Dealing with Existential Frustration?

[turkalurk]

its all a matter of perspective. You say you are always alone. You can look at it that way, but its a pessimistic point of view. You could also say that you are only alone in your mind. Everywhere else you are connected to something. You can't be born alone. Your birth requires a mother. Your childhood development requires a caretaker. You are always interconnected to the world that made you.

I do understand the point being expressed, but it has little value to me because its based in egotism. Not that the message is without value. I've been there, hopeful someday we can develop a sort of telepathic communications system utilizing computer networks to encode our subvocalized thought into a universal language that would allow us to actually share each others point of view.

I get that all we can do is use our feeble words to paint our picture, but the words will always paint a slightly different picture for the next person. But, now I see the beauty in diversity. Besides, there are many of all types. Sometimes you meet those kinds of people that just seem to operate on the same wavelength. They may not share each othera viewpoint but they can get to know each other enough to understand each other in an accurate and genuine way. The truth of it, is we often know ourselves less than we think we do. We our biased and can see ourself in the best light. But, you are more than the voices you hear in your head. You are more than the sum of your parts. You are tje effect you have on the causal chain of Being. You are a Human Being. A system of systems operating within a collection of interconnected systems. One of a collective species in a whole family of mammals that are all interacting together in one Biosphere.
There is always a pity pot for the ego to sit on. Always something it wants and doesn't have. I would rather just appreciate what I do have. I never feel alone, even when I am by myself the world is always with me, and a world is always within me.

 

[swilow]

its all a matter of perspective. You say you are always alone. You can look at it that way, but its a pessimistic point of view. You could also say that you are only alone in your mind. Everywhere else you are connected to something. You can't be born alone. Your birth requires a mother. Your childhood development requires a caretaker. You are always interconnected to the world that made you. .

Well said man. The whole post, but especially that bit...

 

[sigmond]

finished with this topic, I already addressed the aspect of friendship, companionship, company-which were things I wasn't even referring to.

You can't be born alone? Do you remember what your own birth was like? Do you think any human in this world has any idea what you were experiencing during your birth? The material universe is an amazing place and is also entirely indifferent to your existence.

 

[Xorkoth]

its all a matter of perspective. You say you are always alone. You can look at it that way, but its a pessimistic point of view. You could also say that you are only alone in your mind. Everywhere else you are connected to something. You can't be born alone. Your birth requires a mother. Your childhood development requires a caretaker. You are always interconnected to the world that made you.

I do understand the point being expressed, but it has little value to me because its based in egotism. Not that the message is without value. I've been there, hopeful someday we can develop a sort of telepathic communications system utilizing computer networks to encode our subvocalized thought into a universal language that would allow us to actually share each others point of view.

I get that all we can do is use our feeble words to paint our picture, but the words will always paint a slightly different picture for the next person. But, now I see the beauty in diversity. Besides, there are many of all types. Sometimes you meet those kinds of people that just seem to operate on the same wavelength. They may not share each othera viewpoint but they can get to know each other enough to understand each other in an accurate and genuine way. The truth of it, is we often know ourselves less than we think we do. We our biased and can see ourself in the best light. But, you are more than the voices you hear in your head. You are more than the sum of your parts. You are tje effect you have on the causal chain of Being. You are a Human Being. A system of systems operating within a collection of interconnected systems. One of a collective species in a whole family of mammals that are all interacting together in one Biosphere.
There is always a pity pot for the ego to sit on. Always something it wants and doesn't have. I would rather just appreciate what I do have. I never feel alone, even when I am by myself the world is always with me, and a world is always within me.

Nice thoughts, nice post.

 

[turkalurk]

thanks,

The material universe is an amazing place and is also entirely indifferent to your existence.

The material universe
as a concept of the mind, may not feel one way or another about anything. But,
your friends and family are not indifferent to your existence, and they are part of the material universe. Anything that feels anything is part of the universe, so the "universe" feels the whole spectrum of every emotion.

 

[Nixiam]

I do indeed agree. I've been trying not to post here, but whatever, I'm gonna be a bluelighter soon. Might as well.

I feel that the majority of people who don't fall within the day to day motions of predetermined thought (set via society and function), ponder this at one point or another. Realization and lack of delusion are usually my emphasis for realistic type arguments. Everything can be deconstructed into a form of energy. Everything that has mass or some form of existence. You and I are no more than collective forms of this. Nothing TRULY matters on a universal scale, but to our subjective perception of reality, it matters a great deal. And rightfully so.

