posted November 08, 2017 07:42 AM            

Nihilistic Optimism!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRqu0YOH14 [06:09]

For this is a Philosophy that Truly Speaks to my Own Soul, and one I discovered through Encountering and Deeply Thinking upon the Works of HP Lovecraft, who so brilliantly painted for Humanity a bleak picture of Existential Dread.

But when you really think about it... Nihilistic Optimism is not so far removed from the Samurai Philosophy of Life in Every Breath (Bushido).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido

And I feel my favourite line from the Vid is when it exclaims... “We are the Sensory Organs of the Universe...!”

Tentacles even? Bwahaha... I have no doubt, Lovecraft would approve!

posted November 08, 2017 04:07 PM            

This goes on a bit for about 3 minutes that I was reminded of:
http://youtu.be/KiJ7Kscpyks?t=4m12s

On another matter, I'm wondering just how much Buddhism (a type of Nihilistic Optimism) influenced bushido...

posted November 08, 2017 05:30 PM            

quote:

---

I do not know the mind of God
And I can not guess His thoughts...
But I have searched for you across the void
When my sense of self was lost.
The answers danced to brush my grasp
In the darkness and the pain.
And I saw myself for all I am
Through decisions I have made.

With hearts Immortal
We stand before our lives.
A soul against oblivion
Forever asking "Why?"
This upside-down symphony
In a paradox called life.
Are hearts immortal?
What you give to love
Will never die.

And when my ashes scatter me
With my memories to the wind,
What endures beyond the silent edge
Is the essence found within.
Have we forgotten truly who we are
And what our living means?
Our purpose lies in others' eyes
And the realities that we bring.

With hearts Immortal
We stand before our lives.
(Stand before our lives)
A soul against oblivion
Forever asking "Why?"
This upside-down symphony
In a paradox called life.
(Stand before our lives)
Are hearts immortal?
What you give to love
Will never die.

All that I am and all that I dream
Lives somewhere beyond your image of me;
And who I become and what I will be
Is not yours to decide:
It comes only from me.

With hearts Immortal
We stand before our lives.
A soul against oblivion
Forever asking "Why?"
This upside-down symphony
Is a paradox called life.
Are hearts immortal?
What you give to love
Will never die. (x3)

---

posted November 11, 2017 01:15 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by PixieJane:

On another matter, I'm wondering just how much Buddhism (a type of Nihilistic Optimism) influenced bushido...

---

I feel this highly likely considering how early such entered Japan, though I also see Bushido as being a few steps ahead of Buddhism and perhaps a more evolved iteration of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_Japan

Actually if you compared Buddhism with the Jedi Order, & Bushido with the Sith... this could also be considered an accurate comparison of the Two Disciplines in some ways.

Just sharing this, something I saw earlier in reference to Cosmic Horror Fiction (Nihilistic)

Conan, Cthulhu and Atheism, From Cosmic Horror to Hope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plilgFrcYow [08:48]

There are some nice quotes by Carl Sagan towards the end.

posted November 13, 2017 07:49 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lei_Kuei:
I feel this highly likely considering how early such entered Japan, though I also see Bushido as being a few steps ahead of Buddhism and perhaps a more evolved iteration of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_Japan

Actually if you compared Buddhism with the Jedi Order, & Bushido with the Sith... this could also be considered an accurate comparison of the Two Disciplines in some ways.

Just sharing this, something I saw earlier in reference to Cosmic Horror Fiction (Nihilistic)

Conan, Cthulhu and Atheism, From Cosmic Horror to Hope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plilgFrcYow [08:48]

There are some nice quotes by Carl Sagan towards the end.

---

posted November 13, 2017 09:36 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lei_Kuei:
Conan, Cthulhu and Atheism, From Cosmic Horror to Hope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plilgFrcYow [08:48]

There are some nice quotes by Carl Sagan towards the end.

---

I LOVED this!

posted November 15, 2017 12:41 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by PixieJane:
I LOVED this!

As for Bushido and Buddhism, there's a book I recall that I meant to read years ago. It explains how Buddhism influenced everything in Japan, even the tea ceremonies and art (which in turn would lead to anime) were influenced to some degree.

---

posted February 20, 2018 06:24 PM            

How Beauty Will Save the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwLP62fL83k [13:06]

^^(The Philosophy of Cloud Atlas)

If you haven't seen Cloud Atlas (well you should) expect spoilers... but even without seeing the movie the context of the Philosophy is very eloquently expressed and the message carries just as well.

