Spiritual Reorientation 2: No Excuses

No Excuses

1.

There is no God, no father, no judge. There is no absolute good, no absolute evil, no sin. There are no hidden dimensions, other planes or spiritual worlds. There are no saviours, no prophets, no oracles. There is no divine commandment, justice, karma, natural law, great chain of being, and especially no reward at the end of all this. There is no book because there is no author—no tablets, no guidance, no truth. Paradoxically, we, all of us, are alone. ...What now?

2.

If there is no cosmic justice, we are free to run amok, and that’s what they always tell us. I’ll let you in on a little secret: we already are free to run amok, and always have been—and people often do, without a single cosmic or magical force besides their own will to stop them. It’s terrifying. It is at this point where we are faced with a frightening reality—there are no excuses. Maybe we say that we do something because we are angry or we do something because we are sad or or we do something because something else is making us do it—all of them excuses. It is only true that we do something—we do something because we are...end of story—and a being precedes its action in every something we do. That action comes from nowhere else but that from which it comes, and only that being is responsible for its own actions. There is no emotions or drives or instincts to blame, for we are those emotions, drives and instincts. There is no guiding hand; there is no true nature, nor a program forcing us to choose one course over the next. Only toys and puppets are built for purposes, and we are not built. There’s nothing tugging at these strings but ourselves. We are in no one’s hands but our own, and perhaps, the ones who care for us.

3.

Luckily, there is a peace after every war; there is a sunny summer after every cold winter; there are flowers among the weeds; just as there is an insight in every dry cliché. “No excuses” is the sovereign one’s slogan, and the sovereign one is responsible for her own actions. She can choose. Even when bound and condemned to execution, destined for extinction at the hands of something more powerful, an instance where no apparent choice is readily available, she can choose to die in utter defiance. So too can she live. She has appointed herself the artist and possessor of her own life.

Doctrines, religions and moral laws are chosen according to taste, never divinity. The individual deciphers the symbols laid before him and concludes on his own veracity and according to his own tastes as he always has. He chooses out of a strong will, settling only on what his heart desires. If he can not nor dare not choose, or submits to a conceived determinism, he chooses due to his weak will, and he chooses not to choose. The choice is always there.

He can choose to be remembered as evil. He can choose to be remembered as good. He can choose to be remembered as great. He can choose to never be remembered at all. In all cases, the choices and acts of the individual determine his after-life, and how he will exist in the minds of those who remember him.

4.

The credulous prefer spirit to body, and mere promises to any reality. They slowly rot, as any chance of an after-life passes through their fingers. They prefer the not-real.

But what’s left of the world without these gods and heavens and promises and lies? What is there left to worship? A great deal more than we will ever find in the nothingness we prayed to before. We can start by worshipping ourselves, the individual who is willing to bear the entire weight of our responsibility. We can worship the life we are living, and hence everything in it.

No excuses.

Spiritual Reorientation 1: The meaning comes from within

Love the effort you put into it, but disagree very much with the argument.

There is a God. There are other worlds, there are other dimensions. There is karma and there are rewards and punishments (although both are better described as self-imposed lessons).

We're the judges of ourselves, and after shuffling off this life and gaining perspective on the things we've done and how our actions affected others, we'll be the ones helping to decide what comes next for us, and how best to move forward.

Don't believe me? That's fine.

Got doubts? Those are fine, too.

Just wait--you'll see.

Sounds like a fine rational, something the kids can really get behind.
Wish people did the right thing just because, but your argument encourages the opposite.

a reply to: Aphorism

It is only true that we do something—we do something because we are...end of story—and a being precedes its action in every something we do.

You are being what is happening.
The doing is the being and you are that.

I'm glad you put yourself on record for this. It's not as if you can back-out of your self-assured statement of your own ignorant hubris.

Boy, are you going to be surprised.

Just because I'm a bad person who enjoys other's discomfort, it would really be fun to witness when you finally figure it out. I know it's bad form to revel in other people's ignorance and stupidity and it won't earn me any points, but hey! You said I could!

a reply to: schuyler

When does this big surprise occur, and when will I finally figure it out? I suppose you’re going to tell me what this surprise entails? Or, as usual, are you merely hoping I will be wrong? That's your choice to rely on such dreams.

a reply to: JonButtonIII

Love the effort you put into it, but disagree very much with the argument.

There is a God. There are other worlds, there are other dimensions. There is karma and there are rewards and punishments (although both are better described as self-imposed lessons).

We're the judges of ourselves, and after shuffling off this life and gaining perspective on the things we've done and how our actions affected others, we'll be the ones helping to decide what comes next for us, and how best to move forward.

Don't believe me? That's fine.

