What really matters?

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Samhains
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Post by Samhains »

nameless wrote:The notion of 'matter' as used here seems to be on a continuum. 'Matters' how much? This much? THIS much?
And, to whom?

Sagan has his opinions and perspective...
One can also look from the 'other end of the telescope' and understand that the entire universe of the moment must be included in one's definition of 'self'. All is truly One. Nothing dwarfing anything else. The tiniest 'alteration' of the tiniest gnat's whisker, and the entire universe must be also be different.
Another perspective is that nothing has ever been known to exist but by 'our' observation, in 'our' Mind, by 'our' Perspective.
Very well said, I would agree, we are all armed with our own opinions and perspective, I merly search for what people call the 'truth' -which is just the clearest perspective of any one formulated opinion.

I would also agree with the rest as well, the gnats whisker theory. Things effected on the Micro level, will eventually ripple out to cause macro changes, cause and effect, the pebble that caused the landslide of my life :)
"there is no use looking in the box if you do not have the key.
The box is empty and never locked, yet all is in it."
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Samhains
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Post by Samhains »

anarchyisbliss wrote:i was polishing my hardwood floors today and I realized that I enjoy my miniscule existence no matter how unimportant my role may be in the universe
very Zen Koan ..BTY 8)
"there is no use looking in the box if you do not have the key.
The box is empty and never locked, yet all is in it."
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Post by anarchyisbliss »

Samhains wrote:
anarchyisbliss wrote:i was polishing my hardwood floors today and I realized that I enjoy my miniscule existence no matter how unimportant my role may be in the universe
very Zen Koan ..BTY 8)
Thank you :)
"If there is hope, it lies in the proles." - George Orwell, 1984
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Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
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Post by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes »

Do you think being able to appreciate our lives here on this tiny planet in a gigantic universe and overcome a feeling of meaninglessness can help us overcome the same feelings towards death? Does being small in terms of space has the same effect as being small in terms of time?
My entire political philosophy summed up in one tweet.

"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."

I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.
ape
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Re: What really matters?

Post by ape »

Scott wrote:Whatever the reason, I love being alive, I love myself, I love my friends, I love humanity, and I love loving these things. That's what matters to me. And I think most people feel the same.
(Color courtesy of ape.] ape:Wow! How come I didn't see this yet?;) Thanx for bringing it up to the surface! It was under seE level!smile Love being unconditional has no reason other than itself: you love because you need to and want to. You love just because. Love is thus absolute and self-referential and makes relativity work. And Scott, that Love is all that matters for it makes everything else--even meaninglessness-- full of matter and meaningful!
It's all mind over matter and over time: if you don't mind and don't have the time, it doesn't matter.
Scott wrote: Do you think being able to appreciate our lives here on this tiny planet in a gigantic universe and overcome a feeling of meaninglessness can help us overcome the same feelings towards death?
In Love of what we appreciate and what we don't appreciate, in Love of meaning and no meaning, in Love of life and death, etc and non-etc, yes. Love is what gives us the insight to see that life and death are a package deal, and is what makes life worth living and death worth dying, and let's us see that death is a gate to life just as life was/is a gate to death.
Scott wrote: Does being small in terms of space has the same effect as being small in terms of time?
ape: Yes--time is simply space in seconds just as space is time in inches. So when we love both space and time, space and no space/outer space, time and no time/out of time, once again big space, small space, eternity, no time has no effect on our Love. "O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell [or in no time] and [still] count myself a king of infinite space [and time], were it not that I have bad dreams [due to my Hate for what I think of all during the day and so dream all of at night].WS "The evidence, so far at least and laws of Nature aside, does not require a Designer. Maybe there is one hiding, maddeningly unwilling to be revealed." Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot. Proverbs 25: 2It is the glory of God to conceal a thing [such as himself]:but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
Nick_A
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Post by Nick_A »

Scott wrote:Do you think being able to appreciate our lives here on this tiny planet in a gigantic universe and overcome a feeling of meaninglessness can help us overcome the same feelings towards death? Does being small in terms of space has the same effect as being small in terms of time?
None of this can be proven. This is why the world knows that what really matters is found in commercials. Since nothing can be proven we have to create our own reality and what really matters. To do this requires recognition that what really matters are commercials since it is through them that what really matters becomes defined and there are no more concerns about death while continuing to have faith. Believe in the appropriate commercial and you will learn what really matters.

We are fortunate in that we no longer have a shortage of commercials to choose from to supply what really matters.
Man would like to be an egoist and cannot. This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of his greatness." Simone Weil....Gravity and Grace
ape
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Post by ape »

1 Thessalonians 5: 21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Because we can prove all things, all things are provable and can be proven as good or bad, right or wrong.
Example:
Romans 1:
19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
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Labordigger
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Re: What really matters?