As turk pointed out very well, we are all interconnected to the world. What you should feel good about is that this reality, the one you experience matters to the people in it, and you don't have to accept it, but if you do life gets a whole lot easier. But life doesn't even seem real with the conclusion that nothing matters. Or is anything even real? Things like communication, emotion, and experience seem like a built in obsolescent ordeal with the idea that we don't matter simply because we don't play far into reality besides what we can measure.

All we can gather about our universe is with a subjective position. Acceptance of our situation is crucial. You and I are forms, we do exist, and the "reality" we have does matter. Whenever I have ideas or thoughts that make life seem obsolete or unreal, I always am shocked by some illness or accident which brings a very sickening sense of my own mortality to my attention.

So there's the universe, which shouldn't be thought of as just a home, but as a web that connects us all with the most basic form of existence. What matters is that we make the best of our subjective experience, and with that we have to accept our position.

The point I'm getting at is that you shouldn't let something like a cosmological realization get you down or make you lose your drive to do things that make you happy, just because its useless in the reality of everything outside of our subjectivity.

Play along. We have a set of rules that we couldn't break even if we tried, so just be happy with it. And being happy with what your given involves accepting and understanding. You and I are in a web of deception and perception. Life only feels pointless when a sense of excitement or happiness has been far kept from its person.

I apologize if this seems mixed up, I started typing at 9pm, fell asleep and woke up at 4am to finish the post.

I also hope someone finds this helful or intriguing. We are important, as important as the reality we can't see. At least to us anyway...

Much love!
- Your friendly neighborhood Nix

 

[turkalurk]

very impressive for such a young mind. You've got potential kid.

 

[Nixiam]

Appreciate it friend! One more post after this and I shall become... A NIXLIGHTER! I deeply appreciate all of you, a big thanks to those who respond to me and argue and let me bounce around ideas. Willow, Turk, Drunk, Ninae, Levels, Mods, Crew, etc... Love thyself. I wanna hurry up and be a bluelighter so I can get this fucking notification off my screen. To the OP, hope we helped some. Stay safe all, consume in moderation (or not idgaf).

 

[Xorkoth]

You're going about becoming a Bluelighter in the right way, by making quality posts where appropriate. Kudos.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Yeah Nix, this place doesn't give a whole lot of pats on the back, so soak it up buddy, you done good and welcome. %) You also have a unique talent for poking at situations in a way that should be obnoxious but just makes me laugh. You'll have to teach me that art sometime. See ya' around.

 

[Nixiam]

And so it begins. I love it.

 

[Ninae]

Are you German or Dutch, Nix? Something about the way you express yourself.

 

[Nixiam]

Deep German roots on my fathers side, but I am U.S. born. Never been to Germany.

 

[Ninae]

I also have old German roots. Or, one side of my family is descendent from Hamburg.

 

[sigmond]

I also have old German roots. Or, one side of my family is descendent from Hamburg.

for some reason I thought you were Native American

 

[Ninae]

LOL. For what reason.

 

[sigmond]

LOL. For what reason.

Ha, I honestly don't know, I suppose I was thinking of someone else..

 

[Cosmic Trigger]

I was originally going to post this in the Mental Health sub-forum, but as I started writing it out it seemed better suited to P&S even though it's a personal frustration.

I continually experience a very deep existential pain, one that I've been unable to reconcile.. only mitigate and rationalize my way out of but it's always there. Like a splinter in my mind.

This is hard for me to describe, and I've longed turned to philosophy to help me understand and manage my experience of it. But it doesn't matter how much I rationalize what I'm feeling I always feel at my core that I'm just telling myself a story to cope with the inherent absurdity of existence. I play the game of life and go along with been someone, involve myself in social issues, interact with people, tell myself that what I'm doing is meaningful and I'm working towards personal goals but it all just feels like a façade.

I can't take it seriously, and yet it's demanded of me. Nothing seems to matter, and yet it does.

I long came to the conclusion that it really comes down to a matter of perspective, circumstances change and with it so does ones outlook on life where they may find meaning and value in places they never would of expected, but BECAUSE it is a matter of perspective and that meaning and value is subjective at any given moment in time those circumstances can change and you may find yourself once again in the throes of existential despair.. there is just nothing concrete. It feels like building a house on sand.

