TrueLife - Awakening to an absence of meaning

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

Without shared goals, without shared sacrifice, there is an absence of meaning. Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=JzKTESK4auo&feature=share

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Heirous through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast. I hope everyone is having a beautiful day. I hope the sun is shining. Hope the birds are singing. I hope the wind is at your back.

I just wanted to talk for a few. moments about some ideas that I've been talking about. Some ideas that I've been thinking about. If anyone gets a chance to pick up this book right here, I don't know if you guys can see this. This is a Mersay-Iliad ordeal by Labyrinth. And as I was reading through some of this book, it was making me come to some new ideas about the world in which we live.

It seems to me that it's easy to find yourself in a labyrinth. It's easy to find yourself in a position where you may not understand the meaning of what's happening. At least I find myself in that position sometimes. And I wanted to present you with some ideas that may help you find your way out of the labyrinth. Some ways you can do that is by reading some Iliad or maybe some Joseph Campbell

or understanding the hero's journey. Maybe the way to find yourself out of the labyrinth is through finding yourself on a diet of psychedelics. I think that they're all kind of, you know, they all kind of fit together like a puzzle. And if you have the right pieces to the puzzle, you can begin to see the bigger picture. And so when I was reading a little bit of Iliad right here, this point really grabbed me. And I want to read it to you guys and see if it finds, if it can grab you the same way that it grabbed me. The crisis of modern man are to a large extent insofar as they are awakening to the awareness,

of an absence of meaning. I want you to think about that for a minute. What do you think of when I say to you, the crisis in which we find ourselves today is the awakening to an absence of meaning. When I say that to you, an absence of meaning, what do you find meaningful in your life? What do you find meaningful about what you do?

What do you find meaningful about the relationships that you have in your life? You see, these are ideas that I think about sometimes, and I got to be honest with you, sometimes it makes me pretty sad. When I look at my brothers and my sisters and my family and my friends, when I get up and I go to work every day, I see a lot of people that don't have the light in their life, the meaning in their life. And let me give you an example.

I live in the United States. What is the goal of the United States? Can anybody tell me what that is? go ahead and put something in the comments. What is the goal of our country to spread democracy? Like, what is the goal of it? You see, what's the goal of our politicians? What is the goal of our schools?

What is the goal of our community? See, this is an example, at least to me, of the awareness of the absence of meaning. I bet if you got 15 people in a room and you ask them, what is the goal? of our legislative process. What is the goal of our country? What is the goal of our community? I bet you a lot of people would have a lot of different answers.

You know, if you turn on the news, this channel has a goal and this channel has the goal, but there's no desired, there's no shared sacrifice. There's no shared goal. And I think it extends not only to our country, not only to our community, but to our lives. And it's this lack of, of goal orientation.

It's this lack of meaning that is making our lives empty. You know, we send our, look at the family uniform in it. Like, it just seems like what is the, I hope you as a family have family goals. I hope you have individual goals. But, you know, is it possible that the crisis we're living through is an awakening to the awareness of the absence of meaning in our lives? I think it might be. and I just wanted to kind of share that with you guys.

I know it's kind of a big topic to think about, think about the world of artwork. There's proper, I want to read this passage to you guys too and get what you to think about this, because I think that this all melds in nicely. When we talk about artwork, we talk about the way of art. The proper, this is from James Joyce's point of view.

Proper art in Joyce's view, whether of sensible or of intelligible, matter rests in aesthetics, disinterested perception, apprehension, and feeling, whereas improper art is in the service of interests other than the aesthetic. For example, ethics, economics, sociology, and politics. Okay, think about all the artwork you've seen lately. Like, if you want to enjoy something beautiful, if you want your life to be a form of artwork, then the actions you do, the life you live should be in accordance with what artwork should be. It should be, it should rest in the disinterested perception, the apprehension, the feeling

instead of, like if your life is a work of art, it should not be based in the ideas of economics. It should not be based in the ideas of sociology. It should not be based in politics. And so much of what we do right now, so much of our lives. So much of our artwork, so much of our education is based on these modes of economics, these modes of politics. Like no wonder our life is so empty.

No wonder that there's no more meaning in life. We have found a way to mine data. We have found a way to mine every bit of our lives in the name of economics, in the name of politics, in the name of just these empty ideas. And so I am going to try this new way of creating. my work, my podcast, the way I live my life, the way I have my relationships. I'm going to try to live them from a more proper way. Try to live every day in accordance with the beauty of life.

Try to live every day as if you live in a magnificent book. Try to live every single day as if your life is a form of artwork. And you are trying to get the author's attention. Try to live every day as if politics didn't matter. Try to live every day as if economics didn't matter. Try to treat every relationship that you have in accordance with nature. And I think that you'll begin to find a lot more meaning in your life. If every day you can become sort of an inspiration, regardless of economics, regardless of politics,

If you can begin to see your life in that way, I think you'll begin to see your life become better. I think you'll begin to see your relationships become better. I'm thankful for a moment to get this out here, because this is just some of my ideas that I've been toying with. And the more that I read Joseph Campbell, the more that I read Eliot, the more that I do my own work in the world of psychedelics, the more I begin to understand that the meaning of life has nothing to do.

with economics. It has nothing to do with politics. It has nothing to do with these silly ideas of of the world we're living in now. And so I think you can live a better life by beginning to see the world in a way that isn't a little bit more beautiful. Does that kind of make sense? I hope so. Anyways, this is something I wanted to get out. It helps me see the world in a better way. It helps me live a better life. And I'm hopeful that somewhere in this bit of a rant, you can find some beauty in there and you can find a way to live a better life. That's what I got for today. Thanks for let me get that out. I love you guys. I love you guys.