In the middle of my life, I found myself adrift in elderly trails of an ancient forest. The forest was older than the fur and feathers that tossed and curled amongst its barks and tendrils. It was older even than the soil that was its current home. Once, long ago, it had been under the sea, composed of microbial blooms and an innovative evolutionary whirlwind. Forest<\/p>\n
Alone in the forest, lost, prospects unknown. It is rational yet unnatural to compose a map. For who would find it? And if so, how could they read it? And if so, how could it help them? And if so, why do they need a map if they have travelled so far? And if they do need a map, what map could I compose?<\/p>\n
\u0424<\/p>\n
If both of us<\/p>\n
(i.e. the putative author and any communicable reader)<\/p>\n
were to land naked today on the earth,<\/p>\n
and I was asked for my intuitions regarding<\/p>\n
the meaning of life, the universe, and everything in it<\/p>\n
(nb. \u201cintuitions\u201d, and thus any non-destructing wisdom qualifies first-round),<\/p>\n
then I would answer that I think\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cthat life is navigated by an array of controls<\/p>\n
[like a keyboard, only except for letter-buttons, it is the different wills and beings and have-beens which comprise momentary life]\n
(e.g. mindfulness, nutrition, thoughts, feelings, social endeavour), and that<\/p>\n
these controls are wielded<\/p>\n
[because we want to have some things and not others]\n
to serve<\/p>\n
momentary and<\/p>\n
trans-life \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [e.g. narrative of life, e.g. things that give narrative value]\n
values<\/p>\n
[nb. Lots of controls, life is hard and you never master reality until you\u2019ve learned to let go anyway, so it\u2019s an actual reason to be humble, ie. self-interest is the reason here to be humble \u2013 too often humility is sold emphasizing the \u201chumility to-\u201d, whereas humility should be a solitary state before it is a social state]\n
<\/p>\n
The accumulation of these<\/p>\n
values<\/p>\n
is arbitrary and sufficient<\/p>\n
per biological imperative, and<\/p>\n
per metaphysical necessity,<\/p>\n
since values ascend by rungs<\/p>\n
(i.e. of a ladder\u2019s iteration),<\/p>\n
(nb. Which heuristically move upwards).<\/p>\n
\u266c\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 love is key, and wisdom is admirable\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u266c<\/p>\n
\u2190 These two goals<\/p>\n
can serve as<\/p>\n
arbitrary<\/p>\n
posts<\/p>\n
to serve as an illustration.<\/p>\n
For example, it would follow (re. Love and wisdom),<\/p>\n
that<\/p>\n
it is a good<\/p>\n
life choice<\/p>\n
to settle for a wage in order to ascend the rung to sustain love\u2019s peripheries.<\/p>\n
It would not have to be mudane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 #sell-out<\/p>\n
since would not confuse<\/p>\n
(i.e. confuse wage for purpose unto itself)<\/p>\n
(e.g. if<\/p>\n
temporally bound and<\/p>\n
tricked by the laws of causality + event-horizons<\/p>\n
[forget that yesterday is a dream to today]\n
)<\/p>\n
(cf.<\/p>\n
The man who<\/p>\n
forgets that wage is a dream<\/p>\n
is like the sage who<\/p>\n
forgets that god is a dream<\/p>\n
[e.g. relative to the present when not presently thought, nb. Strong sophism necessitating divine intervention is a theologian\u2019s common (surruptitious) appeal to occam\u2019s razor]\n
).<\/p>\n
IMO, a good constellation with which to begin life is to become a great lover, so that one feels a kinship with the trees and with those who inspire exlusion (e.g. \u201cenemy\u201d, \u201cbeloved\u201d).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(cf.<\/p>\n
Emphasizing illness of greed<\/p>\n
for<\/p>\n
material greed, or<\/p>\n
spiritual greed<\/p>\n
[cf. Tanha of the sensuous disposition vs theoretical disposition]\n
).<\/p>\n
\u255a\u00a0 Is the opening riposte to a story-teller\u2019s monopolizing of the spotlight.<\/p>\n
(i.e. asking for meaning is asking for a story-type truth<\/p>\n
because meaning is<\/p>\n
beyond<\/p>\n
telling or<\/p>\n
fully knowing,<\/p>\n
it is<\/p>\n
best thought of as something lived<\/p>\n
[meaning is lived not found]).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It mean<\/em>s that<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 it<\/em> is beyond words, and<\/p>\n can only be communicated through<\/p>\n models and<\/p>\n stories.<\/p>\n Where these<\/p>\n models or<\/p>\n stories<\/p>\n can be understood in parallel<\/p>\n without contradiction,<\/p>\n then those<\/p>\n can be heard<\/p>\n as a<\/p>\n single opera of meaning<\/p>\n (as opposed to a<\/p>\n loose change pocket of discord<\/p>\n ).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the middle of my life, I found myself adrift in elderly trails of an ancient forest. The forest was older than the fur and feathers that tossed and curled amongst its barks and tendrils. It was older even than the soil that was its current home. Once, long ago, it had been under the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,154,161,272,114],"tags":[],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-google-drive","category-poetry","category-short-story","category-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2401,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/04\/18\/pseudoenzyme-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1245,"position":0},"title":"Pseudoenzyme","author":"Pala","date":"April 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A lot of what scientists do is\u00a0curating nature.\u00a0That is, describing the different bits of nature, at different scales, categorizing them, and listing their relationships, in which they look for patterns. Scientists did this when they undertook the\u00a0Human Genome Project, a massive effort to describe the chemical composition and order of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1253,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/08\/08\/map-to-my-future\/","url_meta":{"origin":1245,"position":1},"title":"Map To My Future","author":"Pala","date":"August 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"My dreams for the future. This is what I want you to do. And this is why I want you to do it. My dream is to employ (in vitro) brain to computer interfaces to study the interaction of differentiable memory and processing schemas. To achieve this I will aim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":817,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/09\/13\/untitled\/","url_meta":{"origin":1245,"position":2},"title":"Untitled","author":"Pala","date":"September 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This untitled post was found in 'Draft' mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 13\/09\/2016 Like a captain far from any familiar shore, gifted with a map without which he could only be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1597,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2017\/05\/22\/misc-confusions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1245,"position":3},"title":"Misc Confusions","author":"Pala","date":"May 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"{Part 1 - 18\/05\/2017} On one foot: for the kids: life is a series of lost opportunities, but don't mistake vs low hanging over-ripe or immature fruit. Sometimes the perfect moment is not given, and we only see what is beautiful too early or too late. And that is life.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kisspng-black-and-white-monochrome-grey-divider-5ab8b367372326.6136383115220539912259-300x15.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2955,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2017\/06\/21\/closing-down-eofy-sale-summer-hols\/","url_meta":{"origin":1245,"position":4},"title":"Closing Down EOFY Sale Summer Hols","author":"Pala","date":"June 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A new psychology, or \u201cA Title Which Says QUICK HELP\u201d I\u2019ve dabbled in a model for my vision of Torah-originated mapping of our experiences, such that it would not defy approach by strange elocution, whose tempo and logic dance and lose themselves in weaves, and would instead welcome by dazzling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1415,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2017\/04\/24\/purim\/","url_meta":{"origin":1245,"position":5},"title":"Purim","author":"Pala","date":"April 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A map to a pathway: Dear You[1], We can tell each other how our life has been, which in essence (and writ small) is a tiny postcard, or map of where\/what we\u2019ve done and how we got there. 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