I’m just so excited to see
who you’ll be
Because I already love
the person you are
I’m just so excited to see
who you’ll be
Because I already love
the person you are
When also all lust
deserted me
food lost her
self-evident value
I stare at you
wordlessly
because there are no
words to describe
this
Some invisible claw
that sinks itself
into my chest
only by
the sight of you
The red entanglement
of sun and clouds
lighter fluid in the bathtub
What do we do
with the things we can’t express?
with the words that can’t exist?
with the experiences that can’t exist in our language?
The small and unreaching man-made order, man-made language
I laugh at this last joke
‘I love you guys’
My mother can’t help but cry
‘It’s going to be okay’
When I lay there
on the hospital bed,
soulless and unmoving,
my family went back home
weeping softly in the car
This was not their choice
I was no longer
their responsibility
So I chose for myself
Father,
are you my father?
Do you exist
or do you transcend
Being itself?
Can I call you
a ‘you’?
Can I speak words
that will be heard?
Can I see something of you
or understand?
Where all winds meet
there is too much pressure
to breathe
That one moment of reality would be enough to support a life of fantasy
It is the push and pull of meaning
The push into the unknown
into the black space of nothing
And the pull up
till you can see just the smallest speck of light
Then the push again
And the pull
The real world doesn’t care about those names
about your name
And in this nothingness
this beautiful nothingness
this is where we live
where we love
To play and feel
and feel and write
and write and yearn
and yearn and scream
and scream and die
And yet that is to live
To break language
down to its core
and then shake that core
You will never touch this ground. Never. You have been taught to walk and to find it strange to bring your body close to the outside tiles. And because you have been taught to do so, all else is strange and all else is to be looked down upon. You say I am mad and you walk past me with your snout held high. And so you will never touch this ground. Never. But you do not even realize that you are stuck in your stuck up ways. That is the saddest part; your unawareness.
Our appearances are not something we should be reduced to as humans. To then call someone beautiful or ugly has no real significance. It should then not be a significant topic for any speaker nor one for any receiver. When someone calls someone ugly, they have made the mistake of focusing on this. And when the receiver is hurt by this, they have made the mistake of making their appearances part of their identity.
You ask me if perhaps I am thinking too much and you say that it does not bring much. I ask you then if you work too much and what it brings you. You say it is your job and that it brings you money and helps the people around you in some way. So also, is it my job to think; to observe and contemplate everything. The job that I have chosen out of the passion of my entire being and a belief in a โbetterโ society.
The mistake you make is in thinking that the thinkings of a philosopher are the same as your own. You think to yourself; I could have thought of that and now that it has been thought and brought to me, I understand it. Of course you understand it, for it has been taught to you: you are a product of the past and so also of the thoughts that were introduced there. โIt comes naturally to me that the world is meaningless,โ you say. Of course you say this, for you have been raised to believe it and to be prone to experiencing that. Also those who raised you were raised in a place that was already sown with the seeds of these thoughts.
So must we say no original thought exists? Of course not, but their origin is not to be found in anyone’s upbringing alone. Their origin is found in philosophy; the source of original thoughts. And as I have said these original thoughts then (sometimes) become conventional ones. Telling me that you understand some conventional thought is no impressive feat.
We shower our children with these thoughts that we have received when we were children. We tell them that they are special and that we as humans are special; that we are the main characters. And so our children grow up to believe this. But this belief is contradicted in the real world; there we are merely another part and not a main character at all. And so we are confused when what we have learned as children does not add up with the real world. And since we do not like to be confused, we avoid it and lull ourselves back into the illusion that we are indeed main characters. And then we teach this to our children and the cycle of deceit and illusion continues. And we stray further from realness.
Certainly, my life will once again fall into โdecayโ, as we like to call it. But precisely this falling into decay and rising up from it again is what it means to have a life. It is inevitable that we sometimes return to our base; โthe state of decayโ or better said, emptiness, nothingness. It is inevitable because what we build has no ground and therefore it should not be surprising or shocking that it will come crashing down. Now you may think, oh no, my life is doomed to crash down. But this is not a terrible thought, for it is normal for our lives to โdecayโ (which I hope is clear now, is not at all a decay) and therefore we should not fear it. Only be aware of it and accept whatever decay or non-decay our life receives.
