Greta
The idea of knowing "thyself" is to appreciate your biases and blind spots so that you may better appreciate reality, less sullied by base subjectivism. The idea (for me, anyway) is to get a better handle on reality per se, and that logically can't just be restricted to self focus, because reality extends rather a long way beyond the self. Why do I want to know? Curiosity, nothing grand.
As I see it you are describing the beginning of process leading to becoming able to know thyself. What IYO is the self being referred to that must be known? Is it really just personal characteristics or something far greater?
However, if everyone was so focused on themselves, what kind of world would it be? Nothing would get done. We'd have no mod cons so we'd be spending so much time trying to survive that we'd not have time to focus on ourselves any more. Some people need to work, others need to think and hopefully the benefits of each will be passed around.
Would efforts to know thyself just prevent things from getting done or result in more beneficial things getting done? Take the example of mindfulness Buddhist’s practice. Must efforts towards mindfulness result in the loss of potential to get things done?
Patronising. After reading Ouspensky and Gurdjeiff for years decades ago and hearing you banging on endlessly about it, I'm more than aware of the notion of "waking sleep".
What is waking sleep?
Also, who said I had faith in solutions? That's just nonsense. Please provide quotes to justify your claim
im that I have "faith in solutions". Weird thing to say to someone who's always banging on about "wicked problems".
Re: Snow Persons
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Post by Greta » Thu Nov 22, 2018 9:39 pm
Trivia. This is being PC about PC.
The media wants us to argue amongst ourselves about this crap. What they don't want is for us to talk about excessive immigration levels and tax fraud by multinational companies.
Let's talk about tax avoidance by multinational companies. Who or what do you think is most responsible for letting them get away with it rather than closing the loopholes?
The solution for you consists of condemning Trump and arguing about immigration, tax fraud, and multinational corporations. You do not appreciate why and how the human condition has led to these problems. As long as the human condition remains the same, the problems remain the same and only differ in expression.
I'll give you this, you pretend to aim high - as if you are on the path to grasp the golden ticket of enlightenment and "wokeness" to grant you admission to the Übermensch club. I think that, given the extent of your spiritual ambition, perhaps it would be best for you to stop dicking about on forums and get into some serious study and practice? Do you think that stuff is so easy and life so long that you can afford to waste time on such frivolities?
This is a philosophy site. I am discussing philosophy and am curious as to the nature of resistance to the deep philosophical ideas of those like Plato and Plotinus. For example it has become clear that if the glorification of negative emotions in society stopped and experienced for what they are, society would crumble. Why this must be so is an interesting question for me.
As for sleepy ole me, I don't have your soaring ambition to be some kind of spiritual master (spiritual mistress?). These days I am quite comfortable with my mediocrity, past and present, despite decades of denial and wishing that it wasn't so. In my denial I strove for the stars at times - I wanted to be deep, to be awake etc, but rather than stars I got dusty old asteroids. Over time one gets the hint.
So now I'm just curious about the nature of reality and find it all interesting and fun, but there are some disappointing aspects of the world today, but such entropy has to hit some generation - why not mine?
As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII [All the world’s a stage]
William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616
Jaques to Duke Senior
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
From dust to dust. Yet some suggest though it may be true for the human body, the human essence may not be so limited and have conscious possibilities the Great Beast is unaware of. They pursue awakening to reality to whatever degree they are capable. Though the world is against them, they do make progress.