Post by Labordigger »

When asking: What really matters? The vast observation is important but so is the smallest. Do humans avoid labor? If so do we ignore ourselves about it? If so what has changed over time about ignoring this choice of actions? Do some people ignore labor in different ways than others? What are the worst and best ways of avoiding labor? What are the consequences of the worst and virtues of the best? How can we better verify and interpret ignoring the avoidance of labor as a topic or non-topic. Who avoids labor and what causes some people to ignore themselves about it? Is there any such thing as collective effects of some people in society ignoring themselves about avoidance of labor?
Phrontistes
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Re: What really matters?

Post by Phrontistes »

Does everything matter or does nothing matter?

That's the question.
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Asian_persuasion1995
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Re: What really matters?

Post by Asian_persuasion1995 »

Earth is many things, it is a small speck of dust, it is everything tangible to us, and it is also the home of all life as we know it. Looking at these facts we can not fully determine that is matters. If matter the physical entity is what matters then the earth is insignificant, If meaning and fulfillment is what matters, then the earth may be forbidding place, however for many it is a home to meaning, however if you think thought, is what really matters than the earth is truly the most important place, and people are the most important thing, and you are the most important person, for if you believe the world matters that you matter, that everything matters, then everything matters, every thought, every being, every second, every relationship. Everything in the world is linked which makes sense when you observe the world through a cosmic deterministic scope................. Or NOTHING exists your call :mrgreen:
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Existabrent
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Re: What really matters?

Post by Existabrent »

The galexy.

Stars upon stars fill our sky, and all are very commonly taken out or replaced by something far greater (like the earth). We people as a race cannot fathom what is so much more beyond this that they would be removed from attaining the same perspective, the difference however, is that people are commonly attacked for suffering from their own defenses, and they retort with posts like the following one from the OP.

No offense, but everything matters. And I'm pretty sure it is easy to see what I mean. When people pretend however to attain to perspectives that grant something more, they attain to perspectives like the current that adhere to believing that things really do matter. In truth, we must all admit "nothing matters" (if it did, we would not had asked the question in the first place (or we'd be on a different topic....).
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Inzababa
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Re: What really matters?

Post by Inzababa »

Scott

Here's a series of statements which I'm sure you'll agree with, if you or anyone disagrees, I'll be happy to justify and demonstrate any statement that I do not backup with either an example or an argument.

What matters is a relative concept.

Anything that has value necessarily has value to something or someone.

Nothing has value "objectively".

Conclusion?

What matters depends on what you relate to.

If you are wondering whether "x" matters, that only depends "to who".

Or can you think of any "counter examples"?
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stormy phillips
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Re: What really matters?

Post by stormy phillips »

This would say to me, if you have a world of your own; then this image ought to be a lesson, how those you distance yourself from, will most likely see it. Space can be a good thing, but not all worlds find enough time for it. For it isolates you from those whose lives above all, care more than any-ones world... to matter.
Men are not disturbed by things, but the view they take of things.....Epictetus
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dparrott
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Re: What really matters?

Post by dparrott »

What really matters? Only the things that are important to me. How do we chose what is important to us/me? That is a question that will keep me thinking for a while.
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Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
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Re: What really matters?

Post by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes »

Some theoretical physicists and other related scientists speculate that there may be various forms of parallel universes. They speculate that maybe there is even an infinite number of parallel universes. That would mean that every possible world exists and exists an infinite number of times. If that is true, than not only would there be an infinite number of copies of you and everything perceivable to you, but there would be universes with every other alternative whether slight (e.g. a universe in which you were born with a different hair color) to great (e.g. a universe in which Hitler won World War 2).

Even though I have accepted that we each are just one person or family of billions of living families of trillions of past and present people not alive now on a planet that is a spec in a solar system that is a spec in a galaxy with billions of stars which is a spec in a universe that has billions if not trillions of galaxies and still found out what really matters to me. Can overcoming that also overcome the fact that it may go on and on such that we have the parallel universes. What significant matter or meaning even if subjective can we give to the choices and events in our life if there is infinite parallel universes in which the events and choices all occur the other way? I take solace that unlike our knowledge of the visible universe, the idea of parallel universes is mere speculation. But I wonder if we can extend our disregard for the vastness of the visible universe in terms of what really matters to us to disregard the vastness of a multiverse of parallel worlds.
My entire political philosophy summed up in one tweet.

"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."

I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.
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