...without inferring a causal relationship between cognition and action, people get insecure about the degree of influence they have on their own lives. Without any influence on their own lives, it's difficult to identify what one even IS, since there's no thing in that case which could count for the evidence of one's own existence.
Descartes said 'I think, therefore I am'... but if cognition is not causal, then the 'am-ness' becomes suspect. There might be thinking, but it does not indicate that there is necessarily a thinker.
If everything happens spontaneously of its own (uncaused/ unmotivated) then at best we might be like Socrates - brilliant, only for recognizing that we really know nothing.
It's a dismal prospect.
...which is why it is so incredibly important that we never stop questioning the motives of chickens! It is the fundamental basis for all of our problems!!
LOL
-Rob
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
What's So Funny?
Context is what makes anything funny, since humor is not really a trait that any particular thing really has (some watch the Simpsons and roll their eyes, others watch it and die laughing).
There was an example that a philosophy professor once gave, of a photograph with a bunch of nazi soldiers standing over a beaten, naked Jewish man. The soldiers were laughing, and it was evident that the man was to be killed immediately following the photograph.
Now, to pretty much everyone, there's nothing funny about that scene at all. For the nazi soldiers at the time however, there was a shared context for the experience... and as limited and convoluted as it was, if anyone else could view the situation in the exact same context, it would be just as funny.
...the other thing which makes things hilarious is REcontextualizing things. That's what a lot of great stand-up comedians do. When they talk about ordinary things that happen every day, they make it appear funny by recontextualizing the situation - by revealing how absurd certain emotional responses are in the big picture. It doesn't necessarily degrade the subject of the laugh, it simply deflates the inflated importance or severity that we frame the circumstances with.
Religion, poltics, and other conflict-ridden subjects are all ripe with opportunities to recontextualize the way we view things, since there's a lot of inflated emotionality and importance which is associated with them.
The beauty of recontextualization is that it helps us to grow - which is why laughter is such an effective medicine.
If we can look at our circumstances in a humorous light, they don't seem so dominating, opressive, or severe.
Humor dissolves resistance, and reinforces resolve... by facillitating an acceptance of a situation it enables us to deal with it more effectively (non-acceptance is basically prolonged ignorance of the reality of a situation).
Get it? LOL
-Rob
There was an example that a philosophy professor once gave, of a photograph with a bunch of nazi soldiers standing over a beaten, naked Jewish man. The soldiers were laughing, and it was evident that the man was to be killed immediately following the photograph.
Now, to pretty much everyone, there's nothing funny about that scene at all. For the nazi soldiers at the time however, there was a shared context for the experience... and as limited and convoluted as it was, if anyone else could view the situation in the exact same context, it would be just as funny.
...the other thing which makes things hilarious is REcontextualizing things. That's what a lot of great stand-up comedians do. When they talk about ordinary things that happen every day, they make it appear funny by recontextualizing the situation - by revealing how absurd certain emotional responses are in the big picture. It doesn't necessarily degrade the subject of the laugh, it simply deflates the inflated importance or severity that we frame the circumstances with.
Religion, poltics, and other conflict-ridden subjects are all ripe with opportunities to recontextualize the way we view things, since there's a lot of inflated emotionality and importance which is associated with them.
The beauty of recontextualization is that it helps us to grow - which is why laughter is such an effective medicine.
If we can look at our circumstances in a humorous light, they don't seem so dominating, opressive, or severe.
Humor dissolves resistance, and reinforces resolve... by facillitating an acceptance of a situation it enables us to deal with it more effectively (non-acceptance is basically prolonged ignorance of the reality of a situation).
Get it? LOL
-Rob
Acceptance
The key to being really okay with life, in life and at life: Acceptance.
Acceptance is the even keel of beingness…a state of letting go…a state where opinions, esteem, the importance of desires…none of it is inflated.
The good and the bad are taken in stride. No condition is permanent. To dwell on the frequency of good things/enjoyment is to miss out on the actuality of the opportunity for enjoyment! In a state of acceptance there’s no anxiety about trying to make the most of every instant…the moment is what it is…sometimes deep and meaningful, sometimes plain and ordinary…it’s all a part of life.
Acceptance is a pivotal state of awareness.
In terms of higher consciousness, one is faced with the opportunity to either sink down into neutrality, or to rise up to the occasion.
In neutrality, there’s acceptance, but a preference for one’s attatchments. In neutrality, one would sooner keep clear of a problem than resolve it.
When acceptance is used effectively though, it works as a platform to resolution. A problem dissolves into nothing more than a situation…neither good nor bad…desired or undesired…just a situation where the path to resolve is presented.
To make this transition from acceptance, is to achieve a state of willingness.
In spiritual terms, it is the dawning of real faith…knowing that the path leads to resolve, though the end isn’t yet in sight…believing without seeing.
With willingness, one finds clarity…the light at the end of the tunnel…real vision.
