What personal philosophical epiphany has had the greatest impact on your view of reality and truth?

Question

Mine was the realization that all of these magnificant thoughts in my head have exsisted for thousands of years. (Tertium Organum by Ouspensky is an excellent philosophical reading...) Why is it that they still seem so esoteric to the masses? Which made me ask,"Am I just naturally wiser than most people?" And why is it that the grandest of philosophical insights seem worthless in the real world? Ok, its all an illusion, color, sound, space, time, its all a product of my mind, save the illusive noumena that may cause it. I can buy into that, but what can you do with that wisdom here?
Guide me 'ole wisemen.

Answer 1

> What personal philosophical epiphany has had the greatest impact on your view of reality and truth?

The experience of complete Unity, a the tiniest glimmer of what was Behind it all.

After that, all the philosophy and thoughts are extraneous to What is Really There.

> Why is it that they still seem so esoteric to the masses?

Because there is a Force or Intelligence invested in maintaining ignorance.

To truly acknowledge the reality of the sublime connections means a sacrifice of what most people have built their lives upon.

If you knew that you were inextricably a part of, and in your thoughts action and beliefs influenced the greater whole of which we are a part, would you still, in good conscience, be able to participate in systems, ideologies, beliefs and activities which were harmful, or which supported something which caused so much grief, suffering and pain?

And people are prone to chose the easiest road, unless they have a powerful motivation to seek out something greater.

> Am I just naturally wiser than most people?

Perhaps just more mature and sensitive on some level. Inner maturity and sensitivity leads to wisdom.

Becoming calloused and hardened by the world, through difficult experience and limiting conclusions causes one to become insulated from both pain and greater truths.

> And why is it that the grandest of philosophical insights seem worthless in the real world?

Applying higher ideals in a world of free will, where people still chose to apply their free will in selfish and ignorant ways, is bound to cause naught but conflict and difficulty.

Philosophical insights are useful in that they may cause us to change our perspective, and our attitude. From a more expansive, inclusive and insightful attitude, we are able to act more correctly. Though our actions may not differ so much, our motivations change, and this is the important part. Pure motivation based upon illumined insight is more valuable than gold.

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose"

It is only by living according to our principles, those revealed by philosophical insight, that we can come into harmony and accord with our conscience. It is only by coming into harmony and accord with our conscience, and That which brought us forth, that there is any chance at true and lasting happiness, even if in the short term it means suffering the contrast of the world in comparison to these higher principles which we know to be true.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"

> I can buy into that, but what can you do with that wisdom here?

You can CHOOSE rightly.

It is said "we only have something when we are able to give it away".

Admittedly, most people, whom by whatever grace have come to experience something of what is Beyond, suffer greatly in this world. This is because they KNOW the possibilities. They KNOW, that "if only they would see" things would be very much different. And yet, in this knowing they are relegated to a suffering that most do not know. However, they have also a solace which is equally foreign to most, because they have glimpsed what lays Beyond, and they know something, just a little tiny bit, of its glory and wonder.

So, if, through wisdom, we are brought to choose according to it, if we are brought to see and understand, if we are brought to have a compassion for our brothers and sisters, which arises from the depths of Insight, then it is well.

It is in our own person that these principles are brought to the test, it is in our own attitudes and resultant action, if they are embodied therein, that they become more established in the consciousness of humankind as a whole.

So, it is said "healer, heal thy self".

Eventually, wisdom brings us to the boundaries of possibility, to the edges of what is possible, and we see that ultimately we can do so little... and so we give up.

But we do not give up in hopelessness, we do not give up in surrender to the wayward ways of the world, but rather, we give up in thinking and believing that our own understanding can heal the ails of the world, and instead look to the Source of that wisdom for our understanding and guidance, because we know this to be the only source of any lasting solution.

So wisdom brings us to surrender, and from there, our insight, and our capacity to be of real use, only grows.

Best wishes,

Answer 2

i agree with the people that say u just need to get laid! I long ago came to the conclusion that the Oakie with the large member who is laying lots of babes and is uneducated is much more to be admired than the wise philosopher. The Oakie is living his life and having fun and doing what men were meant to do- procreate and not think. Another profound realization was, seriously, about 15 years ago when i took some psilocybin mushrooms and had about 2 hours of lucidity which told me that everything in my life= my problems with my son and those with my wife and all the other "negatives" of life were in reality, just the way things were supposed to be and from then on I accepted reality- the ups and the downs and was just grateful to have had that insight- even if it was drug-induced. It has stayed with me.

