I'll watch 'What about Bob?' if you watch Tarkovsky's 'Solaris' — Question
The relation of humanity to the alien is one of total incomprehension and horror, and this is the mirror of the individual's relation to himself, and particularly for Kelvin, to his love. I can see why you like it. The inescapable self - beloved horror. — unenlightened
Is this a common philosophical approach to life? In your experience, have people achieved long-term contentment or freedom from despair looking at life in this way? Are there any readings you would recommend on the subject of cultivating a relatively stable peace of mind? — CasKev
In the context of that practice, it may prove beneficial to cultivate the power of introspection, developing the capacity to recognize and "release" (or "detach from") the more or less subtle thoughts and images, memories and intentions, desires and aversions, emotions and feelings, that naturally tend to occupy and distract attention and lurk in the periphery of awareness in cooperation with perception, movement, posture, and breath. — Cabbage Farmer
I agree about taking a holistic approach.Taking a holistic approach — TimeLine
I disagree on this. This isn't why mindfulness is successful. Being calm is merely a side effect. It's successful because it is perhaps the only process that puts the body and the mind in a process of self-regulation - there are biological and neurological changes that happen while someone is meditating. This is in addition to aiding someone develop spiritually - spiritual strength itself being one of the key components of mental well-being.The reason why mindfulness is successful is because it calms the individual enough to be able to communicate. — TimeLine
https://donaldrobertson.name/2013/01/18/cognitive-distancing-in-stoicism/Some researchers, most notably the founders of ACT, have argued that verbal disputation techniques may interfere with psychological distance (which they call “cognitive defusion”). The best way to illustrate this is perhaps by considering the example of Buddhist-style mindfulness meditation. While meditating, if a distracting thought crosses the mind, mindfulness practitioners are taught to view it with detachment and resist the urge to respond to it by analysing its meaning or engaging in an internal dialogue about it. They might view it as if it were like a cloud passing across the sky and “let it go”. Engaging with the thought can simply make it more prominent, even if someone is attempting to challenge or dispute it. One can easily be swept along with the thought this way and lose psychological distance from it.
The problem with talk therapy is that it engages the person with their past, and the past is all nonsense. All that matters is the present moment, not silly games of the mind. Mindfulness helps you detach from the silly games of the mind - it doesn't matter anymore that such and such thoughts cross your mind. Your conditioning, from your past, becomes irrelevant. Psychotherapy is all BS, precisely because it is playing games - it is the mind playing games with you. — Agustino
No, I am not my past. My past is my ego, and the conditioning of my mind. My true self is beyond all conditioning and all events in time, and cannot be touched by them. Seeing beyond the ego - that is already to be free of the problems of the ego.Your past is not nonsense and forms the fabric of who you are, of your perceptions and how you identify with the world. — TimeLine
Yes, there probably are. But why would I bother with that, when I can extinguish the problem from its very roots by detaching myself from my conditioning, whatever that conditioning happens to be?If you experience anxiety, there could be a plethora of possible factors that are causally rooted in your past that talk therapy enables you to articulate and indeed you may very well realise that you are being emotional about something for reasons that are irrational, such as inculturation or some childhood experience. — TimeLine
That is a waste of time, because it is playing the games of the mind. The mind likes to nurture this self-importance and narcissism, and investigate its history, look for causes, say "oh, this is why", etc. as if finding a why will solve the problem. It likes to feel that it has solved problems, only to later find out it has created 10 others. To articulate stuff - to go in the labyrinth of the mind - is already to lose the game. The mind is cunning - it can play with you for your entire life. Escaping the traps of the mind, and going beyond the mind - then you escape whatsoever problems the mind has - they do not concern you anymore.but it is a natural evolution from that that a person should find the courage to reach further still - as the OP is experiencing - to link the network of possible causes. — TimeLine
Is this a common philosophical approach to life? In your experience, have people achieved long-term contentment or freedom from despair looking at life in this way? Are there any readings you would recommend on the subject of cultivating a relatively stable peace of mind? — CasKev
You, me, and a billion other people. Welcome to this club too. — Bitter Crank
