The Great Crime

"Where am I? Who am I? How came I here? What is this thing called the world? What does this world mean? Who is it that has lured me into the world? Why was I not consulted, why not made acquainted with its manners and customs instead of throwing me into the ranks, as if I had been bought by a kidnapper, a dealer in souls? How did I obtain an interest in this big enterprise they call reality? Why should I have an interest in it? Is it not a voluntary concern? And if I am to be compelled to take part in it, where is the director? I should like to make a remark to him. Is there no director? Where shall I make my complaint?"

Soren Kirkesgaard wrote that. We did not choose this existence. Not only that but there is no director to file complaints to. At best we have Deus Absconditus, the hidden God.

Murder is the intentional destruction of the conscious will in another.  It is the violation of the will of the person which is the crime. Rape is same but applies to unwilling sex. Sex is not the crime. The violation of  will is the crime.

How then can our existence be seen as anything but a crime? We did not will our being. We did not will our consciousness. We were born children.Children who did not choose their parents, in a situation they cannot leave.

Quest for the Enlightenment

One path is through mushrooms and other hallucinogenic drugs.  While the meditations found in eastern thought attempt to bring about a slow process of change where the ego dies or fades over a slow period of time, mushrooms are the opposite. The trip is an egoless state where the results are temporary.

The ego is there for a reason. It's a defense against this is a harsh world. Without the ego you're left as vulnerable as a child. A cruel person is anathema to a good trip. The best situation is to be in nature, surrounded by loving people who understand the experience.

The quest for the holy grail is seen by the Gnostics as the quest for enlightenment by the Buddhist, Taoist, Brahman. It follows a set pattern and course. Though there are many paths they all lead to the same awareness.

Yet enlightened is not available to anyone who looks for it. This is the third act of a movie. The hero, having reached an insurmountable obstacle, finds himself back at the exact point he started from no richer and no wiser. All his searching and desire has proved futile and without some outside influence he will remain in this state. The greatest threat at this point is a loss of hope. What normally happens is a new clue turns up or some person visits the hero and reveals his last step. It's only after the hero obtains the goal does he realize how close it was in his despair.

This idea is found in Eastern religion as well, particularly in Buddhist thought, where the person goes through a process of gradual change within a monastery, meditating for years and then reaches a point where nothing seems to work. He has ran into a wall which nothing can penetrate and no amount of effort or work will scale. The person must then walk away from Buddhism and meditation. They become farmers or fishermen. They take husbands or wives and one day, while out casting the nets, or tilling the field, in a blinding moment of complete vision, they achieve their lifetime's long goal. Enlightenment.

Is motion possible?

How can a line have an infinite number of dissections on that line and yet exist within finite, measurable realm? Parmenides's theory of the one can help solve this question.

Many people have claimed that either the line cannot have an infinite number of dissections possible or that there is some fundamental flaw with the logic. The logic is sound and the answer is valid; however, our understanding of that answer is invalid.

How can a person trace their finger along a line of infinite points? Isn't it infinite, meaning never ending, unlimited?

The theory of the one is stated that there is no such thing as motion as such that our understanding allows for. Parmenides believed that motion was impossible and stated the true nature of existence was bound in one eternal form. This similar theory can be found in many religions. It is the theory of oneness. It is best encapsulated by this thought from the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho, "There is nothing that you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think which is not the moon."

The difference between Eastern and Western thought was that Western (Greek) thinkers were explicit in both their discoveries and their explanations. The eastern thinkers such as Lao Tzu, Basho, Chuang-tzu were at best, ambiguous. Many of their findings were similar to western thought but the problem was it did not contain the same level of specificity as the Greeks.

It is possible to understand reality based upon this system of one which Parmenides formed and apply other insights to random elements. For example, if all is oneness than how can their be numbers beyond one? Numbers, in our current sense are flawed. There is one repeating. There is not one additive to one equaling two because there are no like objects. Each contains within it its own oneness, and it's own inherent individuation. Yet math is our most useful tool.