Part 1: I Want Your Skepticism

My spiritual and philosophical beliefs are irreconcilably far from consensus.

Not in a sexy Thielian way, but in a way that may look crazy from the outside. This is especially true of my beliefs about existence and self.

In the context of eastern philosophy, my perspectives look more familiar, but in modern western society they may appear ridiculous.

While some people may understand my points, notice the truth in them, and reach out to express this, many others will see what I write about and dismiss it for a variety of possible (valid) reasons.

To counteract this self-inflicted echo chamber, I want to specifically emphasize that I look forward to hearing from people with strong agreements and disagreements with my writing.

One goal of my writing (about my existential beliefs, especially) is to open the minds of (rightfully) skeptical people to the possibilities of what I'm discussing.

If anything looks like bullsh*t or doesn't make sense, I want to know, especially if you're interested in expressing your criticism.

My perspective on life redefines many of the consensus lenses on large areas of societal wisdom, including science, spirituality, self-actualization, career, art, and much more. Because of this, a variety of groups may find strong conceptual disagreements with my premises.

For example, my framing of science may appear completely ungrounded. These are the types of feelings I'd like to hear about.

I allow myself to write with the concision that comes with describing my beliefs directly, which also means that I speak with a conviction that may make my points appear strongly held.

In reality, I'm always open to updating my beliefs on everything. I just write with conviction about truths that I have validated through my direct experience, where I am confident in their accuracy. Of course, I am still open to being wrong about these as well.

Part 2: There's Nothing To Explain

I write about my spiritual beliefs with apparent conviction and directness. Often, I provide no explanation for my premises.

This seems like bad practice. Good argumentation generally requires thorough justification for every premise.

Instead, my approach completely ignores the need for justification, in posts like Who Are You Really, where I just state premises in sequence.

There is a reason I write about spirituality like this.

The path of understanding in spirituality is fundamentally different from the path of understanding in anything else. This is because the process of applying the scientific method to spirituality looks very different from all other science.

Standard scientific theories are narratives with the ability to consistently explain and predict a set of observations.

Because these narratives are not directly evident from the observations, scientific arguments for these theories have to guide readers through the justification of a series of logically consistent premises that imply the truth of the conclusion.

In contrast, spiritual truths are not theoretical narratives about reality with explanatory power. They are simple observations about your experience that are directly evident.

So justifications serve no purpose here; there is no justification for the existence of an observation, it just exists.

There may be an explanation for the chain of events that produced an observation, but there can be no justification for its existence. The existence of an observation is implied by your observation of it.

Spirituality is about identifying the truths about the nature of reality and your existence through observations from your direct experience.

These truths are as evident as looking at an apple and noticing "I see red." They just happen to be harder to notice.

The difficulty in understanding spiritual truth is not in wrapping your head around the justification of ideas. No justification is needed to realize spiritual truths.

Instead, the challenge is in noticing.

There are certain realities that we have grown so used to ignoring that we no longer notice them. The path of realization is simply the path to noticing these realities which we have forgotten.

Part 3: Why Write About Spirituality?

Why do I write about spirituality at all if each individual has to notice everything for themselves?

You can assist the process of spiritual realizations by providing approaches to notice different truths.

There are a variety of philosophical schools across the world that all agree on the spiritual truths, but disagree on the best paths to help people notice them.

In reality, there's no single correct system. Different approaches work for different people. And there's already writing about all these approaches to self-realization in Buddhism, Taoism, Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, and a variety of other spiritual texts.

So, there's no point in me writing about this.

Instead, I mainly write about spirituality to clarify ideas that I used to be confused by or was skeptical of. I write with my past self in mind.

Most spiritual truths are too non-consensus to write about directly. They're better off left to be discovered independently by those curious.

So, I don't write about spirituality too frequently, and am certainly not trying to be exhaustive in my explanations.

Instead, I hope my writing may occasionally point a few curious seekers in the right direction, and may intrigue the skeptical enough to open their minds.

Part 4: What's The Point?

From the outside, discussion about spirituality may appear theoretical and impractical. Instead, it's entirely empirical and highly impactful to how you live.

The goal of spirituality is simply to show you truths about your reality, as you are currently experiencing it.

The nature of reality is far removed from the consensus beliefs of society. This alone is interesting for those who seek the truth.

But it also has many practical implications.

Philosophy and religion have been a core aspect of humanity throughout our history because the answers to the big existential questions they deal with impact every aspect of our lives.

They determine how we understand our place in the world, and the purpose of our existence.

Self-realization, sometimes called enlightenment (though this term is unnecessarily loaded and creates an inaccurate perception of the difficulty of achieving this state), grants you mastery over your emotions and bliss on command, and enables you to fully appreciate the richness of life and to passionately create.

It is not an end goal, but a joyful starting point for you to start living life fully.