seeds wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 2:08 am
I’m just saying that the idea of “living in the now” is nothing new.
AlexW wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 3:15 am
Of course not - but this doesn't mean a lot of people have put it into action.
And as long as they don't, I think it is worth repeating the message.
Fair enough.
seeds wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 2:08 am
If that was indeed
“all” you were proposing, then that would be lovely.
However, couched within the folds of your proposal (like the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing) is nothing but pure nihilism.
AlexW wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 3:15 am
I have never said that life (which is also a concept) is without meaning, purpose or value...
You don’t need to openly utter the words: “life has no
ultimate purpose for humans.”
Why?
Because your belief in the purposelessness of human life is clearly implied in your interpretation of nondualism:
AlexW wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 11:12 pm
Nondualism has none of that - all form is ultimately empty - there is no body or separate soul in existence that could survive physical death in the first place. Thus there is also no personal afterlife, no heaven where we will meet our ancestors.
And btw, life isn’t a “concept.” No, our feeble theories as to what life truly is, are concepts. Indeed, the very idea that “life is a concept” is a prime example of a concept (theory, model, hypothesis, etc.).
seeds wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 2:08 am
Instead of offering such a vague prediction, how about you provide us with some actual details.
In other words, give us some specific examples of how the world would actually change.
AlexW wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 3:15 am
What do you think would happen if people took themselves less seriously?...
I don’t know, AlexW, that’s why I am asking you to provide us with some specific examples.
AlexW wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 3:15 am
...If they actually understood that their precious ego is actually not as important as they thought it is? If they would see and understand that separation is not more than a conventionally agreed upon idea?
Cant you imagine how this world would change for the better?
That all sounds real nice in the form of the misty thought bubble you are positing.
However, the problem is that you keep excluding from your scenario the fact that in the process of accepting nondualism and dissolving their precious egos, that billions of God-believing humans will, in essence, be required to become materialistic atheists who must now blindly accept the
absurd notion that the vast order of the universe is a product of chance.
But I guess all of that is written in the extremely fine print of the contract, right?
Furthermore, your assertion that...
AlexW wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 3:15 am
...separation is not more than a conventionally agreed upon idea.
...is pure and utter nonsense.
The entire way in which the universe presents itself to our senses is based upon separation. Without separation we literally could not have come into existence.
So you need to stop with the ridiculous hogwash of posing separation and duality as being some kind of enemy of the people.
And lastly, to address this:
AlexW wrote: ↑Sat Feb 29, 2020 3:15 am
Cant you imagine how this world would change for the better?
I didn’t ask you to ask me what
MY personal imaginings might be. I asked you to give us some “specific (fully-explicated) examples” of what
YOU think would change in the world if everyone embraced the concept of nonduality.
Nevertheless, I will say that so far, based on what I am inferring from your hazy prediction, I cannot help but picture a version of an image from the cover of one of the Jehovah’s Witness’ Watchtower/Awake magazines. It is an image that depicts a child and a lamb playing with a lion, as a bunch of “Stepford” adults pick fruits and berries in the background – all set to the music of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
And then reality reasserts itself as I then picture life in our societies and cities and the actual dirty and gritty means by which billions of humans must constantly work to feed and sustain themselves and their families.
The point is that in the process of simply trying to survive on earth, almost no one has the leisure time (nor the inclination) to do some kind of philosophical battle against their own natural and common sense awareness of the obvious separation between themselves and the phenomenal features of the universe.
If it is indeed true that at the deepest level of reality there is only
“oneness”...
(as is suggested in the philosophies of Plotinus, or Spinoza, or nondualism, or even quantum theory)
...that’s fine. But such a truth (even if you have directly experienced it as you say you have) is utterly useless to us up at our operative level of existence.
As far as I can tell, aside from a contentious debate on a philosophy forum, the only thing that such a truth will get you in this world (assuming it is accompanied with $1.50) is a ride on the city bus.
However, I will try to be open minded about it if you will provide us with some of those “specific examples” I‘ve been requesting.
_______