life chance eternity
Why do you exist.
Schopenhauer thought that animals possessed one wisdom we miss, the wisdom to live in the present moment. I mean their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment.
If you believe in an afterlife what will you do there for eternity? Eternity is a long time and the idea that a billion years from now you will still exist because two people enjoyed a passionate moment is hard to comprehend. Who will you be then.
Two things amaze me, the past and the future but neither include me. In this moment we live and in this and in this.
I know the exact time and place our second child was conceived. When we moved recently I thought of that as we left. I know why I remember.
Imagine for a moment your parents had been interrupted. Suppose someone had shone a flashlight in the backseat of the car you were conceived in, you would not exist. A knock at a door. Some interruption. If only a few seconds passed a different sperm would have meant a different person and you as you exist now would never have been.
What would the person born in that next minute have been. In a month a new egg, so now who would that person be, it would not be you. How easy it would be that we never were. Some distinctive piece changes but that distinctive part is you.
Imagine the egg split, which of the two would have been you. If you arrived second your entire life would be noted in a brief moment. You would be number two. Or if first you would be number one. How would that have changed who you are now.
Before you were born life existed for billions of years, after you die billions of years will pass without you. You will be conscious in the future as you were conscious in the past, not at all. Think of any place. Right now someone is in that place and someone is in another place. They are unaware of the other. They think they know all there is to know. Most will die and never know each other. Chances are nothing that either believe will impact the other.
You walk into the street and are hit by a car. You live now but only in your mind. You cannot move even your eyes and you lie there fully aware of everything but unable to respond. Weeks go by and soon few come to visit. Soon no one comes but you still live. What do you think of. What is the mind without the body.
Someone arrives and says we have a body for this mind. But the body is a woman, your mind now is in the body of a woman. How will that change you. Now your mind lives in another.
Suppose when you crossed that street you had the opportunity to throw someone else in front of the car. It was them or you. You do not know the future. If you pushed the other person in front of the car would you visit them. For how long. What would you tell them when they became a body.
Imagine a date in the future without you. Do that, then look at what happens next and then tomorrow and imagine you are no longer here. It will not matter. What will you wish you had done. I wonder what Timothy McVeigh would have thought of 911? Weird thought - evil is the reason we wish for hell.
You must select one only: you will live forever ugly and deformed or you will live for fifty years as a brilliant person. Which do you choose. Are you sure. You have three minutes in which to make your selection.
Sleep is so peaceful.
Why do you exist.
Schopenhauer thought that animals possessed one wisdom we miss, the wisdom to live in the present moment. I mean their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment.
If you believe in an afterlife what will you do there for eternity? Eternity is a long time and the idea that a billion years from now you will still exist because two people enjoyed a passionate moment is hard to comprehend. Who will you be then.
Two things amaze me, the past and the future but neither include me. In this moment we live and in this and in this.
I know the exact time and place our second child was conceived. When we moved recently I thought of that as we left. I know why I remember.
Imagine for a moment your parents had been interrupted. Suppose someone had shone a flashlight in the backseat of the car you were conceived in, you would not exist. A knock at a door. Some interruption. If only a few seconds passed a different sperm would have meant a different person and you as you exist now would never have been.
What would the person born in that next minute have been. In a month a new egg, so now who would that person be, it would not be you. How easy it would be that we never were. Some distinctive piece changes but that distinctive part is you.
Imagine the egg split, which of the two would have been you. If you arrived second your entire life would be noted in a brief moment. You would be number two. Or if first you would be number one. How would that have changed who you are now.
Before you were born life existed for billions of years, after you die billions of years will pass without you. You will be conscious in the future as you were conscious in the past, not at all. Think of any place. Right now someone is in that place and someone is in another place. They are unaware of the other. They think they know all there is to know. Most will die and never know each other. Chances are nothing that either believe will impact the other.
You walk into the street and are hit by a car. You live now but only in your mind. You cannot move even your eyes and you lie there fully aware of everything but unable to respond. Weeks go by and soon few come to visit. Soon no one comes but you still live. What do you think of. What is the mind without the body.
Someone arrives and says we have a body for this mind. But the body is a woman, your mind now is in the body of a woman. How will that change you. Now your mind lives in another.
Suppose when you crossed that street you had the opportunity to throw someone else in front of the car. It was them or you. You do not know the future. If you pushed the other person in front of the car would you visit them. For how long. What would you tell them when they became a body.
Imagine a date in the future without you. Do that, then look at what happens next and then tomorrow and imagine you are no longer here. It will not matter. What will you wish you had done. I wonder what Timothy McVeigh would have thought of 911? Weird thought - evil is the reason we wish for hell.
You must select one only: you will live forever ugly and deformed or you will live for fifty years as a brilliant person. Which do you choose. Are you sure. You have three minutes in which to make your selection.
Sleep is so peaceful.
