A Reason to Be

What's Your Excuse?

Every once in a while I write a post-length YouTube comment. It seems a shame for it to appear only there.

I've been running through my memory, and so far as I know Dr. Kastrup is the only contemporary philosopher who offers a raison d'etre. I admire theology, but I have never personally found it adequate, as it always seems to hinge on "belief" in something to which I can't relate. Dr. Vervaeke offers "Ecologies of Practice" for coping with existence, but I don't believe that he offers a reason for it. I will say that I admire Dr. Vervaeke's acceptance of the utility of poetry (although it does not seem to me that he reads much poetry in the sense of the literary genre -- perhaps "poesis" is a better way to describe his emphasis on "auto-poetics"). But Dr. Kastrup's theory of cosmic mind offers a modern interpretation of the "Sacred," something which should not be fucked with but instead revered. This seems to understand human psychology in an essential way, and describes why we always seem to find "Spirits" and "God(s)” to submit to. Dr. Kastrup seems to be offering us a way in which we can do this that is attractively superstition-free. This gives me a reason to meditate (and, possibly, to pray) other than "to deal with stress and calm the mind." It gives me a reason to want to deal with stress and calm the mind, because from this vantage doing so is appropriate.

I hear about people prescribing alleged antidotes to chaos. Dr. Kastrup is offering an alternative to nihilism. Today, on my morning walk, I observed flocks of chickadees assembling, gathering, grazing, and fleeing en masse into bushes and trees. It reminded me of Dr. Kastrup's description of the mysterious beauty of a raincloud. Additionally, I observed sidewalk reparations on my street, where two men had jack-hammered and dug up old concrete to replace it with new. I saw how the moisture and stone dust worked together to solidify into an edifice. Then I thought about what it means to write a song or a poem.

These things are not worthless. Melody, harmony, language, symbolism, and the abstract ideals of spirit and grace are emblems which we can use to make life not only more livable, but also meaningful. I agree with Dr. Vervaeke that meaning is essential to survival. The quickest hit of it I can get is a phone call to a friend, sibling, parent, or other family member. The moment that "Aaron McNally" interacts with another named character, Meaning drips out of the trunk of the tree. It is a magical potion. I know of nothing stronger. You can even put it on pancakes. It will cure what ails you.