Posts made by THE SEA

@The:

No. You won't.

Interesting .

@The:

If by entertainment you mean this is inconsequentially boring, whether it is dryly aired vapid humor, or just a diatribe lacking in pathos (The Sea is an unfortunate existence in this series) then yes

This is boring

Or perhaps a mixture of both? Thank you for your helpful criticism, miss Beast. I will take note of it.

It is my honor to be able to offer a gentleman like you some entertainment, eerie. I mean it.

@The:

Only two minutes old but still a relevant post.

I am reminded of a certain Kubo's line.

@Kitsune:

You know, I really feel like you deconstructed me last time you posted. You cut pretty deep and burned the crap out of me. I took it because I think on some level, you're right.

If so, why not talk seriously or send me a pm clearing it up and talk fairly like man and man, instead of making an ambiguous joke that can be interpreted in various ways? How was I supposed to know it was your approving and not sarcasm after your series of posts attacking me?
If I have done you injustice, then I apologize for it without hesitation.

Reading this thread kind of depresses me about the future of the human race, but I suppose that is nothing to be surprised about. To be forced into discussing senior membership on AP is like being forced into discussing Naruto or Twilight. The stars are like Sakura's big forehead, which is really as terrible a topic as can be, whether you compliment, ridicule or complain about it.
This thread stinks. But when there is a corpse, the vultures gather. Here come herd instinct of people who have nothing better to practice than the hedonism of the dried up Entertainment Industry.

Away from the herd, this is my greeting from the mountain.

@Kitsune:

I defamate you out of absent love, Sea. You may be the resident lunatic philosopher, but you're our resident lunatic philosopher.

[hide]
Another bad post by Kitsune. Aren't you supposed to prepare for your hara-kiri ceremony? Remember that over-enthusiastic kid who is trying to fit in but says something awkward and then has to make some bad joke to cover his awkwardness? Yes, that is you. Remember that kid who bites against everyone just because he was unpopular and jealous of people's warm gathering, or that kid who wields his finger to show he is tough? Yes, that is NOT me.

You are my fiercest and bitterest anti-fan now, huh, dear Kitty? What is it that motivated your constant mentioning me in your posts, I wonder? Like that kid who constantly talk bad of his father in front of his friends because his father was unpopular in town? Are you ashamed of your past being my admirer and now the man who you used to look up to turned into a nonsensical babbler if not pretentious, and all his charisma, intelligence and quality mysteriously and magically vapor into thin air, and your sub-conscious reaction is kind of like "No no no, I am not with him, I am with you guys, believe me I am a good poster!", eager to prove yourself a true poster of good taste to the loving community?

It's funny that you call me 'lunatic', whether jokingly or not, Kitty, while you don't even understand what I was talking about. The idea you get out of my philosophy is indeed laughable. Surely it would embarrass you too much in front of your friends to even ask: "Do you mean that…etc ; ... am I not misinterpreting you, Sea?" because nothing logical could possibly come from me, right? No discussion about the non-dualistic of Nature is possible with your attitude.
And it's even funnier when you attack me for quoting others when you don't understand all that and then take quoting as something more than my habit as an essayist citing references in his essays. But why bother, since you are so sure you are not missing anything I could possibly offer? [/hide]
@Monkey:

So hows your self actualization campaign so far. Have you achieved being raped as way to enlightenment and pooping emotions.

[hide]
Since when thou art this unfunny, o Zephos the mighty? Now look at yourself, you are a tiger in the zoo, bearing no real threat, and as harmless as a bunny. "A tiger is surely cooler than a sheep, but we prefer him behind the bar!" - say the mods, and the notorious Zephos now joined Captain Usopp in brown, keeping him in check with a simple star and an expanded inbox.
So what if I say: "Yes, I was abused when I was a child"? Would you say: "Sorry, bro, I didn't mean to…" or "Surely this must be a joke, right?".
This post of yours is even more distasteful than Kitsune's post. Rape jokes are the manifestation of bad taste. Are you referring to that discussion about rape when I suggested that should I fall victim of a sexual attack, I should not allow such event to rob my dignity away? Now are you saying you are in the agreement with the idea that rape victims should live forever in shame, and shall never be able to look at the world with dignity-filled eyes for the rest of their life, and that it's impossible for them to proudly raise their heads again?

When I participated in the activity of a Krishnamurti voluntary group I talked with a rape victim once. And I said to her: "Come one! Look at my eyes! Do you think I am looking down upon you? No. You has no fault in this! You haven't done anything wrong to be ashamed of! You have lost nothing and will have a lot to gain in the future! So raise your head up and look at me!" I could not allow myself to have pitying eyes. I tried look at her with eyes filled with faith, so that she would not lose hope or consider herself pitiful or shameful. I could not help her case, but regardless I can not allow myself to lose faith in humanity. In our culture a raped woman thinks of herself as dirty, and that is what I am trying to change. The physical pain caused by rape can leave mental scar, but our education should not direct women into thinking that losing their charity or virginity would make them shameful creatures. Humans, especially women, have more thing to treasure than that. We are nothing, and we could be robbed of everything we have at any moment. And many a man still wonders: "Why should this happen to me? Why me of all men? Why this moment and not sooner or later" when an unfortunate event happens to him. Is it not important to prepare ourselves mentally in case we lose whatever we have? At the end of the day a man has nothing but his own integrity of mind and heart, known by himself and approved by himself alone.

A Buddha has nothing that the world can offer, so he can lose nothing to the world. He is a step beyond Nihilism. We develop methods to disassociate oneself from physical pain, and mental disciplines to free oneself from mental pain. We don't rely on drug, alcohol, or self-cutting, but our mental strength. We do not need to build multi-layered armors of fashionable coolness and humor to cover up our insecurity. The tougher and funnier a man shows himself to be, the more likely that deep inside his heart he is a shivering baby trying to crawl back to his mother's womb.
I do what I do in life because I have a sense of purpose and I know I can be of help. I have faith in people who have faith in me, but emotionally I depend on no one. I am Godless and fearless. This world declares itself as sane, and yet its people run to religious faith in moment of despair, or turn to various [corrupt] parties and mass movements in escape from loneliness, for they don't have the strength to shoulder the burden of Atheistic Stoicism.

So yes, why not laugh at this lunatic philosopher, why not ridicule him and make all kind of farce out of him, o men of Arlong Park? It is impossible for me to laugh with you anyway, for I feel nothing whether you are for me or against me, so do not bother taking me seriously. I have nothing to declare but my brilliant lunacy, so prepare some unfunny memes, I mean, funny Youtube poop clips and reaction images to greet me the next time I grace myself in this god-forsaken part of the world.
Be assured that the whole of this post is entirely my own words and I take responsibility for it. And it seems I have ruined enough of the atmosphere, so I better stop rambling.[/hide]

@Kylor:

[hide]You compare me to this scholar, but are we really alike? Are we similar in any way to each other? Are you the same as me? Is there any distinction? Are perhaps our revolutions the same, or are they all but mere atoms in the swirling shards of DNA that make up the universe. I think that both me and Mr. Sea are as alike as a roll of toilet paper is to a Large Hadron Collider, meaning we are infinitely similar. As an enlightened individual, "I" must assume that you do not see the importance of my reasoning. In the end, that does not matter one bit, which is why "I" will devote a full five minutes of my time to sort of explain it to you.

