Disclaimer

Everything has a disclaimer. If that is the case, this disclaimer page should be endless.

Well that sounds pretty gloomy and hopeless doesn’t it?

An infinitely long list of disclaimers? How can that be? How does one think about it? Isn’t it like saying that there is nothing I can say (claim?) that can be verified as absolute and irrefutable without some matching disclaimer casting doubt over its accuracy? That everything is unknowable? And isn’t there a disclaimer for that statement too?

Yes. Precisely. But there would be a disclaimer for that statement too?

Yes Precisely.

Get the drift?

The cosmos is swirling.

Disclaimer:

This blog will make you crazy. It will make your head hurt.

Consider yourself forewarned.

But I can’t allow you to continue without somehow resolving this puzzle. If nothing is knowable why bother with anything? Why waste your time reading all this blather?

For now, we’ll just cheat a little and frame issues such as this in a different way. Later on we may be able to consider them in a way that is more satisfying.

We need to use language to carefully discuss the topics in this book. There will be cases where we need a little latitude in order to make it possible to understand ideas. The question about what if anything we can know is a good place to start. Instead of saying “We can not know anything for sure.”, how about saying “It seems as if we can not be sure about anything?”

By making the idea a tiny bit fuzzy and adding a tiny grain of doubt, suddenly we can talk about things without immediately refuting ourselves.

So as we go along, we shall see how our language seems to have forced us into thinking in a way that can make it impossible to gain insight into a topic.

At some point, I hope to show the only way to gain understanding of all things is through silence and nothingness.

But let’s not get too far ahead.

Another disclaimer here is my qualifications or lack thereof to write this manifesto.

The etymology of manifesto according to merriam-webster.com:

“Manifesto is related to manifest, which occurs in English as a noun, verb, and adjective. Of these, the adjective, which means “readily perceived by the senses” or “easily recognized,” is oldest, dating to the 14th century. Both manifest and manifesto derive ultimately from the Latin noun manus(“hand”) and -festus, a combining form that is related to the Latin adjective infestus,meaning “hostile.” Something that is manifest is easy to perceive or recognize, and a manifesto is a statement in which someone makes his or her intentions or views easy for people to ascertain. Perhaps the most famous statement of this sort is the Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to outline the platform of the Communist League.”

I like the idea of something easy to recognize or perceive. It’s what I am hoping for herein. But the topics I’ll discuss are arguably the most difficult mind boggling questions we can ask. How do I expect to do this? Indeed, what makes me think I “know” the answers?

I have no philosophical education or training in medicine, spirituality, religion, psychology, mathematics or physics. I claim no “knowledge” at all. I do claim that I experience. And I claim an apparent awareness of some variety. My perception has always been at odds with what I have been led to believe about the universe and why things seem to behave as they do. So if you were hoping to find someone that is a highly educated certified expert witness capable of teaching you the nature of existence, this blog is not for you. I do not believe the nature of existence can be taught. It must be experienced.

What I do offer is an alternative point of view to the conventional wisdom about what it means to  be here.

Just another man’s belief?

Yes.

But what else is there but belief?

Only one thing.

Feeling…