few people who are willing to allow the claim that their pain is merely an epiphenomena of some more fundamental material process. Pain is fundamental. Consciousness is fundamental. And I think that unless you understand that, you can’t think properly about virtue.[2]
Being Is Not Possible Without Limitation
Suffering’s an integral part of being. Well, why is that? Who knows? It’s a metaphysical question, but I have some ideas about it that have helped me and there are things that I have read. I read for example an old Jewish commentary about the reason for creation. It’s like a zen koan, this idea. You take a being with the classical attributes of God: omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience, a totality. And the question is: what does a being with those attributes lack? And the answer is limitation. And then you think, well what’s so important about limitation? If you can be anything or do anything at anytime whatsoever, there’s no being. Everything is one thing. There’s no differentiation between things. So something that’s absolute and total has no being, it has to be parceled out into limited being. And you know this because you all play games, you play video games, you play games with other people, you may play games you don’t even know you’re playing. And when you play those games you put limits on yourself, you play by a set of rules. And the reason you do that is when you limit yourself, arbitrarily in some ways, whole new worlds of possibility emerge. And so there’s a powerful metaphysical idea that being is not possible without limitation. So that’s an interesting idea. So you say well what’s the price you pay for being? The price you pay for being is limitation and the price you for limitation is suffering, so the price you pay for being is suffering.[3]
Soul of the individual eternally hungers for the heroism of genuine Being.[Citation Needed]
Turning Away from Being Itself
"If you make yourself weak and you suffer stupidly because of it, you will become bitter. And once you become bitter, you will become vengeful. And after vengeful, there is no limit... If you make yourself weak by engaging in deceipt, and failing to take responsibility, then you transform yourself into something that cannot bear to endure the structure of existence, and you will torture yourself. And that leads to very bad places."[4]
Interpretations
Two ways of being
- You are trapped in the past
- Can you be someone with infinite future possibilities, and choosing one? This is to be conscious, awake. [This is pure quantum]. Consciousness takes a potential and turns it into a reality [collapses the wave function]
Live in a manner that justifies the fragility of being. You justify being by how you choose to exist. You can live in a way that does not justify being, but I don’t recommend it.
We have to make some basic decisions: Love: Being, is worthwhile. "I'm going to act as is Being is worthwhile." Truth: play the game with a straight bat. "I'm going to act as if truth is the path to enlightenment."
We must commit to this.
You should live in a way that justifies the fragility of being. Justify being by how you choose to exist.
Is life terrible? It depends on how you live!
See Also
- How to Act (Action)
- Love
- Truth
References
- ↑ Truth and Responsibility with Aubrey Marcus Transcript
- ↑ Necessity of Virtue Transcript from memoirsofanamnesic.wordpress.com
- ↑ Necessity of Virtue Transcript from memoirsofanamnesic.wordpress.com
- ↑ Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
