The problem with doing things for other people, and how this is defeated by relativism. Godel's Theorem is incomplete "Truth precedes exposition".

We have to be so careful about motive.

I knew someone who's favourite aphorism was, "leave some profit for the other guy"

We believe we are working hard to leave a legacy for the future, progress is not something we will benefit from it is something our descendants will enjoy.

"The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life," [Rabindranath Tagore]

But it is not sacrifice is it. We generate "progress" because we enjoy it and we profit from it.

So actually we have this situation where our descendants potentially will live in a world where everything is done. They won't need to work and progress.

If you can live without working towards progress, then that means we can do that today.

And what is worse, we have all the tools today to live and work towards progress. Which means actually we have everything our descendants will have already. All we are doing is robbing them of working towards progress.  

It is because we are trapped in a relative view of things.

Relativity is a greater principle than Einstein. Einstein was just using it regarding velocity. But it is a expression of what in Buddhism is called conditionality. Things manifest according to their surroundings, not according to an intrinsic essence. This become what they are in relation to what they are not. Being something occurs in the relationship between something and something else. But these two somethings have no intrinsic manifestation in a completely empty universe. This is possibly hard to grasp it has taken me decades.

What we find ever enthralling about work and progress is there are always new and better things. But those things are only new and better looking backwards. If we look forward they are old and worse. Progress depends upon "looking backwards." So ironically "Progress" only happens looking backwards. "Futurists" look forwards and show how limited our existence is.

But who no-one does is just look what a we have "Presentists." In the Present we have all the tools we need to build the future, and we have all the tools of the Past. We are actually completely self sufficient right now. We have everything we could possibly need and that is always true.

This is the most widely overlooked think in the West which is dominated by relative existence.

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Now this leads to an extraordinary maxim:

Truth preceded exposition!

Godel's Theorem is not self sufficient. For Godel numbering to happen, and for the self-reference to be recognised as a contradiction which makes First-Order Logic incomplete, there needs to be a "reader." Godel's Theorem cannot read and recognise itself. To put another way First-Order Logic does not know it is Incomplete or Inconsistent.

So before the proof can be shown the necessary separateness of the system under study and the system that is doing the study is already present.

This is beyond trivial. When someone proves something it is a generally recognised that the proof did not create the result. Truth is usually considered to be universal (to some degree) and a truth that is dependent on the proof is a contradiction. We require that the object of study be separate from the proof. And that is the inherent structure upon which Godel's proofs are based.

But this is not to say that there is some separate fixed world to be discovered. We are saying that we are already armed with the Truth that we are searching. If we were not already familiar with Godel's proof in the very structure of our enquiry and reading we would not be able to discern such a proof. We are outside the system of study, we can see that and we can understand the proof in the very reality it inhabits.

This links to the first point. If we were not already operating in truth how could we decide what was true or not? We cannot drive to the garage to get the car checked unless the car is already working. Likewise the journey to truth is wasted: we already have it.

And more broadly we need be careful about progress and giving things to people. We already have wealth. If we teach our children that we gave them wealth we are actually robbing them of wealth, and in fact all we are doing is trying to cement ourselves into the fabric of reality that does not need us and in fact does not recognise us.

So the whole project of the West is flawed and pointless. All human activity will turn to dust and the world will not even notice.

That may seem very depressing to those hooked on achieving something and proving to the world and prosperity that they are meaningful, useful and required by existence. This is actually the work of the devil tricking you into a life of suffering and slavery.

Turn it all around and be in awe at what God gave you for free. That manifestation of the universe before you is already more incredible than anything you could ever achieve. Even spending one day within it is a gift beyond anything anyone can give anyone. So why waste time trying to prove yourself and trying to match that gift: just celebrate it now and realise that everything is already done.