Written in the fall of 1981 and spring of 1982 when I was a freshman at Oklahoma University, this document is published here as an insight into my philosophy when I was 18. Key influences: Richard Bach, and tenth English teacher Gil Hernandez.
Each individual is free to do anything.
What could appeal to an emotionalist more than the phrase “autumn air?”
Learning falsehood teaches truth. Don’t turn away from what is false before knowing all the truth it contains.
Feelings are harmless because they are totally caused by choices in the mind. By the same token, they aren’t “necessary.”
It’s just an idea. It will go away.
We are all creatures of the mind. The mind is responsible for thought, feelings, and behavior.
There are no inciting forces unless I chose to allow them to affect me.
Three levels of existence:
• Primary
• Emotional
• Transcendent
Each can be divided into Basic, Secondary, and Complex subgroups.
The ultimate level is Applied Transcendence.
The value of something is whatever you make it. No exceptions.
No one can make anyone do anything. There is only suggestion, strong and weak, and preference on way or the other. Nothing is better or worse than anything else.
There is no right or wrong.
The masses look at life and see birth as the beginning, death as the end. They don’t realize that whatever is true, they probably don’t know it.
None of this is what I believe. It’s what I could believe if I choose. It’s one possible truth in a Universe of many.
The Universe is a result of cause and effect, rather than chance.
Beyond existence lies non-existence. In nothing, all things exist. Attempt to perceive INFINITY.
Infinity is nothing. In nothing, all things exist. In infinity all things exist. Therefore, infinity exists because everything is contained therein, but does not exist because of the infinitely larger nothing.
Within the confines of existence, there lies what we know as reality. This reality includes all the substances of our being, the biological masses of our bodies, surrounded by the tangible objects of our daily lives. However, when we speak of the time for the biological portion of our existence to end, we are faced with a dilemma. Does the essence of each individual continue to be? Or does it die along with the body? If, indeed, the individual is capable of existing beyond the body, does it follow that the individual has always existed? Is the essence of an individual transcendent of time and space, or is there a portion of “reality,” i. e. matter and energy, involved?
The past modified the present.
The present is constant.
The future is subject to change.
Reality is endless, as is time. Time is not fluid, but rather is the static measure of the passage of events. “Time travel” is not viable, since time itself is not a medium. The past is gone, and totally unalterable. “The future” is a means of prediction, and does not yet exist. Only the present exists in reality. Reality cannot be transcended.
Exactly what exists to be perceived beyond the substances we know? Perhaps everything we know to be real is available for perception. It is by choice that we live this life, by choice where we were before this life, and by choice where we are going beyond this life.
Within our essence is a characteristic which causes us to seek the reality in which the greatest amount of learning and growing can occur.
Everything in my life may be wrong.
Who among those surrounding me is one of the “advanced souls?” Any? All?
I can point to what doesn’t matter, but can I know so well what does?
Why do we aim to recapture the past? The past is a loser! The past is dead!
“Real life doesn’t have much shape to it.” -Writing professor Clay Lewis
“I’m in to pain.” -Clay Lewis
The deeper I think, the more difficult it becomes to write creatively. Why?
How well do I know myself?
The is no such thing as “better” or “worse.” There are only differences, and preferences about those differences.
“Life = constant re-evaluation.” -Chip Johnson
No one can hurt anyone else. One can only hurt one’s self. I’ve learned this is undeniably true in my life.
Why feel sad about the truth? The truth is unalterable. Why mourn that which is constant? It’s self-defeating.
Of course, everything I’ve said here could be entirely wrong.