The wise savior Wikipedia once told me that Socrates said, "By means of beauty all beautiful things become beautiful. For this appears to me the safest answer to give both to myself and others; and adhering to this, I think that I shall never fall, but that it is a safe answer both for me and any one else to give — that by means of beauty beautiful things become beautiful." This has everything to do with what "I" was just talking about. Clearly, we must all follow the true, wise path, and that entails joining the shortlist rebellion, where we shall join together in putting our names in our signatures, showing our revealed truth as individuals, and that we believe things like names and individualism is pointless. In this fashion, "I" shall become the perfect man, the ultimate being. To do this, "I" shall remove myself in every way, and reject what is flawed. No, "I" am not a supervillain, and you must all support me in my journey across random google sights and the most highly enlightened really old manga. (you can tell it's good manga if the art is weird and the story makes you want to throw up.) Basically, we must become as Vivien is. No, I won't explain who my character is, I'll just assume you already follow my freakishly convoluted story, that I haven't even really started writing yet.
[/hide]
That is the truth, my students. Now, if you'll excuse me, "I" must go angrily masturbate while thinking about furniture. It's the enlightened thing to do, y'see.

I give this a C+. Good, but nowhere near good enough. You have not done enough homework, Kylor. I am afraid you are not yet ready to shoulder the responsibility of a rebel leader. But I am too old for such activity, so I will leave it to a less experienced and able man anyway.
To improve your skill, begin by writing 5000 words on masturbation, 5000 words on furniture, 100 words on the Buddhist concepts of Impermanence, Non-selfhood, Non-duality and Maya (illusion), 5000 words on masturbation, 100 words on Kantian Idealism and the concepts of phenomenon and noumenon, 5000 words on masturbation, 100 words on Hurrserlian concepts of intentionality and eidetic reduction, and 5000 words on masturbation… then maybe you will get better at misinterpreting and distorting my words and conveying your motivational message which is of great importance to the fates of million humans on Internet message-boards, my honorable successor, and they will get it the next time.
Did I forget to mention masturbation?
@Kitsune:

I am so sorry, everyone, but this is the worst post ever. =(

[hide]Yes, it is bad and you should feel bad, Kitty my dear. Contemplate on your disgraceful behavior and your sorry existence, then cut yourself to ease your mental pain, or better yet commit harakiri to atone for your dishonorable action if you have any manliness left in you. No, no, don't do that please. Only an uneducated ill-willed bitter asshole would joke about such a horrible thing as hara-kiri (and what does that word mean honestly?) to a nice, pleasant person such as you; or even tell you to feel bad just because some private nonsense you spouted out and distorted in someone's absence, who has nothing no to do with you anymore; so don't let yourself feel down because of such poisonous and negative words, my dear. And as a classy friendly gentleman I earnestly advise you to write a post somewhere about how you are not feeling very okay about yourself and I assure you wiiise and intelligent people will gather and give you compliments and reveal to you about how wonderful a person you actually are and offer you mental supports enough for a lifetime so that you can feel loved and cared about and have a place you belong to and as a well-deserved happy ending everyone will hug each other and melt together in blissful Internet fraternity. [Insert more blah blah here]. And so should everyone else who is crying out for recognition and status, including those who are openly against recognition and status. Don't let some childish trouble-maker ruin the fun and spoiling the mood of nice, well functional, mature human beings like yourselves.

Faithfully, Your irritating antisocial friend.

P/s: I am reminded of a quote from the psychologist, ah no, my favorite writer Henry Miller:

"When I look down into this fucked-out cunt of a whore I feel the whole world beneath me, a world tottering and crumbling, a world used up and polished like a leper's skull. If there were a man who dared to say all that he thought of this world there would not be left him a square foot of ground to stand on." (Tropic of Cancer).

Oops, wrong one, sorry.

"No more peeping through keyholes ! No more masturbating in the dark ! No more public confessions ! Unscrew the doors from their jambs ! I want a world where the vagina is represented by a crude, honest slit, a world that has feeling for bone and contour, for raw, primary colors, a world that has fear and respect for its animal origins. I'm sick at looking at cunts all tickled up, disguised, deformed, idealized. Cunts with nerve ends exposed. I don't want to watch young virgins masturbating in the privacy of their boudoirs or biting their nails or tearing their hair or lying on a bed full of bread crumbs for a whole chapter. I want Madagascan funeral poles, with animal upon animal and at the top Adam and Eve, and Eve with a crude, honest slit between the legs. I want hermaphrodites who are real hermaphrodites, and not make-believes walking around with an atrophied penis or dried-up cunt. I want a classic purity, where dung is dung and angels are angels." (Black Spring)

Yes, it obviously has everything to do with what I was trying to say. Or does it? Tremendously grateful am I for this defamation of character, ladies and gentlemen, and that you wish to lavish upon me so much love and care of which I am not worthy. No words that my humble mind could possible think of are able to sufficiently convey my deep admiration and gratitude for your kind and tender hearts which I divined, so the best I could now offer is my silent withdrawing into my solitary hermitage. Peace~[/hide]

@Hiroy:

Why are you wasting your time on this forum?

Valid question. Remember that I didn't ask anyone to come to this thread. But since they already came, 'I' said to 'myself' :"Okay, why not try explaining it to them for once to see how much they are interested in logic and reason. Maybe there are some among them who are capable of logical thinking. Maybe there are hopes in them. It is a good chance to put my thought into words. "
But now I can be sure that I should have been doing what Ashina was doing.

@Tsukishima:

Now, let's see where this will lead you !

I think what I have been saying is absolutely logical. People, with common sense and sappy sentiments, are simply not logical enough.
I talk about atoms, sub-atomic particles, light spectrum interacting with eyes and brain, causal determinism, quantum uncertainty,… and am considered insane.
People who talk about ghosts, food, fashion,... are considered normal, and people who are so bored with life that they want to find fairies in their shoes and otherworldly creatures are considered interesting.
You see what kind of world this is.
Does a dreamer know he is in a dream, and is a madman aware of his madness? Have you been wondering if you are living in an illusion?
Let me repeat that I am absolutely faithless. I am even more Godless than common Atheists and have no room for faith in a personal God or something nonsensical like soul, because I know for a fact that they don't exist, and I would not pray even in the shittiest foxholes. I have no theory about the world, no presupposition about life, and I interpret Jesus's words as Pantheistic.
@gotta<3OP:

So if there is no sense of self, why would you find it bad to be selfish?

Because to be selfish is to indulge in an illusion.
Sense of self is something like instinct that was installed in man since he was born, and is further developed as he grows up in his environment. Man is still an animal, he is not yet to to reach the peak of the evolution. To lose sense of self, as I mean it, is to immerse in the awareness of ultimate reality, of the Infinite.

You should have no opinion, for you are nothing more than a contrast.

It is people who are nothing more than a contrast that have opinions. The sages become one with That which is, their experiences of Truth are the same, but as they deal with the world, their views about worldly matters can differ due to their backgrounds.

@Nami:

At least 8 languages long.

I have not learned any new language, I was too busy thinking about Truth. Since I have ego, I feel no compel in fulfilling a silly, half-serious statement spoken out of frivolousness made by that Sea guy. But if you want, I can speak 8 languages the next time I post in the confession session thread, another interpretation for the "here" I used.

@Nami:

Another good one by Mister Einstein.

