Meditations

[WorldisQuiet5256]

Well, I did know that the fictional Characters who someone else created were so far the most I could relate to someone in a fiction world.
Its these world that I escape to,
not only create a way to past some time,
but it is also the same world as the Cassopolis Outpost.

So far the story is my head is way many chapter more than I have written about.

[The Abacus]

I tend to avoid becoming absorbed into fictional worlds as I normally would need to remind myself of reality and what it means to me.

Symbolism in Mat's work? Probably true. Subnet at least is filled with symbols of many cultures. Daymare Town has a lot of symbolism about this Tao sort of a balance of things philosophy. Like the eternal day and the mist which is eating away their darkness?

Definitely, Mateusz's work is filled with symbolism, especially Daymare Town with the parallels between the two towns implying a compulsory balance of dark and light (as you have mentioned with Taoist philosophy).

[Redafro]

@World: Perhaps these characters that others have made are resonating with your own psyche because they share, symbolically or otherwise, something in common with your psyche.

I just realized you had introduced a topic before I started mine, that being...

How do you fight off Insanity?

Hadn't thought of it as a topic until now.

So, honestly, a kind of mild insanity was often a refuge for me when I was in my teens from pain and frustration. For me, this meant a kind of deliriousness, letting myself become high off endorphins by letting emotionally and socially go and tipping into an unreasonable happiness. I've often thought it would be a good technique against torture because I somehow found a way to find the most painful things irrationally humorous and joyful. I guess I fought this back off only when it was impractical to indulge in this glee. As for confusing reality and fantasy, I don't know how to confuse them. I'm simply not wired that way. But Abacus makes a good point: if the fantasy your indulging is causing you to question reality, you may have to find other kinds of distraction.

Another thing I did in my early teens to cope was to take extremely long walks in lonely places. For instance, I would get on a set of rail road tracks and walk for 1 to 3 hours out of town, then turn around and come back. There were also woods I would walk in at times. These were very real, solid, anchoring times for me when I would just not think of anything, or else would let my thoughts flow however they wanted to. I'd pray, sometimes I'd think of songs, and I'd just let the rhythm of walking the railroad tracks (its a weird pace because of the short distances between the ties) lull me into a kind of meditative peace. Probably the more healthy of my many coping mechanisms. Just be sure to get the hell off the tracks if they start humming.

Edit: so yeah, there is a reason my avatar is in the padded sell. I've never be clinically diagnoses with anything, and I've not felt insane for over 8 years, maybe more, but my extremely different personality from almost everyone around me has often led me to sympathies with the insane.

[WorldisQuiet5256]

What you have is "Wandering Mind" is what I call that.

Stability, wish I could walk on railroad track.
In this country, its illegal.
Worst, where I live, there nothing but either farm fields, or city buildings, no forest big enough for me to wander through without pissing off the owner of this "Private Property."

[Redafro]

Oh I'm sure it was illegal, just not very well policed. Especially when I would do it at 10pm. Then your really talking about the world being quiet. And the forest was probably private property, but what they didn't know didn't hurt them.

I'm not encouraging you to break the law by the way, I'm just saying what I did as a teen to fight off my own version of insanity.

As for having a "wondering mind," well, maybe. Curious and non-linear at least. Learning about logic and philosophy was another thing to help me be sane actually. It helped a great deal to structure my mind more rationally and to toss out any fallacies I was unknowingly holding on to.

[WorldisQuiet5256]

Went through the same thing during my teenage depression.
But...I discovered something.

I don't remember when.
I don't remember how.
I don't remember what it was that showed it.
But it enlighten me to the truth.

This Truth I call "The Origins."
It took me awhile before I was able to figure out what it was.
It was the thing that turn the Human race from the Side of the Animals
To what made us into the People We are today.

It has it two sides;

One of them is the beauty in Art
The gift of doing more than just surviving
But creating things that speak our consciousness mind beyond the level of animal instincts.
The Gift of Culture, Music, and those which separate us from the animal kingdom.
Not only with the expression which is defined by each person within their own definition.

But the other side is the one I wish to avoid.
With the freedom from animality, we all choice what we wish.
Unfortunately, with the animal instincts gone from us
We have those who do nothing but destruction to themselves and others.
Not even with the variable of animal or survival instinct
But out of what they believe the world is

And What should be done with it.

[ENIHCAMBUS]

that always depend in what point of view are you seing it. In one side all animals are equal, but in other side all animals are different, every one has something special and something that shares with all in common. When you're thinking that, you're obviosly sharing the special capabilities of the Homo Sapiens compared to other animals, which in this case is extreme BTW.

"I'm Gold, I'm elastic and that is was turned me out of the other metals"
"I'm Carbon, I'm the main component necesary for making organic matter, and that is was turned me out of the other elements"
"I'm Earth, I carry life and that is what turned me out of the other planets"

Gold is still a metal.
Carbon is still a element.
Earth is still a planet.

