The Realm of The Real Spirit

[Brazilian_Blues_Boy]

(excerpt from the movie Waking Life)

There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life, and those who suffer from an over-abundance of life. I have always found myself in the second category. When you come to think of it, almost all human behavior and activity is not, essentially, any different from animal behavior. The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship bring us, at best, up to the super-chimpanzee level. Actually, the gap between, say, Plato or Nietzsche, and the average human is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher, is rarely achieved. Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress, rather this endless and futile addition of zeros? No greater values have developed. Hell, the Greeks 3,000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential. The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this: which is the most universal human characteristic: fear or laziness?

The first time I heard this philosophy teacher speaking, I felt like getting punched in my stomach.
He's right. So very right.

I was reading the latest post from Matrix, and I think it's time for me to speak up now.

I believe that everyone, when came to this site first, could only think of girls girls girls. At least, I did so.
I had no idea of the revolution in my life and in my beliefs that I would have to go through.

Then, a few weeks ago, I questioned everyone about their "self-improvement" yet no one got to the point where I wanted...

That being, no one aspires the realm of the real spirit anymore...
How many Michelangelos, Leonardos and other TMNT do we have nowadays?? ok j/k, but you get the point...

How many artists? Name a groundbreaking painter, or writer of the last 20 years...
Do you know any philosopher? I mean, in person?

What do you aspire for? Are you studying to find the cure for cancer, AIDS or any disease?
Are you the one who's going to make a revolution in the scientifical world? Save the Rain Forest, save wild animals from extinction ??

Please, don't bullsh!t me... everyone wants to be famous, to become a celebrity, a rock star, or the rich owner of a business...
I've seen it all around here... it's all about the money...

What to do with the money??
Take it and use it to "buy" confidence, satisfy materialstic desires and by doing so, have more confidence to get more women, and by doing so becoming able to gratify their hedonistic, ego-driven desires...

I know everyone will want to throw rocks at me, but unfortunately no one proves me wrong...
In the countless "Self-Improvement" guides that are posted here, you only see motivational posts, ego-feeding books and physical exercises...

I'm yet to see a "Self-Improvement" guide that tells people to plant a tree, give money to poor people, help the starving kids on Africa, save wild animals, or even the poor abandoned animals at the city kennel.

Should be Ego-Improvement, Vanity-Empowerment...

I see so much "Intellectually opinated" people giving their political opinions so eagerly... discussing and fighting with others, thinking that they are "smart, intelligent."

But they're just a bunch of hypocrites. While they sit on their a$ses satisfying their egos defending one politician or another, thousands of children are becoming homeless and parentless, because of them, because they are the ones who voted for Mr. President.

Why aren't there anymore saints?? Why the imaculated men are becoming more and more often child-rapists?

Are we so weak?? Is mankind so enslaved by their pleasure-seeking egos, that there's no turning back?

It's not about women taking power anymore... it's about the devaluement of men... women are just reflexes of our own poverty of spirit?

Men want pure women, but how pure are they?
How can a man call himself a human when his more worried about Britney Spears' breast than about all the poor young women that are castrated in semi-primitive tribes?

Women are taking over, because there's no longer the passionate men. Men who have goals bigger than just chasing skirt.

That's why I say SELF-IMPROVEMENT IS A HALF TRUTH!
Our notions built here are sometimes, or most of the times, pretty frames for the shallowness of our insides... insecurity and hedony, walk together hand in hand in the heart of the young men.

Why have we become so lazy? Or so fearful or change? Or does it even differ the earlier from the latter ?

The rabbit hole is way deeper, as my friend matrix would say...
And no one's daring to go that deep...

So hate me, prove me wrong, but do it concretely.
I'll be very pleased to see that I'm wrong, that this place is filled with altruistic people...

As long as we don't strive for the realm of the real spirit, as long as we don't become the new generations of saints, philosophers, artists, talented sportists and brilliant scientists, will remain living in this ego-driven, downward spiral.

And it will get more and more out of control. Soon the future will become like the future in the Robocop movies (and that is not a joke)

So let us take ahold of our egos, stop them and start to think of tomorrow... let us all throw down the chains of social opression that bind us, and give this world a new hope... begin the setting of a new start...

