What are Your Epiphanies?

[strongvoicesforward]

What epiphanies have you had that have altered your world view or daily life? Where were you and what were you doing at the time? Did you alter your life right then when you came to realize this personal �gtruth,�h or did you take steps gradually to bring you into allignment with it? Or, perhaps it was just an incite into something that did not require any change of life?

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I`ll go first.

My biggest one, which many of you may guess, was that �gbeings which we know to be able to suffer are also deserving of the right to integrity of body�h (i.e. to not be violated/exploited for personal gain). That resulted in me becoming a vegetarian and caring deeply about animal rights and liberation. It has changed my life on a daily basis not only because of diet, but also in that I spend time daily networking with other activists and assisting in campaigns.

I had my personal epiphany when I was cutting and biting into a hamburger steak at a family restaurant here in Japan. It was a little too rare and the blood was easing out. Up until then, in the previous weeks, I had become interested in some sites I had come on by accident on the net, read their points and they seemed sound. Even though, I still continued to staunchly defend my diet of flesh. But, the logic and arguments of the non-flesh eaters stayed in my mind. I guess they came crashing through when I was about to eat that hamburger steak.

However, I didn`t quit eating meat all of a sudden. I was afraid that if I did it in a crash course, after a while I would revert back to eating flesh. So, I went vegetarian over the course of six weeks.

That`s my biggest personal epiphany. How about others? What are yours?

[Mars Man]

I can't say that I have had any major sudden changes due to paradigm shifts, or enlightenments. Things that have changed or that have become more deeply understood, have all come slowly over time--I'm generally a very slow, steady moving person; the 'slowly but surely' type.

I did appreciate how the use of the term 'personal truth' could lend itself to being a truth that is taken to being so personally. That is one major thing that most surely goes along with epiphenomenalism, which although not generally related to the word epiphany, is from the same root. The 'how' of each individual's seeing is the key player I think.

Well, as for my changes, one may be that of coming to see the purpose in life as most observably and likely, being just that--to have and ensure life on each plane of life. (we all do it in one way or another, and have built in systems to protect ourselves and so on.) This has come over a number of years. I'll post more if I think of it.

[Revenant]

It was sort of an epiphany, in short, I took on an existentialists philosophy just by thinking it through. Seeing that the only time when one had any true power was where past and present met caused me to pay a lot more attention to sensations, feelings, thoughts, and others stuff that was happening now. It is less to be losing this time due to the hope of change, to enjoy this moment more, and less to be stuck in ruminating over past unchangable.

Buddhism then just sort of fit right in, but the label existentialist I couldn't claim till I knew of the term in sabro's thread, 'Are you an existentialist?'.

[strongvoicesforward]

I`ve come to know that different friends should be used for different things.

At one time I felt that the term 'friend' was absolute and applicable to all situations in which we might need them. It seems like common sense that that is not true, but it took me a while to work that out in my head.

For instance, I used to think that a friend is one you can share any problem with and expect them to be a cheerleader for you when you are down. Personally, whenever a friend of mine has been down, I never felt it important at the time when they had reached out to me to criticise them (that can come later in the form of constructive criticism) and felt that the overiding thing at the moment was to just listen and try and cheer them up.

That however has not been reciprocated by all my friends when I have been down. I now know which friends to choose to contact when I am down and need a pep talk. I know which ones to avoid as well (e.g. the I told you so friend, or always pessimistic about the future type friend).

Like I said, it seems common sense now; because if my car were broken I would most probably call the friend that is good at fixing cars, and if my computer were giving me trouble, I would likewise call the friend who was good at computers. However, I guess in my younger naive days, I felt that all friends were to be there to give you a pep talk when you have fallen down. I thought this was, or should be, a universal trait in friends. Perhaps you may feel so, too. Do you? But, I now know that to not be true. If they should, the epiphany of reality is -- they don`t. But, it would be nice if they all did.

Have you learned which friends to avoid when feeling down and which to go to? Do you feel closer to the friend that you know is always there to listen and give you a pep talk, rather than the friend that is going to disect the actions leading to your blue feeling or failure in something? Of course both are important, and the latter type can be quite helpful in guiding your future with insights and keeping you from making the same mistake, -- but at the urgent moment when you are feeling down and anguished, which one would you seek out first?


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Perhaps this should be a seperate topic thread, but I do feel it is an incite into human relations.