Answer 3

" Knowledge is power." and "With power comes great responsibility."- to parapharse a quote from spiderman.
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."
J.F. Kenedy.

I sense that you have given this matter much thought as one can tell from your numerous questions. By asking too many questions and it is hard to know which address. The first, last or those inbetween? Now that you have acquired this great level of wisdom( and I only take your word for it). What are you doing with all your great knowledge and how can you make the World better?

Some people are truly genuises and others just think they are.
If you truly live up to your own hype then put your knowledge towards the betterment of mankind.

Answer 4

I'm going for the bottom line here. My personal epiphany was the understanding of karma, as expressed in these four lines (author unknown):

There is a destiny that makes us brothers;
None goes his way alone.
All that we send into the lives of others
Comes back into our own.

Shallow? Maybe. Simplistic? Sure. But those four lines have redefined and reinforced all my notions of right and wrong, good and evil. I was an educator for most of my adult life but gravitated to social work in recent years in an attempt to return all the good that has rained on me. The payback for me is knowing that in some small way, I have made a difference in the life of a child.

Answer 5

My epiphany came when I drew a mental line through the universe which touched every single object, no matter how far away and no matter how fast it was moving - the line was the universe's "now". That now is in someone's future and someone else's past. The implications of which are obvious.

Secondly: the consciousness that inhabits / is conjured up by / identifies a brain is purely arbitrary. We are interchangeable. We are each other. When you patronise 'the masses' you patronise yourself.

Answer 6

Well, both of our names (since we both have the same name) mean "Little Wise Owl" in Celtic/Gaelic, so maybe you are in fact wiser, but since I don't know you, I can't be sure. I guess my personal philosophical epiphany would have to be that I can't fix everyone. I'm one of the types of people who wants everybody to be happy, the kind of person that people call "dear abby" as a joke because they come to me for advice, but recently after conflicts between my whole group of friends, I realized that they have to do some stuff on their own because I'm only one person. It's hard because I'm 14 and already things are starting to change, to become harder, and while I want to be there for all of them, I realized a few days ago that I just can't. Thank you for your question! =)

Answer 7

when i got through the mindset of the mind to see only forms, and could 'see' the formless - direct personal immediate experience of the formless,

aka tao, neither this nor that, the hidden, the coincidentia oppositorum, energy, existence, god, I AM, reality, life, bliss, nothingness, void, cloud of unknowing, 'like a room neither too hot nor too cold', elan vital, dazzling darkness, the highest pitch of absolutely nothing, consciousness, enlightenment, singularity, the undistinguished, lifeforce, everything, potential, creativity, the infinite, the one, spirit, joy, ecstasy, essence of life, etc - the no-thing of which every thing is a species -

then i knew that there is only one thing in existence, namely, existence [etc] and i am that

and nonexistence is not an option

and everything fell into place

you might like bits in my free book 'again' which is on james joyce's finnegans wake, which is joyce's unified field theory

Answer 8

Smaks of nehilism to me. You can never prove that all is illusion. My personal epiphany is the reality of God, and the fact that what seems fair to us may well have nothing to do with God's plan. Also, I, like yourself, condsider myself to be above average intelligence, and more than that, above average understanding. Howevert, making this idea public probably won't win you the admiration of the unthinking crowds.

Answer 9

the greatest truth revealed to me by the wisest man i have ever met , was this saying, ''you cannot borrow money to get out of debt''
to this end this was an insight that was of this world, it is a real truth of our society , no matter what the advertisements say,it is an irrefutable truth that should be held in high regard as much as e=mc
2 and if it is so held, it would have as much of an effect on our society as socrates ever had.,(as well as dear old albert) regards LF

Answer 10

Reading Berkeley, who demonstrated that since all knowledge comes to our mind through senses, and since senses are arbitrary (what is smooth for me is rough for a housefly, for example) then ALL WE KNOW must be arbitrary. He goes on to forumlate the idea that absolute knowledge arises from individual consciousness rather than sensation, and that the essence of being is that we exist in the mind of God.