Is it better to be lost or found?

[hitchhiker]

Some may say lost some may say found. Dylan Thomas once said "I once was lost and proud and now I am found and humble. I prefer that other". And in some church hyme scapes my mind now it say "I once was now I am found" and the bible refers to stay sheep multipule times but isn't it better to be lost and still exploring then to be found and settled. I prefer to be lost in mind and spirit just so I still have somehting to look forward to findind.

[PierreGringoire]

Very good and complex question. Once you are found you understand that there is nothing to find. But to be 'found' is to understand that there is always something new to find. cya....:)

[grace86]

I think the hymn you are referring to is Amazing Grace:

"I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see."

That is a very interesting question you have. The phrase "ignorance is bliss" comes to mind.

You said you prefer to be lost in mind and spirit so that you have something to look forward to find...right? Well when you are "found" you realize just how much you didn't know and were lost from...and you also realize you will never "find" everything...the pursuit in faith, wisdom and knowledge and spirit is all an amazing journey, I would think there is always something to look forward to find because you will likely never find it all.

Did that make sense? I am a bit brain dead right now.

[Madhuri]

I would prefer being lost only to be found by someone else. ;)

This thread being under philosophy doesnt mean all posts have to be serious :D

Jus' kidding :D

[Ciao]

To search is an innate desire of humans, yet there is a point of nirvana worth reaching is there not?
As taught in religions such as certain branches of Buddhism where the goal of life is to realize that all there is to life is suffering and accept it. Once you do there is nothing left to find and you are at peace.

I don't think that being lost means you have to be settled in your knowledge, you can search with direction and purpose... not mindless wandering.
although.... Dylan Thomas was much more of a genius than I ever will be ;)

[OZEED]

"I WISH I WAS FOUND EARLIER IN MY LIFE!" is often the statement I hear, from people who have had the "now I am found life changing experience", although a speak from a christocentric standpoint I'm sure that other belief systems have a similiar steam of thought. Which leads me to believe that being "found" has nothing to do about reaching the end but rather the start to a new chapter.

[hitchhiker]

I see being found to mean something like that you seem to understand life or as much as any one can. And lost meaning you are not sure about anything religion, love, meanings, anything as small as is the color red truely red or as big as is this the true love of my life. Robert Frost has the poem about a path less travled and that is the path I would rether stay on or even more of not a path but a section of woods growen up through the years and I can see me cutting my legs on thorns and scratching my face on branches this is my path.

[ShoutGrace]

. . . the pursuit in faith, wisdom and knowledge and spirit is all an amazing journey, I would think there is always something to look forward to find because you will likely never find it all.


Which leads me to believe that being "found" has nothing to do about reaching the end but rather the start to a new chapter.

Exactly. "Finding" your course in life does not necessarily entail either the loss of enjoyment or the loss of further understanding and wonderment; indeed, these things should continue as long as you live.



I see being found to mean something like that you seem to understand life or as much as any one can. And lost meaning you are not sure about anything religion, love, meanings, anything as small as is the color red truely red or as big as is this the true love of my life.

Anybody who says the understand life, or human existence, or this universe, is mistaken in my opinion.



Robert Frost has the poem about a path less travled and that is the path I would rether stay on or even more of not a path but a section of woods growen up through the years and I can see me cutting my legs on thorns and scratching my face on branches this is my path.

Well, actually, both those paths were worn “really about the same.” ;)

I appreciate the image you give here, and find it very creative, but I wonder about it's application to life. What if you come to decide that a path is the "right" path? Would you still abandon it for the woods, merely because the woods are less traveled?

[cuppajoe_9]

Like a hitchhiker really has to ask.

