You forgot to ping @3017amen

According to tests I’m severely right-brained (or left-brain damaged) and that may be why things like drawing have always been relatively easy. I try to achieve more of a balance by activities like participating in this forum.

But here is something I find interesting. A statue by Rodin, found in a building site is still art. But Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII found in a building site is just a pile of bricks. — Tom Storm

Not necessarily, many may not take much notice of a Rodin, disregarding it as mere decoration or whatever. Others may, for whatever reason, experience a shift in their mental state and see the sublime beauty of bricks.

:ok: :point:

Unfortunately, people like you can use them stupidly.

But the need for measurement and 'labeling' drops if you do not wish to do either. — skyblack

Ah, but labeling and social norms can be handy, can't they "sissy" man?

I think anything can be called art and that framing something this way is merely an invitation to view it aesthetically, which is a beautiful thing really. The world would be a better place if we more frequently viewed it aesthetically.

But of course there are more mundane and often manipulative reasons for defining something as art, masculine, or whatever.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to PM you.

Behind the cafeteria after homeroom then. Don't chicken out.

Okay, let's do it tough guy. :lol:

Well, we can't settle this in person unless you live in southern California so we'll just have to pretend fight I guess.

Let me guess. It’s a thought, and thought is a product of thinking, and thinking is the cause of all human suffer’n. Better to stick with the bear necessities, the simple bear necessities, and forget about your worries and your strife!

I think he means in the case of a zombie apocalypse or something, where you’re the only one left alive who’s meaning doesn’t center exclusively on eating brains.

Healing perhaps though from what I understand the problem isn't fragmentation but deep conditioning, and the shaman (and whatever's in their bag of tricks) essentially 'depatterns' that problematic conditioning.

Virtue isn't an end but more like a means towards eudaimonia. Living according to human nature (social and with the capacity of reason).

In Duerr's view, shamans learn to evaporate their "ego boundaries", thereby experiencing themselves in a different way; it is this feeling that can be described as shamanic flying. Duerr ties these shamanic practices into the werewolves of early modern Europe, arguing that these werewolves did not physically transform into wolves, but that they embraced their "wolf nature" by crossing over the boundary from "civilisation" to "wilderness". — Wiki

Interesting.

a movie was a bad idea, as would have been dinner. Try something more active next time (or tell me to shut the hell up, as you did not ask) conversing while in motion is usually much more productive and less "weird energy" builds up as both of you will be distracted with movement (whatever the movement is). — Book273

Good advice. Even better if it's something thrilling like skydiving, although that might be a hard sell. A shared adrenalin rush supposedly has a bonding effect. If you're really lucky it may also be arousing. Friends do thrilling stuff together so ya may still have a shot. Good luck!

If I recall correctly, in the book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, in regards to mindset it’s important to be ‘open’, no matter how unpleasant or terrifying the trip may turn. Is that your experience or do you have any other tips?

So you deliberately write in an obfuscating manner and when asked to clarify, demand to be re-read in order to screen out people who demand better writing? :rofl: — Noble Dust

I don't think that obfuscating is a fair characterization. A more accurate general characterization would be something like dense.

I've had limited success in StE (I think of it as DMN suppression) via meditation and would try psychedelics if it ever becomes less difficult to access. Psilocybin seems like it might be on the road to limited legalization.

You mention mindset & setting, and I know that's important from what I've learned of psychedelics. Did you have guided trips or otherwise try to properly set the stage?

My advice to you is, for what it's worth, don't reply to anything that you find challenging to read. — 180 Proof

Perhaps you deliberately write in a less accessible fashion to help screen the riffraff. Usually works in my case. :sweat:

Fixed.

Who said that?
— praxis

I can't post their real names. — baker

Because they'd be excommunicated for speaking such blasphemy?

I've found in some religious books. — baker

What books? If you're going to make claims like this you should be able to back them up.

The sentence of yours I'm quoting is actually the kind of thing I've heard from religious people as well, when they say things like, "Think for yourself, look into various religions and then objectively, without bias, decide for yourself which one is the right one." — baker

Who said that?

What do 'believers' 'theists' 'idealists' et al mean when they chastise atheists and/or materialists, etc by saying, in effect, that atheism / materialism entails "life has no meaning"? And do tell why that is an objection (bug) rather than an affirmation (feature). — 180 Proof

I think they believe that it's impossible to find meaning for yourself and that it must be spoon-fed to us by some robed authority figure. This nihilism, lacking a moral foundation, will make Johnny a bad person. :sad: But truth be told, Johnny is free to develop his virtue and not suffer the moral stagnation of religious tribalism, where it's all about the tribe and not so much anything else.

Nihilism is a phase, I think, and can be outgrown, and outgrown using the same elements as religion.

What is the secret to being happy in a foxhole? — Baker

We have a built-in narrative generator that is actually rather difficult to turn off. We can find social groups and movements that can help us feel part of something greater than ourselves. We can find purposes that align with our skills or talents. We can have spiritual (in the sense of transcendence) practices such as meditation that can ease existential anxiety and perhaps feel a sublime oneness, even in a foxhole, etc...

One imagines that the theist - for all his inventions of sky daddies and karmic mysteries - has a lack of imagination so severe that he has to invent a whole 'mythos' to cover over their total inability to recognize 'meaning' seeping through every pore of the universe without all that trash. — StreetlightX

Well said. :fire:

What is important about religion is finding the source of what Christians call agapé, unconditional compassion, and what Buddhists call bodhicitta, buried behind all the ruins of the ancient faiths. It is both the easiest and most elusive thing in the world. To turn your back on that because of religion is the cruelest irony. — Wayfarer

Not the least bit ironic because religion is not about agapé. That is not and never has been the core of it. Religion is about binding a community in shared values, norms, narratives, telos, etc.

What’s important in religion is knowing who’s holding the reins, and keeping in mind that power corrupts.

In American, StreetlightXO translates to Streetlight Hugs & Kisses. I guess you’re much warmer in person.

Wow, counting the days. :broken:

This is all I'm trying to say. — BitconnectCarlos

You're speaking in riddles. I started by asking if you were serious. Jokes on me I guess.

Because their commitment to saving lives at all costs ("cutting off the leg to save the body") led them to collaborate and actively assist in the deportation (death) of one part of the community to save the other parts.

Does this make sense to you? — BitconnectCarlos

And if they did not collaborate and actively assist their moral reasoning would have remained intact?

Whatever. Still not clear how their moral reasoning was absolutely destroyed, and how learning of these events may lead one to theism. I understand that the Judenrat were all but literally destroyed, if not completely destroyed, or did they sacrifice others to save themselves?

Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum writes: "In the final analysis, the Judenräte had no influence on the frightful outcome of the Holocaust; the Nazi extermination machine was alone responsible for the tragedy, and the Jews in the occupied territories, most especially Poland, were far too powerless to prevent it."

Assuming that was the case, and assuming I'm following your claims correctly, how was the Judenrätes' moral reasoning absolutely destroyed? And whatever the case, it's not clear how this may be conducive to theism.

... Judaism isn't primarily a religious faith. It's really not a faith at all. — BitconnectCarlos

Making even less sense... I give up.

That makes even less sense to me as I thought you were focusing on Eichmann who didn't appear to be religious or a theist, the banality of evil and all that jazz.

The Jewish leaders in Nazi ghettos were theists, were they not?

It would be interesting to hear an explanation, of any sort, if you feel like it at all. I can't begin to wrap my head around how this works out.

Seriously?

I read that as Tantric books :razz: — ArguingWAristotleTiff

That could work too, although then it might have to be a love story.