On Not Existing

It would be truly awful if we actually existed.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

The Buddhists would say that you are a temporary aggregate that is destined to fall apart at some point in the future. Spinoza would say that existence is not a part of your essential makeup. Here are his exact words:

The essence of man does not involve necessary existence.

Yet another thinker has stated that if a thing can disappear from existence, it has never existed anyway.

I have to admit, I find this incredibly liberating. That my shabby, ugly life is of no account because I have never existed is such a relief. My life's utter insignificance and nullity set me free to do whatever I wish because none of it is important. We cannot accuse the universe of depriving us of freedom. Just imagine how awful it would be if existence were a part of what we are, and we could never escape it. According to Spinoza, existence is the essence of God, and He/She/It is stuck with it for all eternity. Poor God.

Here you are experiencing things and fully convinced that you exist. I think we can be likened to a TV set that is showing a picture, making noises and sucking up electricity. It is a machine, and we are machines too, flattering ourselves with the notion that the pictures and noises are us. Our thoughts, emotions, desires, and sensations are all products of the machine, and we think these things constitute a person with a definite set of qualities. The "person" is an illusion, an abstraction that doesn't exist, and just as when the TV set breaks, the pictures and sounds will stop, so when we come apart, the thoughts, emotions, sensations, and desires will also stop.

God is good not burdening us with existence and you can inwardly celebrate the fact that you have never existed.