[holograph]

all of this is relative, i think. the state of "found" and "lost" is all subjective. one may feel "lost" but on a path, or "lost" and off the path. or, one may feel "found" and content or "found" and at a dead end. personally, though, i think we as humans encounter both states at various points in our lives, at all points, really. we may be lost today but come to a realization and be found once more, then lose ourselves again in the pits and colors of the universe. that is the beauty of the struggle and the realization. ;)

[OZEED]

all of this is relative, i think. the state of "found" and "lost" is all subjective. one may feel "lost" but on a path, or "lost" and off the path. or, one may feel "found" and content or "found" and at a dead end. personally, though, i think we as humans encounter both states at various points in our lives, at all points, really. we may be lost today but come to a realization and be found once more, then lose ourselves again in the pits and colors of the universe. that is the beauty of the struggle and the realization. ;)

I like it! I like alot! "all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream"

[hitchhiker]

I do want to abanden the right path if a path leads me out of the forest or to my home I will leave it for I am not intrested in something I already have seen but more of what I haven't no matter where it leads. I hae drifted towards drugs in these latter years and they have sent me to alternitive school twice once in tenth and now in my senior year and I still don't regret being lost with them becuase those were my experinces and I love every one of them and to me they represent the thorns and branches

[ShoutGrace]

I do want to abanden the right path if a path leads me out of the forest or to my home I will leave it for I am not intrested in something I already have seen but more of what I haven't no matter where it leads.

I just cannot see how this holds any validity philosophically. Analogies fail due to the utter complexity of the opening question. There isn’t one thing that someone will find that will devastate their exploration or growth. Anything that seemingly does such a thing is a mere projection of that person's own propensities. That person would have stagnated on whatever they had come upon; there will always be space and opportunity to grow, produce and traverse different landscapes.

Besides which, we all define certain constants anyway. To what degree is permanently deciding you were meant to be the gender you are any different than deciding that you don’t like strawberry yogurt or can or cannot reconcile the concept of a loving God?

To what level do you want to avoid already traveled terrain? I say this because being a proponent of such an argument as the one you have proffered above instantly renders someone a hypocrite, in my opinion (if we are talking about the same thing).



I hae drifted towards drugs in these latter years and they have sent me to alternitive school twice once in tenth and now in my senior year and I still don't regret being lost with them becuase those were my experinces and I love every one of them and to me they represent the thorns and branches

That’s all well and good (and I appreciate you honesty and openness). You can reminisce on your experiences, recall them and favour them, without any instantly negative repercussions. Deriding the honest appraisal of past experience is not one of my habits.

Let’s get our definitions straight. What constitutes a ‘path’? What constitutes ‘traveling a path’? How far are you willing to extend your maxim . . . or how short?

[hitchhiker]

I change my mind when it comes to pathes becuase of no matter where you had be it you are trying to change to path by do something diffrent or you strongly beliave in a loving God it is all pathes. I finally se that if your choice is to abanded a path that is your decision and that is your path so no matter what you may decide it is a decision and a decision means a path no matter what. I think most people enjoy the idea of being some what diffrent it has become the new "in" and that is why it is a original thought to say "I want to take the less beaten path" but non the less all pathes have been taken. And if one sees a path as a decision then every one is on a path and if they are no they a simpaly dead.

[Ciao]

So going off Hitchikers thought about being uninterested in things already seen while craving the unseen.... isn't it a more worthy cause to explore that of your experience and to take from it what you can and cannot understand before you move forward? I am unsure which is more wise to pursue.... the unknowable or the experienced....

[OZEED]

Ciao - "isn't it a more worthy cause to explore that of your experience and to take from it what you can and cannot understand before you move forward?"
I concur there is certainly merit in drawing from your experience before you move on.I also would like to add that sumtimes it is after you've long moved on do you then draw from a past experience.

Ciao - "I am unsure which is more wise to pursue.... the unknowable or the experienced...."

I would really say that it's not a question of which is more wise.It is the very essence of what makes us human to pursue the unknowable, Whats the first thing that a little baby does if he/she is handed an object? the object is placed into the mouth, this is done to become familiar with the object, the mouth is used as an exploring mechanism.Tell a child NOT TO TOUCH! without explaining why, whats the first thing that the child will do when you turn your back?
It is the ability to take from our experience and to pursue the unknowable which gets me up in the morning.
Ps.I wasn't sure how to quote specific parts of the blog so copy and paste had to surffice.;)