Do not worry about emptiness; it is not something to fear or to avoid. It is our base, our neutral standard.
This human experience, how laughable it may be, is still some beautiful thing. How privileged I feel to exist and how uncanny it feels to leave existence after some time. I try now to understand human existence and existence as a whole, while in a few moments I will no longer be part of it. How absurd.
I am sick and tired of these people explaining to me the art of others using the communication of the social theatre. They donโt seem to notice that the art is then scraped off and we are left with communication which is not art and so not as real as it could be.ย
Of course sometimes communication of art can inspire art but it is not the communication itself but the art behind this communication that reaches me. Then should we not communicate about art at all? I am not sure.
If you do not feel the art, should you explain it? No! Then your speech would be far from realness and almost impossible to inspire art.
I refuse to act! I can do that no longer! What disgust has come over me! How have I lived this way for so long and never understood? I will not act! I will strive to achieve realness!
But this is no simple task, for if all others act, how can I respond only with realness? And if I have been acting my whole life, how then will I never act again? If I am not even sure what this realness is in daily life, how then will I adopt it in my heart and life? Nonetheless , I must try; this is what life is, try. And it is what being human means; to try to change, largely fail but slightly progress. I urge all who read and understand this to try also; try to live in realness and not on the stage of the social theatre. The social theatre is not where life truly happens, it is only a practical place and to make it more practical we have started acting, because realness is harder for us. And so realness was lost and with it a part of a true life.
It is very human to have suicidal thoughts. It seems to me a fundamental thought and one that all persons will or should at some point consider. Why should we live? Why does that make any sense? If we brush this off and ridicule this as an absurd question, then truly we are disrespecting life itself. In doing this we say that we should not fully consider the meaning of life. And so we avoid the meaning of life by escaping into it; how cowardly. But understandable, for humans seem prone to fear that which is the most real. They would much rather live in their stories and structures that they have made for themselves. And so we deny life itself.
And in our stories, we have truly become insane to the real world.
May your mouth be blessed with incompetence, so that your words of art are not wasted on these actors who care not about art and know nothing of it.
And who is then not one of these actors? How are they recognizable? And should my mouth then not be blessed with incompetence?ย
Sit down, close your eyes. Let all the eyes in your mind drift away; they matter not. What some person thinks of you tomorrow is not a worry for now and perhaps not a worry at all. When these eyes have gone, you can see life itself more clearly. And sit there and observe it, feel it.
And feel that nothing has a base, nothing has a fundament, nothing has a true structure. Think to yourself why am I doing this and realise that no satisfying answer will ever come to you. โWhy do I work?โ And you realise life is a series of โnext stepsโ and no true ground. This โhaving no groundโ is fundamental to the human life, it is its essence. Bask in the uncertainty that overwhelms you: you are home! Can you not laugh because you know that you belong here, in this nothingness? Do you not recognise it? Or has your fragile mind forgotten its own existence? Or perhaps it has never known, and has lived in illusion since birth. Then this realization is the stripping of illusion. All persons break when the illusion is stripped but all are more real for it. Those who live still in illusion are cursed to be but actors, to live in fakeness and delight in delusion for they do not know it is delusion. So I say to you: break! All those who hear me: break yourself! Break yourself and so rid yourself of illusion; become at least aware of it.ย
For awareness is but the first step, as it always is. Yet even in awareness, the illusion is not easily avoided. It is perhaps even impossible to live truly without it, since it is somehow essential to human life, as I have said.
Hindsight makes fools of us all
(said also by John French)
Yet we do not seem to realise that this very moment is the moment of hindsight. This very moment is the moment you will look back on and say โI was but a foolโ.
We grow out of this moment and it will be some part of an ancient past. Do you not look back upon yourself and see that you were still a child, even when your mind and body had matured? You think you are not a child now, that you know things and even understand them. I laugh heartly at you, for you are a child, like I am a child. And in many years you will laugh at yourself also. And many years more you will be dead and unable to laugh at yourself. But if we were to believe in some sort of life beyond life then surely you will laugh at yourself there.
