In the context of the grand scheme of the Universe..

[NoEgo]

Does anything actually matter?

This is what I think of when I have problems. And all problems are relative of course.

 

[Santino]

They matter to us. Who else were you thinking of?

 

[NoEgo]

Only me. Because I am the centre of the Universe of course.

Who's "us" anyway?

 

[Dillinger4]

Does anything really exist?

 

[metalguru]

Context is everything for deciding if things matter.

If you about to go under the surgeon's knife, or boarding a plane - then you hope that the surgeon or pilot doesn't have a moment of existential angst in thinking that in time the Sun will expand into a red ball and die, overwhelming Earth with the heat; that oceans will boil and evaporate, and other planets near the sun also will burn, leaving nothing but orbiting chunks of barren rock. That the universe may all end in a big crunch or big freeze anyway..

If you're stressing about losing the TV remote, then maybe it's worth reflecting that it's not the most significant event in the 14 billion year history of the universe so far.

 

[Dillinger4]

This thread is so far out. I am going to have to go and have a lie down.

 

[Santino]

Nothing matters if you discount all the beings to whom things matter. There's nothing very interesting about that.

 

[fela fan]

Does anything actually matter?

This is what I think of when I have problems. And all problems are relative of course.

No, nothing matters at all. In fact i once started a thread called that, and tried looking for it the other day, but i could not find it.

Nothing matters is a most useful mantra to go by.

 

[DotCommunist]

Thread smells of Skunk and incense

 

[Hocus Eye.]

If it turns out that there is a 'grand scheme of the universe', then everything matters crucially. You might upset the grand scheme by making the wrong decision at any moment and the backroom boys of the scheme will have to start re-programming everything.

Of course this all leads on to debates about free will and predetermination and stuff like that, but you can 'include me out' of that one.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

 

[weltweit]

Does anything matter, yes, if it matters, it matters!!!

Simples!!

 

[NoEgo]

If it turns out that there is a 'grand scheme of the universe', then everything matters crucially. You might upset the grand scheme by making the wrong decision at any moment and the backroom boys of the scheme will have to start re-programming everything.

Of course this all leads on to debates about free will and predetermination and stuff like that, but you can 'include me out' of that one.

Isn't it a bit beyond the remit of human beings to be able to do anything on that scale? The universe is pretty big.

 

[weltweit]

What is the point of life, except to breed. I have bred, what should I do now?

 

[Dillinger4]

No, nothing matters at all. In fact i once started a thread called that, and tried looking for it the other day, but i could not find it.

Nothing matters is a most useful mantra to go by.

That says more about you than it does about 'the universe'

 

[TrippyLondoner]

Here we go again.

 

[weltweit]

Sometimes it does help to think of the big scheme of things.

When things are getting you down, perhaps in trouble of some kind, you can think, in the big scheme of things, this just does not matter!!!

An optimistic angle.

 

[kyser_soze]

Fail question is fail.

What's the 'grand scheme'? Against the backdrop of cosmological time and development, no, human affairs don't really mean a great deal. To humans they do. Unless you're a sociopath like fela, to whom 'nothing matters'.

You can choose to look at the universe and say 'Because it's so big, ultimately nothing humans do matters' and go on living a life of sixth form nihilism, or you can move beyond that and say 'The things that matter are the things that humans say matter. The things that matter to me matter because they are important to me, in my little teeny weeny slice of existance in this big old, uncaring, mainly empty, universe.'

Of course, something like a locally detonating supernova would be where things that are important in the universe and things that are important to humans would meet head on. Supernovae being important to the universe cos they make metals, heavier elements and are a part of the long cycle of starbirth/death, and important for humans because if it was local enough it'd probably fry us without us noticing.

 

[NoEgo]

Sometimes it does help to think of the big scheme of things.

When things are getting you down, perhaps in trouble of some kind, you can think, in the big scheme of things, this just does not matter!!!

An optimistic angle.

Cheers. The way you view things is all down to perception of course. I had a friend say to me yesterday that this was a very negative statement!

 

[fela fan]

Fail question is fail.

