Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
40. An Investigation Of Philosophical Inquiry
71 Plays1 year ago
In this week’s episode, Joe and I answer a set of philosophical questions that are meant to be thought provoking and in some cases challenging. I hope you enjoy these types of episodes as much as we do. The questions act as thought prompts, allowing us to explore ideas and see where we meet and where we differ. This particular set of questions was massive so we didn’t get through all of them, but will be continuing with them in a future episode.
_________________
Music By Nathan Willis RIP
Follow Pursuit Of Infinity:
www.PursuitOfInfinity.com
Discord: https://discord.io/pursuitofinfinity
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPpwtLPMH5bjBTPMHSlYnwQ
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58he621hhQ7RkajcmFNffb
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/pursuit-of-infinity/id1605998093
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pursuitofinfinitypod/
Patreon: Patreon.com/PursuitOfInfinity
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Philosophical Questions
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Pursuit of Infinity. In this week's episode, Joe and I answer a set of philosophical questions that are meant to be thought-provoking and in some cases challenging. I hope you enjoy these episodes as much as we do. The questions act as thought prompts, allowing us to explore ideas and see where we meet and where we differ. This particular set of questions was massive, so we didn't get through all of them, but we will be continuing with them in a future episode.
00:00:29
Speaker
If you do like these types of episodes, or if you don't, let us know wherever you watch or listen in a review, or in the YouTube comments section, our channel's tag is at Pursuit of Infinity, or on Instagram at Pursuit of Infinity Pod.
00:00:44
Speaker
Or you can visit our Patreon at patreon.com slash pursuit of infinity and get into contact with us there. All of these things and more can be found at pursuit of infinity.com, which is our newly published home. So head on over there and see what we've got. And without further delay, thank you so much for listening. And I hope you enjoy listening to Joe and I answer some of these interesting philosophical questions.
The Nature of Happiness
00:01:31
Speaker
Once in a while, it's nice to sit back, relax, and ponder the true meaning of life. These philosophical questions don't necessarily have black and white answers and are meant to provoke the deeper side of the human experience. That is the first paragraph of this article that we found here, which is 225 philosophical questions. Now we're not going to do 225 of them, but we're going to go through a few of them and see how we answer them. So I guess, Joe, I'll ask you the first one.
00:02:02
Speaker
Is happiness just chemicals flowing through your brain or something more? I believe it is something more. Um, the chemicals in the brain thing that is the typical materialist view, uh, viewing reality through the material paradigm.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, I more so like to think that the chemicals are like a byproduct of the happiness, not that the happiness is made or emerges from the chemicals. Right, like correlation doesn't equal causation. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You never actually experienced the chemicals.
00:02:43
Speaker
you know, in your life. The only experience of the chemicals is someone in this instance would be somebody else observing your brain under a type of scan while you feel some type of way. But first hand, you don't experience the chemicals. You experience reality as is.
00:03:02
Speaker
And I think it's interesting for people that hold that particular viewpoint, because you could boil down then just our whole experience of reality is just chemicals in the brain, which would mean every state, including the psychedelic state, is 1000% real or it's all completely fake. Because then we just be boiling it down to
00:03:30
Speaker
pretty much having the preference of the quote unquote standard state of consciousness, the standard chemical soup as more important than the others or more fundamental. When, you know, if it just takes a tweak of DMT in your body to completely put you in a different reality, it kind of throws the whole materialist paradigm on its head.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's an interesting question because it really brings to mind. It's like, where are you starting from? And if you start from the assumption that like the foundation of what happiness is, uh, consists of the chemicals, then you're, you're seeing that that's the beginning part, you know, like the first stage of the, of the happiness.
00:04:15
Speaker
experience is the chemical. And then what arises from the body and from the information processing of the chemicals is an emotional response of happiness. Or you can say that you start with the experience, you start with the feeling of happiness, you know, the, the qualia of happiness. And that coincides with brain chemistry because it's both happening at the same time. They're both, uh, like intertwined. And that's the way I kind of like to look at it. It's like.
00:04:46
Speaker
Neither is real or fake. Neither is foundational. Um, it's more so like my opinion or like my preference as to where I like to think about it from is like the experiential quality and nature of happiness happening as an experience. And then out of that, like coinciding with it is the chemical reactions you see. Um, but I really can see it going either way. That's why I think it's a pretty cool question.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that it's not chemicals in the sense of like in the same way that something isn't real until it's observed and rendered being like when consciousness is seen as fundamental, my brain doesn't even exist right now until it's observed and then re-endered like created by consciousness like it's dreamed up. So right now the chemicals
00:05:42
Speaker
in a sense aren't happening until
The Limits of Knowledge
00:05:44
Speaker
they are observed as such. Right now I'm having this experience. I don't see the chemicals. I don't see my brain. But if you look at the world through a certain viewpoint and with certain tools, then you could come to the conclusion that the chemicals are happening. And when I'm looking at them, then the chemicals are happening.
00:06:03
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. So it really is a matter of like, what are you looking at? What's part of the experience that you're observing? Are you observing the materialistic part where you're seeing the chemicals first, or are you observing the feeling, the quality of first? And I think depending on where you're standing, that's really where your answer is going to come from.
00:06:21
Speaker
And even so, I would say, even if you are observing the chemicals, I don't think that that's the causation. Exactly. So the answer I would say is no, but clearly you could see why, well, every materialist must believe this in order to uphold their model of reality.
