Solipsism, In/Finity

We are representations of others to others, just as others are seen as representations of ourselves to ourselves. The human condition predisposes us to a certain psychological solipsism, wherein everyone is separated from everyone by their preference for themselves. Disposed toward self-absorption, we hurt one another because we do not see them, but only various projections of ourselves. The trick is learning how to look past one's vision. This is not an easy feat, and none of us is born with this knowledge outright.

This is the human condition. We are born finite, yet instilled with the impetus toward infinity. Cast at the intersection of two impossibilities, we are foreordained to fail. Unsettled in our limited nature, we seek to improve ourselves. But since we are finite, we essentially lack the knowledge requisite to become infinite. Inevitably, the various ways we seek our own expansion are too limited in their conception. In trying to control the uncontrollable, humans fan the fires of their existential tension, threatening to burn to ash the very fabric of their moral lives.

We burn ourselves, over and over. We dance in orbit about the cosmic fires, lured in by the gravity of their infinite promise. Too close now, we are scalded and flee. Too far now, our frail skin shivers and we turn back. Cast between the dark empty of space and the white center of the sun, we are promised many failures in our life's journey before we attain balance. This is the source of much of the strife on earth. We must fail before we succeed; we must suffer before we find peace.

All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. The question is not whether there will be suffering, but how much suffering there will be. We cannot control whether we fail, but we can try to learn as much as we can from our failures. When success, balance and peace are attained is not for us to know. That does not mean it is impossible for us to surpass ourselves.

We must trust to the infinite, for only its power may draw us into harmony. Starting from ourselves, we will always fail. That which is finite can only ever reach the finite. Learning to succumb to the steady pull of transcendence can be difficult. One does not reach enlightenment desiring or wishing for enlightenment. That which dwells beyond and between all things draws us to it always, and we are always already lingering beside it. It is precisely in the seeking that we are separated. Once we learn to stop looking, perhaps we can see that we have always been just where we needed to be.