More Than Just a Profile

Like other profiles, my profile on FB appears two-dimensional. But there's more to me. I'm more than just the token philosophical humorist or art connoisseur. I'm a passionate individual whose online interactions with others lead me to become more reflective, as I think deeply about the significance of individual actions, both in terms of their moral consequences and in terms of what they imply about life and the world. 

In short, I am a philosopher. I am a lover of wisdom, pursuing truth above all else (at least when I'm not busy thinking about other things, like the evolution of Pacman). Like millions of other profiles, the videos, photos, and status updates I share, offer the world as much information about me and my tastes as they do about the subject at hand. 

Many of my posts herein, on Twitter, or FB question how it could be that humor, which seems so innocuous, could make such a positive impact. Rarely do I make these comments directly, but instead, post a joke (often one that fits in 140 characters or less) with the hope that others will question the power of humor vs whether or not the synonym for 'reality' is 'offline'. In other posts or tweets I question whether bygones want to be something else and why I still look both ways down a one way street. 

Humorous, wry, witty, or otherwise clever (sounds like an invisible pat on the back) as these pithy observations might seem, they are philosophical in nature. Because of my moral outlook, notably visible in my no drama, no negativity, PG rated musings, followers generally keep their mischief from me. Rarely am I tagged (or rarely do I notice I am tagged) in negative, slanderous, or otherwise unpleasant postings. 

The Socratic Method 

Over the years, my philosophically humorous blog has taken on an artistic overtone. My keen interest in the finer arts competes with my otherwise lighthearted, surreal or otherwise irreverent stance toward elitism, which of course illuminates my real life association with it. As I tell my audience, humor is just another way to pass eternity. 

Readers might be inclined to dismiss my revelation as one of many creative meanderings influenced by humor, art and technology, and in part, they'd be right. But the discoveries in this quip are not unique to this comic. Whether presenting my case to an audience who hears nothing but jokes, the struggle for meaning is a philosophical dilemma nearly every human being experiences. We all seek to find the right thing to do in each situation, in our lives in general, or to leave behind as a legacy of our having existed among billions of other beings. 

Indeed, we seek to find and understand the good life, the life constituted by doing the right thing - the life that gives meaning to the person living it. 

In search of the good life and meaning is what put me on the path of philosophical questioning (in the first place). My awareness that I and others were sometimes unhappy echoes Socrates (470 - 399 BCE) who, in Plato's (427-347 BCE) Apology, tells us that a person may falsely believe that he or she is happy. Like Socrates, I do not simply wish to believe that I am happy; rather, I wish to know that I am really happy, that I am not fooling myself just because I enjoy many aspects of my life. 

For Socrates, "The unexamined life is not worth living." The good life entails that we examine our life - know thyself - as well as the assumed values in our own tradition. Such values need to be re-examined to determine whether or not they are true and absolutely real (cue Descartes). 

If we discover that our values are not really our own, we should lay them aside until we can properly define and understand those which serve our ideals by which we wish to live. In doing so, we adopt a lifestyle of questioning, challenging, and defining the truths of the world. In philosophical terms this activity is known as the dialectic, and serves as the foundation for the Socratic approach in philosophy if one wishes to live a life in pursuit of knowledge. 

The Socratic Method involves questioning those who claim to know or questioning that which we think we know in order to engage others in a philosophical dialogue in an attempt to define the fundamental nature or essence of some idea or thing. Whether something was virtuous, pious, good, friendly or soulful, Socrates sought proper definitions of ideas and things. If a universal definition could be found, then one could apply the definition to one's own particular life. 

However, this didn't work out so well for Socrates in the end. The people of his beloved Athens sentenced him to death by drinking Hemlock for corrupting the youth and not worshipping the official gods. This sounds ridiculous for people living in the Western world or in First World nations, but absurdities such as these persist in many places of the world. The contents of this blog, if not authored in a nation tolerant of free speech, could potentially land its author in prison, or at least censored. 

