DonaMajicShow

Reality. Film. Philosophy. Science. Theology. Magic. Hiking. Radiohead. Sushi. Academia. Books. Mormonism. Atheism. Semantics. Perceptual Realism. Landscapes. Spirituality. Cycling. Nature. Existentialism. Moderation. Piano. Family. They Might Be Giants. Writing. Buddhism. Transhumanism. Meditation. Cats. Photography. Paintings. the Absurd. Poetry. Alice in Wonderland. Nostalgia. Demythologization. Technology.

I am interested in cultivating a stronger relationship with the earth—my place in it and how I might be of greater service to those around me.

To be succinct, I want to learn how to harmonize myself with existence. It is not always easy to exist. In fact, a majority of my existence has been enveloped with sadness.

I would really enjoy learning how to practice effective meditation, reconcile my attitudes with disappointments, improve the quality of conversation I have with others, and divorce from the sometimes over-analytical mind I possess.

I have studied philosophy (in general) both within school and independently for the past ten years. I have also studied various world religions and am interested in discovering the common ground between them all.

Seeing how most religions typically battle one another for primacy, I find it foolish that we (as a world) predominantly choose to focus on what we disagree about rather than what is familiar to us.

I learned from a young age to overcome this intolerance by adopting a philosophy from Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham.” It has served me well ever since.

Sam, like most of us, lives his life in a cocoon of convenience, little knowing the joy there is to be found by breaching the confines of his limited perspective.

I am constantly in the process of opening my mind.

One of my favorite teachings from the Buddha is captured in the phrase, “Hard is the hearing of the Sublime Truth.” Truth is hard indeed! It pierces, tears and inflames the soul, finding most of us unworthy to be vessels of its nature.

I am optimistic, however, that if more people were to at least experiment with other cultures, religions, languages and philosophies, that this pervasive fear of ‘otherness’ that binds so many would be seen as merely an illusion, and that all of us would realize that we desire the same: peace, knowledge, happiness, and, ultimately, the Sublime.

I am the type of person who would rather stay at home wrapped in a blanket while reading a book than go to the party and pseudo-socialize with people I don’t really know.

I am often timid at first to meet new people because I feel as though there’s some invisible rule book I have to follow in order to be accepted.

Most people seem to have the script to engage in ‘small talk’; I have had difficulty acquiring that script for most of my life.

This you could say is my biggest weakness—that is, I have not learned how to sufficiently accept the beauty that hides within me.

My persona seems to be an amalgamation of all my heroes: Jesus, Socrates, John Linnell and John Flansburgh, mom and dad, etc.

I love contemplating the meaning of life: its symbols, contradictions, frustrations, magic, humor and more!

I have recently developed a title that could summarize me in a nutshell: A contemporary existential apologist.

I have extracted meaning where perhaps the meaner did not mean to mean, you know what I mean? I love more than anything to share my perspective with others.

I feel that one of my biggest strengths is that I carry the key to unlock the fear in others by freely sharing the light I have within myself without restraint.

My friends, family members and co-workers look up to me as a source of wisdom (though much of that wisdom is found in this simplistic truth: don’t block the road to inquiry).

As for calming hobbies and extracurricular activities that interest me, here are a few: hiking, fishing, semantics and linguistics, reading philosophical texts/fiction, creating and critiquing film, physical fitness training, writing poetry/parables, eating sushi, extracting the extraordinary from the ordinary, the smell of asphalt shortly after its rained, walking on the beach, and standing on top of a mountain.

When I was younger, I often would dream about heaven as being this magical city of wish fulfillment, eternal happiness and rest from all cares or worries.

I believed that when you died, you immediately went to this place and were changed in a twinkling of an eye to a state of complete euphoria. I desired so badly to be there and not where I was.

I kept projecting my happiness into the future, as if salvation and contentment teased and taunted me; always somewhere distant yet far beyond my reach.

Each time existence threw something in my way, I became discouraged and depressed. I rebelled against existence by desiring that existence conform to my will—not the other way around.

Through the years, however, my thoughts of heaven have changed. I no longer desire to go to the heaven I used to dream about.

I feel that I would be cheating the earth as well as this unprecedented experience we call “life” if I desired nothing but to escape it. I want to harmonize myself with it. I do not fully understand how to do that yet, but the desire is there.

I pray every day for an extension of life and try to treat my body with respect so that I might see this desire fulfilled.

I would not feel worthy to transcend this world until I learned how to get along with it. I am still in that process of learning how to do so but each day is an uphill battle.

It is not easy. My predominant desire now is to embrace my trials, knowing well the education that comes with them. I want to make love to the paradoxes that bug me, understand the great question:

“Who am I?”, consistently look for opportunities to share my testimony of life with others, and rigorously use the time given to me to prepare for that which is yet to come.

I desire to get involved with as many educational programs, philosophies and ideologies as possible because I need help and instruction on how I might be of greater service to the earthly family.

Who am I not? I am not the teacher—I am the listener. I am not the shepherd—I am the lamb. I am not the saint—I am the sinner. Please help me become one with the universe.

I have no ill-intention towards any living thing, and though my passion for life may seem somewhat intense, I am very sincere and would really like to get to know you.

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Fri Jan 13

Existence, Reality: Is there a difference?

A friend of mine believes that reality cannot be changed, that it sets limits on human ingenuity. In our conversation we thought of several examples: fire burns, planets orbit, tides ebb and flow, gravity gives weight to objects, etc. These kinds of things don’t give a damn about our thoughts; they seem to represent things as they are in spite of our wishes, values, attitudes, and preferences about them.

While I entertained my friend’s view, I told him that I believed reality could be changed; that in fact by believing passionately in what does not exist we create it. We thought of some examples like aircrafts, photographs, computers, BCI’s—these things used to be dismissed as mere fictions, things extant only in myths and fairytales. Now they’re the premiere products of science and are things that cause us to be discreet when ruling out of court, beyond serious discourse, a wide range of uplifting images, thoughts and wonders, once assumed too irrational to be real.

With these two differing but credible views of reality, I began to think that it might prove helpful to distinguish between reality and existence.

For the sake of semantics, I find my friend’s view to lean more towards a kind of bare-bones definition of what “existence” has always meant to me. Existence is the broad, unchanging, eternal canvas from which humans paint the drama of their lives. You cannot alter existence by sheer whim, but you can learn about its constituent parts and elements, correctly identify how those pieces fit together; manipulate them, poetisize them, and even use them creatively to build your own kingdom, your own reality.

I see “reality” as more of a social construct. It is the dazzling, dreamy dimension of existence that is impossible without intelligent observers. Take away intelligence and you have only existence—something that is godless, barren, and silent. Reality is contingent upon you and me, and so if I had to coin a maxim it’d be that reality is the product of dreams, existence is nothing but what it is.

But who cares about existence. Who cares about a world without intelligence. Existence is only meaningful to the extent that intelligence can use it to create reality, and hopefully a heavenly one too. I’m not saying we shouldn’t learn to correctly identify existence, only that existence means nothing unless, for us, it can yield a flourishing reality.

My friend and I are right about reality when we define what we mean. Reality is changing and unchanging, transforming and unforgiving, subjective and objective, artistic and scientific. But in my view the demarcation of terms helps. You conform to existence, less you suffer, you play with reality, less you’re deemed unintelligent. There is no changing existence. There is nothing but reshaping and revising reality.

When approaching the truth of who we are, both statements are true: existence is whatever has power to constrain our thoughts; reality, in virtue of being human, is born from our thoughts as we dream unseen, unspeakable fictions into existence.

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