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Here and Now I suppose
srsizzy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I got a little inspiration from a movie called "Peaceful Warrior," and I had to write something. I suppose this would be the place to put it.
You know how they say you go to school to get good grades to go to college and get good grades to get a good job and make money and use that money to make yourself happy? And then they say that's wrong, and the system is stupid and you should do something else? Well, at least some people say that. I just realized, it's not the system that's the problem. It's our attitude.
You can't do something in order to do something else. Then you're just giving into the system, letting it take you. You have to do something and live in it, in the moment, and enjoy it. Do it for its own sake (I think I'm starting to understand Kant). Learn so that you know more, not to pass a test. That's what school is for. To teach you about life, and give you the opportunity to go further once you have that knowledge. There's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is that the students aren't getting the right attitude.
College is just more learning, but it's the chance to learn what you want. Jobs teach you things too, everything is teaching you more and more, giving you opportunities to live life and enjoy it. You don't work so that you have time later to relax and spend money. You should work or do whatever because you enjoy it. You live every moment for itself.
For a moment I worry that I'm "not doing it right" in my own life, but then I realize I've almost totally given into life. Every time something happens that I may have used to be bothered by, I just think about the fact that that's the way it happened, that's the way it had to happen, and it can't happen any other way.
Whatever happens later may be determined by now, but now is what's going to be happening. I can't change anything, because it's going to happen no matter what, and will always happen. That's kind of confusing...I don't completely live that yet...but I've been thinking about why things happen the way they do, and seeing the positive outcome of each event. Of course, every event can have a positive outcome, but nothing else happens other than what does happen. You have to take the world for what it is, and embrace the life it gives you.
All these kids and teenagers in school now that just think school is a drag and don't want to learn or try are just taking life for granted. They think they know what it has to offer, and since they know they think they don't need it. They don't think at all about the people who would kill to be in their situation. Not to eat good food, have a nice house, a car, alcohol, drugs...they just want to learn. You can't take that shit for granted.
Everything has such an enormous impact on your life. Every single little thing changes everything else, and everyone just goes along not thinking about the consequences or how each event is affecting them, other than if it makes them happy or discomforts them. It's really frustrating to know that people don't think about things like this, or they might momentarily realize, but they don't put it in their life. They don't make it a part of who they are.
It's important to understand the world. Don't come up with excuses of how the world is, or stupid stereotypes, as if you can expect what's going to happen or why. That's why we just keep fucking ourselves over. We don't think about why or how, we don't think of how it might make sense from a different point of view. I know, personally, I've been completely satisfied just looking at the world for what it is, not putting labels on things, but just actually looking at why they are they way that they are. Look at it scientifically, mathematically, that's how I do it. If you think in different ways, then try to apply your way of thinking to looking at the world for what it is, not what you think it is. I guess that's it...though it's kind of a paradox.
And here I am typing away on a computer when I could be doing something. But I suppose if just a few people read this, then of course it will have fulfilled its purpose. No matter if you take it to heart, or think "Oh, that's interesting." but then mostly forget, it's still changed your life. The seconds or minutes it took to read this impacted whatever you were about to do next, turned another little gear in the clockwork of life.
I feel like I need to just condense it all into one or a few words. Something like "Everything just is." or "It is." No beginning or ending, just "is". No good or bad, right or wrong, no opinion or anything. A completely objective "is" that rings out and vibrates and changes color and moves and commits every action that can ever be committed.
"It is and it is now."
You know how they say you go to school to get good grades to go to college and get good grades to get a good job and make money and use that money to make yourself happy? And then they say that's wrong, and the system is stupid and you should do something else? Well, at least some people say that. I just realized, it's not the system that's the problem. It's our attitude.
You can't do something in order to do something else. Then you're just giving into the system, letting it take you. You have to do something and live in it, in the moment, and enjoy it. Do it for its own sake (I think I'm starting to understand Kant). Learn so that you know more, not to pass a test. That's what school is for. To teach you about life, and give you the opportunity to go further once you have that knowledge. There's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is that the students aren't getting the right attitude.