We laugh when we see a fool, but hindsight tells us that we are all the fool, that we all should laugh at all of us.
How much did they pay you, tell me, to sell your soul to this puppet master? Or is it not money that they offered you? Did you give yourself voluntarily over to be controlled?
And when you feel the wire on the metal flesh hook raise your arms in the sky, do you not regret your life? Do you not wish to be free of this when you look in the mirror and see not yourself but some shadow in the distance?
Are we doomed under the watch of eyes when we share something? Perhaps there will be eyes yes but that does not mean they should govern you
‘I don’t know’ is perhaps the wisest utterance
While we try to understand the machine (and fail) it keeps on rolling
Communication [should be used] to share a moment with someone, to share an experience. An experience that is occurring at the present moment.
You need a war to have a warhero. We need revolutions and therefore we need something to revolt against
There is some place between the public and being alone.
[This is some group, some community. You are not alone for there are others but these others are also not ‘the public’ for you have some connection to them that you do not have with ‘the public’]
Be careful not to use ‘angry philosophy’ to defend your ego.
Some philosophy is in itself a different language. Words don’t always mean what we at first think they mean.
The truth that there exists multiple truths, is not one truth but the whole of all truths
How I present myself here is not how I truly am, because that is impossible to present.
I feel their expectations when they hear I am ‘a philosopher’. And they ask me what I think of this and that. It is flattering but also problematic.
Those who are sure, are small minded
Also philosophy, which ponders conventions, has its own conventions and non-conventions
The unconventional person is told that unconventionality attracts eyes of the conventional (or even the differently unconventional) and therefore the unconventional is expecting eyes when they are unconventional in public. This is a cruel fate. They are then occupied with the thought that there might be eyes on them and that they should not care. In any way, the unconventional can not simply exist next to the conventional.
I can say not what some other philosopher might think of this or that, for they are not here. I can merely say what that philosopher has inspired within myself and what I myself then think of this or that based on that inspiration.
Art is not the thing that transcends the social theatre and so human communication; that which transcends the social theatre is art.
Art is art insofar it transcends communication
If I write something with in my mind that it is for others, then my intention is communication. And no art will come from an intention of communication
How absurd it is to pitch a book that talks about the absurdity of pitching a book (and how that is part of the social theatre)
If we are to progress in our societies as humans, it shall be in this ‘realness’.
We are on our way, but we must continue to approach the age of realness. The age of saying truthfully what is on our mind
When the world is ‘perfect’ there is no more need for revolutions. A world without revolutions seems simply not possible and perhaps even not desirable
To become ‘famous’ in the social theatre is so stupid yet almost all of us seem to be drawn to that
[I hate to admit that I feel its draw too]
How absurd is it that we describe some of our discoveries by our person names
If a tree in a forest is not seen, does it still exist? If I am not seen by anyone, do I still exist?
I know the desires in the human story and yet I myself am dragged into these desires and the stage that comes with it. I am doomed to, I must; just as I am doomed to be merely human.
If I say what I am not allowed to say, will I be understood?
It is uncanny for us to go nowhere when we travel. If I don’t have anywhere to go or anything to do then why should I go somewhere?
To be a vessel for the indescribable chaos that is philosophy (and love and life)
In the movements of our body (or in its non-movements) we see our lives
[It is a choice to move and a choice not to. Life is choices.]
[How much do you move? And when you move, where does it hurt? Do you recognize your own walk? And when you sit, where do your arms rest, and your shoulders hang?]