For we are one, we are the children of the light.
And our future is ours to be written...

BBB

 

[Kanatom]

puta que pariu !!! eh isso ae!!!
(Great one)

 

[The Antichrist_Star]

Damn... (ponders)

 

[AFK Protector]

You just KO'd this AFK Protector.

"AND HE'S DOWN FOR THE COUNT!!! DING DING DING!!!"

 

[Jester]

good stuff BBB.

yeah dude its all about the money man.

money=the ability to maximize happiness.

money also equals the ability to change the world if you so desire

bill gates could do a lot of good in this world, and im sure he does some good, but if he sold his stock and put it all into fighting disease they could definitely expand the human life span another 20 years.

but then what problems would that cause? if everyone in the world lived to 100 and few died. there wouldnt be enough food to feed everyone. if everyone was rich and educated, who would be the janitors? Who would be the factory workers?

if everyone was a painter, poet, artist or philosopher, what value would then there be in them? And furthermore how would society function if everyone knew and realised the world was going to end and everything we do will eventually mean nothing?



If everyone saw the world for what it was, there wouldnt be much of a world at all.

 

[Symmetrical Perfection]

Very well said and your points are indeed extremly valid. But I do feel your only speaking to the majority and because of the overwhelming amount of people your post does apply to there are a rare few being overlooked.

BBB you for instance could be said to be one of those being overlooked. Your post shows your striving for something "deeper".

As you were saying when I first came to sosuave.com it was all about girls, sex, and popularity. During my time here though and believe it or not I am one of the few that has read the entire bible I had a realization. This realization was being a Don Juan is all about self realization.

Its not so much about having the motivation to do something but actually doing it. Realizing what you want out of life. Again when I first came here I "realized" I wanted girls, etc, etc... but the longer I have stayed it has brought me to a self realization of what I want out of life. And your post is just another contributing factor in this long self journey of coming to self realization.

We don't have the philosphers, painters, and those that mold our culture anymore because our culture is what has made that seem like a trivial persuit. The whole worlds mentality anymore is driven by money, and from this our morals have been corrupted and we are now filled with selfishness and greed. We only do what we have to so we can prosper. The people you spoke of in your post did what they did so OTHERS would prosper and through this course that they followed they inevitably prospered as well.

I don't know I am not really searching to bring this post to a climatic point I am just kind of letting the questions and answers your post raised in my mind flow out. I'd like to see this post keep going because I do believe its the starting point of some very great and profound thoughts.

 

[Julian]

Interesting.

Cash rules everything around me, cream get the money, dolla dolla bill yalll...

 

[Brazilian_Blues_Boy]

Originally posted by Jester

but then what problems would that cause? if everyone in the world lived to 100 and few died. there wouldnt be enough food to feed everyone. if everyone was rich and educated, who would be the janitors? Who would be the factory workers?

if everyone was a painter, poet, artist or philosopher, what value would then there be in them? And furthermore how would society function if everyone knew and realised the world was going to end and everything we do will eventually mean nothing?

If everyone saw the world for what it was, there wouldnt be much of a world at all.

That's why I said about setting the foundation... the beginning of a new generation of concerned people... so that the forthcoming generations would be born concerned about nature, economy and mankind. An "education" of the human mind.

The educated people would preserve the enviroment, pollute less, therefore producing more food, and the rich would help the poor. (Utopic naivety hahahahahaahaha)

These professions I mentioned were just examples... I want people to follow their gifts, not for money but for talent... for aspiring greater things... how many geniuses we may have lost to the daily routine of working @ a mediocre job with a medium salary, and being stuck to it because of family... how many??

And even at the most brilliant times, the owners of the real spirit were few to none... you can see it in the history books, that's why they were so praised.... I believe that mankind never lived, not even in ancient Athens, a period of complete intellectual, artistical and spiritual blossom...

BBB

 

[TheMinistered]

Your speach is from the stand-point of an Idealist, which is all right by my book. I think we should all strive to be the best we can be, but sadly this is a real world and Idealistic thoughts are nothing but pure bliss and paradise floating around on a cloud of thoughts.

