I've experienced some rather profound shit in my time. Some of said experiences were so beyond what I had come to expect as normal, that I was forced to question my own sanity. Now is not the time to disclose the details of those experiences - but to share with you an understanding that one of those experiences left me with.
Everything happens for a reason.
I was lucky enough to observe something that quite simply cannot be expressed in language, but that left me with the belief that every single thing that occurs, does so for a reason and is leading somewhere that is ultimately good. While I accept that, during the time of this observation, I had lost all faith that the world could be going anywhere good, and so consequently could have deluded myself into the belief that I witnessed something that proved otherwise, I nevertheless have chosen to retain the belief that what I saw was legitimate, and that everything does indeed happen for a reason.
The reason I have chosen to hold onto that understanding, is because the simple belief that everything is going to be okay, is a powerful aid to managing the struggles of life. When you know in your heart and your mind that we as a species are heading somewhere great, and somewhere that all living will be most joyful to arrive at, all the shitty things that happen in your own life become purposeful. They become experiences that you seek to learn something from, rather than occurrences you wish had never befallen you.
Whether you consider it the divine plan of the Almighty, or the collective evolution of humanity, placing your trust in a power higher than yourself, and that the plan is a good one, can grant your life a myriad of rewards. For starters, there is the loss of fear. If you know that nothing other than what was supposed to happen for the betterment of mankind is going to take place, then what happens to you becomes far less important - or very important. Either way, it becomes necessary, and not worthy of fretting over. If you have done some things in your life you regret, or lost people you wished you had been able to hold onto, then the belief that everything happens for a reason, and that everything is going to be okay, is a gift that allows you to perceive your once-mistake as an inevitable lesson and move on to the next chapter of your life, wiser and hopeful to see what comes next. When you have trust that we are on the only path we should be on, and the one that is leading to the best place, anything you see out there in the world that seems awful or difficult to behold, becomes far easier to accept, and your life becomes more comfortable because of it.
Of course, adopting such a belief may be difficult for one who hasn't experienced something to convince them of it. But, I think that humans are pretty good at convincing themselves of whatever they want to, if they try. So, I suggest to you, that if you are going to look out into your environment and seek for evidence of anything - seek for whatever will convince you that everything's going to be okay, and hold onto that belief with all your heart. It will be a most useful armour to carry with you throughout the rest of your life. There's a reason we find ourselves telling one another "everything's going to be okay" at the worst moments of our lives - because knowing it is, will make it so.
As long as you are focused on beliefs, and in firming up those beliefs to believe even more, you are experiencing the world of your mind, not reality.
Some beliefs destroy all beliefs & those are the beliefs I prefer.
I do not disagree, but I think what we consider to be real is dictated by the mind. I question whether anyone could truly perceive the world as it is without rising above linguistic protocols that operate in the mind - and it's very difficult to do that for an extended period of time. Language is a set of beliefs, and it is constantly trying to define everything for us, and as long as that's happening, we are blind to what I believe you mean by reality.
Nothing is real.
Self-realization rises above linguistic protocals and it's close to reality since it is only consciousness alone with no thoughts but I tend to think that Reality (nothing) lacks consciousness.
Eventually in a person's or being's journey, nothing becomes more important than everything.
Language, beliefs, words, ideas, thoughts & experiences are all meaningless with no value or purpose (including this).
P.S. We might have a lot in common @lordless.exile 😀
Perhaps it is to do with language, but you don't make a lot of sense to me. You seem to think that nothing is real but that there is somehow also a way to escape what the mind dictates as real and notice something that really is real?
Becoming more aware of the meaningless and insignificance of every thing, especially my own thoughts, ideas and senses, reduces my suffering and the suffering I cause others to such an extent that I think it's practical to consider the possibility that:
"Becoming more aware of the meaningless and insignificance of everything.."
It is your choice to "become aware" of the meaningless and insignificance or everything, and it is a natural progression of that choice to question whether anything is real, and to consider everything meaningless and insignificant.
I've said before that as much as we like to pretend we are rational beings, and that logic is used to discern truth, it is far more often the case that we use our faculties of logic to establish convincing reasons to keep believing that which we've already chosen to believe.
You've already chosen to believe nothing is real. This you have said, and far more definitively, in several comments. So when explaining why you feel this way, you should ask yourself if "becoming aware of the meaningless and insignificance of everything" is a product of honest observation or a selective interpretation of what you are seeing.
The answer is to be found in asking the question, how are you becoming aware of this?
I encourage you to do this, because believing or even strongly suspecting that nothing is real is not a reason to cause less suffering to others. It is certainly a reason to be blind towards the suffering you're causing, because the understanding that it's not real anyway is a great incentive not to look close enough at the choices you are making, and how those choices effect others.
It makes far more sense from my perspective, that believing the suffering others are experiencing is real, would inspire one to cause less of it.
My wife had a YouTube channel on Emafe.com and she will start it again soon. Then you can view our life and observe if I am creating suffering or not.
The cause of suffering is ignorance, and ignorance is perceiving meaning where there is none (read my profile on Steemit, you might be surprised with what it says 👍)
I also think you are off to a wrong start by trying to prevent, reduce & eliminate the suffering of others when there is a high probability that you haven't even eliminated your own suffering.
I'd rather lead by example by eliminating my own suffering first!!
And how can suffering hurt or affect me if all of the suffering that arises in me is simply an uncaused illusion with no actual meaning, purpose, power, influence, cause or strength?
Disclaimer: These words of mine are completely meaningless with no power, cause, strength or affect.. but if you perceive meaning in them, your mind is creating it's own ideas, interpretations and fabrications based on what you want to see, sense, experience & possess.
I could not agree with you more about anything, this outlook constitutes a very large part of the reason I am so rarely down.
Dude! I wrote you on discord, but in case you don't get a chance to see it, this is important- check out https://www.palnet.io, sign in and post from there from now on- it will post on steemit too, but it's not like any of the other front ends that people have tried here, it's like steemit's old days. Just look at the trending and hot page- no bullshit vote bought posts, it's awesome! Plus you get there PAL coin in addition to whatever steem you make. Read this post by Julia- https://www.palnet.io/palnet/@juliakponsford/palnet-the-dazed-and-confused-user-guide
Thanks for the information. Can you appease my skeptical mind and answer a couple of questions first though?
Are the PAL tokens tradable or is it simply a promise that they may be in the future? As I have fell for that too many times now. And also, does the Palnetwork take a portion of what you post to Steem? And if so, how much?
I may be on discord tonight, but if I am not, I definitely will be tomorrow.
Have you checked out steemengine? The tokens are listed on there, currently it looks like PAL is fluctuating from .15 to .20 cents, but yes they are tradable. Either way it posts to steemit too, so you still get the same as you would of that. I'm not sure if they take a portion of PAL, but not steem. It's extremely similar to steemit except that the trending page is actually filled with posts you want to read :) No bidbots in the picture.
It's early though, can't say what the future of it will bring, only that it's a nice set up right now.
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Beautifully put and very true, it's easy to lose yourself in the details when you don't see the bigger picture. Just to add, I will be answering your comment in the next couple of days .. I've just been so busy with work (etc etc) that I haven't had five minutes to think, and a thoughtful comment deserves a thoughtful response.
No problem. I was quite rushed as I didn't have much time online, so I hope I said enough of what I wanted to say.