What makes you special doesn't makes you unique.

[The Abacus]

As for having a "wondering mind," well, maybe. Curious and non-linear at least.

I like having a non-linear point of view; it makes everything more meaningful.

One of them is the beauty in Art
The gift of doing more than just surviving
But creating things that speak our consciousness mind beyond the level of animal instincts.
The Gift of Culture, Music, and those which separate us from the animal kingdom.
Not only with the expression which is defined by each person within their own definition.

But the other side is the one I wish to avoid.
With the freedom from animality, we all choice what we wish.
Unfortunately, with the animal instincts gone from us
We have those who do nothing but destruction to themselves and others.
Not even with the variable of animal or survival instinct
But out of what they believe the world is

And What should be done with it.

This is the most detailed description this truth you often mention to date.
Personally, however, I don't feel that it is universal enough (rephrasing it would help)

What makes you special doesn't makes you unique.

Good point, but you're using synonyms for your concluding statement (i.e. something needs to be unique to be special, you can't say that they're not the same)
What I think you meant to say is that just because something is unique, it is still part of a larger group or classification. For example you may have different characteristics than your brother/sister (if you don't have one, let's just pretend that you do, for the sake of the example), but you're still part of the same family.

[Redafro]

Good point, but you're using synonyms for your concluding statement (i.e. something needs to be unique to be special, you can't say that they're not the same)
What I think you meant to say is that just because something is unique, it is still part of a larger group or classification. For example you may have different characteristics than your brother/sister (if you don't have one, let's just pretend that you do, for the sake of the example), but you're still part of the same family.

Yes, classification. This is among the roots of reason, because if you cannot establish commonality and difference then either everything is the same or everything is different and we have no science and reason.

I like having a non-linear point of view; it makes everything more meaningful.

Non-linear, but not unorganized of course. Linearity, to me, is data organized around few dimensions, thus having less depth and breadth. by non-linear I mean that the connections are more rhizomatic, a complex web of interconnections.

One of them is the beauty in Art
We have those who do nothing but destruction to themselves and others.

Okay, so creativity and destruction as a dichotomy? I would recommend avoiding absolute dichotomies in your world view as this almost always results in extremism and fundamentals. This is because these are not a situation where one is good and one is bad, but each is good in the correct situation. For instance, it is good to destroy bad because bad destroys good. Of course, then you have to define good and bad which can be very hard, but so long as you think that there can be a good I don't that is an insurmountable problem. If you don't think there can be a good of some kind, then your kinda screwed.

How about this, what elevated mankind above the animals is our self-awareness, reason, and creativity (which relate together in some systematic and complex fashion) but due to our (and this is key for me) limitations of knowledge and understanding (the former meaning data, the later meaning how data systemically relates) and our limited capacity to observe, we produce evil actions whether we mean to or not.

I like your point about instincts, but again, humanity DOES have instincts but we are simply not ruled by them as the rest of the animals are. Avoid oversimplifying your categories or you won't have a sufficiently complex system of understanding to account for the whole of reality.

[WorldisQuiet5256]

Then why do you post these post?
Why do you post your drawings?
Why do you even draw in the first place?
Why do you write fan-fictions and post it here?
Why do you even write fan-fictions to begin with?
Why do you think about more than just surviving, Paying your taxes?
Why do you post your wisdom on this meditation page?

We were once like any other animals once upon a time.
Then we evolved into something more than just surviving.
We decided to start on the path of Creations.
Thinking outside the Box of Survival of the Fittest.
Do your Avatar ans your quotes not have person meaning to you and only you?

Do you not just live the system of life we have now?
Do you only:
Go to work?
Go to school?
Eat?
Sleep?

Think about only the things that you need to know in order to live life on this earth?
Or do you go beyond that?
Do you Have a point of view about certain topics?
Do you like certain things, while opposing the things that you think are wrong?
Do you try to think about the human aspect?
And how it we do bad things in life?
But still think about the good things in life at the same time?

Do you not dance to music you like?
Do you not sing songs that mean more to you than other songs?
Do you not be yourself when no one is around to judge you?
Do you not have bad days?
Do you not have good days?

Do you not think from time to time like a philosophers?
Do you not want to create art?
Even when you can't think of anything to:
Draw?
Paint?
Mold?
Weld?
Even when you can't think of anything to create for many year.
But still find the strength to get up each day and think: "What can I create?"

Do you do more than just survive from day to day?

These are the things I treasure.
The things I shout in joy for having.
The things I think we are bless to have in the first place.
The things we take for granted sometimes.
The things I dance for each day in celebration for having.

These are the things that separate us from the animals.
These are the things that at one point in the past
We were gifted to receive.

These are the things that make us who we are.

These are the things
I am grateful for.