No, I am not my past. My past is my ego, and the conditioning of my mind. My true self is beyond all conditioning and all events in time, and cannot be touched by them. — Agustino
But why would I bother with that, when I can extinguish the problem from its very roots by detaching myself from my conditioning, whatever that conditioning happens to be? — Agustino
That is a waste of time, because it is playing the games of the mind. — Agustino
Sure.You have an ego whether you like it or not. — TimeLine
But where did I say that I have no ego?To say you have no ego is ridiculous. — TimeLine
Yes - and that has nothing to do with psychological analysis, communication, or something similar. It has to do with insight and awareness.It is your reason that you ought to ensure is free from this conditioning, which takes time and a continuous desire to improve. — TimeLine
Well yes, to a certain extent. What does this have to do with communication though? Communication can itself be the problem - indeed, it is almost the characteristic par excellence of the neurotic to go to someone else to be told what they have to do. The neurotic always seeks reassurance - from the doctor, from the psychologist, from the psychiatrist, from the teacher - etc. This is the disease itself. I am reminded of this clip of Krishnamurti:Anxiety is this unconscious, deeper awareness of that truth, of that reality, this emotional response that is prompting us with feelings that we cannot articulate because we have repressed it from consciousness. — TimeLine
The mind cannot be understood from within the mind - by transcending the mind, the discursive faculties, you also thereby understand them. The identification with the mind and with the ego is the problem.You are playing with your mind by choosing not to understand it. — TimeLine
What is it in my remarks that lead you to suspect I underestimate the severity of the problem? Surely our conceptual and linguistic habits may contribute to the burden of psychic suffering. But I doubt a cure may be rooted principally in improved habits of speech. A practice aimed at well-being must involve much more than speeches; and it seems to me the speeches most worth emphasizing in this connection are speeches that inform and motivate right action more thoroughly. Moreover, I see no reason to suppose there is only one right way, or only one best way, to conceptualize a relevant range of action, nature, or experience.I think you may underestimate the grievance that our emotional language and anxiety or depression can evoke in a person who is unable to articulate or explain that experience.Self-reflective practice requires the courage to make that choice to search for an honest answer. "Peace" of mind is not found in approaches that momentarily alleviate the tensions, help you swallow it or ignore it or move on, but to ascertain the root causes that eliminates it and the best way this can be done is through cognisance. This detaches us from the subjective to the objective and it no longer controls our emotional responses. This detaches us from the subjective to the objective and it no longer controls our emotional responses. — TimeLine
I suppose I've met people like those you describe. Only I don't think their display of happiness is as convincing as you portray it here.I have met people who display all the characteristics of a happy disposition and positive attitude as their new age practice teaches them, but underlying this remains an anxiety that can easily be provoked; the chalice is clean only on the outside. — TimeLine
I'm inclined to agree.People often assume a 'danger' to the root causes of such anxiety, as though it is a life and death scenario, that one must simply avoid it at all costs. I think it is the courage to overcome this self-defence mechanism and face reality that is the greatest challenge but ultimately the only way to finding this 'peace' — TimeLine
I suppose all practice is individual. But there are features of anyone's practice that are shared or shareable with others. And no one's practice is unique in every respect.and such a practice is individual — TimeLine
For my part, the Roman Stoics. Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius. Musonius Rufus if you can find his work. CBT has its basis in Stoicism.Are there any readings you would recommend on the subject of cultivating a relatively stable peace of mind? — CasKev
But I doubt a cure may be rooted principally in improved habits of speech. — Cabbage Farmer
This is why the mind requires human interaction to achieve this state of peace you are referring to. In my experience meaning can only be found in our relations with other humans. — Gord
If, on the other hand, you seek out artificial sources that manage those emotional responses, you are not directed to the source or reasons why you are having them in the first place and are simply prolonging the problem by ignoring it. — TimeLine
It seems to me we're roughly agreed on the value and character of the range of experiences and practices you've emphasized.That is the point about "peace" - it is really that empowerment that stems of honesty. — TimeLine
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.