When it comes right down to it, we cannot find happiness by following narrow belief systems or traditions. There are few universal constructs and more importantly, a construct does not have to be universal to be valid for an individual. That which makes us happy, that which motivates us toward taking positive action, or that which brings others joy through us are all equally universal in that when an individual can successfully identify such notions, happiness generally follows. 

Happiness is one of the most commonly sought after universal sentiment. Whether one finds their happiness in sharing their thoughts with a wider audience, in creating or collecting artworks, in conditioning their body toward excellence of form, in discovering new lands and new cultures, in conducting high profile business deals, even behind the scenes, the ensuing happiness that arises is their reward. 

Happiness is already something within us.

What we do to ignite it, is our own.

On Happiness

The central philosophical point to these posts is that the logic of happiness is such that the illusions of difference between mind and matter, self and other, appearance and reality, essence and existence ~ all the strain of dichotomized faculties and the angst of alienation and estrangement ~ simply collapse under their own weight. 

The reflex of turning toward the sensation of happiness is a reflex of a certain standpoint adopted by one's own mind. The choice to 'be' rather than 'become' shatters our ego's thoughts on nature where only existence is left, a spirit rejoicing in a moment of self-affirmation that excludes nothing. 

I am aware that these posts are not as "funny" as some of my readers might prefer, but during the holidays one is almost always a bit more reflective than blatantly humorous. Of course the self-designated title of Philosophical Humorist is one that insists upon philosophical rumination weaved throughout all one's thoughts, jokes, and humorous musings. In my mind of minds, everything I write has a humorous tint, a pinkish hue that resonates and bubbles up to the top. My words mirror the sentiments I choose to experience as I skip and pirouette my way through life. 

Whether or not there is something one can do to change the world with a piece of insightful blogging is a matter of debate. Nevertheless, one could come across a blog like this and actually find themselves drawn toward the ease and simpleness presented in each post ~ finding a shared understanding many matters simply by resonating with my initial intention for starting this blog in the first place: the desire to be true to my own self and the willingness to explore rather than define or label.

For me, happiness arises whenever I am thoroughly present in a given moment, which feels like an honoring of myself, another, and the moment itself. 

Under the purview of laughter my sense about the philosophical placement of happiness is more on the order of an obverse to the "sensible" responses associated with living in the "real" world than it is on defining those responses. 

The words: "real", "true", "right", "wrong", "me", "you", "them", and the like are words that instantly produce a smile on my face and within my being. They are hilarious declarations of insanity in that one can never know and can thus only be "okay" with not knowing, contending oneself instead with hoping, if one wishes to do so, or with exploring, if one is so inclined. 

I fall into the latter of those examples. Everything I do in life, which reflects in my writing, is from a standpoint of knowing that I do not know and enjoying thoroughly the experience of exploring and ruminating on all the many thoughts and sentiments available to me. 

Hence my drive toward new and heightened experiences... but not in a way that is vexing. Instead, I prefer the scenic route. The fastest route anywhere, theoretically, is a straight line, but I am not wired to follow a rigid path. This means that I do not enjoy focusing on one path, diligently seeing it through, working my way through, or any word denoting the exercise of effort associated with arriving or "getting there".  

Instead, I incline toward effortlessness and thus naturally gravitate toward those thoughts and experiences that arise from a state of effortless communication, effortless thinking, and effortless being. 

I do not need to bear witness to any fact, acknowledge any primal reality or command another's respect. I do not seek affirmation from other scholars or theorists on the matters discussed, shared or implied in this blog. I write from the other side of the conceptual coin: joyfully celebrating and participating in the reality of each moment, and that is the end of it. 

All the wisdom fashioned in life, literature, and philosophy can awaken us, if we're lucky, to such moments, where we realize, in the wake of history and against the accumulated weight of the world, that these moments in which we are moved to tears and laughter are precious. 