00:06:41
Speaker
Yeah. Like I'm, I'm wondering if the question was reversed, like say this question read, um, instead of his happiness, just chemicals flowing through your brain. Um, would it be like is happiness, just an experience is happiness, just a feeling.
00:06:57
Speaker
And I don't think I would answer it. Yes, either way. You know what I mean? I think it's like I like to look at it as both and you know, yeah Like most things these are paradoxes. Yeah, it's definitely something more. It's not only chemicals exactly Definitely something more you're observing the chemicals then it's also chemicals, you know Yeah, so it can't just be chemicals. It's definitely something more. Yes. Yeah with you with you
00:07:23
Speaker
Should we do the next one? Sure. All right. Number two, can we really know everything? I think first you have to define what everything is. And in the context of this, I don't think that you can know everything because of the word know. I think that is a key component. I think you can experience the nature of everything and
00:07:53
Speaker
You know, day by day, second by second, we are experiencing everything because we, we are everything like the, everything the all is, is in us. But I, I think the all or God or everything is ultimately unknowable because.
00:08:16
Speaker
If you try to, to put it into a box or a description of knowing, then you're creating like another level that has to exist outside of what you're claiming to know. So I'm going to say that no, it's not possible to quote unquote, know everything.
00:08:37
Speaker
I'm gonna go the other way with it, but I do also agree with that. And the same thing. By everything, we don't mean every trivial fact. Clearly, you can't know every trivial fact at any given moment in time.
00:08:51
Speaker
But I think you can know everything in a sense by... And it's very similar to what you're saying. You can't know it logically and intellectually. We would normally think of the word no. I think it's in a different layer that you can know everything by being everything. So it's kind of similar to what you're saying, but as you're being everything, then you know the everything.
00:09:16
Speaker
And that's the only way you can know it, not intellectually, not rationally, basically not from the standard human state. You clearly you can't know everything about this reality and you can't know everything about yourself, but in an altered state.
00:09:34
Speaker
when you are truly being that thing, I think you can know everything as in the sense that you understand what reality is. There could be an awakening moment where you know it all. And it might be fleeting because you come back to this state and you want to understand that in a logical, rational, human way, which I don't know if you can... I would say you can't bring it back totally to this state we're in, but I think it's possible to
00:10:04
Speaker
to know everything while you're being it in one of those, you know, deep, you know, different states of consciousness. Yeah. So what you're saying is that like, say you're, you know, five grams deep on a mushroom chip.
00:10:18
Speaker
And you're having that experience of unicity where you're merging with the everything and you're feeling, uh, the oneness of all living beings and, you know, that whole experience of like the transcendent. That I think is what you're, what you're getting at. Whereas like that right there, that experience is, is you knowing everything. That's the same kind of thing. It's like you're experiencing it. But I think the way that this is.
00:10:43
Speaker
Put where it says really know everything. I think it's, it means when you come back and like you said, when you come back, you can't bring it all back. You can't know it all. You can't have that experience and box it down into something you can describe here in the way that this question I think is formed.
00:11:03
Speaker
Well, in that way, I don't think that you can – this is another way to say what you just said, basically. I don't think that you can – there's not a theory of everything in human terms. You can't put everything, what this is, into an equation. But I still think you can definitely know it and experience it fully in one moment.
00:11:24
Speaker
But as far as, you know, you can't articulate it, you can't really fully understand it, but with a different state of consciousness, I think you can know it then.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, it just brings me back to I think it's like the very first line of the Tao Te Ching.
Exploring the Concept of God
00:11:43
Speaker
Lao Tzu says something along the lines of like the Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao. You know what I mean? So it's like you can't bring it back to spoken or described language or like you said, you can't put it into an equation, but you can point to it and you can feel it. Yeah, it's beyond a human being, you know? So as you are a human being, you're limited as such.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yes, exactly. And with this limited set of biological reactions, we obviously can't, from this perspective, know it all. Because as we evolve, we're going to know more and more. Our consciousness is going to rise more and more and more.
00:12:28
Speaker
Our definition of everything is probably going to change as the species evolves and as the species changes. Like a chimpanzees version of everything is very different from what we think everything is. Yeah. And it's kind of like a paradox because everything is the infinite. And by being infinite, you can't know it all because it's never ending, but
00:12:53
Speaker
you can be the infinite. And that's when you know the infinite, which is, that's kind of like paradoxical, but it requires a different state of consciousness than just, you know, human states like this. Yeah. I think that was very well said. Okay. Number three. What is the meaning of a good life? Okay. So this is a question that we could really break down. Um,
00:13:21
Speaker
It's hard to say because let's say good is relative anyway, you know, it's a relative notion. And this is, I think even a little more interesting is meaning. Is there an absolute meaning or is this just a completely relative question? Is there relative meaning? I'm reading it as both in the relative sense, I'm assuming. Yeah, I think it's more of an interesting question to answer for both of us in the relative term. Like what do you feel like living a good life means?
00:13:52
Speaker
To me, a good life is becoming as selfless as possible, being kind to others, and meanwhile having the goal of further understanding yourself. Basically, self-discovery, which is, you know, just pure adventure, basically.
00:14:10
Speaker
I think that's kind of the purpose. If you think of each of us as God dreaming about itself, then what God's trying to do is just explore itself. I think to explore yourself is a good life for me.
00:14:29
Speaker
So this reminds me of, so last night, I'm reading this book. It's called Beyond the Narrow Life, and it's by a guy named Kyle Ortego, who we are gonna have on the show at some point in the future.
