One claim by some followers of Eastern religion is that spiritual truth is “inexpressible.” I doubt that claim. I believe that anything is expressible, if you are good enough at expressing. — Ilya B Shambat
One claim by some followers of Eastern religion is that spiritual truth is “inexpressible.” I doubt that claim. I believe that anything is expressible, if you are good enough at expressing. — Ilya B Shambat
Dostoyevsky, who was an epileptic, was able to express amazing insight and wisdom. One thing that may have helped is that in epilepsy there is heightened contact between the left brain and the right brain, allowing what is accessible through intuition to become expressed in reason and in speech...
Rationalism sees reason and scientific inquiry as path to wisdom, and romanticism sees feeling and intuition as path to wisdom...
Combining the rational and the intuitive creates a fuller, more integrated, picture, and it does so faster than either modality acting alone... — Ilya B Shambat
One claim by some followers of Eastern religion is that spiritual truth is “inexpressible.” I doubt that claim. I believe that anything is expressible, if you are good enough at expressing. — Ilya B Shambat
I disagree that everything that is expressed is first ‘thought’. We are more than capable of expressing ‘feeling’ that has not first been translated into thought. I see this every day in emails and posts fired off in haste. — Possibility
One claim by some followers of Eastern religion is that spiritual truth is “inexpressible.” I doubt that claim. I believe that anything is expressible, if you are good enough at expressing.
— Ilya B Shambat
I can relate to this, but I think perhaps the problem is more communication than expression. I believe that anything is expressible, but not everything can be communicated in plain words.
I think when we attempt to express ‘spiritual truth’, we fail to recognise or clarify that were are really expressing an experience of that truth, and not stating the truth itself. While we understand this to be the case when we use artistic expression, including poetry, drama and literature, when we use words to express ‘truth’ outside of these parameters, people find it easier to take the words as the ‘truth’ itself - and this can cause problems in understanding what is meant. — Possibility
"Feeling" is an awful word because it is used in so many different ways. I have been working on an informal domain ontology of the human mind for the past seven years, and decided to completely avoid using "feeling" for just that reason (preferring to use less equivocal words instead).
However, even emotion (passion) requires cognisance of the circumstances of an object of concern (cf., Theory of Constructed Emotion, Barrett, 2016).
The word "feeling" is used five times in the OP (not including the title) as a synonym of "intuition", or as an antonym of "thinking". Intuition and cogitation (thinking) being types of mental processing, as opposed to types of mental condition (e.g., consciousness, affect, mood, emotion, temperament, motivation, etc.). — Galuchat
We recognise intuition to a certain extent, and we recognise emotion, but the underlying element of our subjective experience that informs both is tricky to pin down.
We can’t locate it in the mind or in any particular organ of the body. It is ‘felt’ deep in our core, tingling in our extremities and also in the air around us and between us.
It occurs in the present moment, hits us without warning and leaves no physical trace of evidence except a vague sense of its interaction with our mental processes. This makes it easy enough to dismiss or explain away after the moment has passed. But in the moment it is as real and influential as any other part of our experience. — Possibility
An expression of spiritual truth is always subjective. This doesn’t mean that it is ‘my truth’ as opposed to ‘your truth’, but that it is my expression of my subjective experience of a spiritual truth. I don’t believe you can plainly state a ‘spiritual truth’ with words that can be understood objectively. But I think you can express this spiritual truth in such a way that enables many people to ‘feel’ a connection with your personal experience of this truth. That doesn’t mean the words you use are an accurate or objective expression of the ‘truth’ itself.
I think we experience truth as a combination of thought and feeling. I agree that we should be taught to both think and feel in equal measure, and to synthesise both approaches in order to understand and communicate truth as a complete experience. — Possibility
Combining the rational and the intuitive creates a fuller, more integrated, picture, and it does so faster than either modality acting alone. People should be taught both to think and to feel. And then they should be taught to synthesize both, creating a more complete understanding doing so faster than can be done either through feeling or through thinking by itself. — Ilya B Shambat
One claim by some followers of Eastern religion is that spiritual truth is “inexpressible.” I doubt that claim. I believe that anything is expressible, if you are good enough at expressing. — Ilya B Shambat
People should be taught both to think and to feel. — Ilya B Shambat
Who are 'the wise' ?
— Amity
Good question. Can one who is not wise recognize the wise? Do those who are not wise, out of their ignorance, only imagine what it is to be wise? — Fooloso4
Is that an example of wisdom ? When you have more questions than answers ?When you can say 'I do not know' but still be willing to broaden perspective...and change if necessary. — Amity
What is a 'spiritual truth' ? — Amity
You think people can be taught to feel? To think, yes, there are definitely ways in which we can improve our thinking, and many of them can be taught. But teaching someone to feel? How would/could that work? :chin: — Pattern-chaser
Well the problem is feeling is a reaction and plus can't be wilfully directed. In other words it's something we can't control. Additionally feelings are reactions to both external and internal states. The reasonableness and ergo worth of these feelings can only be adjudged through rational thinking.
The only value of feeling is to what extent it motivates rational thought. — TheMadFool
You think people can be taught to feel? To think, yes, there are definitely ways in which we can improve our thinking, and many of them can be taught. But teaching someone to feel? How would/could that work? :chin: — Pattern-chaser
Ah, the sound of a rhetorical question. It's a good example of a loaded question which stumps some people and gets them to think. The wise ones don't get stuck there forever, but learn to solve it and move on. — S
also, the term 'spiritual truths'....are there any spiritual untruths?
If not then the term 'spiritual truths; seems like a bit of a tautological statement...or something. — wax
rhetorical questions are questions that have implied answers, or obvious answers.
the question of the hand clapping doesn't have an answer, so isn't really a rhetorical question imo.
The question is a kōan, and it, I think is asked in order for the person asked to attain a new state of being...not just to get people to think;. — wax
are there other types of truths that are not spiritual? Mathematical truth? Do they fit the description of spiritual truth? — Possibility
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