What's the 'grand scheme'? Against the backdrop of cosmological time and development, no, human affairs don't really mean a great deal. To humans they do. Unless you're a sociopath like fela, to whom 'nothing matters'.

You can choose to look at the universe and say 'Because it's so big, ultimately nothing humans do matters' and go on living a life of sixth form nihilism, or you can move beyond that and say 'The things that matter are the things that humans say matter. The things that matter to me matter because they are important to me, in my little teeny weeny slice of existance in this big old, uncaring, mainly empty, universe.'

Of course, something like a locally detonating supernova would be where things that are important in the universe and things that are important to humans would meet head on. Supernovae being important to the universe cos they make metals, heavier elements and are a part of the long cycle of starbirth/death, and important for humans because if it was local enough it'd probably fry us without us noticing.

If you were to remind yourself of the thread title, you'd see it's not about humans mattering to humans, rather in the grand context of the universe. Do we humans matter to the universe? No. Not one iota.

Now, since you've been unable to apprectiate or understand that there is more than one way of looking at something rather than just your own clearly limited narrow view based on your own life rather than trying to interpret others, call it a multi-dimensional approach if you like, 'nothing matters' is a discipline. The mantra 'nothing matters' is a way of getting on with life with the minimum disruption from suffering and negative energy.

To try and explain it to you, even if that is worth spending any time at all knowing your instant dismissal that will be forthcoming no sooner do your brain cells register the latest crap that sociopathical deluded liar fela fan is dribbling on about, if one takes the opposite view, that everything matters, it is easy to see how quickly life will become exhausting, yoyoing between highs and lows emotionally. Indeed, this is how many people experience life. If one wants to get on a more even keel, get down on the buddha's middle path, then mantras like 'nothing matters' become useful antidotes to this human largesse of peaks and troughs of emotional feeling.

To go into the phrase even further, and its usefulness, by letting it guide one in life one becomes immune to whatever judgments are being made about you by others in society. It also reveals that those judgments say comparatively very little about the object of the judgment when contrasted to what they say about the person doing the judging.

That is only two possible benefits to adopting the mantra 'nothing matters', there are myriad other more subtle ones. But i'll leave that for now.

 

[bluestreak]

 

[cesare]

Thread smells of Skunk and incense

Bohemian Rhapsody

 

[kyser_soze]

If you were to remind yourself of the thread title, you'd see it's not about humans mattering to humans, rather in the grand context of the universe. Do we humans matter to the universe? No. Not one iota.

Now, since you've been unable to apprectiate or understand that there is more than one way of looking at something rather than just your own clearly limited narrow view based on your own life rather than trying to interpret others, call it a multi-dimensional approach if you like, 'nothing matters' is a discipline. The mantra 'nothing matters' is a way of getting on with life with the minimum disruption from suffering and negative energy.

To try and explain it to you, even if that is worth spending any time at all knowing your instant dismissal that will be forthcoming no sooner do your brain cells register the latest crap that sociopathical deluded liar fela fan is dribbling on about, if one takes the opposite view, that everything matters, it is easy to see how quickly life will become exhausting, yoyoing between highs and lows emotionally. Indeed, this is how many people experience life. If one wants to get on a more even keel, get down on the buddha's middle path, then mantras like 'nothing matters' become useful antidotes to this human largesse of peaks and troughs of emotional feeling.

To go into the phrase even further, and its usefulness, by letting it guide one in life one becomes immune to whatever judgments are being made about you by others in society. It also reveals that those judgments say comparatively very little about the object of the judgment when contrasted to what they say about the person doing the judging.

That is only two possible benefits to adopting the mantra 'nothing matters', there are myriad other more subtle ones. But i'll leave that for now.

Even your criticisms are riddled with inaccuracy and incomprehension of what's been written, aren't they? All you've done is repeat exactly what I said, that in the 'grand scheme' nothing matters, but it's up to humans to make things matter, to decide for themselves 'what matters' to them. Aside form you, for whom 'nothing matters' - and I'm not the first person to notice your sociopathic tendencies either.

 

[Dillinger4]

Everything matters. Every single thing is important.

I hate all this faux-nihilism.

 

[kyser_soze]

What about real-nihilism?