00:14:41
Speaker
Um, so this book consists of not just like descriptions of existential exploration and psychedelic integration, but it's also like a workbook. There's exercises and questions and things like that you have to answer. So one of the questions was, uh, there was a series of statements that were revolving around death.
00:15:03
Speaker
And the one question is, what do you want your gravestone to say? And the answer to that question that I wrote down, which is pretty much my definition of what a good life would be was, you know, on my gravestone, it would say, a compassionate soul who helped to drive the world in a direction of greater love than it was previously in or something along those lines. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. That's that that's to me what.
00:15:30
Speaker
What a good life is because along with when you're compassionate towards yourself and toward the people around you, that's going to have a positive effect on your relationships and things like that. And being the type of person that.
00:15:45
Speaker
that helps to drive the world into a greater and greater state of love to me is like the most important mission that a human being can be on. And if I can do that, even to just the tiniest degree with the life that I have, I think that would be my definition of living a good life. Yeah, being a positive force. Yeah, a positive force for love in the universe.
00:16:12
Speaker
It coincides with finding yourself and knowing who you really are because being a positive force for love is being a positive force for God because that's what God is. Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. For me, I kind of focused on this self-exploration aspect and then even exploring just reality itself. I think all of that, what you just said, kind of goes together with what I said because in exploring yourself,
00:16:40
Speaker
you also identify with more. And I think compassion is also a really good point you made just being compassionate. But the more that I explore myself, the less I am selfish and identifying with myself and I can kind of identify with things outside of myself, other people, feel more empathy and kind of spread that, you know, that love and that selflessness and just be
00:17:07
Speaker
a positive force in every interaction I find myself in.
00:17:11
Speaker
Exactly. You know, what you're basically saying is like all this stuff, it all comes from self introspection and looking inside. That's where all the answers are. And that's where all the, you know, the love and compassion, that's where all that stuff comes from. And it helps you understand others so much. It's like everybody is so alike. We're all the same, you know, we're just expressing ourselves at like a different mode at every moment in time. But we're all the same. Like when I see somebody,
00:17:39
Speaker
Upset doing something bad like I know that's me in a different in a different scenario, you know, I'm that I have that same capacity something that Jordan Peterson has said and I've heard him talk about is you know, like in seeing a Nazi knowing that you're fully capable of doing Those horrible acts and like you are that same thing under different circumstances so instead of seeing somebody doing something quote-unquote vile and like having disdain for them and
00:18:08
Speaker
I can look at them and then see myself in there too and know that it's literally no different. Like I am Hitler.
00:18:17
Speaker
And I think what you have to understand about it is that like, when you, when you think about what God is, God is everything. God is all. God is all love. God is all evil. So Hitler is God. Hitler is a version of God discovering itself within a certain set of parameters. So when you look at.
00:18:40
Speaker
anything in life. It's all God experiencing itself and God wants to manifest itself in all different kinds of forms. I think it was one of the verses of the Bible. This is like some Paul Chek stuff that I'm pulling out of my head here.
00:18:58
Speaker
I heard him say one of the verses in the Bible was something along the lines of like, I am God, creator of heaven and earth, both good and evil, you know what I mean? Creator of all. And I think that is something that we have to really understand in order to grasp what you just said. Yeah, it's all God, you know?
00:19:21
Speaker
That includes all the evil people like Hitler and Stalin. It's still God expressing himself in itself, whatever you would like to say. It's God's expression. And even if you don't notice it, it's still its expression in love.
00:19:37
Speaker
And Hitler was, we've talked about this a little bit before, but Hitler was acting out of love in his horrible acts, but he was just loving, limitedly. He was, you know, it wasn't unconditional love, which is what, you know, we should strive for. That's it, yes. And that's God at its purest is, and we want to be more God-like, and people are rewarded for that. But even in the,
00:20:03
Speaker
in the actions that we deem horrible. It's just another's expression of love. Yep. Which brings us to question number four. Is there a God? I would like to en vibe a quote from Carl Jung when he was asked, did you believe in God? He said, I do not believe. I know.
00:20:29
Speaker
I will say that like by God, I really, really don't mean the Christian like Sky Daddy that's looking down on you, judging you for every action. I mean like capital G God. Yeah, I agree. I definitely, I definitely know there is a God. And the cool thing about this question is I would have scoffed at it, you know, years, a few years back, I would have scoffed at it and be like, duh, of course there's no God. Like, and thinking,
00:20:59
Speaker
of myself and how I used to think that, it's just kind of laughable to me now. Because once you know that there is a God, then there's no way to unknow that. Like when you open these gates, you can't close them again. But yes, the God capital G, the Godhead, everything, always, eternal, like eternity, infinite, love, all that. It's not, you know,
00:21:27
Speaker
a man in the sky as you said. But interestingly enough I think that the original ancient texts of basically every religion were pointing to the right thing.
00:21:38
Speaker
I think over years they've become bastardized and the church did what they did. And amongst all religions, there's certain doctrines in each one that seem limited. But I think when you try to investigate religions back to their furthest point and read them more symbolically than literally, and try to understand them through different eyes, I do think that they were actually pointing to the God that we're referring to. I think it's just over time
00:22:07
Speaker
It doesn't seem that way, especially through modern eyes. When we read these books, like science books, they've been changed for centuries, thousands of years, they've been changed. I think that they were intended to point to the thing we're talking about here. I totally agree.