 

[Need-2-B-Pimpin]

I really like what you're saying. I personally have been in an intense math/science magnet (as well as IB) for three and a half years and plan to eventually go into that field. It led me to be quite a antisocial nerd, so to combat that I joined my school's Key club (volunteer organization)

For the past year I've gotten a lot into volunteering, tutoring little kids, etc. Every wednesday after school I lead some students to go and tutor and read with kids at a nearby church after-school program. I've also found over the past few weeks I've discovered that I love working outdoors. Just last weekend I was helping build a house (Habitat for Humanity), the week before I was making a path at the church I mentioned earlier (It was my Eagle scout project but I still enjoyed it).

Volunteering isn't just a great way to meet chicks, guys. It's something that we can give back to the community that we are so dependent on. Look past the dammed women and into the massive, beautiful world around us. I know I'm justifying volunteering as a self-helping event, but I think that's the only way I can get anyone to try, since if you try to tell a modern person "Work out and get big so a child you've never met in Venezuela can eat. You get nothing but a smile, a pat on the back, and a few community service hours.", chances are they'll start so they look altruistic and then just quit once you stop looking.

Awesome post, BBB.

 

[Abnigh9]

BBB, I have to say money, without it, causes evil. I'm sure you hear "money is the root of all evil". No, wrong. "The lack of money is the root of all evil."

Witty as it is, I also believe in order to get money we have to find a way (and in America, there are so many ways, more than my brain cell can ever accumulate up to) and with money, I can help.

You can tell whose a hypocrite and whose not. I know I'm not. Why?

Easy.

1- I have earned way more than most people here can in their entire life.
2- With those money I've built several churches and homeless shelter.
3- Yesterday I flipped and gave away the foreclosed home to a real homeless. He was so grateful he literally cried and promised me his loyalty which I felt made me cry too.
4- My kids, I'm glad they're not losing anybody that I once loved and lost.
5- Whenever I see a need, I give do a deed. I feel good. I give back to the community for allowing me to survive.

So in other words, we need more people like you BBB. We need good hearted people and those who will care, not the ones with cash and not help or give back.

I plan on building a real big building which is solely dedicated to homeless and poor in Atlanta Georgia. If you see that building, go in there and ask for me. That's me. Mwahaha... ahem.

 

[Alexis Zorba]

Just my opinion

Hey Blues Boy here’s what I think:

You are right in some aspects. Human are lazy, egotistical and materialistic beings. I agree with you.

We are indeed lazy. Being lazy takes us nowhere. However being lazy is within ourselves. I mean can you truly tell me that you give a 100% effort in EVERYTHING you do? What we need to do is minimize our lazyness. Lazyness is unavoidable however we can stop being lazy for the majority of the day. I believe we need to be lazy at least a bit or we will collapse. If we worked all day after some time we wouldn’t be able to function as efficiently. Just like overtraining in bodybuilding.

I also agree that we have become (maybe we always have been) an extremely materialistic society. Everything revolves around money, image, and power. People want to be the best looking, the richest, and more powerful guy/girl. Few people focus on improving their mind and their souls (I hope you do not jump on my case for using the word soul). Why do people focus on such materialistic things and do not focus on things like philosophy, literature, science, etc.? This is beyond my comprehension. However I believe that it is also important to be materialistic to a certain extent. Allow me to explain this with an Historical example. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quijote de la Mancha (arguably the best Spanish novel of all times), died miserable and poor. This was due to the fact that he never practiced the art of achieving power, the art of being materialistic. Cervantes was a man of values but he never achieved happiness due to the fact that he was never able to make money as a result of his disregard to material things.Francisco de Quevedo, a Spanish poet, even though he constantly cultivated his intellect was a master when it came to being a courtier. Eventhough he cultivated his intellect he never disregarded his “materialistic” side. My point is that we should try to find a balance between intellect and things that are considered “materialistic”.

The thing in which I strongly disagree though is in your praising of altruism. I do not believe being selfish is a bad thing. I mean do you really believe that by giving things free you are going to solve the problems of the world? I believe that if people deserve something they will have it. Or if they have tried hard enough and they don’t get what they wanted, at least they will be in a better situation than the situation they were in before.

Anyways sorry for the long reply

Alexis Zorba

 

[Ares]

this is getting better and better....