Being happy is about not allowing other thoughts to hold life in bondage. Allowing moments to come as they will, and not as we will, gives us in return a sort of freedom over how we feel inside. When one cannot feel true joy without the internal dialogue directing it so, the reduction of situations aimed at justifying existence emerges from the mind and the moment is lost. It is then a matter of choice; the argument for this is in the result of those choices. 

Happiness occurs at the interstices between freedom and compulsion. Like freedom, happiness loses its life in possession. Like love, happiness can only exist in the exercise of it; also like love, it has a compelling nature of its own, and like loving, happiness can only exist in its own freedom. 

The parity of happiness is fragile in a similar way: the intrigue of intention, however well meant, will destroy it. Happiness is lightness and light carried on the air; it cannot be bottled or boxed. One can adorn a smile, but that does not denote a smile of the mind. 

It is difficult to say which restraints hinder and which ones free us. As for me, I have found that these are one and the same, with choice being the only differentiating factor. 

I can say that it is possible to release oneself from the ancient demons of the human condition of contingency: from time, troubles, plurality, scarcity, from the consciousness of pain, from the responsibilities of promises and obligations, from the authority of truth and reason ... 

...and, yet, still be on time, have the ability to dissolve troubles as they arise and find unity in every crevice of plurality or abundance where none was previously considered...

...and, yet, be able to remove oneself from the intensity of pain to a place where relaxation flows is also an experience of our choosing, a childlike, opportunistic cheerfulness or "pick me" attitude while following through on the promises we make,

and finally, one can arrive to a state of perceived recognition where no single truth is true and no single falsehood is false, but is, instead, both depending on the view one takes and the perspective one holds. Because it can be, it is, or isn't. The truth of the matter is not necessarily the highest order.

The side of the coin we see is entirely our choosing. If we encounter heads where we wish to experience tails, all we have to do is turn the coin over and return to the point in which we made ourselves ready to experience tails... or if the mood strikes, go for it and instead choose to experience heads. Freedom arises from accepting our choices, irrespective of the support the world provides. 

It is pointless to try to determine from whence happiness arises when we can simply release ourselves into it through reflection, desire, and earnestness. Happiness is not the result of any traditional, religious path ~ it is the fullness of time held in a single moment. These moments are available to all who choose them. 

The feeling of happiness, the fullness felt in any given moment arises out of that passion of faith and release of belief that we can affect the world. If we consider eternity to be the absolute fullness of any given moment, then happiness is simply a faith that embraces the whole of existence. 

I have not come quite full circle in this post to give anyone a clearer idea of where it began, but exploring happiness, even in the brief time it took for me to write this post, is an experience from which I derived a sense of happiness. The reality of existing in a given space one wishes to experience is perhaps key to unlocking its potential within it. 

The reality of life is measured in many moments; any one person's exploration of these moments has less to do with the teaching others and more to do with the individual learning that takes place when one considers them. 

Send A Virtual Hug

♡  Lucky you! ♡  

You have just received a virtual hug! Feel free to share this with your friends who might appreciate receiving a little gift in their email box today. 

♡  Question ♡ 

Will sending virtual hugs to others make you (and them) feel happier? Can you send a virtual hug to yourself and actually smile and feel a bit warmer inside? (Try it!)  

Perhaps you would not hesitate to answer this question with a resounding, "Yes!," thinking of these cute little gif images above. 

How darling is the little girl who opens a box and gets the Giant Sparkly Star! And isn't the virtual hug adorable? Look - it's loading....ahhhh, how cute! 

"I had a pleasant time with my mind, for it was happy."

Louisa May Alcott, novelist

(｡◕‿◕｡)

According to John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), happiness can be defined as the greatest degree of pleasure for the greatest number of people. Mill called this principle utilitarianism.

Happiness is a human quality to be realized, nurtured, and shared. While not all pleasures are identical in value, happiness seems to be the most desirable of them all. 

In exploration of what makes us and others happy, I am sending out a Virtual Hug to the World to see how many people it reaches, but more importantly, I am sending this out with the hope that the mere idea of a hug can bring a smile, a giggle, or simply a warm hearted feeling for any heart who needs it. 