00:22:27
Speaker
And when you explore any of these ancient traditions or when you even just explore your own mind or try to find out the true nature of yourself, you realize that it's undeniable that the answer to this question is yes, there is a God.
Mind and Consciousness
00:22:44
Speaker
And God's just the word that we use, but I mean, just think about the collective of everything.
00:22:53
Speaker
That is God. You know what I mean? And that's an undeniable, there's an undeniable collection of everything. You know, like if there's, if there is something, then there is everything. And the everything, the all is God, the driving force behind all of the things that are happening.
00:23:15
Speaker
Because if there is something, if you can see something in reality, then it is happening. It's coexisting with everything else and there is a continuous happening. And if there's a continuous happening, there has to be some sort of a driving force that lies at a foundational level. And that driving force to me is what I would consider God. It's the all. It's everything. It's all-encompassing.
00:23:42
Speaker
Yeah, I also like to think of it as like the fabric of reality itself. Reality is God. There's nothing, everything in it is also God, but there's nothing that isn't God basically. All of time is God and everything outside of time is God also. And I often hear, you know, we say God is the everything and then you hear this from like Buddhism and other places that everything is nothing, like that paradox.
00:24:12
Speaker
It kind of just, it's hard to understand, you know, like that the everything is nothing. Um, and I heard this, um, way of explaining it that can make it make sense in a way where the sum total of everything is nothing. So if you have an infinite, if you have every number, infinity and a box, infinity goes on forever.
00:24:38
Speaker
You have all the way up to infinity, but including that has to be every negative of that number. So the sum and total of that box will equal zero. So everything, infinity going positively forever will do the same thing in the opposite way and that everything equals nothing. So it kind of makes it a little more understandable and a rational sense.
00:25:03
Speaker
Yeah, to me, it's, it's, it's like a circle or something, you know, it just, there's no, there's no like end point. There's no, like you can put an infinite amount of straight lines. Like if you take a line from the center of a circle and you draw it straight up right to the top, there's no amount of lines that you can make to go around the entire circle. It's infinite. I think a circle is a beautiful representation of like the infinite nature of reality.
00:25:34
Speaker
And that made me think of on my one DMT experience, um, that kind of circle imagery was kind of showing me something and it made it abundantly clear that beginning and end are both the same thing. You know, like I was, I had transcended the duality of beginning and end and it was just, it was so clear to me that,
00:26:01
Speaker
they are both the same thing forever. And it occurred to me while kind of, you know, pondering death and kind of going through a little bit of fear and terror. But then it was just shown to me kind of the way I imagined how it felt to know it was kind of like a circle all happening at once beginning and end the same thing.
00:26:24
Speaker
Yeah. When I talked to Roger Jackson, the author of, uh, the book rebirth, which goes over all the reincarnation theories of all Buddhist cosmologies. Um, he said one of the very first things that he learned in like his very first Buddhist class from his Buddhist teachers, uh, was a, was a quote and he uses it all the time and I love it. Um, and I'm going to use it all the time now too. It is a mind is beginning lists. Dude, you could chew on that for ages, man. Yeah, that's awesome. It's beautiful. Yep.
00:26:56
Speaker
And it's endless, obviously, then, too. Yeah, man. But it's great. And I think you could say the same for reality, which is like the Big Bang thing doesn't really vibe with me. There was no beginning. This universe, it's hard to even say this universe, because I don't even really buy into that. How weird does it sound? Reality, existence, never had a beginning. It's always existed. And it's beginning-less. You know, people want to say, how did this all start?
00:27:25
Speaker
stepping outside the concept of time, you know, it's always been. Yeah. We're like little infants trying to map all of reality and all of dimensions like in to a human lifetime, because when we're born, we begin when we die, we end. So we think that everything has to be, or everything can be extrapolated from that concept and you can, you can map it onto all of reality.
00:27:52
Speaker
It's not the way it works again it's like we said in like the very first question you can't understand the breadth of everything through a physical. A physical is paradigm you just can't do it. Especially because like you said trying to model and map these types of things.
00:28:10
Speaker
And at large, we're doing it through the wrong lens. And I always say this, it's that the materialist paradigm doesn't allow us to see those type of things. It doesn't, that model doesn't allow for what we just said. Because if, you know, if reality itself is material and we arise from the material, intelligence, consciousness, it comes from the material.
00:28:35
Speaker
then there's no way it's always been, you know what I mean? But that kind of leads, I don't know if you're ready to go to the next question. Yeah, yeah. Number five is, what in life is truly objective and not subjective? Oh, this is a good one. I like it. Okay, this is kind of a tough one.
00:29:02
Speaker
And I think it's kind of a paradox because I would say that everything is subjective. There is no objective. But at the same time, the absolute is objective, which is what's always happening at once. So meaning that what we're existing in right now would be the relative domain.
00:29:31
Speaker
Everything is relative, you know, let's say between, uh, me and you or me and a different animal, it might be easier. Um, we're experiencing things totally different the way we think, the way we see, the way we have our senses. It's all relative experience, but at the core of what it all is, the absolute is the objective. So meaning even though this right now is a, uh, relative experience,
00:29:59
Speaker
it at the same time has to be the absolute because the absolute is all that exists. And this kind of goes to what I was saying a little bit before about consciousness being fundamental, not the materialist view. We often behave like something like good and bad exist objectively, like there is something good. We go back to the Hitler example, we would say that what Hitler did was objectively bad.
