To me, K responded (responds) to this question with or by the way he lived this life.
He taught for 70 years, he gave (or gives) his mind and heart to communicate to me what matters, yet, he saw (or sees) that what matters, if not understood, it doesn’t matter.
So, Everything matters and Nothing matters at the same time.
PS: when I speak about K, I wouldn’t use the past, but the present, like: he teaches, he lives, he communicates, cause K continues to exist…
I wonder if this question is about what ultimately matters to humanity, to humans in general, in which case any answer would have no meaning because if humanity is divided, confused, fragmented, conditioned, then who specifically can answer the question categorically? Who is going to answer for humanity? Anyone answering for humanity would be speculating; and because I cannot even think of myself answering this question in absolute terms for anyone, the relevant question for me to answer is: What ultimately matters – to “you”? This question happens to be much less ambiguous and is therefore easier for me to answer because it is about what matters to this human being in particular; and so, there is only one thing that really matters to me, my freedom, my psychological freedom. What do I mean by psychological freedom? I mean freedom from all kinds of worries: freedom from the worries of yesterday and tomorrow, from the worries of being conditioned and fragmented, from the worries of having nothing and being nobody, from the worries of not being appreciated or acknowledged, from the worries of being lonely and sick, from the worries of what to eat or what to wear, from the worries of aging and physically deteriorating and eventually passing away, etc., etc., etc. In one of his public talks JK has said, “To commit oneself to freedom and to find out what love is - those are the only two things that matter - freedom and that thing called `love’.” (Public Talk 1 New Delhi, India - 19 November 1967)
@DeNiro
I am not sure what your comment (comparison ) intends to communicate…or highlight ? That I am a Christian and K is Jesus (to me) ? How do you know what is my “relationship” with K ?
I am simply saying that K’s teachings are alive today. K’s message continues to resonate today.
What do you want me to do ?
To Censor my words to sound in a particular way ?
I expressed what I felt and what K is to me. A “living” teacher. Of course, metaphorical speaking.
It must surely be possible to find some commonality in what we identify as a common type of being?
What about this idea that we are all psychologically bamboozled by our projections? That we all feel that I am what ultimately matters ? That I am the only thing of real importance?
This certainly sounds like a less egocentric “choice” - it must have really resonated in the 1970s - only the desire for freedom seems to have survived into the present zeitgeist.
Crina,
I was just commenting on something I grew up with, how what you wrote sounded so much like friends from my Christian past. To them, Jesus is alive today, living within their heart and through them. They had a very personal relationship with this son of God. They sang about him and communicated with him daily, through prayer. He walked beside them, especially in times of trouble. What mattered to them was loving each other on earth and making it to heaven after death.
The notion that you have a personal relationship with God is very appealing. To believe-feel that God, whatever form you imagine, loves and cares about you, and vice-versa, is powerful. I can understand the draw of Christianity, especially Catholicism with its absolution of sins.
Thanks. Though inquiring into value must lead to the central subject, value is necessarily tied to the valuer. The valuer being the base line without which value has no meaning.
Come on folks, this is easy now - we’re on the final sprint!
Though maybe the question : why is value valuable? what is the function of value? might help.
Makes sense, that without the division into matters/matters-not things simply are, value-free.
Who is the I that ultimately matters? Feeling-wise, it’s the self-mirage-I in all its personal history glory! The movie matters, the image, the self-bio. The story of ME.
Something is always valuable for someone (is what I’m saying)
eg. without Dwarves, gold has no intrinsic value. Gold is valuable because dwarves want it. Me wanting is the manifestation of value. There is no value without wanting.
If we answer the question : “who am I?” with “me!” this feels unsatisfactory.
I guess the real question is : what gives me value? what is my function? what is the purpose of self, the center, the valuer?
Honestly I wasn’t trying to get at anything specific, I just wanted to poke around together. MDD zoomed into the self, and I followed. “What (ultimately) matters” is bigger than the self for me.
We agreed that the self matters for the body-mind identifying with it. Matters a lot, maybe even ultimately. Next we’re looking at: Why does it matter so matteringly? What’s the big whoop?
I’m tempted (guess I gave in!) to defer to the Hindus who say something like: I-ness is the one thing we have no need to work at feeling, it’s the most natural-intrinsic feeling of all.
The conditioned brain is a closed system that is primarily concerned with maintaining itself, so the continuity of its condition is what matters most to itself because this condition is all it knows, all it is.
What is outside of, beyond this condition, is terrifying because it is inconceivable to what is conceived and sustained by thought.
“What (ultimately) matters” is bigger than the self for me.
“Bigger” might be manageable, but unlimited, empty, and silent, the absence of thought, is the end of the manager.
I can’t imagine no I because I is imagination uninformed by choiceless awareness and direct perception, and cannot choose to cease to exist. I can only be blown away by what I has always denied and defied.
As we were questioning what matters, having this exchange of words between 2 of us, it seems to me that words matter very much. Words give a direction towards the understanding of another.
But then I am tempted to say that (my) words don’t matter anymore cause they do not convey what I meant to communicate.
So I am back to what I said originally, everything matters and nothing matters.
This feeling of being me, the discriminating center of all things, is essential in order to know what matters.
It is I who give value. Without me value is a meaningless word. Value only exist thanks to my discernment. Discrimination creates value. This is my function. (ie to know and to judge - and thus fear & desire)
Value, meaning, mattering are all in the eye of the I. Love and hate and war and joy and nihilism. I sounds very powerful indeed, magical almost. Alchemical.
Yes - Reality (aka the projections of the brain) appears rock solid - as such it must be obeyed. It is the ultimate authority. (or it certainly feels like it)