How dare I stare into the eyes of the universe when the infinite darkness between the stars can swallow me whole in just one glance and when reflecting on time my consciousness is raised yet suffocated at the thought that I exist in just a fraction of a speck of time’s infiniteness? As insignificant as I may feel, I am the universe, at least a scrap of it, and if I thought the universe were conscious, I would criticize it for being cruel to allow me to live, love, be aware, and become attached to this temporary life, just to later take it away. But really, such criticism would be unwarranted, for I do love life, and love having been given the chance to experience life. Any attachment to it is my own mistake. Nothing about it can be done for now. I shall love life as I do, and I have no choice but to die accepting it when the time comes. I am at the mercy of the universe.

I understand the term “evil” as being analogous to “bad” in that it is a human construct or concept that is relative to and dependant on that in which a human perceives as “good.” Good and evil are simply the results of one’s discrimination between this and that and are in relation to how one thinks things “ought” to be. So it is my observation that evil does not exist in form, only in concept.

I have been hearing a lot of what seems like backwards mentality to me lately, like, “I am a Christian therefore I believe in…” instead of “I believe in…therefore I am a Christian.” or, “I am an atheist; therefore I do not believe that a god exists.” Instead of, “I don’t believe that god exists, therefore I am an atheist.”

As soon as you slap a title down before your belief or non-belief, you are putting yourself in a uncompromising restrictive position where you look for things to believe in or not to believe in to support the title. This mentality more often then not misdirects one away from the very truth that one is seeking. This backwards mentality often creates confirmation bias, ignores convincing opposing evidence, and simply makes one less reasonable. Have you every tried conversing with someone of this type of mindset? They are often narrow, unmoving, and restrict themselves to the boundaries of a title rather then evidence.
Want a fresh start? Here are five tips to avoid this mentality:

• Do not let titles dictate your beliefs. Optimally, remove all labels and titles from yourself.
• Reexamine your beliefs and discard those beliefs you’ve acquired because of a title placement.
• Do not let your personal preferences, desires, craving for control, and hopes interfere with where the evidence takes you.
• Follow the evidence where ever it may lead you, without expectations.
• Accept that new evidences could and might present themselves again that will lead you elsewhere from where you are now.

“Pick a card any card…” Well, that’s what you think! Many of the most impressive and convincing card tricks in magic involve a “forced card.” A forced card is card that the magician has already determined you to choose. You think you are choosing a card, any card, freely and randomly out of the deck, and sometimes you may even be asked if you want to change your mind, but through an arsenal of covert sleight of hand techniques, the performer has already bound you to a particular card. The card you think you have freely chosen has actually been forced upon you and is already known by the magician before you even choose it.

It is similar to what appears as our seemingly daily choices. It seems to us like we are choosing, but in actuality, we are getting a forced card. Nature is the performer, and while it deals a determined deck of cards, it easily misdirects us with just a sleight of hand convincing us to believe in a sense of self, a sense of “I” in which yet gives rise to another illusion, the illusion of independence, which in turn then compels us to believe we are free to choose and are independent of the performer.

We take so much delight in believing in the illusion of having control, being able to choose, having free-will, that we fail to realize, that the magician, nature, is an expert, and has controlled the whole performance and determined our every choice in it. But we enjoy the entertainment, it comforts us, makes us happy, so we just go along with it, knowing in the back of our minds, that it is just a trick, and not magic. It’s a forced card.

Why do you speak of “true love” when you can just speak of “love?”

When speaking of “love,” It is understood that love is true, for if it is not true, then it is not really “love.”

And if you must insist on speaking of “true love,” and at other times just “love,” then I shall have no other choice but to reason that when you speak of just “love,” it must be something other than love.

Love is such an easy subject to be difficult. I often feel like I love everything equally. But then is it really love? For there is no contrast to distinguish it. To know love, mustn’t you know it’s contrast, it’s opposite? Perhaps just knowing the opposite is enough to define love without having to hold it’s opposite. Some say there are shades of love like there are shades of gray, but I try not to discriminate between the shades, or the subjects of my love.

Don’t let anyone tell you it’s not your turn. Because when it’s not your turn, it’s obviously your turn for it to not be your turn. It’s always your turn for something. So when it is your turn which it always is, play well.

Some people say they write for themselves, and some say they write for their readers, and others say they write for both.

However, I am convinced that everyone writes for themselves. Even if they write for others, they are writing for others for themselves. That’s right, our motives are intrinsically selfish. If you are one who says that you write for others, you do so to please your readers, but pleasing your readers pleases you. The root motivation is selfish. Selfish is not a bad thing, it’s a natural thing. Our root instinct is to survive, to preserve ourselves. Everything else we do branches off of this basic instinct. So yes, everyone writes for themselves.

“Time,” has been of interest to philosophers for ages. Everyone eventually ponders it. Some say that time does not exist, and others say that time is a measurement of change. And myself? You could say that I believe in Presentism. I do not think that there is a timeline that is laid out that we can travel upon to and forth. There is no evidence that the present continues to exist after it has passed (would then be labeled as the past). And there is no evidence that the future exist before it comes into present. Therefore, I think that there is a greater possibility that there is only this moment, and the contents of this moment simply keep changing. In relation to what you are saying, I would agree that it is in your best interest to be “aware” of the moment.

On thing to help realize our now-ness is to acknowledge our inhales and exhales. We are breathing all the time, so much that it is instinctive. We don’t have to think about it. But if you stop, and realize that you are breathing, become aware of your inhales and exhales, it helps to make you aware of the moment. You are here, now, alive, and aware.

Check out my new Zune! The back is designed by Nobumasa Takahashi.

The podcast you see here is from Point of Inquiry.