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

Say the guy whose theory was understood by only some dozens of people in the world while he was still around.
Is it my fault if people refuse to think? Again, if the Truth is easy to understand and practice people would have been all Buddhas.
Another good one by the Buddha:
"I have taught the truth which is excellent in the beginning,
excellent in the middle, and excellent in the end;
it is glorious in its spirit and glorious in its letter.
But simple as it is, the people cannot understand it.
I must speak to them in their own language.
I must adapt my thoughts to their thoughts.
They are like unto children, and love to hear tales.
Therefore, I will tell them stories to explain the glory of the Dharma.
If they cannot grasp the truth in the abstract arguments by which I have reached it,
they may nevertheless come to understand it, if it is illustrated in parables."
@Gliblord:

Something wrong with that sentence

That is because words cannot convey truth sufficiently. You see, I only use 'I' for convenience. That is why I bracketed "I" in my poem.

Humanism is like this: we are born humans, so we should be proud of being humans no matter what we do. By that logic, a dog should be proud of being born a dog, a bug should be proud of being a bug. And a Vietnamese must be proud of being born a Vietnamese. You see, we didn't choose what kind of creatures we are. Evolution goes on. A monkey must become a human, and a human must become the Overman.

"I teach you the Overman! Mankind is something to be overcome. What have you done to overcome mankind?

All beings so far have created something beyond themselves. Do you want to be the ebb of that great tide, and revert back to the beast rather than overcome mankind? What is the ape to a man? A laughing-stock, a thing of shame. And just so shall a man be to the Overman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame. You have evolved from worm to man, but much within you is still worm. Once you were apes, yet even now man is more of an ape than any of the apes.

Even the wisest among you is only a confusion and hybrid of plant and phantom. But do I ask you to become phantoms or plants?

Behold, I teach you the Overman! The Overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beg of you my brothers, remain true to the earth, and believe not those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them! "
(Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
To become one with the Earth, the Universe, is to become its meaning.

Do people want to become free? They would rather remain in their illusion. This badly illustrated comic show you what it is:
[hide] [/hide]

@taboo:

what is your opinion on ghosts? because we cannot validate they exist, does this mean they do not exist? this is an example of what I am talking about

What do you mean by "ghosts"? Some kind of immaterial soul? There is no such thing. There maybe some kind of strange waves that affect people's brain. But consciousness doesn't exist outside of the brain. Again, why should we care about such things?
Why do people focus their attention on me so much, instead of what I say? You see, I didn't invite anyone's attention. They gave me unwanted attention and look at me like an alien. I guess I feel nothing.
The point is not whether I am enlightened, but whether you understand what I say. An unenlightened person cannot know whether someone is enlightened, right? So, before I was enlightened, I say to myself :"Let not believe there is any enlightened man!". You should do the same, don't believe I am enlightened just because I say so.
But let me talk a bit more on why the self is an illusion. If anyone believes he has a self to serve, he is bound to be selfish no matter what he does, on various levels. Some are more selfish than some other, all are selfish as long as this illusion remains. Every human evil is born from the belief that there is a self. So let see the nature of the self.

1- You say you have your body, your brain, your mind, your heart, your past, your future, your point of view, etc. But what is the mere 'you' that possesses all this yours? The 'you' that cannot be put into a 'yours', it is non-existent, isn't it? Everything is made of parts and constituents. There are particles that are arguably have no part, but they have characteristics and attributes cause, so a particle does have 'its'. Imagine a mere sphere. We can say it is made of 'its' two halves, right?

2- You can say :"Whatever! Relatively speaking, I am my body. And the soul is something that belongs to the body." But where is the finite border that separates your body from the rest of the universe? Inside you are atoms, outside you are also atoms. Seeing in an atomic level, there is no definite line, so there is basically no inside you nor outside you, which means there is no you.

Further more, the atom inside you moves and changes constantly. The lifespan of a quark can be shorter than 1/million second. Which mean your body in this second is something entirely different, entirely new from your body one second ago, even though it doesn't appear obviously to your eyes. So, which body is you?

3- You can say "I am my consciousness". But what is consciousness? Electric impulses in your brain, a material process in your brain. A 'process' is not something concrete, not a physical entity, not an inherent existence, isn't it?

4- You can say "I am my will". But free will is an illusion. Everything is inevitable and every thought, every decision you made are absolutely conditioned. The fact that quantum physicists can predict the movements of sub-atomic particles within definite statistics proves this. So, your will is not yours, it is the will of Nature.

5- You can say" I am something that is different from everything else". Which mean your existence is a contrast. Let expand on this a bit. Imagine that there is a black circle in a white piece of paper. If we paint the whole piece of paper black, the circle would disappear, isn't it. If you paint it all white, the circle would disappear too. Which means the existence of the circle is merely a contrast. You can say that the paint on the circle would have different thickness from the paper, but that too is a contrast. The existence of 'X' is due to the existence of "not X". Is a "constrast" something intrinsic, something inherent, or concrete as a physical entity? No. So existence is purely a human concept.

Everything you see, you can see them because of their difference, in color, in shape, in thickness, etc. Their existence is a contrast. Take an example, if you see everything in the color green, and there is not even't different level of dark and light green, or shade, you would be basically blind and the color green is not green. The color green cannot exist without every color else.
Imagine that in the whole universe, only a quark exists, and surrounding it is absolute void, absolute vacuum. If we take away the void, would there is the quark any more? Does this thing we call a quark still exist? Can you perceive it?

So existence of anything other than 'the whole', 'the all', is basically not inherent, not intrinsic, not dependent, right? Nothing is self-existent, even nothingness. Everything is interconnected, and therefore one.

If you can learn to see all this clearly, thoroughly, effortlessly, intuitively, logically, intellectually, empirically, in yourself and then expand to everything within the range of your consciousness, to your perception of the whole universe, you will eventually lose your sense of the self, and are free from the delusion of the self. This can be accomplished through observation and meditation. This is the first step to enlightenment. By then, no matter what you do, you cannot be selfish, because you have no self to serve. The enlightened sage can care about the world or not care about the world. He can go around preaching the Truth to help people escape suffering, or he can hide in the mountain, or he can walk between the crowd without anyone noticing.

In my opinion, an enlightened person who fills his mind with nothing other than how to help people become free is truly selfless in every sense of the world. Dealing with the world, he is bound to make errors and suffer because of people's ignorance, but he knows his effort won't be useless.

@taboo:

so you would agree that there are infinite possibilities of things, possibly parallel universes (or ones that have nothing to do with our own) co-existing within our own without our knowledge?

Everything works in accordance with the law of cause an effect. There can be infinite possibilities, but do not stray from this law. Everything happened, is happening and will happen is inevitable. About parallel universe, I do not know. It is a theory we don't really need to check.
There is this famous story in Buddhism:
"The Buddha always told his disciples not to waste their time and energy in metaphysical speculation. Whenever he was asked a metaphysical question, he remained silent. Instead, he directed his disciples toward practical efforts. Questioned one day about the problem of the infinity of the world, the Buddha said, "Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation remains the same." Another time he said, "Suppose a man is struck by a poisoned arrow and the doctor wishes to take out the arrow immediately. Suppose the man does not want the arrow removed until he knows who shot it, his age, his parents, and why he shot it. What would happen? If he were to wait until all these questions have been answered, the man might die first." Life is so short. It must not be spent in endless metaphysical speculation that does not bring us any closer to the truth."

@Silence:

You have an ego. It's the size of Cleveland.

And it's standing naked, right here. You call others immature children incapable of independent thinking; but how touchy a statement this is!
An enlightened man doesn't have a vanity to injure.

