It may sound like we are copping out or giving up, but I agree with you here. It, whatever it may be, is too deep to be comprehended. This is the biggest reason I have tended to focus on the mechanical algorithms of calculus-based mathematics lately. Even when I can barely follow the text, I do stand a chance of eventually making sense of it. It is in the realm of the possible.
As for making sense of general reality, considering the world as representation (Maya) and trying to comprehend what is behind it, well, it is fascinating to read Schopenhauer because he goes so deep. I am confident that he probably took it as far as is possible. There is no "one-upping" Schopenhauer.
Whatever it is that is happening en masse, I am not spared; and so, I too am showing signs ... of losing the ability to concentrate or focus. I wish I could offer a solution. And yet, you seem to have hit on something that could at least relieve us of the frustration of not understanding life at all.
We can just resign ourselves to not being equipped to comprehend the nature of reality, the nature of our lives.
We can, in effect, out-Kant Kant in our NEGATIVITY.
Our contribution will be, like Kant's, a negative contribution.
We may be able to experience the Will directly, as Schopenhauer pointed out, but we simply can't comprehend our situation as a whole. It is just too deep. The world is in our heads, but our head is in the world. The fact that we try to and want to make sense of it actually may help us to face the brute fact of our lives, that we exist, and that our existence need not make sense or have any particular purpose.
I think this is what makes alcohol and drugs so appealing to so many deep thinkers. This is why we tend to stupefy ourselves ... We want to become like vegetable life, to short-circuit the will to know.
At least Schopenhauer wrote in terms that we recognize in our own being. As beings, we are pure will. We want to remain safe from harm, to avoid pain, to stay warm and dry. As far as being thinking or knowing beings, that aspect is a parasitical accident. So, if we really identify our essence with this Life of the Mind, we are identifying precisely with that which not our true essence at all. No wonder we experience so much inner disharmony.
I am resigned to just taking notes on what we actually experience. This is not imaginary stuff we are talking about. In fact, when I have been very close to acting upon the suicidal impulse, I could clearly identify two opposing ideas, one coming from the head (intellect), the other from the heart (the will-to-live). You see what force won out, right?
The heart would whimper and become terrified of the parasitical brain that had figured out the final solution.
Let us continue to explore these problems, but I want to make clear I am in total agreement with you, Holden, when it comes to the fact that we may simply not be wired to comprehend. At least we try. We have come up against the walls of the metaphysical prison.
You see, it is not just the world's social order that imprisons us through economics. Life itself is kind of a prison. We are feeling the walls of the metaphysical cage we are in. Let's face this nightmare. Let us stare into the abyss!
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