That's the thing though! Tahani never went through it, which reinforces that it is, in fact, optional, rather than a singular conclusion that everyone will choose self-annihilation. And it's not entirely an end; we don't know what happens through the door.
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Replying to @mssilverstein @queerthecloset and
Tahani is a true boddhisattva - she's done but out of compassion for every other being in the universe she's not leaving until they're all done too Which is why she gives up all the comforts of the Good Place to become an Architect, she no longer needs them
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mssilverstein and
Just like Chidi was perfectly willing to stay for Eleanor's sake, it wasn't torture for him or anything, there was just no further benefit for him personally
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mssilverstein and
And yeah Eleanor in the end isn't *gone* gone, that's what the little sparks represent (although Shur says the idea that the sparks ARE Eleanor is an oversimplification of what he intended) Nirvana is the ineffable process of rejoining the world-soul
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mssilverstein and
Every individual soul that achieves nirvana means the world-soul is a little closer to itself finally being done
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Replying to @arthur_affect @queerthecloset and
Yeah - the sparks are extremely important here, I think, metaphorical or not. The end of the self in this way isn't necessarily the equivalent of being the end of the existence, just the end of the particular arrangement.
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Replying to @mssilverstein @arthur_affect and
I can't tell you whether or not that's happy or optimistic, that's a personal question, of course. But it is a reassuring way to think about death itself, if you don't believe in an afterlife.
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Replying to @mssilverstein @arthur_affect and
There are, of course, theistic and non-theistic ways to think about this as well, if you don't want to think about it in a naturalistic context but something more spiritual or metaphysical. But one important element for me is separation.
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Replying to @mssilverstein @arthur_affect and
Because, ultimately, that's what existence actually *is*: it's the period of time when there's a part of the universe that is YOU, and a part that is NOT YOU. And at some point, that stops.
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Replying to @mssilverstein @queerthecloset and
You can kind of thank Andy Weir's The Egg here for introducing a lot of nerdy Western audiences to pantheism Imagine that there is only one person and they have to go through being everybody in the world before they rest Your job is to make being you suck as little as possible
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A while back on the show Michael disguised as a bartender told a reset Eleanor that his "friend" was a person who often felt like being an asshole and found it was an easier way to go through life But couldn't escape the voice in her head nagging her "You know this is wrong"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mssilverstein and
And Eleanor's "spark" becomes that "little voice" of conscience for someone else in the end A Buddhist would say that the "little voice" reminding you you have to care about other people is really your faint memory that you ARE other people, we're all part of the same atman
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mssilverstein and
The reason the pleasure you get from being an asshole is delusional and it isn't as "practical" to be one as you think When you fuck other people over you're fucking yourself over You're making it suck worse to be you and to be the people around you
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