This is wrong, though. The Buddha did strike down other religions and opinions in his time and attacked people who refused to learn. To avoid attacking is actually a proof ego. An enlightened person doesn't feel the need to be arrogant nor humble, because to think " I am humble, I am good", "I must not hurt him or else he will hate me" is also a vanity, is ego in a subtle form.
My attack only applies to those are truly incapable of independent thinking. If you are capable, do not worry.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@taboo:

if all life in the universe died, would the universe cease to exist without something to validate it's existence?

Actually, not. I said that consciousness gives form and shapes and other attributes to existence. The existence of the One-All can continue without these things. The existence of small things, however, are not inherent.

If you have any question about life, existence, universe, ego, psychology, freedom, etc… just put your questions. I will try my best to answer them as clearly and understandably as possible.
I have to go now. I don't know when I will be able to come here again, but I promise I will answer them all.

I myself have no importance whatsoever. It is the Truth I convey that is of great importance. I am nobody, so don't pay attention my identity, my character, my individuality, but the meaning of my words. It is medicine and it is what you need.
Regards.

@RobbyBevard:

Sea, can you answer any questions without quoting someone else and passing it off as your own thoughts?

Of course I can. I have understood Truth thoroughly. It is more convenient to quote those with more talents in writing to convey the point more eloquently. I am no excellent writer.
The point is whether you understand what I say, not whether I am a man of talent. All this pride about talents, I forsake it along with my ego. An enlightened man doesn't care about copyright, for he knows all is the creations of Nature, and doesn't even take credit for his own creation. You all are entirely entitled to use my words without giving credit, with the condition that you must understand them.

"The crowd is indeed untruth. Christ was crucified because he would have nothing to do with the crowd (even though he addressed himself to all). He did not want to form a party, an interest group, a mass movement, but wanted to be what he was, the truth, which is related to the single individual. Therefore everyone who will genuinely serve the truth is by that very fact a martyr.
To win a crowd is no art; for that only untruth is needed, nonsense, and a little knowledge of human passions. But no witness to the truth dares to get involved with the crowd. His work is to be involved with all people, if possible, but always individually, speaking with each and every person on the sidewalk and on the streets in order to split apart. He avoids the crowd, especially when it is treated as authoritative in matters of the truth or when its applause, or hissing, or balloting are regarded as judges.
Those who speak to the crowd, coveting its approval, those who deferentially bow and scrape before it must be regarded as being worse than prostitutes. They are instruments of untruth. " - thus remarked the great thinker Soren Kierkegaard, and his timeless words proved him to be one of my soul-mates. This is exactly why I told people to get out of here from the beginning. But you have already come here, so why not take a look at what I have to say?
@Gekko135:

Could you paraphrase all that for us Sea?

Only if you would agree to think about what I am going to say. You are a mature man, Gekko, so I am going to talk with you. Let children laugh and play as they are meant to, and let those few mature minds capable of independent thinking engage in serious discussions, in earnest reason and look into the deepest secret of existence. We will touch every matter of life, we will touch quantum physics and see whether God plays dice.
@TakinawaTonfa:

What is a man ?

This is a valid question, and also one of the most important questions in philosophy. Whether you asked this question with serious intention or not, I am going to answer for Truth's sake. School is compulsory.
Man is an illusion, an hallucination. He never really was, never is and will never be. The meaning of the Universe -the One and the All- is not man. It has long existed before him and will continue without him. If we are going to look at the highest Truth, we must go beyond humanism and humanist thinking.

In honor of the great soul Miyazaki, allow me to convey my point with one of his most extraordinary statements, which he spoke to us through Nausicaa:
[hide][/hide]
"Our lives are like the wind…
Or like sounds
We come into being, resonate with each other...
Then fade away..."
What a profound Truth this is. Perhaps the most spectacular statement in the history of manga, and its profundity has long since been ignored and underestimated.
Before we look at the nature of human existence, let us take a look at the nature of wind and sound. What is the wind? The flow of gas, the movement of air. That is all it is, a movement, nothing more. It is not an inherent existence, not an entity, a physical being, but simply the moving of something. Is the part of the air that flows separated from the part that doesn't. The truth is, no. The air throughout the Earth is one entity. And to be accurate there is no air that stay still. They all move, some parts more radically than the rest.

The existence of man is also like that. He is not an entity, and inherent existence, but simply a movement of the Universe. When all the needed atoms move to their 'right places', they construct/conform the shape of what we call man. But, the atoms move constantly, the constructions/conformations of atoms changes constantly, so which construction is man? You at this moment is not you one moment ago. If the atoms move more radically, so that his head is at his bosom, while his right leg is in his neck, would we call that a man? If all the atoms move faster, so that a child immediately becomes an old man, and the old a corpse, and the corpse a collection of dust. Would we call that collection of dust a man, even though the totality of atoms stay the same? We call one a man, and another a collection of dust, which is no different from constantly giving different names to the same wind from time to time, from moment to moment. We invent names and categorize endlessly, but ultimately there is no category other than the All, the Universe.

Is the human body a separated entity from the rest of the universe. In atomic level, we are no more separated from the rest of the universe than a wind separated from the air. The skin is no definite border, no definite boundary, just like a cloud's body has no definite border from the air in the sky. There is no entity called wind, only the air; and there is no entity called man, only the universe. Ultimately the Universe is the only entity, the only inherent existence, the All and the One. The existence of 'everything else' is purely a human concept and exists purely within the mind. An illusion. Man is a movement of the universe, and during this constant movement consciousness is created from the conformation of matter, of the brain, and this consciousness deludes itself into thinking it has an inherent existence, an entity.
If there is a giant to whose eyes a million years past in an instant, then the whole 'existence' of humanity is nothing more to him than a wind. All that culture, art, invention, architect, etc.. mean nothing more to him than a wind.

What is sound? A vibrancy within matter. It too is not an inherent existence, an entity. And there is no sound without the ear and the brain to receive and interpret. Colors are also like this. 'Color derives from the spectrum of light (distribution of light power versus wavelength) interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors.' And therefore, without the eyes and the brains, there is no color. This applies to the shapes and forms of everything we see. Without to the brain to receive and interpret, they have no shapes or form. The shapes and forms are therefore constructed purely within the brain and don't exist outside of it.

If some certain part in the brain stop functioning or can't function well, we can only see in black and white. This proves that there is no immaterial soul that control the body. How can an immaterial soul sees and differentiates one color from another; and hears and differentiates one sound from another and think without the brain? Nothing arises without cause. Even sub-atomic particles have definite number of possibilities and thus are predictable in a certain extent. Every thought and actions we have are conditioned, and determined from beginingless time. It is my destiny to write those words, inevitably, and it is your destiny to read it.

All these analysis showed us that man is not an inherent existence, an entity like we have thought ourselves to be. All of our selfishness come from this illusion about having a self. More than 2500 years ago a man saw all of this clearly. And he was the original Buddha.
Allow me to quote the Buddha's Gospel, compiled by Paul Carus:
[hide]
All things are made of one essence,
yet things are different according to the forms
which they assume under different impressions.

–---

There is not a self residing in Name and Form,
but the co-operation of the conformations
produce what people call a man.

Just as the word 'chariot'
is but a mode of expression for axle, wheels, the chariot-body
and other constituents in their proper combinations,
so a living being is the appearance of the groups
with the four elements as they are joined in a unit.
There is no self in the carriage
and there is no self in man.

This doctrine is sure and an eternal truth,
that there is no self outside of its parts.
This self of ours which constitutes Name and Form
is a combination of the groups with the four elements,
but there is no ego entity,
no self in itself.