There is a certain uncomfortability in trying to explain someone else’s work (without having true passion for it)
[And even with that passion, it is arrogant to speak as if you truly understand someone else]
If you find something ridiculous, there is a big chance you don’t understand it
Those who long for power have sunk too deep into the social theatre
Age is the stupidest way to measure maturity, yet because it is the easiest way, that is the one we put most significance in. Stereotypes and labels are the stupidest way to understand someone, yet because it is the easiest, we put most significance in that one. This is how we as humans work: efficiency over reality
In the social theatre, we reduce ourselves because we are considerate of others. There are things we ‘can’t’ say, things we ‘can’t’ do. I hold myself back when I am with others, I do not say all that I wish
In some possible world, you are in the same position as this person in front of you
The world is not unjust, it merely seems unjust to us
‘Letting go’ does not mean ‘putting out of your life’ it means that it can exist in your life without having you in its grip. I am letting him go
Is it not still the same love even if the other does not have that love? Imagine two people love each other and now imagine only one of these people with that love, is that not still the same love?
When we talk to ourselves in public we are perhaps crazy, but if we talk to our dogs in public perhaps not
It is okay to let time pass. Accepting that is perhaps the hardest thing
I came back to my place and I saw many standing around my notebook, with shocked and disapproving faces. They jeered at me. I took my notebook and sat down
Philosophers can be brutal, but they can’t be that to the face of a person, for then they are rude and hardly a person themselves. Through a different, more distant medium it is more acceptable to be brutal
It is uncomfortable to have our foundations shaken
The social theatre seems to sap me of my life forces; my confidence in my wisdom seems to always shake, I start questioning myself. Yet the theatre seems a necessary thing, something I must participate in. Do I really want to? But I need to hear people’s experiences
Are my ideas only worth something if I communicate them clearly?
The basis of the social theatre (which is within the human story): communication is limited; we can never fully express ourselves to others. To fill this void, we tend to act; saying not really something to satisfy some sort of expectation of communication
The basis of the human story: we can only understand and observe things in a human way. So the way we give structure to the world is merely human.
Deeply rooted in the social theatre, life is merely a series of empty events (?)
Is ‘zooming out’ not merely a coping mechanism?
[Getting away from a reality you don’t like by observing it as if you don’t live in it.]
There is a bag of kittens; someone beats them to death. ‘Oh no that is horrible!’ Now there is a bag of chickens and someone beats them to death. ‘Yummy, dinner is served!’
Human theatre -> social theatre (?)
Walking in the middle of the road, breaking some unspoken, intangible structure. You feel it, it feels weird, yet freeing, like no structure truly exists
It is my functioning, not my disfunctioning with respect to the standard
[The doctor tells us that this or that is ‘wrong’ with us, physically or mentally. We are told we do not function ‘properly’. This of course implies a standard of what is proper functioning. Reject this. Just because I do not function with respect to some standard does not mean you can tell me I do not function properly.]
The conventional way people see something as ‘weird’ is wack
Are there truly people destined to merely follow given structures? Doomed to have their life lived for them?
I don’t want connections in the human theatre because they are not real. Connections in the human story, something (more) real.
[See 227, 228 and 681 for the distinction between the human theatre/social theatre and the human story/human layer]
How arbitrary it is that we don’t treat a 17-year old as an adult and we do for an 18-year old. How arbitrary it is anyway that we focus so much on age
As children we are taught to act in the human theatre. (True) maturing is becoming aware of the theatre and not letting it be truth, not living your whole life on that stage
Why is it weird to see others dance in public?
The cruel paradox; by structuring life and making it more efficient, we also reduce it
To have eyes upon you is what it means to be human. Without eyes I am no human, I am only observer. I am only alive.
I must be human. I have to be. And if I must be that, then I wish to be real in my being human. I shall not act
Life: route-description unavailable
An anthropocentric life is a life stuck in the human theatre
Functioning in the human theatre; connection without commitment. Is it realistic?
Through art we can transcend the human theatre. Art captures a feeling and releases it to its receiver. No theatre needed
We say that as adults we become independent yet we dread being alone
Are humans able to do something unnatural? There is nothing unnatural in this world
You are a different person when there are eyes on you (real as well as self-made eyes)
No good work comes from a work with eyes. Less good maybe. Because eyes take up our thoughts and they make us think and act differently. No eyes. There are no eyes.
In this human world, an idea is only good because of others. Your ideas are always in relation to others. Feels messed up