College is just more learning, but it's the chance to learn what you want. Jobs teach you things too, everything is teaching you more and more, giving you opportunities to live life and enjoy it. You don't work so that you have time later to relax and spend money. You should work or do whatever because you enjoy it. You live every moment for itself.
For a moment I worry that I'm "not doing it right" in my own life, but then I realize I've almost totally given into life. Every time something happens that I may have used to be bothered by, I just think about the fact that that's the way it happened, that's the way it had to happen, and it can't happen any other way.
Whatever happens later may be determined by now, but now is what's going to be happening. I can't change anything, because it's going to happen no matter what, and will always happen. That's kind of confusing...I don't completely live that yet...but I've been thinking about why things happen the way they do, and seeing the positive outcome of each event. Of course, every event can have a positive outcome, but nothing else happens other than what does happen. You have to take the world for what it is, and embrace the life it gives you.
All these kids and teenagers in school now that just think school is a drag and don't want to learn or try are just taking life for granted. They think they know what it has to offer, and since they know they think they don't need it. They don't think at all about the people who would kill to be in their situation. Not to eat good food, have a nice house, a car, alcohol, drugs...they just want to learn. You can't take that shit for granted.
Everything has such an enormous impact on your life. Every single little thing changes everything else, and everyone just goes along not thinking about the consequences or how each event is affecting them, other than if it makes them happy or discomforts them. It's really frustrating to know that people don't think about things like this, or they might momentarily realize, but they don't put it in their life. They don't make it a part of who they are.
It's important to understand the world. Don't come up with excuses of how the world is, or stupid stereotypes, as if you can expect what's going to happen or why. That's why we just keep fucking ourselves over. We don't think about why or how, we don't think of how it might make sense from a different point of view. I know, personally, I've been completely satisfied just looking at the world for what it is, not putting labels on things, but just actually looking at why they are they way that they are. Look at it scientifically, mathematically, that's how I do it. If you think in different ways, then try to apply your way of thinking to looking at the world for what it is, not what you think it is. I guess that's it...though it's kind of a paradox.
And here I am typing away on a computer when I could be doing something. But I suppose if just a few people read this, then of course it will have fulfilled its purpose. No matter if you take it to heart, or think "Oh, that's interesting." but then mostly forget, it's still changed your life. The seconds or minutes it took to read this impacted whatever you were about to do next, turned another little gear in the clockwork of life.
I feel like I need to just condense it all into one or a few words. Something like "Everything just is." or "It is." No beginning or ending, just "is". No good or bad, right or wrong, no opinion or anything. A completely objective "is" that rings out and vibrates and changes color and moves and commits every action that can ever be committed.
"It is and it is now."
BRO LET ME GET REAL WITH YOU AND SAY THAT MY FINGERS ARE PREPPED AND HOT LIKE THE SURFACE OF THE SUN TO BRING RADICAL BEATS SO SMOOTH THE SHIT WILL BE MEDICINAL-GRADE TRIPNASTY MAKING ALL BRAINWAVES ROLL ON THE SURFACE OF A BALLS-FEISTY NEURAL RAINBOW CRACKA-LACKIN' YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE HERE-NOW SPACE-TIME SITUATION THAT ALL OF LIFE BE JAMMED UP IN THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL FLOW BEATS
srsizzy on
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"And the end and the beginning were always there
Before the beginning and after the end.
And all is always now."
-T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton (Four Quartets)
If you haven't read those poems yet (especially Burnt Norton), I think you would enjoy them.
In any case, I read this and found it interesting. I would not say you can't change anything, though alot of the times it feels like that. Change, however, comes from within and how you see the world. "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change," I saw a couple weeks ago. I forget who that is attributed to. But certainly the point of view is key to all things.
Couldn't agree more with the you have to enjoy what you do part though.
