[speakeasy]

(04-26-2013 12:36 PM)cardguy Wrote:  

I consider myself a spiritual person. But I don't believe in God.

What do you mean by spiritual person? If you don't believe in God, why would you believe in a spirit? Spirit as in a consciousness that outlast your physical life. If that's what you mean. I know the word is a bit nebulous in its usage.

Quote:

I have a romantic idealistic side. But I no longer believe in romantic love.

Do you believe in any other kind of love? Family love? Friendship love? If so, why would romantic love not be just another type of love? Just curious where you are coming from with this.

Quote:

As such - when being touched by an amazing movie - or an incredible piece of music. I could attach those feelings to the possibility of something in my future. Which would - in some mystical way - be a self-actualisation of such feelings that I was having then.

But - now. When I experience amazing music and cinema. I feel a bit like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard Of Oz. Behind the wizard's curtain - is nothing...

Which is cool. But - it does make my relationship with Art a bit weird. Since I now sense - on some deeper level - that the experience is all there is.

And that the Art is not hinting at something deeper in the world...

I can live with this. It is no big deal. But - it is one of the side effects of questioning commonly held belief systems.

By thinking deeply about your beliefs. It can ironically make your experiences of life feel shallower...

I only mention this. Not because I am bummed out (I have never being happier). But because it is something I have never seen addressed before.

I post this because listening to some favourite songs - which I haven't heard in ten years - makes me realise how differently I now relate to music.

It no longer holds the same promise of something that it once did.

Maybe it is just me getting old...

Sounds this could be an interesting topic for discussion but I'm just not sure what you're asking.

As for transcendence, what that means to me is feeling like you are part of something far larger and greater than yourself. Getting to that place where you are just above it all, but not in any narcissistic way. Some people get that feeling from religion or some type of worship. Some get it from the raw power and scale of nature. Looking up at the cosmos in the desert for example. It's humbling and puts life in perspective. Joe Rogan posted this on his FB page and I found it intriguing:



We might actually be the very consciousness of the universe experiencing itself.