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Monthly Archives

January 2010

Mysteries

A Multiple Choice Exam Called “Your Life”

by Dr. Mark Dillof January 28, 2010October 20, 2018
written by Dr. Mark Dillof
A Multiple Choice Exam Called “Your Life”
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In his Confessions, the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy describes how, in latter life, he was ambushed by the specter of meaninglessness. It was his mortality that seemed most troubling to him, for if everything we do eventually vanishes into oblivion, what significance can life have? Staring into the void, Tolstoy was perplexed enough to consider suicide.

This led him to observe the lives of his fellow men. What is it, Tolstoy wondered, that gets them through the day? At first glance, other people seemed to be making it through life, relatively well. At least they weren’t in despair, like Tolstoy was. He concludes that there are four basic answers to the ultimate question of how life should be lived. (Readers might consider this a multiple choice test. Which of these is your answer? Choose only one.)

1. Ignorance: “It consists in not knowing, not understanding that life is an evil and an absurdity. People of this sort — chiefly women, or very young or very dull people — have not yet understood that question of life which presented itself to Schopenhauer, Solomon, and Buddha.” (Leo Tolstoy, A Confession. Translated by Aylmer Maude. 1921)

2. Epicureanism: “It consists, while knowing the hopelessness of life, in making use meanwhile of the advantages one has… The dullness of these people’s imagination enables them to forget the things that gave Buddha no peace — the inevitability of sickness, old age and death, which today or tomorrow will destroy all these pleasures.” (Ibid. Tolstoy)

3. Strength and Energy: “It consists in destroying life, when one has understood it to be an evil and an absurdity.” (Ibid. Tolstoy) Tolstoy is suggesting that suicide is an act of strength.

4. Weakness: “It consists of seeing the truth of the situation and yet clinging to life, knowing in advance that nothing can come of it.” (Ibid. Tolstoy)
————-
5. God: Tolstoy finally chooses a fifth answer, the belief in God, which involves for him an enormous inner struggle. After all, for an intellectual, an answer based on reason is easy, but one based on faith does not go down easy. It should be noted, though, that in turning to God Tolstoy still rejects organized religion.

OK, put your pencil away. Which answer did you choose? Be honest, now, for your deliverance from despair depends on it. It may be, though, that the correct answer for you is, quite honesty, “none of the above.” For there are certain answers that Tolstoy didn’t consider, at least in his Confessions.

Idolatry: 21st Century Style

The question of whether or not there is a God — and, if not, how then to live in the face of the loss of an ultimate meaning — was an important one in the Nineteenth Century and through the first half of the Twentieth. We find it not only in Tolstoy, but in Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and the existentialists of the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, it continues till the late 1960s. After that, there is far less interest in the question of how to live in the face of meaninglessness.

Were people, from then on, no longer waiting for Godot? Did they find a replacement for God? Nietzsche thought that once people no longer believe in God that they would run for the sea to drown themselves. Apparently, he was wrong. What, then, happened?

Nietzsche didn’t envision is the emergence or reemergence of various forms of secular idolatry. By this we mean making a god out of that which is intrinsically finite. An example would be worshipping a politician, as if he were the savior. Of course, that sort of idolatry usually ends not long after a politician is elected, just as romance ends shortly after marriage. There are many other forms of idolatry. We shall only consider two them here.

6. Humanism: We have already discussed humanism in another essay, so we shall only consider it briefly here. Suffice it to say that that the humanistic worldview proposes that human beings do not need God or religion, but are able to find happiness and fulfillment solely in the secular domain. In truth, no one can live without the absolute, so something must be regarded as such. Science and progress end up being worshipped. In the case of Marxism, a utopian vision of a perfect world — one in which there will no longer be any inequality — is viewed as the millennium…

Would you like to read the rest of this insightful

essay? Then download a copy of of Mysteries in

Broad Daylight!

Broad Daylight!