My happiness as well as the happiness of others is of great interest to me. Thanks for visiting!  

The Nature of Positive Emotions

When particles within a closed system combine into new shapes they lose excess energie; that energie that is not necessary to make up the new shape. The form of each shape only contains the exact amont of energie required to fashion this shape.

This energie can superimposed onto the concept of human emotions, which also travel and combine to form new emotions or shapes (experienced in a new time space location).

Emotions, like action and movement (or human behavior), are a product of the excess energy that arises when mass reluctantly moves from one space to another, which by nature in a closed system must happen in order to have all sum parts equal the nature of existence.

The thing is we can choose which emotion we wish to experience. That emotion will be directly related to similar emotions. The further you get (or more complex you get) away from that emotion will eventually lead you to a new time space location (or emotion).

Whatever emotions surround us (including the ones we feel and express) make up the nature (shape) of the emotions in our time space location within this closed, self-replicating system.

If you do not enjoy the emotions within your time space location and wish to experience other emotions, simply:

1. Focus on the emotions you wish to experience within yourself and project those outward. 

Those energetic projections will attract similar emotions which strengthen the bonds between like emotions (or similar time space locations) until either a new time space location is created or an existing time space location is strengthened. Excess energie travel on into new directions and can either create new time space locations (where only weak ones existed, therefore attracting new energie to grow) or become assimilated into a larger existing time space location (where a corresponding energie expression or emotion already existed).

Just like when one person feels happy inside, this can travel on to enhance someone else's happiness (it already existed inside and was easily brought to the surface) or create an entirely new space that attracts other energie particles in search of the same energetic experience (emotion).

This is the nature of movement from one time space location to another time space location within a closed system. Therefore, all emotions and all possible truths can be explored simply by considering their movement within existence.

If all possible truths exist within this system, then all possible truths exist within this system.

The fact that we have the capacity to move from one time space location to another indicates that our inherent nature explores one time space location after another simply by imagining its existence.

The positive effects of experience or emotions result in one time space location whereas the negative ones exist elsewhere.

This leads me to consider the following: What if this describes the concept of Heaven? What if Heaven is a place where whatever we do or think we remain in tact. We never not exist even in our many forms.

If we never not exist, we are an eternal principle.

That concept sounds a little like the concept of Heaven to me.

What if... "Vous êtes ici" (You are here) means... 

"We are here." 

Historically, we have sought to define our location in the universe without considering that it is us who collectively make up and ultimately define the nature of the universe.

Therefore, we deduce the following unifying theory:

(Math is a system by which we deduce all possible combinations of how 100% = 100%.)

To suggest that Heaven is outside this 100% is illogical. Heaven was conceived of inside the system. Nothing escapes or enters the system. Nothing in the system is ever lost; it simply moves time space locations causing ripples across the surface of the time space locations it crosses in energie that look like footprints in the sand.

What makes up a footprint is everything surrounding the footprint. 

Just because the size of footprints differ doesn't mean that the nature of what gave rise to the footprints is different. Differences simply describe the observations we have from one time space location applied to our perspective of what life would be like in another time space location.

When we move to that new location, certain emotions (or shapes) must take place internally to mold our present energie configuration into a transmutable pattern that can harmoniously travel into a new time space location.

Therefore, we have to adjust the emotions we allow ourselves to feel in order to experience positivity or negativity, Heaven or Hell.

If you want to experience humility, all corresponding experiences must arise within in order to harmoniously exist as humility within the time space location of humility. If you wish to experience happiness, all corresponding experiences must arise within in order to harmoniously exist within the time space location of happiness. In other words, we shape our emotions and our perspectives by what we choose to experience.

Whether you accept or reject this notion should depend first on your exploring its possibility. If in that exploration you derive a different perspective, this theory remains in tact as it supports the existence of all theories and all possible truths. This theory, from my perspective, mirrors the nature of reality within a closed system.

Of course, this leads me to wonder what would happen if this system sprung a leak?