And with vision, comes true understanding.
With understanding comes compassion.
With compassion comes love.
From love comes joy, and from joy comes peace.
And so, with acceptance, the path to enlightenment isn’t a struggle!
Happiness isn’t about getting what you want…it’s about realizing the blessing in what you've got.
The rest practically takes care of itself.
Everything is the perfect expression of that which it is.
-Rob
Acceptance is the even keel of beingness…a state of letting go…a state where opinions, esteem, the importance of desires…none of it is inflated.
The good and the bad are taken in stride. No condition is permanent. To dwell on the frequency of good things/enjoyment is to miss out on the actuality of the opportunity for enjoyment! In a state of acceptance there’s no anxiety about trying to make the most of every instant…the moment is what it is…sometimes deep and meaningful, sometimes plain and ordinary…it’s all a part of life.
Acceptance is a pivotal state of awareness.
In terms of higher consciousness, one is faced with the opportunity to either sink down into neutrality, or to rise up to the occasion.
In neutrality, there’s acceptance, but a preference for one’s attatchments. In neutrality, one would sooner keep clear of a problem than resolve it.
When acceptance is used effectively though, it works as a platform to resolution. A problem dissolves into nothing more than a situation…neither good nor bad…desired or undesired…just a situation where the path to resolve is presented.
To make this transition from acceptance, is to achieve a state of willingness.
In spiritual terms, it is the dawning of real faith…knowing that the path leads to resolve, though the end isn’t yet in sight…believing without seeing.
With willingness, one finds clarity…the light at the end of the tunnel…real vision.
And with vision, comes true understanding.
With understanding comes compassion.
With compassion comes love.
From love comes joy, and from joy comes peace.
And so, with acceptance, the path to enlightenment isn’t a struggle!
Happiness isn’t about getting what you want…it’s about realizing the blessing in what you've got.
The rest practically takes care of itself.
Everything is the perfect expression of that which it is.
-Rob
On Prayer and Meditation
The human mind lacks the ability to tell the difference between what it thinks is true, and what is actually true. Most often when we think of prayer, we think about petitioning to God; asking God for things, when we simply can't tell the difference between what we think is the best outcome, and what the best outcome truly is. For this reason, when we pray, it is often most rewarding to pray ABOUT something, rather than FOR something. (Granted, even petitioning to God has its appropriate time and place - calling out for help, surrendering to God's will, etc.).
Praying ABOUT something can happen in a variety of ways, but most commonly, it takes shape in the form of contemplation. We hold the thing, idea, situation, person, etc. in mind and flip it around in our awareness as one might flip a newly discovered artifact around in their hands; examining it from all sides; observing it in the fullest capacity that one is able to. Questions might arise in the mind...but they are not entertained to the extent that they would be if we were simply thinking about something. The questions follow from investigation, rather than proceed it. With contemplation, understanding arises as one isolates the essence of whatever it is that is being held. The details of the thing simply give it a shape...and in order to understand the essence of it, we need to see past the shape.
The Indian sage, Nisargadatta Maharaj, explained it as though he was simply interested in gold, while others were concerned with ornaments. The essence of the ornament is the gold...not the shape of the gold. The ornament, the situation, the idea, the thing we are holding in mind...it is an expression of its essence, not a product of its details. The gold is unchanging; always the same.
This perspective is somewhat contrary to the idea that answers can be arrived at by process of elimination; by focusing in on the details of a thing; by picking it apart and understanding its pieces. Essence cannot be extracted by thinking - only by complete immersion in the nature of the thing's reality. Realizations follow from a passion for Truth, not from a desire for answers (since it is so very easy to arrive at an answer, but so very difficult to know Truth).
As such, prayer is different from thinking, as it does not follow the same linear principles as thinking. With prayer, alignment of the spiritual will facillitates spontaneous revelation.
Even when one is experiencing peace and joy in life, this manner of contemplative prayer is an extremely useful means of facillitating further spiritual growth. One only need hold something in mind like one of the psalms, or some other powerful teaching, until (or as long as) it becomes progressively illuminated with the light of understanding. Even teachings that we think we understand are served well by this process, as the intellectual understanding can yet be overcome by illumination of the teaching's essence (which is, and can only be, Truth itself). For example, contemplating on a simple spiritual principle like kindness may eventually lead one to a complete understanding of the reality of Love.
Much like contemplation, meditation is also an effective device for aligning the spiritual will. While with prayer, there is a precise focus ON something, meditation is more like turning that focus OFF (which is not to imply that meditation is like being distracted). One might make the comparison in terms of one's sense of sight: Prayer is like devoting our attention to what we are focused on, while meditation is like giving complete attention to our peripheral vision. Effective meditation occurs as one lets go of attatchment to details, to thoughts, to ideas...it facilitates a progressive immersion into the silence which preceeds experience (also called 'Source'). It aligns the spiritual will with that which all of reality arises from (Divinity). Sound could not occur without a backdrop of Silence. Time could not occur without a background of Timelessness. Nothing finite can exist outside the context of the infinite. Meditation guides us to that source which everything arises from.
