I've been here since the late '90s sometime and I've had two incarnations since then. Time flies ... (... like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana -- sorry, couldn't help myself ...) Anyway, I posted a lot in the "olden days" beause I had a lot to learn. I still have a lot to learn, but I don't feel much inclination to post mostly because I don't think I have any "words of wisdom" or interesting comments anymore. However, I enjoy reading so I check in several times a day.
"A deep understanding of reality is the same thing as laziness." "Have you ever seen a statue of the Buddha jogging?"Originally Posted by LDAHL
- Dibert comic strip :-)
"It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?" ~Ronald Reagan
"Every time I feel the urge to exercise, I lie down until it goes away!” ~ Mark Twain.
moo
"I'm like a haiku. Sometimes I don't make much sense. Refrigerator." ~ Alan
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
hi Tenngal, that sounds really uncomfortable and unpleasant. So perhaps it might help you 'do better' to understand that
no one is slamming 'you'. They are slamming the image in their own head, the image they have of what you posted.
Hi Serendipity, yes I understand. But actually none of us knows. Since there are so many quotes in this thread from the Tao let's take another one:
It's not what is added , but what is taken away.
Beyond knowing that 'I exist' I know nothing (at the metaphysical level) so it's more a process of loosing prejudices, bad (mental) habits, conditionings, distorted memories (and all memories are untrustworthy), represssed tendencies .... and so on. This 'loosing' of course feels very uncomfortable to the ego ... which squirms and argues and tried to justify & rationalise ... but once you get used to that it becomes quite liberating.
And how subtle and deep it all runs: a few weeks ago I caught myself being a 'know all'. What a shock as I thought I'd really dealt long ago with the father not giving approval issue. As he was scholarly I tried to get his approval by learning ... all the way to the first degree. Thought it was dealt with. What I discovered was that in my youthful drive to gain approval I formed a habit ... a habit of trying to know enough and while the issue as such was dealt with the habit remained ...so there I was still trying to show how much I knew - not to the person I was talking with - but to my long-dead father!
So it's all about loosing stuff ... subtracting...there is nothing to add ... we are already THAT! but we can't recognise it because the ego consciousness is like the clouds which hide the sun.
But even "I exist" is questionable. There are good odds that you are simply an autonomous subroutine in some grad student's computer simulation. (See Bostrom's paper "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?", Philosophical Quarterly (2003), Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255)
Well, that would certainly explain all the empty Red Bull cans lying around.
"And are there biscuits in computer simulations?" -pug logic
For those who find the print in the cartoon too small to easily read:
In the bubble: "Darling... I know we have just recently met and I know you have some issues with my being a millionairess, but you're the most amazing man I've ever known... marry me?"
The caption: It was at that precise moment Stanley realized that he may very well be a brain in a vat.
Last edited by Gina; 3-23-11 at 7:15pm.
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