[Adding in Cloud Atlas Movie Trailer]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s [05:41]

posted March 05, 2018 10:25 PM            

Even as an agnostic I can have moments of religious ecstasy. This describes the experience for me beautifully:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNy9rU7An00

Sample lyrics:

The deepest solace lies in understanding
This ancient unseen stream
A shudder before the beautiful
Awake ocean born
Behold this force
Bring the outside in
Explore the self to epiphany
The very core of life
Is soaring higher of truth and light
The music of this awe
Deep silence between the notes
Deafens me with endless love
This vagrant island Earth
A pilgrim shining bright
We are shuddering
Before the beautiful
Before the plentiful
We're the voyagers

And going back to Bushido, I'm reminded of the sacred element of Void which isn't to be confused with nothing. Like the cosmos itself (and, in theory, zero point energy), all comes from nothing, because nothing is not nothing. It is where will comes from and that which creates harmony and beauty. Music without change or momentary silence isn't music, it's noise. It is the "silence between the notes" that makes music beautiful. And it is where we come from and will return to, and perhaps return from again.

While writing a scifi, I had another intense moment of where I felt the writing came THROUGH me rather than from me, and I had such vivid memories that were like being homesick. It was of a lizard species that lived within caves, but were clever and social, with glowing algae, and stars so bright in a star cluster. I shared the details with a physicist friend and she was saying if it was in a Cluster then it would make sense life would be in the caves, for radiation would probably become intense, at least at times (and someone else mentioned that it could bring systems close that would, at times, allow interstellar travel quite easily), and that the eyes would likely be more attuned to UV light which also added to the intensity of the stars, and also the power of the glowing algae. This is just an example, the point being it felt like a memory to me, as if just as I was a human imagining being of that species in a star cluster, maybe I'm just as much a stray thought in the mind of a species in a star cluster, and the Void connects us, perhaps even makes us one.

But that aside, just because this cosmos wasn't made for humans doesn't mean it wasn't made for our souls, and whatever the case, we're the embers of stars given consciousness, a consciousness that likely survives death. In my neopagan way of seeing things (though I am agnostic), the divinity is within all things, even the Void, and though we're doomed, we're also NOT doomed. That is, doomed on one level, but not on another, and that the doom, the Void, brought about serves future life. (Whatever the case may be, I always wanted my dead body to be buried to feed the Earth just as the Earth has fed me my entire life as it seems fair, not be put into a box. I see the connection between the Earth and me, and between life and death and new life.)

And perhaps it's worth noting that I believe a reason I'm not prone to depression is because I know how bad it can be. I think of the times I spent on the streets and the food all around me and the computer I play on right now becomes sources of gratitude rather than taking them for granted. And yet I know I can lose it all (in addition to my life itself). I know the kids I've helped to raise will experience great pain (as they did before I knew them) and make terrible mistakes, but I hope I successfully taught them how to convert that pain into a happier life later, to let the bad give appreciation for the good.

That is to say, that while I am agnostic, my nihilistic optimism can still be mystical and religious in its own way, inspire values, and my soul can know ecstasy at the miracle I am caught up in.

And on one final note, I LOVE this song that I think fits the theme of Nihilistic Optimism, that acknowledges both the good and the bad, and the hope that we can become more than we are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=addABbm5VPo

Though even leaving this cradle of humanity won't necessarily evolve us. It would not surprise me if some incredibly advanced interstellar civilizations made the same mistakes as we have and still managed to wipe themselves out (or even just got unlucky), which leads to the Fermi Paradox:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

This is getting long, and I'm getting tired and off topic (a danger when I see how the different trees are what create the forest, and that the forest doesn't exist for the sake of a single tree). So just to sum up, the Void is an object of wonder and creation to me (though it includes pain and death as well), a source of beauty (that which turns noise into a symphony) and could actually be what many others call God/dess.

And I will leave with one more song, what to me is like a religious hymn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03-SGoDZkRM

sample lyrics:

The sun burns through the windows.
Rising from the stones
As dear as ancient clockwork
To mark our time alone
As order moves to chaos
So time cannot reverse
Watching from the tower spire
A finite universe

And all our burning questions
And all out greatest fears
They look to find the evidence
But they will not find it here

Strange skies!
Strange skies!

Science and religion
Upon each other's throne
Naive to thought beyond their box
They cannot stand alone