Got doubts? Those are fine, too.

Just wait--you'll see.
- See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

I can understand that one might need such tales. They are comforting.

a reply to: Aphorism

Sure, intellectual knowledge is interesting. But experiential knowledge is even better.

You see, I used to doubt the "stories." Then I had experiences that convinced me otherwise.

Don't worry--you will, too. Regardless of which side of the veil you're on when those experiences happen.

a reply to: JonButtonIII

Sure, intellectual knowledge is interesting. But experiential knowledge is even better.

You see, I used to doubt the "stories." Then I had experiences that convinced me otherwise.

Don't worry--you will, too. Regardless of which side of the veil you're on when those experiences happen.
- See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Interesting. I used to believe the stories, until experiential knowledge convinced me otherwise. What was really liberating was finding out I never needed them in the first place.

a reply to: Aphorism

Your post put me in mind of this:

What is a saint? A saint is someone who has achieved a remote human possibility.
It is impossible to say what that possibility is.
I think it has something to do with the energy of love.
Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence.
A saint does not dissolve the chaos; if he did the world would have changed long ago.
I do not think that a saint dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is something arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe in order.
It is a kind of balance that is his glory.
He rides the drifts like an escaped ski.
His course is the caress of the hill.
His track is a drawing of the snow in a moment of its particular arrangement with wind and rock.
Something in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of gravity and chance.
Far from flying with the angels, he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape.
His house is dangerous and finite, but he is at home in the world.
He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart.
It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love.
- Leonard Cohen - (Beautiful Losers 1966)

Originally posted by: Aphorism

Interesting. I used to believe the stories, until experiential knowledge convinced me otherwise. What was really liberating was finding out I never needed them in the first place.

But you gotta understand, experience never, ever ends. You're always learning, always shifting perspective. You can never say any belief structure is absolutely right and another is wrong, end of story, until you're dead and perhaps not even then. You're going to one day see this post from 30 years away and blush. Really.

a reply to: Splodge

Yes it's your choice to choose whatever beliefs you wish to believe. But it is you that chooses. If you seek value outside of the world and outside of life, you might blush when you realize it passed you by. There's no excuses for that when the end comes.

You're a fine intellectual, but a terrible mystic you are.

"Those who practice know whether realization is attained or not, just as those who drink water know whether it is hot or cold."

You keep on believing whatever helps you sleep at night, cause God is not the only crutch.

a reply to: TheLaughingGod

You're a fine intellectual, but a terrible mystic you are.

Because I refuse otherworldly pleasures? Spirituality isn't confined to mystics, liars and takers of narcotics. I choose this world.

A wise man once said. "That is like... What you believe, Dude".

You sprout these tangents, this particular with a "No, excuse" nor any Spiritual Reorientation (misleading title), reorienting to... "No excuses"?

At the least this is a individualistic attempt to push ones own beliefs of there/your personal experience this life has dealt you. It's no better than a bible thumper declaring there faith as the only "True" faith.

There's no excuse for this.

I'm happy for your individual belief system, may it comfort you through this life of chaotic disorientation.

a reply to: sulaw

You sprout these tangents, this particular with a "No, excuse" nor any Spiritual Reorientation (misleading title), reorienting to... "No excuses"?

At the least this is a individualistic attempt to push ones own beliefs of there/your personal experience this life has dealt you. It's no better than a bible thumper declaring there faith as the only "True" faith.

There's no excuse for this. - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

If you have read more carefully, you may have noticed that I mentioned there is no truth. In that world, how could my truth be any different than anyone else's? There is no "true" faith, only ever false ones, in hindsight faiths.

A spiritual reorientation is reorienting one's spirituality from one to the next. The world's current spirituality involves the unreal. The next one might just involve the real.

The first point kind of made me think about the concepts of Buddhism and Free Masonry( From what I read anyways), in comparison to other religions anyways. Where as the common cynical/atheist perceptions of Buddhism are said to be just be plainly philosophical and a state of mind, where they don't believe in a god, but yet they actually do, it just their God not going to kill them for any hastened reason.

While Free Masonry sounds absolutely philosophical in its nature, it still somewhat believes in a god, just a little less...life threatening. Like Jesus( funny story about the dark ages).

Number 2, As for religions attempts of being philosophical about human nature, or nature in general, the concept of free will has been around well enough. Satan and Eve are the primary example of course.

Number 3, Exactly.

Number 4, Realities a bitch.

a reply to: Aphorism

If you have read more carefully, you may have noticed that I mentioned there is no truth. In that world, how could my truth be any different than anyone else's? There is no "true" faith, only ever false ones, in hindsight faiths.

