Well, that's certainly not the intent of compassion. I often conflate compassion with empathy; but, it seems to me that there is a sincere desire to share with others in their toil and suffering. Hence, I view anyone as saying "I am enlightened" to be full of himself or herself. — Posty McPostface
Hence, the need to isolate from the problems of the world? I don't know how the Dali Lama get's up every morning and dismisses the negativity of the world. Should I meditate more? — Posty McPostface
I am extremely doubtful about the veracity or even coherence of the common notion of enlightenment as some kind of esoteric, higher, objective knowledge. — Janus
I think it means being fully accepting of what and who you are, though; 'being comfortable in your own skin'. so to speak; and that may take a lot of work. — Janus
I am extremely doubtful about the veracity or even coherence of the common notion of enlightenment as some kind of esoteric, higher, objective knowledge. — Janus
What is the mechanism of "not accepting"? What is "not accepting" literally made of? Thought. To the degree we turn down the volume of thought the "not accepting" goes away. — Jake
but that doesn't automatically equal such "esoteric, higher, objective knowledge" being non-existent.
My guess is that there are considerable translation obstacles involved, like trying to explain color to a blind man. — Jake
pathless land means:
There is a land with no paths.
So the truth is land itself. Truth isn't moving anywhere in is just there. In the land. — One here
[...]I do know that those claiming that they are awakened are most likely not. — Posty McPostface
I agree that 'not accepting' is driven by thoughts, but it consists in a feeling; which can be shown by the fact that the same thoughts about the self might occur without the feelings of non-acceptance. — Janus
I also agree that there are initially only only temporary solutions and that the relinquishing of attachment to the kinds of thoughts that cause tension and preoccupation must be sustained by constant attention at first, but may subsequently be established by habit. but then no "permament' solution would seem to be possible since my situation is constantly changing, even if only in subtle ways. We can get better at it just as can with say playing music; but there will always be room for improvement. — Janus
Not by "thoughts", but by thought. Not the contents of the medium, the medium itself. — Jake
Option 1: If we diagnose the source of the non-acceptance as thoughts, that suggests a psychological process where we examine all the thoughts, try to keep the good ones, dump the bad ones etc. You know, some people spends literally decades in therapy trying to dig through the endless pile of thoughts. — Jake
In the rest of your post you seem to be arguing that enhanced experiences can not deliver reliable data, that all explanations of such experiences are suspect.
That's fine with me, but why worry about it? Why not embrace the experiences for themselves, and simply discard any explanations of them, whether our own or somebody else's? If thought is the primary barrier to such experiences, isn't ANY explanation basically a step backward? — Jake
I am extremely doubtful about the veracity or even coherence of the common notion of enlightenment as some kind of esoteric, higher, objective knowledge. — Janus
No more wearing masks can be a challenge in this parade called "life". — Wallows
:up: :smile: Yes, ask an autist, for whom 'masking' has a special meaning. :wink: For us, no masking means being outcast, but let's not get sidetracked by the challenges autists face. :wink: — Pattern-chaser
I had that once while I was awake, except I wasn't naked. I had just had a really harrowing night. I walked around feeling like a ghost. Somebody looked at me and it shocked me that they could see me. I carry that experience with me. It does feel good. — frank
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