To me they are basically the same concept... Realising that nothing has value, everything is meaningless, everything simply is... We as humans have put names on things since the start of human society... But all these things are meaningless...

One such example of a concept that is useless is Time, what is time? Time is nothing, it is simply a waste of time trying to live your life by it, the only thing that matters is now! Think about the mental dialouge that is with you almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week... Imagine what life would be like without it - completely in the moment, completely aware, completely complete...

The internal dialouge we have can be broken up into 3 categories, all of which are useless, almost all of it is talking about the past or the future, the other thing we humans tend to think about are nouns...

Past: The past is simply a present moment that has already passed, and bears no relevance to what is occuring now. Everything comes and goes, nothing stays forever...

Present: This is the only concept that has any meaning at all, but once we recognise it entirely, we realise it does not exist, yet it does... It is everything and yet it is nothing...

Future: Is not the future; merely a present moment that has not yet been experienced, and therefore it is useless... Thinking of the future is like looking to the sky getting ready to catch what you think is a pebble, however once it comes time for you to catch it - you realise it was a boulder...

Nouns: Nouns are the other thing that we humans give meaning to, which is reality is meaningless... Names are the most potent of the poluters of our mind... Consider this... Is a tree, still a tree, if it doesn't have a name? If no, then what is it? You can still see a "tree", the "tree" still grows, the "tree" still casts a shadow - it still exists does it not?

Everything in this universe can be explained by identifying the fundamental principal that exists in everything... And that is, that everything simply is... Everything is nothing, and nothing is everything...

Perception is reality...

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For those who read that, I hope it gave you a broader perspective on life... And it may seem like a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but just meditate on it and think about it... Try to go for 10 minutes without ANY internal dialouge at all... For those who don't practice meditation I think you'll be pleasently surprised...

everything is everything, time is constant and the universe is one. time escapes all.

If everything is meaningless, then why did you start this thread? I don't beleive that anyone can think that everything is meaningless. It is in our very nature to spend our lives searching for meaning.

You beleive everything has meaning, but is that not just your mind giving something a value, that something would exist whether we beleive in it or not... So therefor the very fact that humans give something meaning tells us that "reality" is all relative... And there is no difinitive value for anything... Thus nothing has meaning, true absolute meaning...

In fact what we call fact is merely our interpretation of what we sense...

Next time you try and buy something, tell the clerk that nothing has value and see what he does. I bet he'll laugh just like I did when I read that.

"Meaning" is assigned by the observer and is subjective and imperfect. This is demonstrated by the listener who must confirm the meaning he has interpreted when he asks "What did you mean by that?"

But truth (what is real) is not subjective. What is, is. And it doesn't have to depend on what your definition of "is" is. Complex truths can be ascertained by partial truths making the whole truth.

There is a bit of a problem with the human species, though. It may know the truth but it's not very good at telling it, nosiree.

[edit on 21-3-2005 by MaskedAvatar]

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
But truth (what is real) is not subjective. What is, is. And it doesn't have to depend on what your definition of "is" is. Complex truths can be ascertained by partial truths making the whole truth.

Partial truths do not make the reality in which we live (in my opinion anyway)... The absolute reality is invisible and infinite... Impossible for human minds to fathom. Though partial truths compiled, do give us what appears to be a bigger picture of the world around us - but are not these truths merely human interpretations and perceptions of what we see and hear?

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If everything is meaningless, that means you get to make up your own meaning for everything. What could be better?

The Universe is your open book.

What story will you write?

Tell the Dramatic tragedy of your soul?
The power of your lust and love?
Your dreams of fantasic future cities?

Help put a mark across the sky that says 'we were here'?

It's sort of a game. Have some fun with it.
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Precisely, is anyone familiar with Zen Buhdism and deep meditation? Because they have very similar concepts in fact it was the foundation for my post really...

Anyone read the Tao Teh Ching, by Lao Tzu?