Sbilko

@Nahm Yes, a priori is a knowledge which you know without requiring any previous experience, like 3*4=12, you don't need to actually go test if it's true. Yes, I do believe that when I die my elements will change shape. And also that this universe will continue to exist until its end; how can this one be a false assumption? Yes, it is the source of what I find depressing; however, I know no better either ;p Well, let me explain my viewpoint: The world is matter to me. Everything is matter, even I and every human on Earth are entirely and completely made of matter. Since we are all made up of matter and nothing else, there is no "I". Since there is no "I", there is no death in my opinion, but just a recombination of the matter of which we are made from. Therefore, to answer your question in the quote above: There is no difference between the beginning of the universe and my beginning, because I am made from the same matter which was created at the beginning of the universe; the only thing that happened is that this matter of which I am made of today, had changed shape over and over in the past dozen billion years. Your 2nd paragraph is a joke ? How can there be no beginning or ending, and no time? I don't understand where your logic comes from. Like, yes, it comes together with the Enlightenment knowledge pack, but I have no idea from where that logic comes from. I would like to understand it, thought. However, I also think that our 5 senses don't lie to us (most of the time), so there must be truth in your words, even if I don't see it. It's just like this meme: Well, in my opinion an apple is a bunch of elements gathered together, just like a rock, the Sun or any human being. The only difference between an apple and a human being is that the former has a different shape than the latter. If you look at it at a molecular level, their little molecules have a different shape too, and do different functions too. And well, I must have been "conceived" 9 months before I was born. Only a liar would remember. Though I see your point: I don't really know when I was conceived, the only thing I can do is believe what I was told. I have no idea if the world and everything is a lie. I have no way to know if everything before me didn't exist, and was created specifically to fool me to believe it. How can I stop being uncertain about the fact if it's all a lie? Simple: there must be a way to see for oneself; the same path through which you passed in order to see that "There’s no beginning or ending, there’s no time. It’s an illusion."

@MarkusSweden I think that whether people even know about the existence of Enlightenment has to do with the fact that even to know about it is a long path; not to mention that for Enlightenment to happen it takes even longer, maybe years or decades. Maybe it will be more clear if I explain what makes me think that, which is my personal experience: I was in High School and I needed to decide what to study. I was like: "okay, so I have a great life and all, but now I have to decide what to do with it. What do I do with my life? What is the meaning of life?" The search for the meaning of life was long and not clear (there were several answers, all of which made sense when seen from a specific perspective), and the answer that satisfied me best was that the meaning of life was to just follow happiness, enjoy every little moment and detail of life. This led me to this philosophy called Epicureanism, which is about looking to attain the greatest happiness in the long run. This in turn led me to Buddhist philosophy, because what it said made me think that pleasure leads to pain (because we will always want more of it), and also because it finally answered my question about the meaning of life with a very simple answer. It explained with the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow that the answer to such a question is irrelevant to the living of our life. Only Buddhist philosophy led me to even know about the existence of Enlightenment, the path was long. And for Enlightenment to happen (to "me") it will probably take much longer. I think that most people (if not all?) here have got through a long path in order to even know about the existence of Enlightenment, and those who have attained it have went through an even longer path in order to attain it. Couple this fact with the fact that we live in a fast-paced world, where only profit matters (Enlightened people have no reason to search for profit, so they don't matter, right?), where everyone talks but only a few listen (Enlightened people have no reason to show off what they have achieved, so they don't matter, right?), and where advertisements make a good use of people's desire to want more and better things (and thus would not profit if the majority if people was Enlightened). However, I AM optimistic about the fact that it is very probable that humanity will become way more aware about Enlightenment one day, considering the fact that we humans always go forward and use technology as a tool in order to progress forward, and history as building blocks on which each new progress rises, in order not to repeat the same mistakes again (something which is not always achieved). Today, people are guided by greed (wanting more money, better friends, a dream job, etc.), which is only a reflection of our inner instinct of improving our odds to survive. However, when people realize that we are just a bunch of elements gathered together, that there is no "I", that we never die and never are truly born, but that instead the only thing that happens is that the elements recombine, then we will see the senseless truth of all of it. By the way, how do you imagine a world where everyone was Enlightened? It confuses me that you say that there will be no wars and conflicts but only peace, because other people say that you still get angry and such when Enlightened.