And it's this perpetual free-fall that makes me want to just give up on giving a damn, as soon as I get to serious about anything in life it falls apart somehow.. almost as though to exemplify the transience of life. I'm usually a very optimistic person, and I often get to the end of writing a post like this and decide to delete it because I can just go and distract myself with a video game or TV show and my feelings on this subject disappear. But the fact that this arises with such ferocity when it does tells me there is something at the fundamental level that is deeply unsettled and is likely pervading through to everything in my life.

It doesn't get easier as you get on in life usually. The fact that most people spend their time looking for more and more distractions is very telling IMO. From religion to video games etc. If we stop and just sit with it we find ourselves with just this malaise you describe. There is no cure but death for it so best to keep up with the distractions. If one looks too long or deeply into the abyss one may find it looking back at you. That is pure hell from my experience.

 

[sigmond]

This sounds familiar to me; it's something that irritates my mind on a daily basis. In fact it's usually the first thought I have in the morning when I feel my consciousness slipping out of the dream state and back into the body. "Oh joy. Another day of this.". It follows me into my sleep too; i'll often lament in dreams, watching them and commenting to no one but myself.. "this is absurd/that's not possible/the fuck is that!". I've woken myself up a few times laughing at the absurdity of it.

The pain is your reaction to not allowing yourself to accept what is. Existence is absurd. I won't say it's meaningless.. only that it doesn't really matter. Those who have died on the operating table and come back have often remarked how utterly ridiculous it was for people to be mourning over a corpse.. and how utterly ridiculous the whole notion of taking any of this seriously is. I think that's why people sometimes get the giggles on psychedelics as they're coming up.. they have one foot in another dimension, and from that dimension we intuitively and instantly recognize/remember that this physical existence is no more real than a dream. Laughter is a deep reaction to knowing that truth.. because usually we take life so seriously.. we take ourselves seriously.

You can't reconcile this feeling, but I would say you should sit and examine it thoroughly until you get an answer. And you will eventually.

It's one of the big paradoxes. None of this matters.. but you should still fight! Fighting but not caring. Incidentally that is one of the secrets to (real) magic.

Interesting explanation for psychedelic-inspirited-pseudobulbar-affect (PIPA)

Existence is absurd. I won't say it's meaningless..

I prefer ambiguous.

 

[Cosmic Trigger]

I was originally going to post this in the Mental Health sub-forum, but as I started writing it out it seemed better suited to P&S even though it's a personal frustration.

I continually experience a very deep existential pain, one that I've been unable to reconcile.. only mitigate and rationalize my way out of but it's always there. Like a splinter in my mind.

This is hard for me to describe, and I've longed turned to philosophy to help me understand and manage my experience of it. But it doesn't matter how much I rationalize what I'm feeling I always feel at my core that I'm just telling myself a story to cope with the inherent absurdity of existence. I play the game of life and go along with been someone, involve myself in social issues, interact with people, tell myself that what I'm doing is meaningful and I'm working towards personal goals but it all just feels like a façade.

I can't take it seriously, and yet it's demanded of me. Nothing seems to matter, and yet it does.

I long came to the conclusion that it really comes down to a matter of perspective, circumstances change and with it so does ones outlook on life where they may find meaning and value in places they never would of expected, but BECAUSE it is a matter of perspective and that meaning and value is subjective at any given moment in time those circumstances can change and you may find yourself once again in the throes of existential despair.. there is just nothing concrete. It feels like building a house on sand.

And it's this perpetual free-fall that makes me want to just give up on giving a damn, as soon as I get to serious about anything in life it falls apart somehow.. almost as though to exemplify the transience of life. I'm usually a very optimistic person, and I often get to the end of writing a post like this and decide to delete it because I can just go and distract myself with a video game or TV show and my feelings on this subject disappear. But the fact that this arises with such ferocity when it does tells me there is something at the fundamental level that is deeply unsettled and is likely pervading through to everything in my life.

Indeed, I concur. What is unsettled IMO and experience is our mortality. Death is the only outcome to this struggle and yet nature forces us to attempt to overcome this and continue as if we might somehow live on. On some level untenable and consciously or unconsciously causes depression and existential angst. Some, especially sensitive and awake to this reality take it the hardest. Welcome to my world, it helps me to overcome my loneliness to find others who share in this awareness.

And less it seem I'm being self important I have no assurance that my perspective is true or realistic. It just seems so to me using the limited "logic" I possess.

I just realized I've already posted in this thread to the OP. lol Blame it on senility.