I know I don't want to live forever because that would be a drag, but I feel instinctively deep down in my unconscious like I want to live forever. It feels that if I don't live forever then everything I do is just a waste of effort. Yet despite this, I know that the appreciation of beauty does not depend on eternal existence. How can such contradictory thoughts/feelings be imputed on to the mind of man? — intrapersona
I see. For me, I love self-cultivation too, but I can't say it I do it as end-in-itself. I do it because I know it will be useful on my path. Otherwise, I wouldn't do it. I wasn't always into self-cultivation, it's only when I realised that it's necessary in order to be of any real help in the world that I got very interested in it.OK, well, I guess we differ here, I love self-cultivation for its own sake: I haven't progressed to the stage of loving God and the world in the kind of sense I think you mean it. — Janus
Have you always been this way, ever since you were young?I pursue music, philosophy, painting, and writing in order to understand myself; nothing else, other than intimate human relationship, and generally trying to do no harm, is of much interest. — Janus
Well yes, I think for the most part I agree.I think that those who are great in any of the above fields (and other fields of course) will probably be of real help in the world, even if that is not their primary directly-felt motivation. — Janus
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