You may be a materialist atheist, a scientist, a hindu, muslim, christian or buddhist ect, you may be a capitalist or communist or anarchist ect- no matter what, you have one thing in common with all your fellow human beings:
You hold on to a story, to some tale, some worldview, some map that gives you some sort of orientation and inspiration, some sort of sense and reason.
Animals don't have such stories. Animals hardly have a sense of past and future, they live in the present mostly and therefore they obey to the rules Nature dictates 24/7. But human beings invent stories and through stories they expand their imagination and their action radius into past and future, they expand their very own sense of being right up to the frontiers of the universe one way or another. There's some urgent principle at work within man:
Transcendence.
" Transcendence comes from the Latin prefix trans-, meaning "beyond," and the word scandare, meaning "to climb." When you achieve transcendence, you have gone beyond ordinary limitations. The word is often used to describe a spiritual or religious state, or a condition of moving beyond physical needs and realities."https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/transcendenceWhatever story you may follow, you are driven by the urgent need for
transcendence one way or another. You, as a human being, can't just live like an animal, coming into being without questioning, just eating, drinking, fucking, breeding, dying, end of story. THAT is not your business, not your final imago, you want, you must go beyond carnal needs. Look at your culture, your nationality, the language you speak (and think), the clothes you wear, the books you read, the movies you watch, the music you listen to ect ect ect:
It all transcends sheer animal existence, all these things are telling a story, the story you choose to achieve human transcendence.
This kind of transcendence is the way Nature is trying to transcend herself. Sure, most people think of Nature as sheer animalistic, wild, untamed and therefore true, real, uncorrupted, innocent. But Nature isn't at work within plants and animals exclusively , but within man, within us as well. There isn't anything outside Nature. Our entire genetic legacy we got from our parents is rooted in animals, fish, snake, bear, bird, what have you- it's ALL within us. Destruction, corruption, killing, exploitation, lies, theft, fallacies and what have you- it's ALL natural, it's all some expression of Nature. You can never fall out of Nature, you can never be separated from Nature. You have been born from Nature into Nature, you live within and through Nature all your life and you will die into Nature, no matter, what story you may follow.
There is an Inuit saying:
" With the light, death came into this world."Without Light there is no guiltiness, no crime, no fallacy, no biblical "fall of man", no sin, no Death. We don't condemn animals for killing, stealing or whatever they might do, because they haven't seen the Light like we have seen it. This light we have seen is like a burning fire, it burns painfully right within our heart and mind, it is the Fire of Transcendence. Animals might get some distant, irritating glimpse when they are confronted with the death of some fellow animal being or when they are witnessing some fire or severe weather, thunder, lightning or when they wake up from some nightly dream (yes, animals dream, even drosophila DREAMS, that's a scientific fact), but we are living right within that sort of Fire 24/7. And STILL we are one with Nature, one with all the plants and animals. The animals have the very same desire for the light, for transcendence, for going beyond their limitations. But only man is burning within that light, is suffering and yet loving and celebrating that light 24/7.
No one can see the Light I'm talking about and still live. The true light is a killer, not a murderer, but a killer. The true light kills your innocence, it kills your animalistic confidence, instinct, spontaneity, it kills your Immortality. Animals are immortal, because they have no transcendent concept about Death like Homo Sapiens has, animals don't have a clue about "age" and "birth" and "death" like we have, they experience life and death as some continuous, infinite, PRESENT Process, not as some straight line with some start- and endpoint in space and time like we do. You know, Death might be a problem in your mind, but your body doesn't know any such problems at all, because your body does not have any transcendent concept about death. Just ask your liver or your legs or your ass: Do they have any concept about death? No, they haven't and therefore they have no clue about death. But you have, because you are NOT your body, your innermost, immaterial core transcends the body, flesh and bones. Your innermost core is a burning Fire and therefore your body will be burned down and die one day.
You want to attain immortality? Then get rid of your rational mind, get rid of your identification card, get rid of your birthdate, name, adress ect and get rid of your stories and you will attain immortality, but you will lose the painfully (well, sometimes ex- static) burning Light within as well, you will sink down into unconsciousness, exactly like you do every night when you let go of that Light of consciousness and sink deep into deep sleep, forgetting birth, death, adress, name ect, becoming one with the immortal core of Nature. Yes, that Inuit saying is 100% right:
With the Light, Death came into this world.
Death is no final state, but the burning fire within that transcends all names and forms, all flesh and bone. Immortality and mortality are two sides of the same coin, death is just like the horizon illuminated by the Light within. Death is not the enemy of life, but death is
life viewed at from a different perspective. Immortality is for free, no need for science, technology, machines ect. Ray Kurzweil has no clue about real immortality, Ray Kurzweil is a dreamer, a little kid who hasn't lived life to it's fullest extend and who hasn't transcended himself and his stories yet. One day real death will knock at his door and death will take Ray Kurzweil by the hand and take away his flesh and bones and then Ray Kurzweil will get a glimpse about real Immortality.