Welcome to Samsara II.
"I've seen things...
you little people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion
bright as magnesium... I watched C-beams
glitter in the dark near Tannhäuser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time
...like tears in rain.
Time to die."
Roy's last words,
Blade Runner
This text is about our favorite of all dualities; Death & Life. It is a continuation
of the 'Samsara I' cynosure, and of course represents my own controversial views alone.
It is entitled "samsara" after the Buddhist/Hindu word 'samsârah', representing the cycle
of life and death. The text is intended to stimulate people to look deeper into the meaning
of life, through the window of death, and perhaps to eventually transcend it. For those
cursory enough to ideate it, i am not obsessed with the idea of death, nor do I concieve
myself as having anything more than the most average potentiality amidst mankind.
At times I will cite ideas from many different sources, including those of of some different
philosophers/writers, all such things are property of their respective originators, and such
other nonsense... in addition to these "borrowings", I should note that there is also alot of
cool art work that i 'acquired' that is probably copyrighted too. There are too many lawyers
I think. Oh well, c'est la vie. A page of references will follow the text.
Now, before i jump right in i will review some of the premises from SI
- they will be highlighted in white.
Afterlife, Life, God:
One cannot prove the existence of the afterlife or god (note: absolutely no evidence
for it whatsoever), thus one's fate after death is probably vacuity and blankness (note:
to prove something one needs at least some evidence for it). therefore we derive our first
major premise: physical death is conscious death, as traditional scientific thought indicates.
to sacrifice the future to allow for a temporary fulfilment/happiness/pleasure in the present
is a flawed process, as the intitial action is nullified by the end result: death (blankness). Thus
persuing happiness in life is flawed, in terms of result, and survival.
For example, feeding a man a fish will feed him for a day, teaching him to fish will cure his
starvation permanently. We've all heard this allegory before, yet it still seems 'good' and
'satisfying' to feed him that fish, and we may be able to sleep better at night because of it.
At the end of the day, however, the man is still starving - he reaps no benifit from the action,
while you gain pride and mock nobility. He is stuck in the condition of starvation. Does it
help him to give him a full stomach for a day? no, because he is just as reliant and starving
the day after.
Cutting back the leaves doesn't affect the root.
Blowing off a final exam that you are unprepared for in order to go out and party may be
alot of fun in the moment you are doing it, but in the end you will only get screwed. We all
know this as a fact, yet we still do it.
On another note, a visit to a person with advanced alzheimer's may enrich his/her life with
a moment of happiness, but that moment will evanesce in a mere second.
Does it then enrich their lives? or does it just make you feel good?
What solid truth or purpose is there in
doing that which instantly fades away?
One could say there justification by love and sentiment alone - Yet the universe knows not
of these things! How can there be anything absolute in that which is formless, impermanent?
[and so castles made of sand, all slip into the sea eventually... ]
Building things that will leave your grasp no matter what you do,
such is life: transience.
A flash of lightning, the flicker of a lamp, a star at dawn, -- so does life slip away...
As you see, happiness and pleasure have no meaning in the greater context of life.
Fleeting pleasure or pain have no import in light of one's eventual fate.
Similarly, he who dies with the most toys, is, nonetheless still dead.
There is hope however. Death is not as inexorable as it seems.
Advances in technology promise that one day soon we will be able to extend our lives
indefinitely. Alcor Cryogenics is just one venue offering prospects for life extension
(i list more such links in Samsara I).
Given the innate flaws in the dogma of metaphysical immortality, we must rely on a more scientific
(that is proven) method. The relatively new philosophy of Transhumanism offers us just that, a
medium for these thought processes. In a world which is based on fundamentally irrational value-
systems, it brings us what could be a new vision for humanity.
This is the single goal, this is the purpose; advancement
(a striving,... for perfection, for the ideal).
.
.
.
All we do here on earth is meaningless in the face of our own extinctions.
Meaning is only attained upon the realization of the beyondrman - the posthuman - the immortal.
The next stage.
This is the endeavor of the organism.
.
.
.
Thus, there are several roads to reach this end ("There are many roads to Rome")
the end of course being that most primal of all biological needs; survival.
Somewhere along the line we developed memory, and it all went down from there... ;-)
you see, biologically we were meant to be content with perpetuating ourselves through
creating children. Consciously speaking, this is unacceptable.
You know as well as I that we are conscious beings, not plants.
'We' are fundamentally non-biological entities with no means of reproduction.
The radical paths i have concieved are thus:
These are the roads, choose wisely.
Good fortune in your travels of the mind.