00:30:26
Speaker
And everybody would agree with that and behave like that's an objective fact, but it's actually not. That's still subjective because from Hitler's point of view, he was doing the ultimate good in what he believed. So in that sense, in the experience that we're all having, everything is subjective. And I think in the way that this question is actually asking, my answer in short would be yes, everything is subjective, but simultaneously,
00:30:56
Speaker
There's nothing but the absolute. So it's a paradox. They're both happening at once. This right now, this reality we're experiencing, this is the true reality. This is the absolute. There's nothing behind it at this moment. At this moment, this is the absolute. But at the same time, we're in the relative domain, if that makes sense.
00:31:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, for me, I, I can just kind of say that almost the same thing, but in like a different way. So when I initially thought about this question, I thought, okay, not everything is subjective, right? Because when I go into a psychedelic experience and I merge with everything and I merge with the all.
00:31:36
Speaker
This is an objective type of experience because this is not something that I'm creating in my brain. But then I thought to myself, well, actually. That is a subjective experience because it's, it's the information is still being processed through me and through my ego and through who I am. So even if I do have like an ego death or an ego disillusion experience, I'm still subjectively me experiencing it and bringing that back.
00:32:02
Speaker
So you can take it to any degree you want. And I still would think that everything is, is subjective because objective and subjective also the words themselves rely on either something be either something, some central
00:32:22
Speaker
Brain some central consciousness being subjective or some central being or consciousness being objective so if you're using the words objective or subjective you're describing something that exists externally from. The everything or the all so i think the question breaks itself down into a situation where you have to say logically that everything is subjective there is no such thing as an objective anything.
00:32:50
Speaker
I agree. And we can think of examples of what we believe to be objective facts. Like we could say, objectively, the sky is blue. But it's not because it depends on who's looking at it, what time of day, cloud cover, all this stuff. It depends. It's relative, the color of the sky.
00:33:14
Speaker
And this is why I kind of think it's a paradox because at that same time, when you're looking at the blue sky, it is objectively blue. It's absolutely blue in that moment.
00:33:26
Speaker
Well, the, the sky being blue is a good one because it's also dependent on eyes. Like you have to have eyes to be able to see particular photons that equal blue to your vision and to your experience. So you are subjectively creating a description of like a physical process and you're calling it blue. So that's not objective. I don't think in any way. Um,
00:33:51
Speaker
Unless you want to say that the experience of blue is objective. Maybe you can make an argument for that, but I just, I, I can't make a clear argument for anything being objective. Santa Claus isn't real or Santa doesn't exist. That's an objective fact on the surface. But if you just realize it's not because it just, just because it doesn't exist in the way you want it to doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
00:34:20
Speaker
Santa Claus exists as the concept, as the myth, as the symbol of Santa Claus. Um, so almost anything that you could choose as an objective fact usually breaks down under further examination. Yeah, because the character of Santa Claus is real. The character of Bugs Bunny, like would you say Bugs Bunny doesn't exist? No, he's a, he's a legendary cartoon character. He does exist, but
00:34:44
Speaker
There's no bunny named bugs that I can talk to that fucks with Elmer Fudd in, in, in like, in our physical reality. So it's like, again, like you said, man, this stuff is all very paradoxical. Yeah. But I would say that yes. Um, everything is subjective aside from looking at it at through the absolute where everything is the absolute during that experience.
00:35:11
Speaker
Okay. Number six. What is consciousness? Oh, shit. Okay. Consciousness is the container in which all experience exists. It's also the manner in which we identify what experience is. And I think it is also the sum total breadth of
00:35:39
Speaker
of all of conscious experience. So that is like a Rupert Spira type of inspired answer to the question. But I think I'm generally just trying to say that it encompasses all of experience in how we, how we feel it, how we describe it and how we experience it. Yeah, I would say I agree. Um,
00:36:09
Speaker
Consciousness is awareness.
Order and Chaos in the Universe
00:36:12
Speaker
It's an easy one to kind of just sum it up shortly. I also think that our answer for what is God is synonymous. I think everything we said about God is also consciousness. Consciousness is reality. There's nothing outside of consciousness. In order for existence to happen, there has to be consciousness.
00:36:38
Speaker
Time exists in consciousness. Our brains exist inside consciousness. We are all created from consciousness. The matter doesn't create the consciousness. So consciousness is everything. It's what me and you are. It's the love that drives the universe.
00:36:59
Speaker
Yeah, consciousness is also everything and nothing at the same time. It's like a nothing, it's formlessness that also is form, you know? It's pure awareness.
00:37:14
Speaker
your awareness. I like that. And the formlessness and the form, I think is a very good way to put it too. Because like when you dive into what formlessness is, you come to form. And when you dive into what form is, you come to formlessness. It's like this, um, this infinite figure eight of, you know, form into formlessness, form into formlessness. And that I think is just a,
00:37:39
Speaker
Again, it's mind is beginningless. Consciousness is beginningless. I think those two things are saying the same thing. And I noticed it's easy. A lot of people wouldn't feel this way that like reality is consciousness and how I just described it, basically that consciousness creates matter rather than the matter creating consciousness. And I think it's, it's hard for people to conceptualize that as what reality is, if that's
00:38:07
Speaker
that reality actually is that way. But when you, I always like using dream analogies, because if you go and think about, you know, a dream experience, right when you wake up from a dream, you have the memory clearest. And you can remember every detail of that reality. It looked as real as this. Whenever the memory is strong, that's when you truly know how real it was. Um,
00:38:35
Speaker
And it's easy for a materialist to say that that reality was just consciousness. They'll agree that that was just mind that wasn't real or physical. This is real. This reality, true reality is material. And that dream was just mind, mental consciousness. But the truth is they're both the same. They're both consciousness. So it is God. It's the whole thing. It's everything.
