Perspective and Reality

[Nick_A]

As a whole people in modern cultures prefer wretched contentment as a way of life and a belief system which supports it.

Well you certainly seem to be content with continually making your wretched posts so I suppose you must have first hand knowledge of what it's like to experience wretched contentment.

How many could be a Simone Weil in this day and age

Some people spend a great deal of money in order not to be a Simone Weil, this day and age, cosmetic surgery isn't cheap, you know.

Harbal the Horrible. As one of the Beautiful People, you alone have the authority to judge others. Where would we be without the beautiful people to judge the world and support the fashion business. Our light dims in your presence.

[Harbal]

Where would we be without the beautiful people to judge the world and support the fashion business.

I think you are the one judging the World, Nick, and if you looked inside my wardrobe the last thing you would accuse me of is supporting the fashion business.

Our light dims in your presence.

The dimness of your light is nothing to do with me, I suspect you have a faulty bulb.

[Nick_A]

Where would we be without the beautiful people to judge the world and support the fashion business.

I think you are the one judging the World, Nick, and if you looked inside my wardrobe the last thing you would accuse me of is supporting the fashion business.

Our light dims in your presence.

The dimness of your light is nothing to do with me, I suspect you have a faulty bulb.

As one of the beautiful people you find it easy to live in superficial judgement of others. The fact that a woman is willing to sacrifice her beauty in the cause of experiential truth is repulsive to you and your values.

http://www.cesnur.org/2002/slc/bauer.htm

Look at the young Simone. You call her ugly. As one of the beautiful people the idea of inner beauty appearing as her outer beauty faded during her search for truth is an attack on the beautiful people skilled in makeup and fashion. That is your perspective. You are not drawn to respect the essentially human calling to experience objective truth since for you the beautiful people are the ultimate truth. As one of the beautiful people with the authority to comment on the appearance of others it is insulting for another to question your authority. Sometimes even the beautiful people must suffer.

[Harbal]

You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about beatiful people, Nick. Is that because you're not one of them?

[Greta]

Can you imagine -- even if only slightly or briefly -- experiencing and seeing from another perspective that might differ significantly from your current reality and from who/what you think you are?

I've found that I am a very different person from decade to decade so I know relate to a lot of insane crap that other people go in with that I used to embrace.

Our young and disturbed "friend" here, Nick, is a great example. Twenty-five years ago I would have probably sided with him against me of today in our "debates". I ran hard on my emotions as he does, also with a hair trigger temper and deep sense of romanticism about reality with distaste for the "clinical" powers that be.

I also fervently believed in God as a child and I know what it's like to feel that that is the sacred truth that must be awed and respected. I later was very keen on Buddhism, and still like aspects of it. I routinely believed that alternative medicine was not largely quackery. I believed some conspiracy theories. I wanted so badly for there to be bad guys to blame for everything.

Today, what I see in the world is basically the usual dynamics of nature applying to humanity. The re-formation of the Earth's surface by "humanity" is problematic for us as affected individuals, but for mine the whole situation with humans and the Earth reeks to high heaven of a standard natural process. This drama of intelligent beings humans dominating a world and emerging into something new has probably happened, and been refined, many times beforehand in the universe. Like all development - gestation, metamorphosis, maturing and ageing - you have periods where there is rapid development into an emergent form after a long period of relative stability.

[Nick_A]

You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about beatiful people, Nick. Is that because you're not one of them?

Compared to you, the ultimate standard of beauty with the authority to demean others, who can compare? Certainly not me.

[Nick_A]

Can you imagine -- even if only slightly or briefly -- experiencing and seeing from another perspective that might differ significantly from your current reality and from who/what you think you are?

I've found that I am a very different person from decade to decade so I know relate to a lot of insane crap that other people go in with that I used to embrace.

Our young and disturbed "friend" here, Nick, is a great example. Twenty-five years ago I would have probably sided with him against me of today in our "debates". I ran hard on my emotions as he does, also with a hair trigger temper and deep sense of romanticism about reality with distaste for the "clinical" powers that be.

I also fervently believed in God as a child and I know what it's like to feel that that is the sacred truth that must be awed and respected. I later was very keen on Buddhism, and still like aspects of it. I routinely believed that alternative medicine was not largely quackery. I believed some conspiracy theories. I wanted so badly for there to be bad guys to blame for everything.

Today, what I see in the world is basically the usual dynamics of nature applying to humanity. The re-formation of the Earth's surface by "humanity" is problematic for us as affected individuals, but for mine the whole situation with humans and the Earth reeks to high heaven of a standard natural process. This drama of intelligent beings humans dominating a world and emerging into something new has probably happened, and been refined, many times beforehand in the universe. Like all development - gestation, metamorphosis, maturing and ageing - you have periods where there is rapid development into an emergent form after a long period of relative stability.

You are a text book case of projection. You accuse me of the emotionalism which governs your life. Your attraction to higher ideas years ago was emotional. But the trouble with emotionalism is that when it no longer satisfies, it becomes its opposite. A man can literally kill the woman he once emotionally loved since she no longer arouses this love in him so it is her fault and should be eliminated. This is how you are now reacting to the great philosophical ideas which promote psychological awakening to reality. You have been disappointed emotionally so blame the ideas. You don't realize their purpose isn't consolation or self justification. Their purpose is in furthering awakening. Defending self justifying partial truths only prevent you from experiencing the inner direction leading towards ultimate truth. Buddhism speaks of letting go. Greta speaks of holding on for dear life.

[Walker]

Buddhism speaks of letting go. Greta speaks of holding on for dear life.

I like to read books like The Call of the Wild now and then, because I read them when I was young. The language is far richer and more sophisticated than I logically could have critically appreciated as an absorbing youngster, with a child’s natural limited experience and knowledge.