 

Hot off the virtual presses, after four years of intense research and writing! Dr. Mark Dillof has essentially written a detective manual, for those seeking clues to the most perplexing enigmas of everyday life. He initially planned to sell it at seminars, for $75, but a friend recommended making it available to a much larger audience of readers, by offering it as an e-book, for only $9.95. Read more about this amazing new book, at:   www.deepestmysteries.com

Or you can…

Download for Amazon Kindle 

Download for Barnes & Noble Nook

Mysteries in Broad Daylight contains:

  • Powerful essays — like the one you’ve been reading, designed to help you decipher the meaning of everyday life, who you are and what it’s all about.
  • Exciting dialogues — they will entertain you, but also make you think deeply about life.
  • Exercises and questions designed to teach you the art of uncovering the deep meaning of everything — from the foods we eat to our conflicts at the workplace, from our problems on the golf course to life’s ultimate riddles.
  • And much, much more!

Mark Dillof’s new book will awaken you to the mysteries of everyday life. Indeed, it’s likely to expand your consciousness 100fold, illuminate your world and blow your mind!

How much is a life-changing insight worth to you? $1000? $10,000? Priceless? Mysteries in Broad Daylight is overflowing with life-changing insights and all for only $9.99!

 Read more about this amazing new book at www.deepestmysteries.com

 

Mysteries in Broad Daylight will soon be available in paperback, for $19.99. 

January 28, 2010October 20, 2018 0 comment
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MysteriesPractices

Living in the Moment, for a Moment

by Dr. Mark Dillof January 25, 2010October 20, 2018
written by Dr. Mark Dillof
Living in the Moment, for a Moment
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“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” — Mathew 6:34

“There’s a special rung in hell reserved for people who waste good scotch.” — The film “Inglorious Bastards”

From an early age, our energies become channeled and directed towards a series of goals. As each goal is completed a new one immediately appears. If we do not have a project to complete, we become restless. Such is our Faustian nature. Thus it’s the future where we locate our happiness and fulfilment. As Alexander Pope expressed it, “Man never is, but always to be blest.”

What makes us future-oriented? We wouldn’t be so, were it not that the present always appears lacking, incomplete and insufficient. What’s really lacking about the present? That is a profound mystery. Indeed, a famous Zen master used to ask his students: “At this moment, what is lacking?”

The fact that human being are perpetually discontent is the spur to technological advancement, as well as continual changes made on a personal level. But we may begin to suspect, after having lived a certain amount of time, that our plans and projects will not lead to the imagined state of fulfillment. On the contrary, they are bound to lead to more insufficient moments. We might then decide to no longer be deluded by images of future happiness. That would mean living fully in the present moment. Alas, I’ve never met anyone who can live in the moment, for more than a brief moment, now and then.

The Present Moment Comes as a Surprise

That said, there are moments — and they are relatively rare — when we do find ourselves living fully in the moment. They usually surprise us. It would appear such moments cannot be willed. They are, some would say, a gift of grace. (It’s been said that the present is, indeed, a “present,” i.e., a gift.) Sometimes, the perception of intense beauty can grab us and then we are in the present moment. But we can chase beautiful sunsets for all our days and still not be graced by such moments.

There are catalysts, besides beauty, that sometimes invite such moments. One is the taste of food, but the context must be right. No spice quite brings out the flavor of food, as does danger and doom. There is an ancient story, from the East, that illustrates my point. It is about a man hanging over a cliff, by a vine. On the top of the cliff lies a tiger and down below is another tiger. To make matters hopeless, there is a mouse gnawing at the vine. The man realizes that he is clearly doomed.

But, just at that moment, the man notices a strawberry growing from the side of the cliff. He plucks the strawberry and bites into it, commenting on how delicious it is. This tale is often used in Zen Buddhism to illustrate our existential fate and we may transcend it through an embrace of the moment. In his Confessions, Leo Tolstoy considers the story, but is not able to derive from it the meaning that he had been seeking. Perhaps, the problem, for Tolstoy, was that he was only reading about such a moment, rather than actually experiencing it.

