Harbal wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2017 7:48 pm
MozartLink wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2017 7:42 pm
However, if I really am the only one who thinks it is important on this forum, then I guess the type of members we have on this forum are those who really don't care about what others say.
You need to talk to Dontaskme. Your problem seems to be that you are suffering from severe self obsession, Dontaskme will be able to explain that there is no such thing as you and your problem will disappear.
I think that is controversial regarding whether the self really does exist or not. If you are going to have any given experience in your life whether it be freedom, a beautiful experience, etc., then that presupposes the existence of the self because the self is having these experiences. Nonetheless, I will go ahead and present my perfect explanation that conveys my worldview. If you wish to fully read and respond to it, then feel free to do so. But if you have grown tired and have lost complete interest in my topics/posts, then just carry on:
Many people would ask me why my good moods/feelings are the only things that make my life good and worth living to me. It's important that I make it clear to you and others so that others can understand me rather than name call me, judge me, and treat me in a scathing/scorning manner. That's why I give as many possible explanations I can come up with in an attempt to help others finally see why my good moods/feelings truly are the only things that make my life good and worth living. I don't want others to have any misconceptions such as that the reason why they are the only things that make my life worth living is because I am childish, spoiled, need to grow up, etc. I have every reason to think, based upon my own personal experiences and reasoning, that my good moods/feelings are all there can ever be in my life.
To basically sum it up though in one statement, my good moods/feelings are very profound, powerful, and beautiful experiences for me. This is not a matter of value judgment. These good moods/feelings themselves truly have this profound and beautiful quality. I look at the experiences themselves and truly see what they are. I do not project any value judgments upon them. As a matter of fact, according to my view, value judgments do not exist and it is only our moods/feelings that possess value giving qualities. Value judgments would give our lives no real perceptual value while it is only our moods/feelings that do.
Even if other things in my life did hold value in their own merit, then these values must matter (have good value/worth) to me through my good moods/feelings. Otherwise, I would be living a life that has no good value/worth to me. Things in my life might hold value in of themselves, but it would be no different than if a blind person acknowledged the existence of sight. Sure, he/she can acknowledge that it exists. However, he/she would not be able to actually see. In that same sense, I could very well acknowledge the existence of values in my life without my good moods/feelings. But I would not be able to actually see the good value and worth in my life without these good moods/feelings.
But like I was saying, any given experience in the absence of my good moods/feelings truly possesses no good value giving perceptual quality to my life. These are experiences that can give no perceptual joy, beauty, good value, worth, inspiration, or happiness to my life. Again, this is not a matter of value judgment on my part. When the most putrid smell is worse then a less putrid one, that is not a value judgment. The most putrid smell possesses a quality that makes it a worse smell. In that same sense, my good moods/feelings possess a quality to them that make them beautiful experiences, joyful experiences, and experiences that give my life a real perceptual experience of good value/worth towards things, situations, and moments in my life. If none of this is still making any sense to you, then let me give you an analogy. It would actually be a short story I am going to tell you:
There is a mystical being who relies on the sweet divine juice of mystical apples to sustain him/her with divine spiritual/mystical life force. These are the most beautiful and divine apples to this being and they are very special, dear, and profound to him/her. But one day, all these apples get replaced with metal ones. These are mechanistic ones that do not possess the divine mystical juice this being needs. This being becomes very upset, angry, and plummets into despair. A person comes up to this being and says:
"You can still have the divine juice from these new metal apples. It would just be a different form of divine juice. Just think to yourself, have the mindset/attitude, and believe that your life can have this divine juice and you will have it."
The being replies back:
"You are talking complete nonsense! Just because you think and believe something does not make it true. It does not make things magically appear. The fact of the matter is, there is no actual quality of juice whatsoever in those metal apples. They are nothing but cold, hard steel. So, the advice you are offering up to me is nothing more than empty words of divine juice, but there is no actual quality of divine juice."
After which, the being becomes very angry because no one can understand his/her anger, frustration, and despair. Everybody keeps telling this being that the right mindset alone can give him/her this divine juice he/she needs when he/she realizes this is complete nonsense. Therefore, he/she just throws away the metal apples because they are completely worthless to him/her.
Now that I have shared to you this short story, I would be the mystical being in this story who relies upon the perceptual experience of good value, worth, joy, beauty, and happiness in my life (the sweet divine juice). Don't we all? Don't we all wish to perceive our lives as good/worthwhile to us? Who would want to live a life where we see no good value in our lives and our lives not being anything worth living to us? However, it is only the mystical apples that can give us this sweet divine juice. Remember, it has been clearly established in my story that the metal apples cannot give our lives this sweet divine juice.
Our good moods/feelings (which can only be states of well being induced by the various chemicals/neurotransmitters in the brain) would be the mystical apples that give our lives the divine juice. But if we were to completely lose these good moods/feelings such as due to complete anhedonia, depression, or a traumatic life event, then we would all be left with nothing more than metal apples. We can think, believe, make the best of things, and have the mindset/attitude that our lives still possess this divine juice, but there is no actual quality of divine juice there. As you can see here, it is not about our thoughts, attitudes, and mindsets alone since that will not magically give us the quality of divine juice we need in our lives. It is all about the divine juice itself and not about our mindsets/ways of thinking alone without that divine juice.
With all of this being said, I would be the frustrated and angry mystical being because many people would tell me that my life can still have the perceptual quality of good value/worth through my thinking/mindset alone even while in a state of complete anhedonia, misery, and depression which are states where I completely lose all of my good moods/feelings. From there, I would just throw away these metal apples because people clearly do not understand that I need a quality of experience in my life that gives me the actual perceptual experience of good value, worth, joy, and beauty in my life. That quality of experience would obviously be my good moods/feelings. It just makes me very angry when people leave out my personal experience and instead give advice that focuses on value judgments and making the best of things as opposed to my personal experience which is so precious. I don't think you should ever leave out a person's personal experiences. Experience (consciousness) is so precious and is everything to life and being human because, without it, then we would either be dead or unconscious.