The experiential bones of Buddhism is a still mind, mindful within the moment which subsumes conceptual divisions of the three times. The different types of Buddhism pertain to culture, for the purpose of being heard. For example, this can be understood by studying and contemplating the life of Padmasambhava, who took Buddhism to Tibet from India by incorporating the resident traditions of Bon Po, which is known to have roots in the same geographic region as Shamanism. The essence of Buddhism, which is not bound to time or fashion but has the capacity to incorporate either into its form, has pathways into mind such as institutional rote, intellectual inquiry, and devout ritual and practices that are common as principles of human nature within most all religions, and that serve to balance and enhance proclivities of human nature such as subservience, expansive contemplation, and heart-felt devotion. However, the actual forms of Buddhism do vary in the particulars, should one be inclined to ponder the leaves and not the root.

[Lacewing]

You are a text book case of projection. You accuse me of the emotionalism which governs your life. Your attraction to higher ideas years ago was emotional. But the trouble with emotionalism is that when it no longer satisfies, it becomes its opposite. A man can literally kill the woman he once emotionally loved since she no longer arouses this love in him so it is her fault and should be eliminated. This is how you are now reacting to the great philosophical ideas which promote psychological awakening to reality. You have been disappointed emotionally so blame the ideas. You don't realize their purpose isn't consolation or self justification. Their purpose is in furthering awakening. Defending self justifying partial truths only prevent you from experiencing the inner direction leading towards ultimate truth.

Nick, it is striking how your descriptions appear to be reflecting yourself. Just as you talk about the beast -- which appears to also be a description of something within yourself -- you project these bizarrely intimate judgments onto other people (which you could have NO WAY of knowing... just as Gustav didn't), which only seems to point back to yourself, and what you see THERE. Because where else are you getting all of that information in such a "knowing" way? It must be parts of yourself that you're trying to assign to others. Others can see it's you (as they're telling you) even if you refuse to see it for yourself.

[Nick_A]

You are a text book case of projection. You accuse me of the emotionalism which governs your life. Your attraction to higher ideas years ago was emotional. But the trouble with emotionalism is that when it no longer satisfies, it becomes its opposite. A man can literally kill the woman he once emotionally loved since she no longer arouses this love in him so it is her fault and should be eliminated. This is how you are now reacting to the great philosophical ideas which promote psychological awakening to reality. You have been disappointed emotionally so blame the ideas. You don't realize their purpose isn't consolation or self justification. Their purpose is in furthering awakening. Defending self justifying partial truths only prevent you from experiencing the inner direction leading towards ultimate truth.

Nick, it is striking how your descriptions appear to be reflecting yourself. Just as you talk about the beast -- which appears to also be a description of something within yourself -- you project these bizarrely intimate judgments onto other people (which you could have NO WAY of knowing... just as Gustav didn't), which only seems to point back to yourself, and what you see THERE. Because where else are you getting all of that information in such a "knowing" way? It must be parts of yourself that you're trying to assign to others. Others can see it's you (as they're telling you) even if you refuse to see it for yourself.

You don’t know what the Great Beast is. The Beast is society as a whole fixated on the ground. Like a pig for example It cannot look up. It cannot feel something greater than itself responsible for its existence. Only a relative few within society can turn towards the source and experience this third direction of thought. In Christianity this inner change of direction is called matanoia

"The wisdom of Plato is not a philosophy, a search for God by means of human reason. . . . . Plato’s wisdom is nothing but an orientation of the soul toward grace.” La Source Grecque

If Greta had experienced this direction of thought she wouldn’t respond as she does. What I do know is that there are remarkable efforts being made now to allow people who crave opening to meaning help them learn and experience regardless of secular opposition to an open mind.

I have a chess player’s mind. I enjoy the experience of the logic of a position. My primary interest is being part of the influence serving to unite the essence of religion (human perspective or objective meaning) with science (the lawful interaction of facts.) The fact that they appear in opposition is proof of our collective ignorance. Emotionalism kills the effort. I learn from those like Greta the force of emotionalism for keeping the mind closed. I don’t want the kids to catch this virus so openly oppose secular intolerance and support efforts to oppose it.

[Harbal]

I have a chess player’s mind. I enjoy the experience of the logic of a position.

You couldn't think your way out of a paper bag, for God's sake. Unless Plato was there to show you the exit you'de be completely stuck.

[Nick_A]

I have a chess player’s mind. I enjoy the experience of the logic of a position.

You couldn't think your way out of a paper bag, for God's sake. Unless Plato was there to show you the exit you'de be completely stuck.

You are in Zugzwang and don't even know it.

[Harbal]

You are in Zugzwang and don't even know it.

If you say I am, I guess that means I'm not.

[Lacewing]

You don’t know what the Great Beast is.

Right, because it's a bunch of malarkey that you believe and obsess yourself with -- why should it have any meaning to me? You feed it and groom it and unleash it on others. Your beast... not mine. (You've even named him. )

You see, YOU are the one who lives in a world of beasts, caves, darkness, unawareness, tragedy, spirit killing horrors, perennial truths, and dead heroes. The fact that you think this reflects some sort of ultimate reality or truth for everyone else is YOUR delusion. You're batting at the shadows on the walls of your mind, screaming for everyone to take heed. It's you.

[Harbal]

YOU are the one who lives in a world of beasts, caves, darkness, unawareness, tragedy, spirit killing horrors, perennial truths, and dead heroes. The fact that you think this reflects some sort of ultimate reality or truth for everyone else is YOUR delusion. You're batting at the shadows on the walls of your mind, screaming for everyone to take heed. It's you.

And Nick is the only one who doesn't realise it. For some reason he thinks that being in a minority of one makes him right, maybe it's something to do with his chess players mind.