If I feel both misaligned and disunited with the world — usually as a consequence of suffering — then it is natural to conclude that my feeling misaligned is a result of being disunited with the world.

However, if I recognize that the feeling of misalignment has persisted even when I’ve been united with the world, then to seek truth means that I must consider decoupling general alignment with alignment with the world. At least from the known world.

At this point, the truth seeker must battle doubts that the desire for alignment can be fulfilled or is even valid. They must choose to either identify with the desire for alignment fulfillment or unity with the world. The default, downstream choice is unity with the world.

As a result, the vast majority of people are coping with the unfulfilled desire for alignment through some combination of denial, suppression, or short term relief. This is true for the vast majority of both atheists and theists.

To the degree that I identify with the desire for alignment is the degree that I believe in its fulfillment, since there is a cost to identifying with desires.

To the degree the world is unable to fulfill my desire for alignment, the world becomes dead to me.

To the degree that I continue to identify with the desire for alignment even after the world becomes more and more dead to me, I am displaying faith in alignment with something that transcends the world.

This feeling of being misaligned with ultimate reality - do you know this feeling? Are you able to recognize that this feeling arises in the body rather than in the head via thought?

How much value is there in truth seeking when you are in misalignment with ultimate reality?

Would you agree that the alignment problem between the human individual and ultimate reality is foundational to truth seeking?

If so, would it then follow that denying or suppressing the feeling of being misaligned is a death sentence to truth seeking?

1. Ultimate reality is not found in a magic story from superstitious cultures thousands of years ago. Hello.
2. There is no alignment problem from not presupposing such magic as true (the only way to defend its "truth").
3. There is such a thing as archetypal stories ... thousands of them.
4. There are no truth seekers ... most especially those that claim it for themselves. Any realistic view of this for someone on the path is acknowledging how averse, avoidant, denying and resisting we generally are to truth ... and thus manifest a great humility about our meager attempts to align with it, this instead of cliched claims about "being a truth seeker."
5. A feeling of misalignment and lostness is a prerequisite to being on the path, and a presupposed certainty about truth is the enemy of truth.