Paradoxical though it may sound:
There is a path to walk on,
there is walking being done,
but there is no traveller.
There are deeds being done, but there is no doer.
There is a blowing of the air, but there is no wind that does the blowing.
The thought of self is an error
and all existences are hollow as the plantain tree
and as empty as twirling water bubbles.

---

He who knows the nature of self
and understands how the senses act,
finds no room for selfishness,
and thus he will attain peace unending.
The world holds the thought of self,
and from this arises false apprehension.

Self is an error, an illusion, a dream.
Open your eyes and awaken.
See things as they are
and you will be comforted.

He who is awake will no longer be afraid of nightmares.
He who has recognized the nature of the rope
that seemed to be a serpent will cease to tremble.

He who has found there is no self
will let go all the lusts and desires of egotism.

The cleaving to things, covetousness,
and sensuality inherited from former existences,
are the causes of the misery and vanity in the world.

Surrender the grasping disposition of selfishness,
and you will attain to that calm state of mind
which conveys perfect peace, goodness, and wisdom.

[/hide]

We humans, unaware of our true nature, cling to our possessions while we live, and are heart-broken when they are taken away from us. We all know this simple truth, that we all wide die one day, and yet we still cling to worldly possessions, cling to a mirage. Forever do we remain in our illusion, never wake up to truly live. The desire to possess, the desire to hold on to that which will eventually fade away are the root of all pain and all suffering.
"We die struggling to get born. We never were, never are. We are always in the process of becoming, always separate and detached. Forever outside" - painfully remarked Henry Miller. And truly, look at what we have done. We become the only species who need money to survive on Earth.

"We are making constant progress, but it is a progress which leads to the operating table, to the poorhouse, to the insane asyium, to the trencher. (The Colossus of Maroussi, p. 81)

"The aeroplane brings death, the radio brings death, the machine-gun brings death, the tinned goods brings death, the tractor brings death, the priest brings death, the schools brings death, the law brings death, the electricity brings death, the phonograph brings death, the knives and forks brings death, the books brings death, our very breath brings death, our very language, our very thought, our money, our love, our charity, our sanitation, our joy. No matter whether we are friends or enemies, no matter whether we call ourselves Jap , Turk, Russian, French, English, German, or American, wherever we go, wherever we cast our shadow, wherever we breathe, wherever we poison and destroy. Hooray for civilization! Hooray! We will kill you all, everybody. Hooray for Death! Hooray! Horray!" (The Colossus of Maroussi, p. 130 - 131)

"But all of them, from the top to the bottom, are restless, dissatisfied envious and sick at heart. All of them suffer from cancer and leprosy in their souls. The most ignorant and degenerate of them will be asked to shoulder a gun and fight for a civilization which has brought them nothing but misery and degradation."

And Henry Miller reminded us of what we must do.

"Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because se we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he gets desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive form the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up to discover what is already there.

We invent nothing, truly. We borrow and re-create. We uncover and discover. All has been given, as the mystics say. We have only to open our eyes and hearts, to become one with that which is."

To become one with That which is, that is the path of the Buddha.
"Truth is ever present, Eternity is here and now. And salvation? What is it, 0 man, that you wish to save? Your petty ego? Your soul? Your identity? Lose it and you will find yourself…. Cultivate your doubts, embrace every kind of experience, keep on desiring, strive neither to forget nor to remember, but assimilate and integrate what you have experienced."

All is one, and One is all. This is the Truth in a nutshells.

"We are all one, we are all an imperiled essence. If at the far end of the world a spirit degenerates, it drags down our spirit into its own degradation. If one mind at the far end of the world sinks into idiocy, our own temples over-brim with darkness.
For it is only One who struggles at the far end of earth and sky. One. And if He goes lost, it is we who must bear the responsibility. If He goes lost, then we go lost.
This is why the salvation of the Universe is also our salvation, why solidarity among men is no longer a tenderhearted luxury but a deep necessity and self-preservation, as much a necessity as, in an army under fire, the salvation of your comrade-in-arms." -cried the great writer Nikos Kazantzakis.

"Yes, the purpose of Earth is not life, it is not man. Earth has existed without these, and it will live on without them. They are but the ephemeral sparks of its violent whirling.Let us unite, let us hold each other tightly, let us merge our hearts, let us create — so long as the warmth of this earth endures, so long as no earthquakes, cataclysms, icebergs or comets come to destroy us — let us create for Earth a brain and a heart, let us give a human meaning to the superhuman struggle."

"We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life. As soon as we are born the return begins, at once the setting forth and the coming back; we die in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of life is death! But as soon as we are born we begin the struggle to create, to compose, to turn matter into life; we are born in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of ephemeral life is immortality! In the temporary living organism these two streams collide ... both opposing forces are holy. It is our duty, therefore, to grasp that vision which can embrace and harmonize these two enormous, timeless, and indestructible forces, and with this vision to modulate our thinking and our action."

To become one with That which is, after dissolving your delusional ego, is to become a Buddha. He is one with everything and everything is one with him.

"Those only who do not believe, call me Gautama,
but you call me the Buddha, the Blessed One, the Teacher.
And this is right, for I have in this life entered Nirvana,
while the life of Gautama has been extinguished.
Self has disappeared
and the truth has taken its abode in me.
This body of mine is Gautama's body
and it will be dissolved in due time,
and after its dissolution no one,
neither God nor man,
will see Gautama again.
But the truth remains.
The Buddha will not die;
the Buddha will continue to live
in the holy body of the law."
(The Buddha's gospel).

To say is easy. Live the Truth.

I no longer have an ego. I was a wave who thought he was an entity separated from the sea. Now I am one with the sea of the universe. I live Truth and only think about how to free mankind from suffering. I have no self-interest, and am concerned with nothing other than to improve the world. I, the disciple of the Buddha, assigned for myself the mission of walking the path he and many other sages in the path walked.
"I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies." - so declared Krishnamurti, and I live by this principle.

@bartholemew:

What will you do after you find the truth??

"The greatest miracle is to find the Truth and to make it known to other" - said the Buddha.
And I have found it.

Poem marking the day I was enlightened ( Ferburary 9, 2012)

At last! At last! I have seen the light!
I have drunk the nectar of Truth, and am free from all delusions.
The man under the name Liberty Sea no longer exists.
He has dissolved himself to the Infinite, and opened the gate of enlightenment!
No longer shall he experience despair and hope.
… For doing so is simply to obstruct Her, the Infinite, the doer of all thing.
There is no such thing as 'my' talent, nor 'my' genius
Thus no longer shall 'I' be of any arrogance and vanity, nor humility and modesty.
None of my achievements is to 'my' credit
And nothing to be proud of, nor to be ashamed of.
'I' am just one of Her best works, Her finest compositions, doing her absolute orders.
No longer shall 'I' hate any human, nor any creature.
Because how can 'I' hate myself, and how can Nature -the Infinite- hate her own works?
Today is 'my' true birthday, the day 'I' transcend birth and death!
For 'I' have never been born, and therefore never die!
Immortal am 'I', and blessed is he who understand my word

Enlightenment experience:
[hide] What is this? The table in front of me. What does it matter if I call it a spaceship or a pencil? Is there any difference? That dog over there, does it matter if I call it a bird or a bull? All names are conventional, all shapes are constructed by the mind and reality is shapeless. Not that they are non-existent, but shapeless. What is a table if not a bunch of attributes to a man?
The shape and form of a human girl is no more physically attractive than a chair in the eyes of the enlightened man. Any preference of any shape or form to another is purely a human perspective.

