Mx32 wrote:fourthbase,
I found your posts very interesting and would appreciate any more info on reality you might wish to share!
Would you call your experiences "Enlightenment"?
Meh.
First: I'm just a dude who's had a series of mind-blowing (de)realizations. I'm
hardly the only person who has experienced a similar awakening, and I'm probably not in the wisest or most eloquent percentile who have. The following is just me winging an interpretation.
But...
Yeah. Pretty much. Not that I completely understood/understand it. But I literally
cannot imagine a deeper, more hidden, more "enlightened" layer beneath what I perceived, especially in the first few minutes of that first filterless shock. It was/is the metaphysical bedrock I had been digging to reach at the expense of my personal happiness since I was 17 without really knowing what I'd find. Not that I was some all-star digger: All roads eventually lead to what I saw, with enough persistence and earnestness. I think.
Do you find everyday "normal" life a sham/illusion/joke/pointless/beautiful now or what?
All of the above, I guess. However, the cosmic pointlessness is purely neutral, and I have
used it since as solid ground for my (now unsinkable) optimism to walk upon. Shit can get scary and depressing at times, but
ultimately: It's nothing less than a
miracle to be alive, no matter what the conditions are. Vonnegut was wrong, there are
zero fates worse than death. At the
absolute worst, life is a cruel unfunny joke. Shriek at the gods all you want, mock them, accuse them, I sure as hell have. But in the end, as trite as it sounds, life is what
you make of it. It's pretty retarded to make life any worse than it already is, and it's irresponsible not to do whatever one can to make life as worthwhile and enjoyable as possible for yourself and for as many people as possible. The gods, if they exist, envy whatever amount of free will we have, and despise us for the way most of us abdicate our power to live fully.
Does anything we do matter, in your opinion?
Without a doubt:
Yes. That's not just an opinion.
Back to opinions:
Animals (including us) feel very real pleasure and pain. Every single human being has a measure of influence (however tiny or gigantic) over the physical and emotional existence of others, and that measure isn't predetermined. It's the moment-by-moment product of one's will to be...helpful. Ergo: Life has meaning. What we do (and don't do) matters. Matters a little too much, even! A mental furlough of utter meaninglessness now and then is probably a healthy thing to have in your pocket, it has been for me so far.
And is there anything in the universe that cares about us strange creatures and the fantasies we play out on Earth?
Just ourselves, as far as I know. Maybe there are ghosts, or gods, or some such uber-entities. Doesn't really change the complexion of one's earthly individual life sphere, though, either way -- since whatever else exists has probably
always existed, whether we've been aware of it or not.