I think it's great that you realize that school is simply there to get you through and past to the next step. It's obvious that 99% of students just want the grade, not the information that comes with it. It's partially a product of a competitive society, but also the fact that students take it for granted many times.
The one problem I have with this is that the idea of "goals" and "dreams" never factor in. You say that "you can't do something in order to do something else," but I say that you can take time in one place to get to the next, because the next place is much better. I go to college to get a good job to make an impact on my field, earn money, and be happy. It's my goal, and while I am enjoying my college time, I know that having real income makes me feel good. I've had almost no money getting to this point now, so I'm pretty sure it's not because of power or greed, but rather appreciation.
I enjoyed reading your post. Philosophy is one of my favorite aspects, and I'm an engineering student. How is that for a paradox, eh?
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Or produce a coffee mug.
Or perhaps a calender filled with a new insight each day.
...doesn't seem to fit well with this paragraph:
You sort of have to go to school in order to do something else. If my teenage kid came up to me and told me that she wanted to drop out of school because you can't give into the system and she should be living for the here and now, I would laugh at her and tell her to finish her fucking homework. Sometimes, the best way to accomplish your dream is to work hard doing something you don't care for in the short term.
Always living in the here and now is a very nice idea that will result in you being poor and homeless when you're finally too old to work anymore.
Surely you don't mean it is nothing but a trite mockery of any useful approach to the world, a wasted, vacuous piece of fluff blowing across a mental landscape devoid of reasoned insight.
And surely you wouldn't be comparing it to a hallmark greeting card with the preposterous gall to pass itself off as philosophy, a thimbleful of weak tea sufficient only for scruffy intellectual urchins reeling under the unbareable weight of their own moral incompetence.
The OP just needs a few more weeks/months/whatever to realize how stupid Kant was.
I bet you like to chase beautiful and unique snowflakes around with a hairdryer, don't you?
It is more efficient to stomp the lot of them with muddy boots, leaving only their sullied, crippled forms as a testiment to my existential rape of their pretension.
At least while doing that you can enjoy the moment.
Yes. I'm really starting to understand Kant.
I actually agree with you. Without suffering or life being so damn shitty, we wouldn't need each other to get through it. I have always thought it was beautiful how that worked out. It's one of those things that almost makes me believe it was designed that way.
But I don't have any grand view on life. I just think life is about other people, the relationships you build and the memories that you create together.
As to the OP I enjoyed your post but didn't like the passive tone as though we should just except how life is.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
That'll get boring after like 20 minutes. And God help you if there are any ants around to ruin your time.
Yeah, I didn't really think about that, or get how the movie discussed it. I was really skeptical of the entire movie, and there were only a few things that I actually found interesting. It kept saying that only now mattered, and you shouldn't try to achieve things to make you happy, because happiness is found only in the journey or something, and when you reach the end you find some reason to not be happy. The problem is you can't completely disregard the future as if it's not coming. The now is what is important, and the past is somewhat negligible, but there's hopes and dreams and aspirations that keep us going.
Of course you can perceive happiness in any situation if you try hard enough or know how, but what's the point in that? Just put yourself in an endless state of suffering and happiness? That just makes you into some kind of robot, or something pointless, your only purpose is to achieve some higher state for some sort of gratification or sense of duty. I know this kind of contradicts what I've said earlier, I'm a pretty hardcore realist (if that's even the right word), and while there are parts of this and other ideologies I can accept, I'm still pretty "Yeah, so what?" about other things. If I could remember all the points in the movie, I would make a list of how I thought they weren't entirely true.
Actually, Shinto hit the nail on the fucking head.
What's next, a post on The Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance?
That said, yes. Seize the day, etc.
You know what is an excellent book? Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance. That shit changed my life.
took out her barrettes and her hair spilled out like rootbeer
Hey now, I love that book. I'm just not under the illusion that it is some kind of bodhi tree to sit under.
Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
So you can butcher it and eat delicious hamburgers.
But one in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Only because threesomes can be awkward.
That sentence right there torpedoed any hope you had of being taken seriously.
