In the Swami world-view, meaningfulness is irrelevant in a search for truth and not all that interesting to me. Truth should be universal and constant, not localized and wavering.
I really appreciate your clear reply. You say that meaningfulness (or the search for meaning) in the Swami worldview is irrelevant because truth should be universal and constant (correct me if i'm wrong).
I have two questions about this:
1] Why should the truth you are seeking be universal and constant instead of changing like a chameleon.
2] For me the search for meaning automatically is associated with the search for truth. You seem to be more oriented on the more scientific/practical endevour, does this mean that you prefer not to answer or pursue questions of meaning (because there is no constant meaning)? OR does this mean that you feel everyone should do this for him or herself and there is no use communicating about this because it is different on every occasion - so there is no constant therefore it is no (usefull) truth.
My take on this is that i think it is very useful to talk about meaning(fullness) because i think it has both (meaning)substance and (usefull)substance. Granted you cannot produce cold fusion with it but you can create peace in someone's life. Also saying that one is satisfied with life without 'objective' meaning but that life was just 'good' is also a form of creating meaning. It's all in the head everchanging but with its own dynamics and rules. I do not think there is no structure or meaning in the meaning itself... it just less tangible. Poets can handle it fine apparently.
I think one problem you have with meaning is that some people attach more meaning to arbitrary things causing them to be dictate their version of the meaning/truth to others. This is something to fight against and the age of enlightenment did a good job in the western world. However it was also the cause of the disenchantment of the world (Max Weber)... God was killed and with it the orientation on meaning as something meaningful and therefore useful. Everyone should be FREE to create his own life without the load of religion (humanism/liberalism), but what to do with this freedom and why? The only thing that was left was the usefullness orientation, goals, means to an end: an moral flatland.
I don't have a problem with an everchanging meaning, it is not meaningless for me but beautifull, its also a bit frightening because it suggests that i as a person will change and die. But if i look carefully i see that this is beautiful and nothing to be afraid of... if i look even further i see an eternal spirit and i see god. Do God and this eternal spirit therefore really exist? No they are real and the are not real at the same time.... they are just as real as me saying that i am a person, it is a conceptualization... a word.
Maybe you disagree with the comparison but i like to compare this religous searching with the search for words and language to express yourself. You argue that use of labels like ufo, aliens, overmind on religious experiences is unnecesary and even harmful and limiting. In a way this can be the case.
I argue that use of symbols like eternal spirit, god, aliens, ufo's without mistaking them for real world objects but seeing them as something unworldly but yet tangible is a necessary step in our evolution.
There was a time man didn't use language, so ideas were difficult to express... somehow the mind developed with or without mckenna's mushroom and more complex notions were possible... where once there was no conception of self and other and the outside world, there appeared to be seperate objects.... labeling these objects and shifting them around in the mind created language. By experimenting, trial and error our ancestors began to use simple words to convey the inner world meaning they were experiencing. Language made culture and society possible.
In this way i think the conceptualization of 'mystical' inner world structures that are not as easy to pinpoint as the previous static objects will lead to an new advance in our culture. If you use these new conceptualizations as static objects you essentially do the same as conservatives or religious fanatics do with language... the bible is reduced to words that have to be memorized and are solid truth. The West is the great satan, skeptics are wrong, believers are naive... we must grow beyond language. The search for truth lies in the direction of meaning not in the direction of predictability and control. But how do we communicate if the real meaning is not in the words? We must 'loosen up', play with language, be tuned in to the 'meaning' sphere.... i think the new language and therefore new possibilities will grow in time.
And now for the million dollar question: are the inner world and outer world separate. I say I don't know, I also think that we not yet have the capacity to answer this question.... I also think it is a limiting viewpoint that the two are seperate... but in the corners of my field of view i can see some connections but it is not yet solid evidence - maybe my solid state shell religion is forming? Better to take the risk than to be confined to the area of individualism, skepticism and science. I don't think i am being naive, copying someone else his view, heard it from my parents.... being sceptic means also being sceptic to one's worldview. This of course includes being sceptic of my viewpoint that sceptics like you are not sceptic enough.
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