Parts of a letter to my father after attending “The Forum”, previously, “Est.” Look it up.
(1). Yeah, it is very individualistic. One of the things that pissed me off most about the Forum was their concept of “enrollment.” I see it as a ploy to make the experience stronger because one will have a better sub-conscious reaction to something if they believe “Someone went through the experience with me.” I believe that enlightenment comes from within. If one understands themselves then they can understand others. Understanding others is key to enlightenment because, if you can understand the way humans interact, then you can see the seeming order of the universe. I’ll include this with elaboration in the final copy of this piece.
(2). Death is the only inevitable thing in our existence. For the entirety of evolution, the only two things that organisms, including humans, have really cared about are procreation and death. Death and the continuation of their genes which is the continuation of a part of the organism after death. So it all pretty much goes back to death.
There are many humans who never think about death. Those are people in denial and are most in need of enlightenment. Some think about death and are horrified of it. These are the people who could be enlightened if only because they’d read something like this paper. There are people who think about death and it doesn’t faze them. These are people on their path. I think I’ll also include some version of this in the final version, too.
Sorta sucks this is the last thing on this page. It’s a bit of a disappointment. 🙁