I choose what matters to me. Which ironically is exactly what fela does, despite his whole 'nothing matters' bsns.

 

[fela fan]

I choose what matters to me. Which ironically is exactly what fela does, despite his whole 'nothing matters' bsns.

the man who knows me better than myself. Unreal.

I knew it was a waste of time trying to explain what i understand by 'nothing matters' and why i use it as a mantra. But i did try. Probably not next time since you consistently fail to interpret what you read, probably because of your certainty of knowledge, and how much you already know in life and that you left sixth form discussions behind a long time ago.

You're a closed book kyser, and if i'm a sociopath, then so be it. I've never been called one of those before, but i'll add it to the collection.

I'm not sure i've ever come across someone who is so judgmental, and negatively so, of other people who they don't even bloody know. Unreal. You most definitely are wasted not being a politician, that job would suit you down to the ground.

Now, will you to back to tending to ignore me nowadays please. It's much more peaceful round these parts.

 

[Dillinger4]

Also, I think the nihilism that Fela suggests is the teaching of Buddha/Buddhists is entirely false. The Buddha would rejected both extremes of 'everything matters' and 'nothing matters:

To develop Right View or Perfect View, we must first be aware of two views which are considered imperfect or wrong.

The first view is eternalism. This doctrine or belief is concerned with eternal life or with eternal things. Before the Buddha's time, it was taught that there is an abiding entity which could exist forever, and that man can live the eternal life by preserving the eternal soul in order to be in union with Supreme Being. In Buddhism, this teaching is called sassata ditthi ----the view of eternalists. Such views still exist even in the modern world owing to man's craving for eternity.

Why did the Buddha deny the teaching of eternalism? Because when we understand the things of this world as they truly are, we cannot find anything which is permanent or which exists forever. Things change and continue to do so according to the changing conditions on which they depend. When we analyse things into their elements or into reality, we cannot find any abiding entity, any everlasting thing. This is why the eternalist view is considered wrong or false.

The second false view is nihilism or the view held by the nihilists who claim that there is no life after death. This view belongs to a materialistic philosophy which refuses to accept knowledge of mental conditionality. To subscribe to a philosophy of materialism is to understand life only partially. Nihilism ignores the side of life which is concerned with mental conditionality. If one claims that after the passing away or ceasing of a life, it does not come to be again, the continuity of mental conditions is denied. To understand life, we must consider all conditions, both mental and material. When we understand mental and material conditions, we cannot say that there is no life after death and that there is no further becoming after passing away. This nihilist view of existence is considered false because it is based on incomplete understanding of reality. That is why nihilism was also rejected by the Buddha. The teaching of kamma is enough to prove that the Buddha did not teach annihilation after death; Buddhism accepts 'survival' not in the sense of an eternal soul, but in the sense of a renewed becoming.

http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/whatbudbeliev/111.htm

 

[Dillinger4]

And another link:

The Buddha advised viewing reality as consisting of dependently originated phenomena; Buddhists view this approach to experience as avoiding the two extremes of reification and nihilism.[4]

...and the Tathagatagarbha genre of sutras can be seen as an attempt to state orthodox Buddhist teachings of dependent origination using positive language instead, to prevent people from being turned away from Buddhism by a false impression of nihilism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_philosophy

 

[kyser_soze]

I've never been called one of those before...

Yeah you have. Knotted called you a sociopath on a thread in TPH a while back.

And again, you're not reading what I've written. I've said exactly the same thing as you - in fact I agree with you that choosing what matters to you is a good way of dealing with the world because it is too emotionally draining to make everything matter to oneself all the time. Or even some of the time.

I did it because I got bored (and tired) of being angry all the time at the world, as a way of safeguarding my sanity. And I didn't have to meditate, or bang on about energy, or go around saying 'nothing matters' to do it.

Altho as a materialist, I utterly reject that Buddhist stuff about nihilism. It's just a stage of thinking one has to move through in order to go on to better things.

 

[Dillinger4]

And another:

Attentiveness is the path to true life;
Indifference is the path to death.
The attentive do not die;
The indifferent are as if they are dead already.

-Dhammapada

http://thebuddhistblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/attentiveness-not-nihilism.html