A spiritual reorientation is reorienting one's spirituality from one to the next. The world's current spirituality involves the unreal. The next one might just involve the real.

No, I read carefully enough Aphorism. Therein lies the false recognition of your "no excuse, truth". The OP is a extension of your personal belief(s) and experiences. Your truth, individual. Never said there's a "True" faith actually I'm very against those that say that anyway... But I digress that's a different topic all together.

The world as a whole and since the dawn of man has a spirituality "concept" in what you call unreal. But there in lies another problem. What is real to you is fictional to the next. One's experiences regardless of upbringing and predisposition may be fictional to the world but not for the individual.

Delusional thoughts of a higher "whatever" is only human. As we all are only human. The experiences make the life and defines us individually. The path that led you to your OP and individual thoughts on this matter is your expression of truth and trying to figure out the same puzzle all are looking for answers too. That is unless you have definitive proof for your OP and then I would like a picture, or it didn't happen.... That is...



Best regards,

a reply to: sulaw

a reply to: sulaw

The world as a whole and since the dawn of man has a spirituality "concept" in what you call unreal. But there in lies another problem. What is real to you is fictional to the next. One's experiences regardless of upbringing and predisposition may be fictional to the world but not for the individual.

Delusional thoughts of a higher "whatever" is only human. As we all are only human. The experiences make the life and defines us individually. The path that led you to your OP and individual thoughts on this matter is your expression of truth and trying to figure out the same puzzle all are looking for answers too. That is unless you have definitive proof for your OP and then I would like a picture, or it didn't happen.... That is...

I have to agree. “Real” is an honorific term. Poor choice of words on my part. Maybe a good word is “immanent”.

I feel there’s is a chance to be spiritual about things that we interact with day to day, the beings that occur in our individual lives. It might go to show that worshipping other dimensions, other existences, supernatural beings, might rather be time well spent worshipping the immanent, this dimension, this existence, and the beings that float about within it. Rarely do we call this existence and those that can be known to exist within it as sacred or holy, for those designations are usually reserved for the conceptual rather than the concrete.

Personally, I would see a thousand gods and spiritual ideals destroyed before I see one individual harmed. But, as history has shown, the opposite is the case, and countless individuals have been destroyed for the sake of lofty concepts and ideals, which provide reason and excuse to lash out at the immanent.

What do you think?

a reply to: Aphorism

Interesting so you did scratch the surface after all... is your sanity alright?

1. Humankind is alone, isolated from the rest because of its own unnatural and aberrent nature. Most know that inconsciously but cannot and will never pinpoint it, less accept it. Hence why all these stupid and ridiculous beliefs are created. (and they are a formidable tool to control others, tell them what they want to hear and they become ready to die for you, how funny) Anthropocentrism is really a bad joke. because of this belief, humankind destroys without remorse but when it affects him negatively, he tries to undo the bad he did in vain. Aint this humanity a big fat hypocrisy?

2. Aint it terrifying? Free will or freedom is just that, total unrestricted freedom of mind and flesh. Only your means determine how much you can do. Free will includes everything that is possible and beyond. Thats what make it the most superb thing and the most horrible at the same time. There is nothing stopping it. If you choose to believe in good or evil, you are only restricting the experience and your free will. But none of these subjective beliefs will ever be any truer than the other.

Good or bad are really just human illusions. They are in no way universal. A simple proof is that most often than not, what is considered good is what benefits humans (oh really) and whats evil is what is against humans (so.. everything that is not human? how convenient.) It gives them the illusion of comfort that when they do this or that, it is good, it is divine, it improves their karma, it grants them a way to heaven, it is expected of them,.. it gives them peace of mind. The same happens with "bad" and every other subjective notions. And there is nothing stopping this utter madness because it is how it is. But better believe in a god and a satan than take responsibility for your mistakes eh? The hypocrisy!

3. He can choose whatever he wants. In the end, it does not matter, only where he lived and for those that knew him. But whatever the choices, ultimately all will use the same door regardless of their way of life. And very few will ever accept that. This sets the difference between those that will truly grow spiritualy and the rest, which will be stuck in these illusions in vain results but a temporary comfort that will only last while they are incarnated. The irony...

4. Amen. However there is more to life than you believe. It is not only the flesh. You make a mistake to underestimate whats invisible as most of reality consists of invible things and certainly not limited to the physical world alone but countless others having their own rules and composition and uniqueness. Still, better be aware of free will as what it really is even if you focus only on materialism than hide behind illusions and limit your existence. The later is clearly an involution of the mind, a crutch for weaklings, cowards, irresponsibles.

And schuyler, you are the perfect example of what i described in §1. Your post is quite amazing in his own way although it is nothing to be proud about.