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Posted by Mike on Nov 22, '08 9:30 AM for everyone
Think of some primitive society in which an incipient philosopher, in disfavor with the priests, attempted to criticize their lore. They are powerful. he is by comparison weak. And they control all the channels of power. Hence, whether they attack him or he attacks them, he shall always lose. And he could quite adequately size up this situation by saying, "whether the pitcher strikes the stone, or the stone the pitcher, it's bad for the pitcher."


- Kenneth Burke (quoting it from his book, "The Philosophy of Literary Form," which is by the way an old blog of mine too)

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Have you ever wondered why you never cease to exist? Why you never give up on life when it's hateful? Why you persevere through pain and suffering? Why you just don't give it a damn and let go?

The answer is quite simple: the idea of eternity. This concept brings us a train of thought that will never stop perplexing us as to what our purposes of existence are. In a philosophical point: Why are you here? In the context of Theology on the other hand: Is there a God? It's quite amusing that man's quest for answers only leads to more and more never ending questions which completely complicates the state of the curious and inquisitive human thinking.

Well in fact, when the human being attains the nirvana of complexity, he has thus attained simplicity. It's as if creating an organized chaos would lead to a clear single result - as if the roots of a tree that seem to be not quantifiable through the naked eye would eventually lead to a single trunk even without the aid of human vision - rather than keeping on searching, just close one's vision into darkness and feel the light within. It's just that this very state is highly unattainable, or perhaps the ones who have attained it may have been well portrayed by William Shakespeare's character, Hamlet, in his soliloquy at Act III Scene 1 of the play:

      Who would these fardels bear,
      To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
      But that the dread of something after death,
      The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
      No traveller returns, puzzles the will
      And makes us rather bear those ills we have
      Than fly to others that we know not of?
      Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
      And thus the native hue of resolution
      Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
      And enterprises of great pith and moment
      With this regard their currents turn away,
      And lose the name of action.


One of my favorite works in the expanse of my existence considering that I'm a lazy reader... Well anyway, what am I trying to bring up here? It is simply the answer to all of the questions the human mind can/may/will ever conjure in the depths of epiphanies.

Beyond the realms of death.

This very idea is the human being's key to survival. It is the paramount of paradoxical truths that have ever wandered the domain of human consciousness. This will always and forever intrigue the human being's thinking - if death is the end of a mere existence of a biological being, or if death is the portal to another dimension, or perhaps a parallel world that would reincarnate the soul into another mortal body, or may even be the stairway to heaven or paradise, or a trapdoor to the depths of hell, or just a void of oblivion that will keep the human being into slumber for eternity, or if death is immortality itself, of perfection and happiness.

The verdict: The question of the human being's existence is unanswerable. May be the only way to devoid one's self of such dread is to learn to master one's fate - to put the divine wings of tragedy at one's back, to put the jaws of life in one's mouth, and to put one's self in two different worlds at the same time.

Reality and fantasy.

Think on, dream on, hope. Boggle thy self for such habit will quench the flames of ignorance and insensitivity.

-----

*** Title taken from Judas Priest's song
*** This completes the trilogy of my random thoughts these past few days.

Here's the list:
1.) The Divine Wings of Tragedy
2.) Jaws of Life
3.) Beyond the Realms of Death

Enjoy! :-)

kevinsup wrote on Nov 22, '08
parang ikaw si dr. suresh sa start ng mga heroes episodes :P
puro deep BUT GOOD shit :D haha *handshake*
christiancadelina wrote on Nov 22, '08, edited on Nov 22, '08
If we were that primitive, we won't ask these questions on beyond death or on the existence of God, for these questions might be irrelevant to us. Instead of looking forward to meeting God, we may instead look forward in meeting our mate, or eating the flesh of a freshly-slaughtered pig.

I can't help but be amazed that as we progress we start thinking about the things that lie ahead of us.

But not all people stop and ponder about the things that lie ahead. There are still people who are like our predecessors who think nothing but mating their mates, or perhaps slaughtering the symbolical pig.
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Nice entry you have here, mike. :) Keep on writing!
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I wonder how you'll write about Christmas in this blog. ;)
lepouvoir wrote on Nov 22, '08
Ako yung nag-iisip ng slaughtering the symbolical pig! Kasi mahilig ako sa pera eh! PIG=PERA. Gets? :))
mikewey566 wrote on Nov 23, '08
parang ikaw si dr. suresh sa start ng mga heroes episodes :P
puro deep BUT GOOD shit :D haha *handshake*
haha thanks kevs! pero siguro tigil muna ako sa paggawa ng ganito hahaha, balik uli ako sa sabaw na blogs ko :))
mikewey566 wrote on Nov 23, '08, edited on Nov 24, '08
Thanks Ian! A primitive society is hard to define in the first place, but I'll take this point of view: a society that's highly materialistic and temporal - where only the literal concerns them.

That's the weakness of being too real; one fails to enjoy the other side of the world, which is fantasy.

Hmmm, about Christmas? I think I'd be making a funny one for that. :D
mikewey566 wrote on Nov 23, '08
Ako yung nag-iisip ng slaughtering the symbolical pig! Kasi mahilig ako sa pera eh! PIG=PERA. Gets? :))
hahahahaha! Hindi 'yan :-P mabait ka naman eh, saka hindi ko iniisip na magiging ganyan ka. :))
sinongitaymo wrote on Nov 24, '08
It's not like we'll ever really be certain as to what happens after death. Not while we're still alive, anyways. The best we can do is hedge our bets, try not to be complete wastes of humanity, and cross the bridge when we get there.

Also, the thing with reality and fantasy is that if you go too far towards one end of the spectrum, you'll end up on the other, yes? Kind of like sobriety and inebriety, really.
mikewey566 wrote on Nov 24, '08
It's not like we'll ever really be certain as to what happens after death. Not while we're still alive, anyways. The best we can do is hedge our bets, try not to be complete wastes of humanity, and cross the bridge when we get there.

Also, the thing with reality and fantasy is that if you go too far towards one end of the spectrum, you'll end up on the other, yes? Kind of like sobriety and inebriety, really.
Indeed. That was brilliant. The world goes in circles, you end up where you began or at least something like it.

A circle has no edge but a never ending side - as simple as it sounds but inevitably hard to comprehend. Death, immortality, perfection, happiness, all of these fascinate our thinking. But appreciating it twice takes our understanding to a completely new level.

The world is indefinite.
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