00:39:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's all consciousness. I mean, again, if you ask who is, who is the one experiencing the dream? Is the, is the person sleeping? Is that the dreamer? Is the dreamer experiencing the dream or is the brain inside of the dream, like the dream avatar experiencing the dream? And I think it doesn't like it's all consciousness, all of it, no matter what level you want to bring it to high or low, it's all consciousness. So to me, consciousness is everything and it's the foundation.
00:39:33
Speaker
It's God. It's basically the foundation of the all. And a good exercise if you're struggling with this is I found to try to think of anything that exists outside of consciousness. If anything exists outside of consciousness and you will find that it doesn't because you have to be conscious of it for it to be in existence. Any idea that you're thinking of is in consciousness.
00:40:02
Speaker
in your consciousness. Everything that's ever happened, anytime you think of something that isn't in consciousness, it suddenly becomes in consciousness because you're suddenly aware of that thing that is supposed to be outside of it.
00:40:17
Speaker
Yeah. How do you, how do you know, uh, the, what the function of your brain does? Cause you observe it with your consciousness. Every single thing you observe, you're observing with consciousness. So like you said, you bring it into existence. It's a quantum mechanics type of thing. It reminds me of, you know, it's like, it's all relative. It's all real according to the observer.
00:40:40
Speaker
As soon as you are aware of the thing, it pops into existence. So there's nothing that ever could exist outside of consciousness. Okay, I like that one. I would say that there is inherent order.
00:41:10
Speaker
I think at a certain point in awareness, I mean, you could see it regardless, but reality has to be perfect in order to exist. The only time you could say it is in chaos is through a relative perspective of a human being hurt by said chaos or misunderstanding it. I think everything is perfectly designed
00:41:37
Speaker
infinitely down and infinitely up like an infinite intelligence creates this from the top down so I think everything is perfectly designed and it has to be and if you have an issue with that and you think that something isn't you're just not seeing it through the proper awareness or you're not aware in the perfection that's making this said thing happen so I'd say it's inherently
00:42:08
Speaker
purposeful and perfect.
00:42:12
Speaker
I think it's an inherent order as well. I mean, chaos exists within a higher dimension of order. Because if you look, say, just like the explosion of a star, that's a fucking chaotic thing that have happened. That's more chaos than you or I can ever even fathom. I mean, we talk about, you know, global cataclysms like meteors hitting the earth as something that's an unfathomable version of chaos. Well, think about a
00:42:39
Speaker
Exploding star but when exploding star is is a process of order because it's a process in which things are being created nature is being created. These are things that have to happen when galaxies collide when black holes suck shit in these are all.
00:42:59
Speaker
Inherently concepts of order because like you said it from top to bottom big to small in and out. It's all perfect It's a very perfectly ordered system. And I think that the chaos and the change it is inherent to The order in which everything is is running according to whatever intelligence you want to put on it and
00:43:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think that chaos and order, that's another duality that you can transcend and it collapses into absolute order because they're the same thing as you just described. The chaos that you're perceiving relatively is ultimately order. So inherently there is no absolute chaos, only relative.
00:43:49
Speaker
Number eight, is there an alternative to capitalism? This is kind of a strange one just popped up. I mean, yeah, there's definitely an alternative to capitalism, whether or not it's positive or negative, or whether or not it vibes with a certain culture, I think is a very different question. That's not the one that's being asked. I mean, maybe it's asking if you think that there's a better way to run things in America than a capitalistic system, but
00:44:18
Speaker
uh the answer to the literal question is there an alternative to capitalism yeah for sure yeah uh there are limitless alternatives to capitalism whether or not you think they work or not that's different um but yeah i don't i don't really have much else to say about that but yes there are plenty of alternatives yeah it's a strange one to have just thrown in there yeah including things that we haven't
Reality and the Matrix
00:44:44
Speaker
you know, tried yet, you know, it's just infinite there. That's a good point. There are lots of things that we haven't tried yet. And we think that only the things that we've tried are like all the isms that we have in our current vocabulary and our current encyclopedia are the only ways to go about constructing a society or something. It's just, it's weird, but yeah. One discovery could change the entire structure of how we, you know, deal with economics and stuff. You know, it's just endless. Yeah.
00:45:11
Speaker
All right. Um, so I guess we can move on, uh, to number nine. Is it more important to be respected or liked? My answer would be neither, but I guess I have to pick one. Um, but my instinct as neither, um, cause you have to rely on, you know, forces outside yourself to validate those things. Um, so that's my instinct, but.
00:45:37
Speaker
If I had to choose whether being respected or liked, I'd probably choose respect. I think respect is harder earned. It carries more weight. Like isn't a very powerful word. I think you almost inherently like something you respect. You can hate something you respect as well.
00:46:01
Speaker
But there's still a level of appreciation for anything you respect. You have to appreciate it. I think it's a heavier force, a greater emotion. So I would say that respected would be my answer there.
00:46:22
Speaker
I mean, I think you said it perfectly. I think respected is like you said, it's harder to, you know, attain respect. You can be liked for many different reasons, but a lot of those reasons could be shallow and it could be for reasons that, uh, you're not really going for, you know, you can be liked because.
