yoga for good

there is a choice that must be made when an individual reaches the edge of existence.

it seems to be an ambiguous choice. meaning; the paths beyond the point of divergence are not very clear.

the options are as follows;

care about your life, set and achieve goals, be active.

or.

do not care. drift. kill yourself or live moment-to-moment. atrophy.


ontologically... i think that this choice is one that all cognizent beings will have to face if they use their tools to investigate. I am not a platonist. I am not saying that this choice exists outside of the spatio-temporal realm. This choice depends on the existence of beings with a form of cognition, or something like it, that resembles the cognition of human beings. Without this apparatus the choice does not exist.

Now... most human beings do not investigate, or they engage in a half-assed form of investigation. Perhaps it is advantageous, in the realm of survival, not to investigate metaphysical issues and all the related bullshit. But to avoid ingnorantly running ourselves, as a species, into the ground we may want to start investigating more thoroughly.

The result of half-assed human investigation is a hybrid of the choice-forced divergent paths. Because human beings are made aware of their emotions there is no way to escape... "what do i want?" questions. Because of our ability to deductively reason there is no way to escape... "why did that happen?" questions. So even if a human being wanted to be completely unaware of the surroundings... a picture of existence will arise given our cognitive/perceptual apparatus.

The people that do not run with the critical thinking powers are left in a limbo of sorts. They want to achieve but they want to experience brilliant sensations. They cannot manage to do the things that they want to do because they are conflicted in regard to whether they care about the way they will be viewed within their in-group or whether they care about the sensations and desires that they wish to know and fulfill in their subjective world. Sometimes image-based achievement and sensation can be simultaneous elements in the existential landscape, but i believe that to be a rare situation. The key to this situation is that most people have not been to the non-physical location that i call the edge of existence.

This non-physical location is a potential part of the human experience. It can be accessed during rumination after failure, during moments of extreme bliss... (post-sex, pleasant psychedelic experience, etc.), and during unexpected moments within daily activity. A person may say something that does not sit well, or a person may say something that you agree with, beyond superficial concurrence.

The edge of existence allows for a train of thought that is stripped of adherence to convention. Social conventions disappear and the individual that is subjectively quasi-free "sees" a picture of their existence. They see, within their ability to perceive and judge, the basic elements of their life. They become aware of the processes that they need and the processes that occur beyond their control. The vision is unclouded by the ignorantly constructed, but overwhelmingly real, portion of the societal acceptance paradigm. And this is when the choice becomes possible. Life becomes somewhat less ambiguous. in essence a small portion of the mystery dissolves. only to be replaced by the next round of existential mystery. but it is a milestone. an achievement that will actively shape the life that follows.

i am not crying about some sort of demonic society. there is no inherent evil that stemmed from the decision/need to settle into agricultural societies. i mean... i would be all for the harsh life of subsistence hunting if i didn't have to live it. i am simply saying that their is a way to achieve a choice that is free from artificial societal constraints. it requires emotional tweaking and separation from the "everything has the potential to be good" element of humanity. i believe that people should be encourages to figure out where they stand. the notions of success... and the molds of acceptability that stem from them... have, are, and will continue to limit the diversity of human perspectives. this is dulling down the mental environment and leading to polarized shit viewpoints. human beings have a good deal of ability. i do not wish to invoke the notion of potential, because it is not clear if there is any sort of goal that an individual or a society could set to even use as a measuring stick for a legitimate notion of potential. but i do think that the abilities of human beings should be spread across the spectrum of actual possibilities. the possibilites stemming from our cognitive/perceptual apparatus... not the possibilities that we realize through the societal lens. this isn't about fighting the man... or the machine. this is about investigating our existence enough to know if the machine is fit for handling our capabilities.