I cannot possibly be sexually aroused by any shape. Though I still experience 'morning wood'. This means an enlightened man can have sex but he is not attached to it nor does he finds escape in it. Everything he does, walking, sitting, drawing, is zen. What does it matter if people think he is sexual or asexual?
The shriek of a bat and the singing of a girl make no difference to me whatsoever. Music is comforting because it provides patterns out of chaos, but reality is chaos and the enlightened man is completely comfortable with chaos.

All day long I fill my mind with the Infinite. Boredom and loneliness are impossible to me. 'I' am not in time nor in space.

A buddha wouldn't shed a tear if his parents were dead and his country eliminated. Not that he doesn't have compassion, but he doesn't react over-emotionally to the inevitable, and only those with an ego associate himself with his country or nationality or such. The sage is like the rain indeed, his compassion rains on the just and the unjust alike.
"Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the Ten Thousand Things as straw dogs; the sage is ruthless, and treats the people as straw dogs." (Tao Te Ching)

"Whoever does not hate his Father & Mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. And whoever cannot love his Father & His Mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. For my mother gave me falsehood, but my true mother gave me Life." Thomas: 101

"Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you."

He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice." Luke 8: 19

"As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." Luke 11: 28
If we interpret God not as a personal creator but as Nature, as the Universe, the Infinite, then Jesus was a wise man indeed.
[/hide]
Note on reality, pre-nelightenment:

[hide] Meditation brings altered state of consciousness. So do alcohols and drugs. This means we cannot get to see the Truth through meditation alone. How are we sure the world we see through meditation is not an illusion? Reasoning says the fact that there are altered states of consciousness means the world we perceive depends on the brain, which constructs forms and appearance. The ultimate reality is formless. [/hide]

Notes on emotions, pre-enlightenment:

[hide] How is man going to live morally? If a man rejoices in his own luck, is he then not immoral to those who are suffering all over the world, looking at his happiness with envy and self-pity, blame him for being happy, uncaring of their suffering? If man complains about his condition, does he not do injustice to those who are in worse conditions that his own? If man torments himself, is he not immoral to himself and those who love him?
Emotions are then immoral? Pleasure a sin? Selfishness- even in its subtlest form- a crime?
To escape this, man's only solution is to abandon all forms of hedonism, cultivate detachment from worldly pleasures, forsake his ego to seek Truth, transcend happiness and suffering, surpass earthly opposites, and assign himself the mission of making the Truth known to others. (Liberty Sea's Notebook)

Every emotion is a reaction. Immediate reaction. People have long since been in the opinion that emotions make us different from machines. But in my opinion emotions make us more machinelike than cold insight. An emotion arises when a certain "button" is pushed, whether by an external provoking or an intensified thought, and is established by short-sighted conditions. No matter how poetic you make out of it, that is it. Emotions are the reason why so few of us act instead of react, then we call it 'human'. What makes human beings different from other beings is the ability to reflect and to regard to it very being, not immediate reactions.

Anyone remotely rational will see that emotions only hinder reason and thinking, and yet so many among them exalt emotions as something holy. It is because emotions are essential for hedonism. Without emotions there cannot be any pleasures in life. The desire for pleasures, however, is the cause of suffering, and the root of all evils.

All violences stem from emotions. All evils stem from emotions. How can there be evils without emotions? Even apathy is not the absence of emotions, but the emotional attachment to other things rather than people around. There is no such thing as a emotionless killer. If he kills it is because he is more emotionally attached to something else than whom he kills.
All emotions stem from egotism, no matter how subtle. One must have the eye to see this. Even when one cries for another, it is almost always because that other person cannot satisfy his ego in some way, or achieve a marvelous satisfaction of ego in some way. One reacts emotionally to that because that desire to satisfy the ego also exists in oneself, sub-consciously or otherwise. How can one renounce egotism and not renounce emotions? How can one renounce emotions and not renounce egotism? Emotions, which form delusions, are the first thing one must renounce if one is to seek Truth and enlightenment.
"Enlightenment is the complete absense of all delusion, not just the big delusions, not just the ones that make us suffer, but all deluded concepts." - David Quinn.
Why should any intelligent man want to stay deluded? [/hide]

Notes on understanding oneself, pre-enlightenment.
[hide]
My obversations has come the consclusion that no thought is ever conscious of itself. Every understanding is a reflection. Nobody knows what he is thinking. It is always the thought after. Nobody knows what he is doing. It's either pre-planned or reflected. Therefore, man cannot understand himself, because he changes constantly. A man can at best understand his past self, but not his current self.

When man looks at his old works, he will feel embarrassed if he has made progress, or impressed if he has not. Either way, it feels almost as if those works were created by another. This is because he is no longer his former self. The way he looks at his words one year later will not be the same with the way he looks at them now. This suggests that man cannot understand himself. To understand himself, he must look at himself from inside and from outside at the same time. He must be himself and not himself simultaneously. Any man with an ego, a vantage point, cannot accomplish this. This is why man can criticize and comment on others as if he understands others (those he pays much care) better than he understands himself.

When one reflects at what one was in the past, one realizes that what one was thinking about oneself in these former days was nothing alike with one's current opinion of that former self. One must transcend the human point of view to understand oneself thoroughly. (Liberty Sea's Aphorisms )[/hide]

@Chillanuggets:

egotistically ambitious friend.

That is me in a nutshell. Egoistic, ambitious but friendly. You forget 'ingenious' though.

ultimate enlightenment

It's people like Karl Marx or Lenin that had the largest impact on the world, not the Dalai Lama or Krishnamurti. I hate it, but politics and economy run the world.
Enlightenment is physiological phenomenon (or spiritual, depend on what source of information you read) we can't get if we desire it. Maybe if someone tried his hardest and then give up and loses all his will, he may get it, yet even that depend on chance, not effort, competence nor knowledge. It is like chasing after a shadow. But it is a matter of the last half of my life.

Maybe by then if I am still alive I may tell you a little story about a passionate young men who just wanted to follow the way of art, but life drove him to the whirlpool of conflicts. Every true artist hates politics, but seeing the situation of his country, his society, as someone who has read Marx to every comma and parenthesis, he decided that he can't just sit around and hope for a 'G' to appear in this country out of nowhere.

His mother prayed to God for this 'ghost' (manga) to stop haunting him. She genuinely worried for his future. His father threatened to disown him if he chose manga, simply because having a son following such an 'inferior' career would make him look bad to his friends.
He wonder "Does my father love me or simply love what I can do for his name?" Something is wrong with his society. He began to look at problems of his country, his world from a larger perspective.

He knew he can't live for his parents, but he had to repay them first. He couln't just say: "Whatever! Screw you!" The way of art has been lost. He came back to his teenager scholarly passion.
"Okay! I will join the communist party, and…"
@GypsyCarts:

Whatever you're smoking, Sea, I really want some.

It's called genius.
@The:

I don't.

The next time I post here I will speak in at least 8 languages.

I have been a voyeur so I am going to let you voyeur back at me.
As I reached the age of 20, I decided to make a crucial turn. The last 3 years were the stormiest years of my (short) life. 3 years since I decided to become a comic artist. 3 years since I joined this forum. Funny. I was so passionate and determined, and never thought that I would give it up. But I am not going to walk that path anymore. 3 years full of misery and conflict with occasional flashes of joy. I have been deceiving myself. Whatever I have been doing, I did with superficial seriousness.