00:46:42
Speaker
You look good or you can be liked for a lot of other like really shallow things, but to be respected, you have to earn respect. People who don't say you have to earn being liked. They say you got to earn respect for a reason because it's, it's harder and, uh, it takes more, which I think inherently makes it more valuable. Yep. Totally agree. Number 10. Are we in the matrix?
00:47:08
Speaker
Man We're in a type of matrix, you know, I don't think we're in Because this is this is like are we in the capital M matrix? and I think what that means is like are we in like the matrix described in the movie and I think the movie is an an exaggerated description of where we're heading and sort of where we are slightly I think we're so I I do think we're in like a type of matrix and
00:47:36
Speaker
because we do exist within a world where we are
00:47:41
Speaker
guided and motivated by relative, shallow, external stimuli that usually relate to either our survival as a species, as a biological entity, or they're based off of emotional responses to suffering and struggles that are not really based in what is real or what is true or what is important.
00:48:11
Speaker
especially when it comes to like technologically advanced societies like ours. So I think we're in a sort of cultural matrix, but not necessarily in pods experiencing an AI reality that is given to us by robots. Right. I would say, because it seems like you were saying that it says the matrix kind of referring to the movie.
00:48:41
Speaker
I would say we're not in the matrix as I've said before and we've talked about simulation theory a bit and that's basically what the matrix is in the movie. And I don't think that we're in the matrix in that sense. I believe that we could that we're in maybe some sort of matrix kind of how you were just describing.
00:49:08
Speaker
But to be in the matrix that would require there to be a real reality outside of this experience that is simulating this rather than experiencing actual reality as it is right now and at every moment. So I don't think that we're in a pod somewhere and this is all just being projected into a physical being creating this.
00:49:37
Speaker
Not a matrix, but I would say a dream is a more adept comparison to what this reality is. Because I think partially where the one aspect of the matrix is correct is that the existence that we're experiencing is non-physical. So in that aspect of a matrix,
00:50:02
Speaker
Yes, but the source of the matrix isn't, you know, a simulation or, um, you know, just like a computer, whatever. I would say that the only similarity to this and a matrix is the nonphysical nature. And that's why I'd say a dream is a better comparison. Um, cause the dream is, is an easier way to think of just pure consciousness that's creating the reality.
00:50:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm taking it as more of like, um, like cultural, social commentary, you know, like, I think we are in, again, like I said, a cultural matrix where we're blind to.
00:50:42
Speaker
the fundamental nature of the self and we're instead distracted by these external things, whether it be satisfying our emotions or emotional reactions to what's in front of us in a very survival type of way where we're just trying to
00:51:03
Speaker
Like limit the amount of suffering and maximize the amount of happiness and joy. You know, whether that be eating fast food because it tastes good. You know what I mean? That to me is a cultural matrix. So I think in that way you can extrapolate that idea to most things that we do in our day to day life. Um, and in that way, I think we're in some sort of like a matrix type of concept. Yeah. Societally for sure. All right. Number 11.
00:51:30
Speaker
Have we become less happy in this age of technology?
Technology and Happiness
00:51:37
Speaker
I would say I think that we have in a sense that now with all this technology, we're barely even like human beings anymore. If you think about what the experience of a human being has been for 50,000 years prior to this technological boom,
00:51:55
Speaker
It wasn't about being happy all the time. You survived and after completing a task, happiness is what you were rewarded with. Now we don't have the tasks to complete and a lot of people aren't seeking out these tasks and they're trying to just seek happiness rather than live life and be rewarded with the happiness. So 50,000 years ago, I could be so
00:52:25
Speaker
Captured by surviving that day that you know, I'm just so busy I don't have time to think about happiness and I almost get eaten by a tiger But me and my buddy killed the tiger and now we're sitting around a fire eating the tiger And then we feel true happiness and it's purely earned and it's organic and it's real with this technology We kind of just tried to get dopamine hits off of like really impulsive behaviors and it really consumes us in
00:52:55
Speaker
looking for happiness in a way that is completely unnatural to our evolution as human beings. So I think, yes, that this technology has made us more unhappy as a whole. You can kind of just look at humanity and see that, whereas suicide rates are skyrocketing.
00:53:19
Speaker
depressions at an all-time high, we're all taking pills. The technology created these chemicals that were just constantly shoving in ourselves that numb us. But at the same time, there could be a discovery tomorrow that changes all of that. So technology isn't inherently bad, but the place that we find ourselves in today with the technology that we have, I think, makes us unhappy in a deep way.
00:53:48
Speaker
Very, very well said. I think that what the technology of our current time does is it replaces true happiness with a sense of instant gratification. And like you said, dopamine hits. We're not experiencing what.
00:54:07
Speaker
True joy and true happiness really is because we're substituting it with something that feels like joy and it feels like happiness because it, it satisfies our need for instant gratification, but it's not a true sense of being happy.
00:54:22
Speaker
I never understood what true happiness was until psychedelics because I was thrown into what was my true nature, my true self, which allowed me to experience something beyond gratification. It allowed me to experience gratitude, any type of a trial or
00:54:44
Speaker
like an initiation will give you a true sense of joy and happiness and gratitude to be alive, gratitude to everything. It's appreciation. It's a true sense of
00:55:00
Speaker
being rooted in love. And I don't think you get that with technology. I think you get a substitute for that that tries really hard to be that and it tries to fool you into thinking that you are achieving that. But ultimately it's, it's driving you down, um, like a path that takes you farther away from happiness, in my opinion. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, like kind of as you just described, like true happiness.
