Category Archives: Philosophy

What would you do if you were God?

I know what I would do: exactly what I am doing now!

You see, if I was God, I could do anything, so I would try to live my life in different ways to see which way would be most exciting, interesting, pleasurable, whatever… Then I would likely come to the point where I would also like to live completely different lives. Quickly, I would discover that I can live several lives in parallel and compare… From there, it is a quick step to actually living every life around and enjoying all of them! Of course, I would actually have to make sure that while I am living the life I would not know that it’s all me, because it would quickly lose any sense otherwise, would it not? All of me would pretend to not know anything about Me and get on with life to only get reconciled eventually after living the life.

So, yes, if I was God, I would be living all these lives simultaneously, in all this huge universe, and enjoying it all in all its diversity. I guess, I am doing it already. Cool, eh?

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You are the sum of your experiences…

The psychiatrist treating Dr. House in the sixth season of “House, MD” quite suddenly revealed the fundamental truth about human personality. He said literally:

“You are the sum of all of your experiences…”

This truth is apparently known, it is not even hidden in any way. Any psychiatrist can tell you what your person is, literally. Why is it so difficult to make the connection and think about myself in these terms?

I am the sum of all of my experiences. My personality is just that – a bunch of interactions with other people that left an imprint on me. I am simply a piece of clay on which thousands of footprints are left by people passing me by daily. There isn’t really anything else. There is no “real me” in the sense that most people, religions and secret teachings talk about. The psychology has figured it all out already, it seems. We just fail to appreciate and apply this knowledge.

That single phrase set off a chain reaction in my head. I realized that while I was hooked on watching “House, M.D.” for the last year or so, I automatically took up Greg House as a role model and started copying him. I crippled myself to the point where it became really painful to walk, took up drinking and became extremely cynical in my speech. My personality is absorbing accessible traits from the personality I watch on the screen. Unfortunately, it cannot absorb the ability to play piano, the beautiful apartment or the cool job of the role model, so I end up worse than I was.

This process is completely automatic. My personality is just that – a machine that copies anything it sees. All my thoughts are a copy of thoughts of others. All my ideas are ideas of others. My behavior is a mashed up heap of traits of others. There is nothing else. Not at this level.… -->

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A sense of urgency

I have a feeling today that there is something crucial in the sense of urgency. I can feel comfortable and cozy, this feeling being opposite to the sense of urgency. When I feel comfortable, I am stuck in that feeling, I want to keep it and I become inert and unwilling to change anything. A sense of urgency can be entertained in an opposite manner – by withdrawing yourself from the lure of comfort. The sense of urgency is important somehow, it makes me move, it makes me think, it makes me do things that I expect to be beneficial in the long run. It imparts on me this contradiction of now and after. The understanding, the logical thinking of the consequences in the future does not help to start moving, does not help to get you out of your cozy “now” and does not implant a firm boot in your behind. But the sense of urgency, once obtained, does exactly that. It helps to get things moving and without any outright struggle. The struggle is to get the sense of urgency and to keep it.… -->

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Assembly points au pair

I have a thought about those positions of the assembly point that pertain to the “norm” of the society. The common thinking is that there is one. I think it is not. I think there is a set of positions close to each other that form a sort of an “area” accepted and reinforced by the society.

When I meet someone and start an interaction, that person tries to reinforce his position of the assembly point in me, so that perhaps we have a better understanding. That is, I think, a natural mechanism. That is, natural to this particular organization of this particular society. Anyway, I can also reinforce my position of the assembly point and force it onto the other. Some positions are more easily forced than others.

What happens when two people live together is that they have to agree on a common position of the assembly point. Otherwise they would have to oscillate all the time between their own and that of the partner. Or keep their own and forget about deep bonds. Unproductive. So, they have a choice of agreeing on following either of the partner’s position or picking a totally new position for both. If they are lucky they both will feel comfortable with this common position and then they accept it and reinforce it. The position becomes solidified and it is much easier to keep it when there are two of you. Or more, counting the kids.

Any person with half a brain should come to this selection of the position of the assembly point as to the single most important decision in his life. This is the decision that will govern his life from that moment on. The position of the assembly point is the state of your consciousness, the state of your mind, and that results in the tasks, targets, restrictions that you set for yourself. With one swipe of the pen you sign a contract with yourself and your partner that will govern the rest of your life. This decision has to be taken very seriously and certainly with some critical analysis and meditation. And the partner must follow.… -->

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