XPost: alt.dreams.castaneda   
   From: laura@nospam.me   
      
   "slider"  wrote in message   
   news:4198c39e$0$33601$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...   
   >   
   > Jeet wrote   
   > >   
   > > Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why? Why do you do it? Why? Why get up?   
   > > Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for   
   > > more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know?   
   > > Is it freedom, or truth, perhaps peace? Could it be for love?   
   > > Illusions, Mr. Anderson,  vagaries of perception, temporary constructs   
   > > of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence   
   > > that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as   
   > > the Matrix itself. Although... Only a human mind can invent something   
   > > as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson, you must   
   > > know it by now. You can't win, it is pointless to keep fighting. Why,   
   > > Mr. Anderson, why, why you persist?   
   > >   
   > > -The Matrix Revolutions   
   >   
   > I think, I am not the only one who "believes" that we are living in   
   > lucid dream of God, the Matrix controlled by Him.   
   >   
   > There was time, when I believed that happiness can not exist without   
   > sadness. Light-Darkness, positive-negative, this is law of nature.   
   > Opposite things must exists. This is like Newton's third law of   
   > motion: "For every action, there is equal and opposite reaction". Only   
   > action can not exist. There must be equal and opposite reaction.   
   > Likewise only happiness can not exist. There must be equal and   
   > opposite sadness in world.   
      
   There must, or we wouldn't be able to tell the difference. In a world with   
   only happiness, we would be totally unaware that we were happy.   
      
   >   
   > I was 24 at that time. After 10 years, I am just wondering, if only   
   > Action can exist, then can only happiness exist in our universe?   
      
   Reaction can, and does, exist in the universe. Plenty of it, too.   
   Actually, everything is a reaction to something else, with there being   
   ultimately only one true action - where everything began.   
      
   >   
   > If only Action does exist, God knew it in advance. He must know how   
   > only happiness can exist. But he is not telling the way, mechanism,   
   > how to live in happiness to we human beings.   
   >   
   > Question is, why?   
      
   Ask God, but since God is unlikely to be reachable at the moment, we can   
   look at religions and belief systems.   
   They all agree that this universe must consist of both happiness and   
   suffering, some emphasizing the suffering more than others. The idea is   
   presented that it is a learning process, or a purifying process, to prepare   
   us for the afterlife. Some of them say that this universe is illusory, and   
   everything in it is of a temporary nature, including happiness.   
   Most think the afterlife consists of either pure happiness forever, or pure   
   suffering forever - the Heaven/Hell idea, but there is also the concept that   
   the best state of being is that of neither happy nor unhappy, yet   
   enlightened.   
      
   Let's look for a moment at what would be involved in making the world a   
   place of constant happiness for all.   
   The elimination of disease.   
   The elimination of hunger.   
   The elimination of pain.   
   The elimination of injustice.   
   The elimination of death.   
   The elimination of strife.   
   The elimination of inequality.   
   The elimination of fear.   
      
   Not an easy feat.   
   And, you can see by extension that this would bring about the need to   
   eliminate all bodily urges and needs, and you can't very well do that   
   without getting rid of the body entirely.   
   But let's imagine that it can and has actually been done.   
   How long would pass before this new state would become the baseline for just   
   feeling "normal", and even the slightest deviation from that would mean a   
   higher or lower degree of happiness? A lower degree would become synonymous   
   with suffering, while a higher degree would become happiness, and the   
   original happiness would just be "normal" - nothing special.   
   Look at different societies across the world. There is far more hardship in   
   some than in others, yet the ratio of happiness vs. unhappiness is about the   
   same. People are happy even in countries riddled with disease and hunger,   
   where the government is unjust and to be feared. People still feel basic   
   human emotions - like happiness and unhappiness, regardless of the   
   extraneous circumstances. Perhaps the difference lies mostly in that they   
   have a concrete target for their unhappiness, whereas those in better   
   societies don't (as much).   
      
   Utopia is a nice idea, but completely unworkable in practice. It can't ever   
   be, but it's nice to think about and to strive for.   
      
   >   
   > ### - you have a scientific mind and so you want a scientific answer that   
   will fit...   
   > but what if there isn't one! - what if (for example) Newton was just a   
   nut! (a   
   > rational junkie/nut i mean :)   
   >   
   > which would mean that (basically) everyone's screwed... luckily (for us   
   rational   
   > morons: the intellectuals:) there was Jean Paul Sartre...   
   >   
   > i.e. 'Existensionalism' (which sartre & albert camus created) is basically   
   the only   
   > way out for the rationalists (e.g. for those who have become 'addicted' to   
   always   
   > being rational)   
   >   
   > otherwise it just keeps going around & around in circles :)   
   >   
   >   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)