I have posted a lot of different things with many different people who believe different things to be true. Buddhism, Nihilism, etc and through each of these things I get different justifications for them. My biggest weakness is “spiritual stuff” because the anecdotal evidence seems convincing enough for me to believe it to be true.
Yet in terms of perspective the more distance I get from such things the more I can see they are different ideas and that just because someone says it or believes it does not make it capital T truth. But it’s hard to see it the majority of the time and the changes people purport to their lives seems like reason enough to believe.
Then here I am, stuck trying to figure out the right to to do with life and how to live it correctly. I wonder how people do it myself all the time but at the end of the day I don’t have much of a clue.
That quote does seem appropriate. Honestly I feel like it’s a waste of time, but part of me is obsessed with the correct way to live and to be. Is society right? What if I didn’t listen? Could I not listen and just blend in to avoid trouble? Do I stay or go? What about those who don’t agree with society?
I tend to get hung up on “profound” stuff now when in the past I would just let it slide and that’s it. I guess maybe because back then I thought I had all the answers but now I realize I don’t anymore.
If you have a functional personal conscience, then “the right thing” is the thing that is at peace with that conscience.
If you do not have a functioning conscience, you’ll have to ask Jesus or someone to quote platitudes from scriptures, and call yourself a good servant of the deity, whether what you did was the right thing or not’
Religion is often credited with various motifs on the Maxim of the Golden Rule but it has been traced as far back as ~2000BC. And while religions are arguably the oldest examples of philosophy in human history, I think it deserves to be credited as early secular philosophy adopted by various religions, rather than the other way around.
Have you ever been diagnosed professionally with being on the (Aspergers or similar) spectrum? I ask because it seems to me that in addition to your obsessive behavior, you have trouble with critical thinking and weighing evidence against personal experience, external collective social input and internal value judgments.
I highly recommend you start worshiping money. Follow the money and all will be right in your life. Well, at least you’ll have millions of people who worship with you and those that don’t will at least understand you. Remember he who dies with the most points wins.
One possibility: find one or more people you admire, look at how they lived their lives, and follow their example. They could be people you know personally, historical figures, or even fictional characters.
It’s just that I think that because a few or opinion isn’t mainstream that it’s some sort of “hidden” truth that no one wants to know. Or if it’s painful to hear then it’s true or that if it goes against the grain then it’s true. Or if I fail to convince people then I am the one in the wrong. I’m not great at judging the truth of things and usually just go with something because someone believes it or they sound like they know what they are talking about.
I try to find the right thing to do or the right way to live but every answer seems wrong according to those who have the “truth” (or those I perceive to know the truth).
I think it is worthwhile to continue your search for truth / understanding / meaning.
What you should stop doing, in my opinion, is seeking someone with the authority to tell you what the answers are. Keep listening, yes, to anyone you think may have insights. But like it or not, the final authority is you. Yes, I know you aren’t qualified. That’s how it works, nevertheless.
Tip: you may find significant meaning in the paradoxical vortex that surrounds uncertainty. You lack certainty now, and it appears to bother you. One possible interpretation of never being able to have a certain Answer is to dismiss the question and say “there ain’t one”, but you don’t care for that interpretation — neither do I. Keep considering what possible things you can build on the premise that uncertainty is, umm, well, certain, or the most certain thing you’ve found at any rate.
It seems like they have the answers and the responses to questions against and for it, so it’s hard to argue against them for me. I know you say that I am the final authority on what I let in but that doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in myself. If I don’t know a lot about anything (which I truly don’t) then what right do I have to reject them? Just because I don’t like it or it makes me uncomfortable?
The end result being that I tie myself up with things other people have said or that I have read and all I am left with is just a bunch of “no’s” when it comes to doing things I want. Buddhism messed me up because I took it to mean that wanting things was wrong and just led to suffering, which is bad and I couldn’t argue with them. Or if there was a recurring pattern I noticed that it wasn’t a self or something I can call “me”.
In the case of Nihilism I took feeling joy as running away, actually I’ve been living by the “ignorance is bliss” line for quite a while. Mostly because I was happier and better off never reading anything else or expanding my world. Now I’m left with words and questions I have no answers to. I would have been better without Buddhism, or Nihilism, or questioning morality and such. I even spent some time in a Psychedlics forum (I’m not a user don’t worry) and their philosophy section had me doubting the foundations of what I know and how I live my life.
I can’t seem to find the strength of say no to any of these things (and more) because I don’t want to be ignorant or close-minded or a “slave”.
But what is it that you’re looking for? What would success look like?
Maybe it’s not out there; but, hey, maybe it is. Maybe, in all your attempts to find some hidden out-of-the-mainstream truth, you could someday come across useful tips or even a whole philosophy that has just what you hope to find. What, broadly speaking, would that look like? You follow the instructions and then — what happens?