Greta wrote: ↑Sun Jun 25, 2017 11:30 pm
In the context of the thread, you are arguing against the OP's premise on the basis that God is the ground of being.
No, I'm not, I'm counteracting the premise.
Greta wrote: ↑Sun Jun 25, 2017 11:30 pmIt's as much of as assumption as the OP's. Why is "I don't know" so difficult for so many to embrace? We don't know. None of us do. Some of us feel we have have inklings, which may either be intuition, red herrings or illusions. We don't know which but that doesn't stop many from pretending that they do.
Why is "I don't know" so difficult for so many to embrace?
For the same reason Why is "I do know" so difficult for so many to embrace?
One simply cannot claim one premise without including the other....I'm assuming you've heard the Neti Neti analogy ''not this'' ''not that'', ''both'', ''yet neither''? ......what a conundrum eh? ...which is it to be? or not to be? ...
To fully unravel the Neti Neti analogy...a person does not know anything, a person is a concept known. No concept has ever been seen, concepts are known by that which is unknown, and unseen. I've repeated this many times on this forum.
That which is known ie: the concept, cannot know..there is only knowing...by the only knowing there is and that is consciousness.
In other words the knower is unknowable.
The fact that these words are appearing now and are being read and understood, points to a rational living mind...this cannot be refuted, it is self evidence ...thoughts about what the mind is are unseen too....along with the mind.
So how and where does reality come from, if it's unknowable & unseen ?....except it appears as via language/knowledge/concept...in that knowledge informs this illusory reality... only from knowledge is a world of things born...where before, there wasn't anything...except pure silent presence.
Greta wrote: ↑Sun Jun 25, 2017 11:30 pmYour distinction between human and animal sentience remains unsatisfying. The individual difference is not so great, noting that it takes us humans some years to become distinct from other animals; during infancy we were each much less sentient than even an adult mouse. The human difference comes with our collectives. When humans were nomadic and unorganised, they were just one other intelligent predatory species competing with others for survival. The humans capacity to cooperate and pool resources has resulted in their growing groups being powerful enough to dominate all local wildlife almost everywhere.
While not forced to worry about and flee from predators, humans had the opportunity to technologically progress and press home their advantage. Our dominance provided the space needed to further ourselves. Now the difference between humans and other species is exponential in scope, depth and rate of progress but this comes about mainly due to the power of collectivism. Our individual human capacities are mainly of use in communicating with other humans but not much else.
Forget about the story of creation for a minute. That's just all His Story....meaning it's history..there is no need to keep bringing up the past here, this stuff is already known, it's common knowledge, found in any good library ... forget all that, I'm always talking about the emptiness of the present moment...the unknown. I'm more interested in the Hard problem of consciousness and how the blank space of unknowning awareness instantaneously fills itself up with the known? Who does that? ...all we know about that is the mind does that, but we don't even know what that is, just that it is, and we believe it.
I'm talking about that which is looking out of your eyes, and out of the eye of every other sentient living creature...the one looking out of all those eyes is the same empty awareness.
.In other words there is nothing looking through your eyes. And yet it seems like there is a person behind those eyes. < That's what God is/not.
In other words, No thing knows because everything is known, but not by you, you are known. You cannot know what knows you, no more than a mirror can see itself...a mirror can only reflect itself as a mirror image/ mirage. The mirror has to be empty in order for it to reflect an image.
Now all we have to do is work out how and who this illusion is appearing to and why is looks so real ....?
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