Vapours of Meditation

All are vapors.

The sun rises and the sun sets. Larger than the sun, our galaxy is smaller than a pinprick in the universe, which is rapidly expanding. If a cosmic god exists, it is likely that is he is indifferent.

In our lives, all are vapors. One day, you win, the other you lose. One morning you wake up; the next you don't.

In our society, we seem to strive to reduce pain; make life easy and idyllic. But a graver mistake is difficult to be found. Man desires the struggle: the presence of such easy sources of pleasure is the inherent cause of many of the maladies that assails the common man. One day you feel pain; the next, you don't.

But what can we do? Ted Kaczynski believed that

We give up a piece of ourselves whenever we adjust to conform to society's >>standards. That, and we're too plugged in. We're letting technology take over our >>lives, willingly But is the solution truly to return to a state of anarchy-primitivism?

Nowadays, books are slowly dying being driven back. Even articles are being routed. Literacy began perhaps, in Mesopotamia, around the year 3500 BCE. Literacy was a rare phenomenon in its beginning being used principally for function. After Johannes Gutenberg, and his printing press literacy rapidly increased. By the 19th century, in the United Kingdom reading was widespread. Now, a new crisis has emerged. One of trust. In the digital age, anyone can be a publisher. Misinformation is rife and its victims spiral into echo chambers until they can believe anything.

Voltaire said that "[t]he more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom". In the modern age, this is truer than ever except the most horrid things are repeated again and again by men, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. One word in, one word out.

The earth is not dying. Life has been the most persistent parasite of all. But it remains to see if a particular life will exist. The airs of our planet grow caustic day by day, which is the largest cause of death on earth. Droughts come with increased severity, the temperature of the earth is increasing. Secretory-General Antonio Gutierrez said "Humanity is waging war on nature. This is senseless and suicidal". We don't seem to have a good record waging wars against philosophical concepts.

It is unfortunate that humans seem to be, due to our evolutionary nature, short-sighted in nature. This is, in my view, due to the fact that humans in our past were fortunate to survive each and every day. One day an animal lives; One day an animal dies.

Ecclesiastes said "There is nothing new under the sun". You can't establish any morality beyond the expression of truth. No god has been empirically proven. If there was a god, he is a cruel, sadistic one. He has waited inactive while natural selection violated the basic morality all religions seem to follow, that the weak should be upheld by the strong. It is better to accept the uncomfortable. It is better to be happy with things as they are. The world is one large vapour, with thicker areas darker areas but ultimately meaningless.