But I don't regret it one bit. They have given me precious perspectives. Insights that I would have never known from a Buddhist perspective. They drove me back to poetry. I have never loved studying and learning and knowing and truth as much as I do now, like a drowned man thirsting for air. I have never taken my life as deeply serious as I do now.

Even though I wasn't always honest about it, I have always considered myself a genius. And in the next 10 year I am going to make myself the guy with largest ego on Earth. And also the greatest genius on Earth. Then I will do the hardest thing on Earth that is to lose the largest ego. To know truth and make it known to others. Then spend the rest of my life working for positive social change, advocating empathy and unity.

I am going to change the world. I am going to change the way people look at the world. And I am going to first be the change I want to see in the world. Or die trying.

MOTOMIYA Hiroshi (Salary-man)–--KURUMADA Masami (Saint Seiya), HARA Tetsuo (Hokuto no Ken), SARUWATARI Tetsuya (Tough), EGAWA Tatsuya (Golden Boy)
Wow, what a team.

@Dryish:

Ah, I do not know whether you care about such feeble celebrations as birthdays, but I'll go ahead and congratulate you regardless. Happy Birthday, Sea.

Birthday is indeed a feeble thing and by itself bear no intrinsic significance whatsoever, but to me what's important is the heartfelt concern that people show for each other beyond empty etiquette, and this day just happen to be an oppturnity to express it. I am deeply touched to know that you would go through such consideration just to say a simple "Happy birthday" wish, which tells me that you genuinely care for my well-being and not just to be polite.

To all of you who have wished for my happiness in this day from your hearts, I thank you from my heart. Even though those wishes are represented through some electric currents, it doesn't make them any less meaningful to me. And truly they have sparked warmth and joy in my heart to know there are some who genuinely care for me from the distant places. Good day too all of you as well, and not only in your birthday, but all days of the year.

Try to seek wisdom through emotions.

I will, Dryish, as I always have, and not only through emotion but also non-emotional sensitivity. And I will rejoice to share my loved ones' joy, but also grieve to share their grief.

Kill it with heavenly fire.

@The:

-Don't kill myself

Why not?
The country is in its crisis. The leaders corrupted and incompetent. Fear and anxiety engulf the city. Impending disasters and pollution fill the air. More and more penniless, jobless, homeless and hopeless people flood the streets. The old generation is close-minded and dull. The youth decadent and shallow. Families fall apart. Friends exploit each other. Nobody to trust, to confide in. Nobody to die for. Nobody empathizes. Nobody understands. Nothing to look forward to. Nothing to await for. The past is a sad ghost haunting persistently. The present is stuck in an unintelligible mess. The future vague and gloomy. Vision is dreaded with uncertainty. Sight of purpose is lost. All struggles seem vain. Tears fall down unwitnessed. Cries stay unheard. God remains silent. The Earth screams in pain. Life makes less and less sense. Existence assumes nothing save an unsolvable puzzle. So little warmth. So little love. Beauty is dead and heart is dying. The old wounds keep widening…
GO FOR IT, BEAST!!

Yes I agree that you should get it off your chest. Now that I think about it, my situation was a bit different from yours, so my advice does not really apply. Chrissie knows her stuff.
[hide]
Speaking of Chrissie, yesterday she asked me what it is that I wanted at the end of the day. I was thinking about it last night. Actually, it has been a buried worry of mine for many months. How funny that I am about to be 20 and yet to this day I am still troubled by that question. Before, I would answer without hesitation: success as a comic artist, acknowledgment not only in my country but the world.
But now my answer would be different. I stink, so ignore it and don't read if you don't care.

Wealth, fame, power, I have always felt that I must reject those things ever since I was a child, but I never really got detached from them. I had fears and desires that couldn't be shaken off easily. Until I experienced a great thing called Love, and it has rocked my system, turned my world upside down. And as I encountered the works of Henry Miller, Arthur Rimbaud, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Nikos Kazantzakis, so on, I got to see clearer the absurdity and futility of ambition.

From this summer I have begun to look more closely at reality. Somehow reality felt weird for someone who spent a large portion of his life living in his imaginary world, his illusion like me. It felt really weird. The green leaves became greener and the fresh breezes became fresher. Somehow, human beings are really weird. They walk on the street wearing weird clothes, making weird gestures, weird sounds, talking about weird things, riding on weird stuffs; they sit in front of a machine with their eyes staring at a screen, their back bending and their hands performing weird movements to a keyboard.

Somehow I really dislike the life I am living. I had no interest whatsoever in talking about what the next fashion trend is going to be, what music albums or movies are coming out, which politician is sneezing, which celebrities are dating or divorcing or suing each other, and I had even less interest in role-playing heroes or fighters or 'adventuring' in a video game. 'Unfortunately' those are what my friends do and talk about.

I feel absurd about being surrounded by classmates and friends who share nothing in common with me, interest or character. I feel absurd about going to university only to try to make a living and please my parent.
I feel absurd about staying up at nights drawing blueprints of buildings I have no love for. I feel absurd about logging in some online message boards, posting under some ridiculous nickname that is not my name, representing myself through some picture of fictional character or famous people that is not me, creating an online identity for some superficial entertainment. Though, I got to know many good people. That, I don't regret.

Still, I have missed much of life. I am lacking something, and that is living experience. I love art, I love drawing, I love comics, but I don’t want to chain myself to a desk 15 hours a day instead of experiencing the outside world. I don’t want to live within a strict schedule everyday. I don't want to compromise my artistic merit with businessmen, adjust my works to race for some number in a questionnaire statistic or sale chart or try to please pretentious nerds and pampered kids readers whose faces I don’t even know like those dudes in Bakuman. Those things simply does not suit my nature. I am spontaneous, I hate machinery discipline, I hate industrial life, I hate wearing masks, I hate conforming, I hate nationalism, I hate the close-minded and dull education system of my country.

I don’t want to live an easy life. The scenarios of children suffering in famines, diseases, poverty all over the world kept coming to my mind every night. Something is wrong. Life is unfair (or fair in its unfairness, if you prefer that). I can only be in bliss if I can forget those things. I asked myself to be moderately selfish, and that it is okay to be moderately selfish, but somehow I can't be at ease with that idea. What does it mean to live in comfort while more than half of the world is suffering from all kind of miseries, physical or mental? I have asked myself that question for near a year. I haven’t found my answer. I used to have the lofty ambition of establishing a new philosophy that can change people's perspective about living, soling the problems of the world. But nothing I came up with is totally new. The Earth is old. All have been said. What difference can I make?

I am not suited for economic business. Perhaps if I become a millionaire I can help many other physically, I have never chosen that role, because I hate the world businessmen, people with forced smiles, pretentious handshakes and petty calculations.

I came back to my dream as a teenager. Dream, not ambition. I remember how fascinated I was when I first read One Piece or good works of similar genre. The adventurous spirit always excited me. All of my works are about adventures.
But I don’t have as much interest in One Piece anymore. I don’t have as much interest in an adventure in an imaginary fantasy world anymore. I want to have more to say in my works than my imagination, knowledge from book and logic deduction. I want to see the world. The ugly and beautiful real world, with real people, real miseries, real disasters, real crisis and whatnot. I don’t want to know the world only through a computer or a book. I want to see it with my own eyes. And there is a certain someone in a far country I want to meet.