"Hey rookie, you callin my girlfriend a cow?"
"No, I think he called her a slut."
So if this is just so bland, trite, overdone, etc, then please bless my ears with your true insight. You're right that this stuff is said a lot, which means more people are starting to understand it, or just think that they do. That has nothing to do with its value as being true or not. That's like saying evolution is an empty theory devoid of evidence and just crowed on about by raving fanatics all over the world, and it is just spreading around like a useless fad (that will soon be forgotten) because everyone thinks it just answers all their questions like some kind of religion.
But I should have expected that, like all other portions of these forums, what's supposed to be serious isn't taken seriously and what is completely ridiculous should be treated like a new and enlightening religion.
And Shinto, you obviously think your very intelligent, and try to come off as cool by being arrogant and putting down other ideas (with lots of vocabulary words you feel really smart for using) as if you and only you know the truth. That's alright, I can understand why you'd feel that way, because sometimes I feel that way. I just hope you enjoy--and you probably do--being a prick. Perhaps eventually you will learn not to look at other ideas as just empty and meaningless, and begin to understand that there's truth in just about everything, and you will never always be right...ever.
"I'm taking my ball and going home" isn't the sort of attitude that tends to result in insights being granted. If you stand by your comments, back them up. Argue for them. Fight for them. If you're not willing to stand up for your assertions, it belies a certain lack of conviction. Clearly, the general consensus here is that your mini-speech was equal parts self-evident fluff and naive pop-spirituality. That doesn't mean that we're right, only that we're vocal and well-spoken about it.
You really hit the nail on the head of another nail about fifty yards to the left of the one you were actually aiming for.
As far as arguing for myself, I already did. You've labeled these ideas with what you think they are, even if they aren't that I can't argue with the fact that a lot of it is said a lot. Well, except the idea of students taking school for granted and how they should enjoy learning. In fact, I'm not sure if I've ever heard anyone say that. All I hear is people bitching about the failure of the education system and not taking any responsibility for their failures as individuals or as parents.
If you think it's self-evident, then good for you. Do you agree with it? Maybe, but I doubt everyone that understands it lives with it and makes it a part of their lives. Most things that are true seem self-evident after you've heard them. "Oh, that makes sense." Well, of course it makes sense, it's true. The problem is, you didn't think of it, you heard it somewhere else. Obviously it's not self-evident if you have to be told it (Again, evolution. Durr, I wonder why no one thought of that). It only seem trivial now because so many people have started saying it. There were plenty of things in philosophy class that made me say "Why is that guy special for thinking that, it seems pretty obvious." but then other people say "Well, aren't you so smart?" It's not obvious to everyone.
You never heard someone say "Kids do not understand how lucky they are to go to school, the little bastards?"
Have you ever spoken to a teacher? They hate your little asshole children for taking everything they do for granted. Having a teacher for a mom is why I still give gifts at the end of the year in college.
Edit: Also, isn't the general consensus that Evolution isn't self-evident? I mean... we rarely see it working around us.
I would use the example of social pysch. If you discover that people are more comfortable with mates that are most like them: "birds of a feather flock together", if not: "opposites attract".
And I've heard teachers say kids should appreciate school more, but I've never really heard it articulated the way I thought it. If you just say "You kids aren't appreciative enough" then they won't care. They hear that all the time. I'm not looking at my education entirely as a great opportunity, but kind of like "Wow, it'll be awesome when I know all this stuff and I can use it to do what I want to do in life." To most kids that would sound geeky/cheesy/lame though. Well, parents are the root of the problem, then kids.
That's...well, really stupid. Ever heard of Asia, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism? To us this might sound like "neo-pop-idealist-etc bull shit," but it's honestly a way of life for more and more people, and has already been for hundreds of years. It's only now reaching our primitive arrogant western ears, and is being ignored because we're arrogant and western. I would go into explaining why western society can't accept such ideals: capitalism, Christianity, ignorance, freedom, etc. But that would be a waste of my time if you don't already understand it.