The recent Quentin Tarantino film, Inglorious Bastards (2009) [Warning: plot spoiler ahead] has that sort of “strawberry moment,” except in this case it is not a strawberry but a glass of scotch that tastes so good. And instead of tigers, there are Nazis. The heroic protagonist of this encounter is British Lt. Archie Hicox, who is disguised, with his comrades as Nazi officers. He is seated at a table, in a bar, across from Nazi Major Dieter Hellstrom. Here is how the dialogue proceeds:

[Major Hellstrom aims his Walther at Lt. Hicox’s genitals, under a table.]
Major Dieter Hellstrom: That was the sound of my Walther pointed right at your testicles.
Lt. Archie Hicox: Why do you have a Luger pointed at my testicles?
Major Dieter Hellstrom: Because you’ve just given yourself away, Captain. You’re no more German than that scotch.
Lt. Archie Hicox: Well, Major…
Bridget von Hammersmark: Major…
Major Dieter Hellstrom: Shut up, slut. You were saying?
Lt. Archie Hicox: I was saying that that makes two of us. I’ve had a gun pointed at your balls since you sat down.
Stg. Hugo Stiglitz: That makes three of us.
[Stiglitz takes Hellstrom by the shoulder and aggressively forces a gun against his crotch]
Stg. Hugo Stiglitz: And at this range, I’m a real Frederick Zoller.
Major Dieter Hellstrom: Looks like we have a bit of a sticky situation here.

The situation, which is a prelude to a Mexican standoff, is desperate and doomed. And so here come the strawberry moment:

Lt. Archie Hicox: Well, if this is it, old boy, I hope you don’t mind if I go out speaking the King’s?
Major Dieter Hellstrom: By all means, Captain.
Lt. Archie Hicox: [picks up his glass of scotch] There’s a special rung in hell reserved for people who waste good scotch. Seeing as I might be rapping on the door momentarily…
[drinks it]
Lt. Archie Hicox: I must say, damn good stuff, Sir.
[sets his glass down and smokes his cigarette]

There are those who would argue that Lt. Hicox is an aesthete, up to the very last moment. He was, after all, a film critic. But aesthetes do not walk fearlessly into the Valley of the Shadow of Death without…

Would you like to read the rest of this insightful

essay? Then download a copy of 

Mysteries in Broad Daylight!

Broad Daylight!

 

Hot off the virtual presses, after four years of intense research and writing! Dr. Mark Dillof has essentially written a detective manual, for those seeking clues to the most perplexing enigmas of everyday life. He initially planned to sell it at seminars, for $75, but a friend recommended making it available to a much larger audience of readers, by offering it as an e-book, for only $9.95. Read more about this amazing new book, at:   www.deepestmysteries.com

Or you can…

Download for Amazon Kindle 

Download for Barnes & Noble Nook

Mysteries in Broad Daylight contains:

  • Powerful essays — like the one you’ve been reading, designed to help you decipher the meaning of everyday life, who you are and what it’s all about.
  • Exciting dialogues — they will entertain you, but also make you think deeply about life.
  • Exercises and questions designed to teach you the art of uncovering the deep meaning of everything — from the foods we eat to our conflicts at the workplace, from our problems on the golf course to life’s ultimate riddles.
  • And much, much more!

Mark Dillof’s new book will awaken you to the mysteries of everyday life. Indeed, it’s likely to expand your consciousness 100fold, illuminate your world and blow your mind!

How much is a life-changing insight worth to you? $1000? $10,000? Priceless? Mysteries in Broad Daylight is overflowing with life-changing insights and all for only $9.99!

 Read more about this amazing new book at www.deepestmysteries.com

 

Mysteries in Broad Daylight will soon be available in paperback, for $19.99. 

January 25, 2010October 20, 2018 2 comments
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Mark Dillof has been a philosophical counselor for over twenty years. You can learn more about his work, by going to his other website, www.deeperquestions.com.

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