"Theories are like patches on a coat, one day they just wear off."
-Tibetan saying
"You chuckle from inside as you see the facade of samsara and nirvana; [this] view will keep you constantly amused, with a little inner smile bubbling away all the time."
-Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
"If you can't stand the thought of being limited by someone else's beliefs and ideas, why be confined to your own ideas and beliefs?"
-from an earlier rant
Nihilism is as much an abdication of personal responsibility as essentialism. Both are the dull radiance of stupidity tricking you into the seemingly more comfortable idea that there is no such thing as free will. But this idea is only an ancient superstition repackaged in a more scientific wrapper for today's supposedly more sophisticated public. You can deny free will, even as you deny that you have chosen to think this way. Then what are the causes of you being here at this moment, reading this? Destiny? Fate? Fortune? (Certainly not karma, since most people who evoke karma have little understanding of the concept.) No. Those terms sound too religious or superstitious. So you prefer to think of your abdication of responsibility as something else like social currents buffeting you along, or as upbringing, or as biological expressions, or as some combination of these things. But your supposedly materialist terminology doesn't mask the old superstition which excuses your behavior. After all of this, you may finally realize that no one could really care on a day to day level about the free will / not free will argument, since it has about as much relevance as discussions of angels dancing on pin heads. It is clear, when one's head is not full of the bull shit of philosophy, that on a day to day and realistic level you have a certain degree of choice which is reflected in certain conditions of your life. That said, drop this philosophical speculation about free will like a bad habit. It only leads to stupidity.
What is the truth or truths as you know them? Are you willing to let such truths take over your life or excuse you to do evil things to others? Do you let such truths delude you into thinking you are better or worse than others? Do these truths become stories you tell yourself in an effort to cobble together some identity fiction that will finally be recognized by others? Why should you even care? Do you let these truths become foundations of bullshit that you hide behind in your attempts to make the universe do what you want?
The problem is not that you lack freedom. You have ample opportunities to exercise that freedom. The problem is that you believe that in order to be free you must get everything you want, eradicate everything you dislike, while ignoring the fact that the universe and everything else out there adds up to so much more than you. Instead of seeing this as it is, you try to hide behind extremes of either "determination" or "free will." But both of these extremes are merely false choices. They are simply more jewels on the pretty noose of attachment which is strangling you from seeing things as they are. When was the last time you asked yourself "what in the hell is really going on?" and when was the last time you asked that question and actually didn't deny the answer?
I can help, but my truths are only relevant for this lifespan I habitually call mine, and then only for the situation I am currently in. In a contingent and endlessly shifting reality, having a truth that claims to have figured out all the answers to anything for all time is simply capitulation to delusional stupidity, no matter how consoling or attractively dazzling such a truth may seem. Remember the old Discordian adage "It is my firm belief that I must hold no firm beliefs." Some of the insights about our human psychology that I rant on about have been suggested to me by people trying to live in freedom from bullshit, so I try to share them, but even they are not truths to cling to. They are simply the responses I have found for dealing with the bullshit in and around me. Some of you may find them useful. (Otherwise go read some other rant I have written. I have written so many, I am sure that your burning issue has been dealt with at some point.)
Despite all that, it is fanatical to assume that reality has or does not have any meaning. Don't be so dumb. We are the sort of beings who inhabit a reality in which it makes sense for our minds to try to make sense of reality. That is simply because we are linguistic beings. Meaning is wrapped up in the semiotic web that has been instilled in us from our primal language instinct. Reality is neither meaningful nor meaningless from any philosophical standpoint. It is simply what it is. And it can be changed. So if you feel it is meaningless than the onus is on you to make it meaningful. That is your birthright after all. So enough of this pretty noose of abstractions talking about nihilism or essentialism. Those are simply terms that we get caught up in and bewitched by. The joke is on us and we are the jokers!
-Irreverend Hugh, KSC, DSSS/PMM Co-conspirator
January 31st, Oímealg, 2006