00:55:30
Speaker
It really hits when you're overcoming adversity, like when you go through that psychedelic trip that was difficult, but the beauty on the other side is unmatched and you couldn't have appreciated it without the darkness.
00:55:45
Speaker
I think, you know, the true technology, I think a lot of ancient cultures understood this. The real technology is ourselves, the human body. And, you know, also the earth provides us with, you know, psychedelic mushrooms or something. That's a true technology that really increases happiness. It might not be an instant gratification.
00:56:07
Speaker
and like some trickery played in your mind to make you feel good for a second. But these are things that have long lasting effects. That's why they've shown now with psilocybin, even a one time use with somebody who is, you know, has depression, one time will, you know, cure that depression, at least for a certain period of time, as long as they take the lesson with them. So, you know, there is technology that
00:56:32
Speaker
is, you know, we'll create happiness, but it's not the technology that we are so infatuated with today. And like you said, technology is not inherently bad. They're just tools. And the tools are a direct reflection of us and how we use them. And the way that we're using these tools are completely uninformed and foundationally like not based in what true happiness and gratitude is. I think that's the biggest problem. It's not the technology's fault. It's our fault.
00:57:02
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. We have so much power with this technology and the way it's being used.
00:57:10
Speaker
is just a reflection of my opinion of sad people that have a control issue and want to use the technology to keep themselves on top. And in order for them to be on top, other people have to be on the bottom. And if you can keep a civilization of people distracted and give them this false sense of happiness,
00:57:35
Speaker
then they're not going to be motivated enough to, you know, break free and seek the true happiness. Yeah, man. Very well said. Number 12.
Mathematics and Human Obligation
00:57:45
Speaker
What is mathematics? Mathematics are, mathematics is the relative language in which we understand the patterns of nature.
00:58:05
Speaker
Indeed it is. Mathematics is symbolism. Symbols used to measure reality and manipulate reality. In a very relative sense, I think, because it's not.
00:58:27
Speaker
It's so mathematics is really, really hard to prove relative in words. I don't do a very good job of it, but I do think that ultimately mathematics is very, very much in the realm of the relative. Uh, mathematics is a language of logic and reason. All right. Number 13. Are humans obligated to better themselves?
00:58:59
Speaker
I would say no. I don't think there's any obligation. I'm trying to imagine how I'd try to answer this question, yes, that they are obligated. In one sense, you have an obligation to better yourself, to better the community, and better those around you. It's kind of like a selflessness act in bettering yourself, you better others. But I still don't see it as an obligation.
00:59:25
Speaker
Being obligated to do something doesn't mean you'll do it correct or right or properly or with any type of integrity. So I'd say no, we're not obligated to improve ourselves, but it's better for ourselves and everyone around us if we do. I don't think that humans are obligated to do anything.
00:59:47
Speaker
I think from my subjective perspective, I think, yeah, we are obligated to within my little realm of reality, because my definition of a life well-lived, as I kind of said in my answer earlier with what I would like on my gravestone, inherently within that, within compassion and within driving the world to a greater state of love,
01:00:14
Speaker
You are bettering yourself in that, in that mode of consciousness, whatever you're doing to, to better the world, um, inherently means like you're trying to better yourself. We, we as humans have this, I don't know if it's a survival based thing, uh, in order to progress our species to further evolution or what, but we do have this, this internal nature of becoming better, um, of learning.
01:00:42
Speaker
And I don't think that's considered an obligation, but I do think that it's natural and it's inevitable. And I also, it basically, it seems like we're kind of on the same page with, um, the issue with saying that others are obligated.
01:01:09
Speaker
Whereas it's fine to say for yourself and truly believe it deep down that I am obligated to be a better person. But when you start saying others are obligated to be a better person, you have to ask, why are you so sure you know what a better person is? So it's relative.
01:01:27
Speaker
In one person's eyes being a better person is one thing and another it's another thing. So if you mostly what I see this as saying is other people should act like me or how I think I should act myself. So you're projecting your best self on everyone else whatever idea that might be.
01:01:46
Speaker
So I don't think it's totally clear and obvious what a better person really is. I think we could have some good ideas about it, but it's still relative and we might feel passionately that we know what a better person is. But I think in a sense, this goes back to the order of things.
01:02:05
Speaker
At every moment, everyone is the best they are. You know, even when they're doing something that seems quote unquote bad, it's still happening in the perfect mixture. So, you know, once you start saying that you have the absolute idea of what another person is obligated to be, I think there's an issue with that. Yeah, I agree. That is inherent in the word obligated.
01:02:31
Speaker
Um, yeah, I don't think anybody's obligated to do anything because obligated creates a sort of authority figure that is looking down on you and saying, this is what you're supposed to do. And I mean, if we have any sort of free will, uh, then it just breaks that paradigm apart. Yeah. It's like, uh, you descended into tyranny.
Episode Wrap-up
01:02:52
Speaker
So we're going to wrap it up here for this one. Um, but I'm going to tell you guys the next question, which is number 14. Uh, this is where we're going to be picking up on when we continue this and it's, it's a banger. Uh, number 14 is, is there a meaning of life? So catch us next time and you'll hear that. I wanted to tell you a joke, actually, please do. Okay.
01:03:20
Speaker
What did the zen monk say to the hot dog vendor? What? Make me one with everything. I love it. It's good.
01:06:05
Speaker
you