I am frivolous and capricious. People have always questioned my sanity. Yes, I am a dreamer. I am fascinated by the idea of a life of a lone traveler, walking through rural nights on Earth. Be it as a journalist, a sailor, anything that enables me to travel around the Earth. After that I want to look at it from the outer space. I admire Rimbaud for his genius in poetry and for abandoning the luxurious life and promising future of a literary elite in the thriving city of Paris to go on his adventure and live the life of poverty in Africa. I admire Krishnamurti for giving up the authority and power of a 'human god', the position of the world's spiritual leader to walk through four continents, working for positive social change in near seventy years. Their lives are inspiring. I am concerned about finding the ultimate reality, and I am not going to get it from books only. I want “…to make life a wonderful adventure”, literally and figuratively.

I have been studying many other languages. German, Chinese, Japanese, French. And I want to study Greek, Sanskrit, Latin, Spanish, Italiano, Arabic as well. I will see if I can sum up enough courage to make my dream a reality. I will see if I can live the teaching of Krishnamurti, seeking not for security nor comfort, but freedom. And maybe in my lone path I will find company.[/hide]

I know through the Internet a certain girl who is very very serious about relationship, and she thinks I am the same. If she ever agrees to start a relationship, she does it with the intention of keeping it up for the rest of her life. She has no interest at all in flirting around, dipping in a bit here and there for some short-lived happiness.

Whether it is a matter of culture or personal principle, I just have to respect that.

Our forum members, especially in this thread, after witnessing two or three successful affairs going on, would easily get excited when they hear: "Another online relationship? Interesting!" and their response would naturally be "Go for it Gypsy!". But judging from personal experience, with all due respect, what others tell you is not as important as what your heart tells you. Feelings should be handled carefully, not to leave bigger wound in the future.

So, what I am recommending is: question your feeling seriously and if you feel that your heart is ready, then go for it. If not, wait until you know more about that person, even just as a friend, to see if he is compatible with you. Has that person known enough about you not to be too appalled by your confession?
In my humble opinion, it is better to first bond as close friends, as close as possible (if you have not already), before taking a leap into romantic relationship. You have not talked with that person as much as you would like to, right? So, why not first talk more and get to know him more before confessing your feeling? After all, you HAVE interest in him, so it does not hurt to develop your friendship with him further, and after that it would be easier to make decision about whether or not to go beyond friendship.

Online or not is unimportant. What's important is to find someone who truly resonates with you. There would be much more about a person than what he/she shows in the Internet, but when you have already bonded and get honest with one another, then other things you may learn about him in real life don't matter much. Even if you get rejected, if you have been respectful to each other as close friends, I guarantee that you can get back to friendship without much, if any, awkwardness.

Just my two cents.

Jesus Christ!

“The child was in the manger, surrounded by oxen and sheep, while his mother, Mary, and Joseph were discussing what name to give him. Solomon was suggested, Moses and David, but they couldn’t agree. At the moment, the Magi, the three wise men from the East, entered the stable. Paying homage to the new-born child, they placed offerings of myrrh and frankincense before him. The third chap, who was very tall, knelt down to present his gift of gold. As he got up, he bumped his head on the low rafters of the stable and exclaimed in pain, ‘Jesus Christ!’ Mary turned to Joseph and said, ‘That’s nice name. That’s what we’ll call him.’”

So Tsukishima-san is a complete manchild. Who wouldathunk it?

@Monkey:

Passive Aggression is not very positive vibes Mr eerie
Some might even call it negativity

@eerie:

god i know right

thankfully I have you around to be such a shining example

happy holidays zeph!

I love the two of you.

@Kizuchan:

I agree. It was defeated by a Sanji nosebleed. A really ancient, powerful demon was defeated by a nosebleed. Yeah..kinda dumb.

Would be better if they actually had sex ritual.

@Outerspec:

I thought Holy Hell was a guy.

I thought Holy Hell was a Beast?

Somehow I feel this is kinda untimely and even off-topic, but…
What do you think about Earth's environment, Zeph? Where do you think it is heading to? World politics and economy have shown many progresses, especially in this year with dictators going down one after another, and wars have decreased, however, these are not the only problems of the world, surely?
I have been thinking about this many times. About the future of our species, not only in my generation, but centuries later, milleniums later. Do you picture a Nausicaa-like apocalyptic scenario, Zeph? Maybe I am over-thinking, but I often worry about whether we will vacate the Earth one day or get doomed with it.

@GuetaMinute:

Sea, have you always been Christian, or did you convert? I'm a Catholic fan myself and it's nice to know not everyone here's atheist. (Unless your sig and avatar are part of some joke or something, which I doubt is true, hopefully)

I have always been a spiritual person but I only got deeply into spirituality recently, and converted from agnosticism to pantheism. I am not into organized religions because I don't want to limit myself to any set of rules, but I love religious figures like Gautama, Christ, etc.

One day, I want to:
-Save the world
-Rule it
-Change it
-Travel around it
-Make it a better place to live
-Destroy it.

"Fuck this shit!"

@piratemarimo:

Nooo buster call, you're destroying my reality! :0

Someone please call The US president and Congress to hold a conference about this.

This manga is good.

This is really embarassing to speak of, but…
Something inside me is a child. At times I want to have friends who can die for me and for whom I can die.
But here I am, in reality.

Do the Tsukishima flashback, Sonic.

Reading Women in Love by H.D. Lawrence.
Liking it so far. Hoping it can improve my insight.

@Monkey:

Well I'll soon be embarking on learning Mandarin, my first language to learn at that. I'm more than a little scared, but it's beyond essential for a job in foreign policy.
Any tips? Shared experiences on this sucker?

Any good memorization rituals regarding Pinyin for instance?

I already like those Pinyin pronunciation lines, they look like the directions one is pronouncing (flat, up, down, down than up).

I am re-studying Mandarin also. Writing Mandarin is like… drawing. It is a logogram after all. Trying to relate a word with a image you are used to.
As for pronouncing, I don't have much trouble with it but I don't really have a useful tip. There are many Chinese in Vietname and Vietnamese people watched a lot of Chinese TV dramas so we can learn to pronounce Chinese more easily.
I am also studying German.

One day, I want to be kicked out of Vietnam.

What must I do to get Franky's hairstyle?

I have been having too many dreams recently.
Sex dream… cartoon dreams... all kinds of things. The most recent is a huge mouse wrestling with detective Conan.

Striving to get better at explaining myself.

I am probably bi-sexual as well. No, I am serious. Though, that doesn't make me understand female any more than a normal guy would. Culture aside, I guess the male part in me is bigger.

Confession:
I was staying up at night and thinking… I was thinking so much my head wanted to explode. And something occured to me. I was wrong. I was dead wrong.
There is a reason for love.
Somehow I have to get this off my head. When I was young, probably 5 years ago or something, I read the Vietnamese version of this story in a magazine.
I liked it and was under its spell since then. I thought love would need no reason. I was in love with that idea. Such a poetic idea. And sub-consciously I avoided trying to explain my love because doing so might ruin the miracle of it. But that was self-deception. Love needs a fucking reason and just because you are not clearly aware of it doesn't mean there is none.
A policeman can fall in love with a criminal, a capitalist with a communist, an anti-semite with a jew, but there is a reason for that. You love somebody whose soul resonates with you in some manner. That is a rather cheesy way to put it, but otherwise it is not love, it is some wicked lust with hormones running wild or unhealthy affection or strange fetish.
Love makes sense. My love makes so much sense. A reason doesn't make it any less poetic. And I am going off to work for my loved one's happiness instead of spending time doing stupid things in the Internet.