Thursday, May 30, 2013

You Only Live Once, Maybe? YOLO!!

While visiting the Agra Fort the tour guide showed us a view of the Taj Mahal from one point and then took us to another area farther away. The Taj Mahal looked larger from the spot that was farther away. The reason this happened was because the view of  the river was not there to give the Taj farther depth appearance. This displays how perception is reality. The images that are presented before our eyes are reliant upon a variety factors. Where we are and where the object is changes its appearance. Every color that we see changes when the light placed on the object changes. If there is no light, the color of the object is black. There is no true color. Maybe this is analogous to everything present in reality.

Mental representations, superimpositions, and reification make it possible for humans to label and identify objects in the external world. They make language and communication possible which is a beneficent aspect of our existence. It's important to understand that these labels of unity and permanence are illusory (I go into more detail about this matter in a paper I wrote if you want to know more). Since I have been in India, I have seen prayer and worship to a variety of gods. If our subjective consciousness is what creates reality, then what is "real" to one person may not be "real" to another. Even if the entities constructed from ideas, beliefs, and desires are not tangible, it does not mean that they are not real. Saying that something does not exist already presupposes its existence. Are there underlying objective truths, or is everything malleable and subject to change? I have felt very uncomfortable for the past few days due to the extreme heat and no A.C., but what I consider almost unbearable discomfort would be luxury to some of the destitute people I have seen sleeping on the filthy streets. All of the gods and godesses presented in Hinduism may not be "real" to me, but are very real to others. It is all a matter of perspective.

Today I saw bodies being cremated. As I stared at the cocooned bodies, enraptured in flames I began to ponder death. The images of bodies, lifeless and stagnant, were being projected through my retinas into my mind. To me they were bodies, but just a short while ago they were breathing, smelling, seeing, and experiencing stimuli and life. These people loved, laughed, danced, cried, and now their transient moment in space and time has ceased. Their physical bodies were ceasing to exist right before my eyes. Everything is impermanent, even temporal moments can be infinitely divided. "I" am also impermanent. One day someone will percieve my lifeless body as they make preparations for the disposal of the vehicle that is carrying me through my journey of life.

The closest definition of nothing I can fathom is the time before I was conscious. If we are reverted back into this state at death, it will not be sorrowful. If this happens we will have nothing to reflect back on, worry about, or regret. This would give us true serenity and peace. I will never know what will happen in the after life until I die. All we can do is act virtuously and go with the flow, haha. :)

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