"I think I just had a tiny orgasm" - he he, no seriously this sh#t is great, I get really happy every time I stumble upon another soceity related thread.....But to answer one of your questions, offcourse there are still great people around, fanatical poets, writes, painters and so on...You need to remember that we live in a intergrated world, we are more people living closer together.

To give you guys a mental picture.

Past: Humans settlement where most like little ponds with some bigger ponds, where educated people(stones) were a comodity, and if you dropped a stone(artist,researcher and so on) into those small and medium sized ponds they would naturaly cause ripples to form.

Present: We have become more like a mighty river, a constant stream of change and stagnation(yes, its possible for them to walk hand in hand) and what used to be stones have now become pebbles, and you are gonna need a whole lot a pebbles to make the river notice....

But continue the good fight, my brothers in arms never let soceity rest, keep asking questions, keep analyzing, and keep improving....

"One pebble cant do much, but enough pebbles can damm a river"
Plus, a dj is more like a boulder than a pebble

 

[Smoothflow]

What I have relised is that since the invention of the television the omnipresent thoughts of all human beings have become stagnant. As they say even sleeping is even more active then watching TV. This media that I talk about turns human beings as a whole more lazy and stagnant which thinks like a vegetable. The only great mind that has come to past has occured in the last century which was the great Albert Einstein, this man I believe is the pinnacle of human brain development, he sees life in such out of square way that he understands certain things that we intellectually handicapped generation can only feel fascinated and fail to comprehend. In the past 5000bc-1900ad, humans only had their mind stimulated by normal growth of survival, they entertained themselves from pure creativity and conjoured up assumptions about the physical world which later turned out to be correct.
These humans saw life in a different light, not from the radiation induced boob tubes that we see everyday of our meaningless life.

 

[Pex]

ALL HAIL THE KING OF BS BBB! HUMANKIND IS SAVED!

</sarcasm>

 

[Triangle Choke]

Poço feito, BBB.

I agree with you for the most part. I give when I can, but for the most part I seek to improve myself through jiu-jitsu and thaiboxing (and of course wrestling and boxing), not just for myself, but for my parents as well. I can make a living with my fists, and at some point it will be a good living, and I want to give my parents the life they tried to give me as I was growing up.


que você diz?

 

[Snapple]

don't understand...

Its always seemed apparent that people give away money to the poor or in order to feel good and wanted. In turn they would also not be the target of yet another social sniper. For example, I go to a boarding school where we go to chapel, in which plates are passed around for us to deposit money into them. People think lowly of those who don't show up with any money, but any kid could easily take $100 out of his school account and give it to the chapel. If I did this, I would be praised by people but, in reality, i haven't done sh*t besides give my parent's hard-earned money away. Is this not just another ploy to give to yourself a pat on the back and to be accepted by others?

 

[Brazilian_Blues_Boy]

Triangle, no problem bud. I'm not the owner of the truth.
Helping our families is very noble. I'm not anyone to tell you not to do it... it's your hobby, it's your passion, do it for yourself, for your family, and in the future help others as much as you can.

And by the way, Poço feito sounds a little weird in portuguese
We'd say Bom Trabalho (good job) or Bem feito. Poço is the well from which you get water

Snapple, it doesn't necessarily envolve money. Attention is more needed than money in today's decaying world. Quality attention, and care, is the future currency of a healthy, united world.

Giving hope back to a sad person is worth more than a million dollars. And sometimes it takes only a smile, 5 minutes of talk, a pat on the shoulders. Encouraging and helping a kid from your neighborhood, whose father is only worried about working, bills and all that sh!t, and does not giving him attention... does not teach him how to throw a basketball, or ride a bike.

Ever thought about that?

And to Pex,
I honestly wish a lot of pu$$y, money and health for you

BBB

 

[Triangle Choke]

Damn.. my Portuguese sucks. Thanks for the lesson, BBB.

 

[Best friends? NAY]

John Dewey
Ghandi
Martin Luther King
Stehpen Hawking
Linus Pauling


The world is going to hell in a hand basket every generation. I'm not saying we should be better, we should be. I know teachers who teach beacuse it gives them hope of the future. The world has always had problems, including mainly durring the middle ages and a little later, the witch hunts, the mass torcher by the Catholic church, and what would you know the world kept going, it sucked but it kept going and it will keep going.