In both cases the idea is that we are passionate to understand (the) reality (of God). In 1 Thessalonians Ch5, Paul advises that we "pray without ceasing"...where he seems to imply that our alignment with Truth is best serviced unendingly...as though Truth is an artifact which we can (and should) continually be flipping around in our hands...
If we think of prayer in the manner described above, Paul's direction doesn't seem quite so impossible to follow. Holding and flipping the world in our hands like the precious artifact that it is, illumination is inevitable.
-Rob
Praying ABOUT something can happen in a variety of ways, but most commonly, it takes shape in the form of contemplation. We hold the thing, idea, situation, person, etc. in mind and flip it around in our awareness as one might flip a newly discovered artifact around in their hands; examining it from all sides; observing it in the fullest capacity that one is able to. Questions might arise in the mind...but they are not entertained to the extent that they would be if we were simply thinking about something. The questions follow from investigation, rather than proceed it. With contemplation, understanding arises as one isolates the essence of whatever it is that is being held. The details of the thing simply give it a shape...and in order to understand the essence of it, we need to see past the shape.
The Indian sage, Nisargadatta Maharaj, explained it as though he was simply interested in gold, while others were concerned with ornaments. The essence of the ornament is the gold...not the shape of the gold. The ornament, the situation, the idea, the thing we are holding in mind...it is an expression of its essence, not a product of its details. The gold is unchanging; always the same.
This perspective is somewhat contrary to the idea that answers can be arrived at by process of elimination; by focusing in on the details of a thing; by picking it apart and understanding its pieces. Essence cannot be extracted by thinking - only by complete immersion in the nature of the thing's reality. Realizations follow from a passion for Truth, not from a desire for answers (since it is so very easy to arrive at an answer, but so very difficult to know Truth).
As such, prayer is different from thinking, as it does not follow the same linear principles as thinking. With prayer, alignment of the spiritual will facillitates spontaneous revelation.
Even when one is experiencing peace and joy in life, this manner of contemplative prayer is an extremely useful means of facillitating further spiritual growth. One only need hold something in mind like one of the psalms, or some other powerful teaching, until (or as long as) it becomes progressively illuminated with the light of understanding. Even teachings that we think we understand are served well by this process, as the intellectual understanding can yet be overcome by illumination of the teaching's essence (which is, and can only be, Truth itself). For example, contemplating on a simple spiritual principle like kindness may eventually lead one to a complete understanding of the reality of Love.
Much like contemplation, meditation is also an effective device for aligning the spiritual will. While with prayer, there is a precise focus ON something, meditation is more like turning that focus OFF (which is not to imply that meditation is like being distracted). One might make the comparison in terms of one's sense of sight: Prayer is like devoting our attention to what we are focused on, while meditation is like giving complete attention to our peripheral vision. Effective meditation occurs as one lets go of attatchment to details, to thoughts, to ideas...it facilitates a progressive immersion into the silence which preceeds experience (also called 'Source'). It aligns the spiritual will with that which all of reality arises from (Divinity). Sound could not occur without a backdrop of Silence. Time could not occur without a background of Timelessness. Nothing finite can exist outside the context of the infinite. Meditation guides us to that source which everything arises from.
In both cases the idea is that we are passionate to understand (the) reality (of God). In 1 Thessalonians Ch5, Paul advises that we "pray without ceasing"...where he seems to imply that our alignment with Truth is best serviced unendingly...as though Truth is an artifact which we can (and should) continually be flipping around in our hands...
If we think of prayer in the manner described above, Paul's direction doesn't seem quite so impossible to follow. Holding and flipping the world in our hands like the precious artifact that it is, illumination is inevitable.
-Rob
An Infinite Amount of Monkeys...
It’s been said that if you had an infinite amount of monkeys sitting at an infinite amount of typewriters, eventually one of them would write War and Peace. While this is most likely false(odds are that you’d end up with an infinite number of pages full of random letters), it makes for an entertaining thought experiment. If we can’t fathom any monkeys writing this classic piece of literature, then we must not be imagining enough monkeys.
War and Peace exists as a reflection of the totality of all the information in the universe after all, does it not? Tolstoy doesn’t really own authorship of it all as the possibilities had to somehow pre-exist in order for him to capitalize on them, right? which is why an infinite amount of monkeys, on an infinite amount of typewriters would end up with at least one copy of the book (and every other piece of conceivable literature for that matter). With an infinite amount of possibility and an infinite number of expressions of that possibility, it’s got to be inevitable, right? It’s almost as though ‘possibility’ is the author of itself, and we are merely the vessels it chooses….since possibility even precedes our descisions.
It would seem that credit for anything is due more to the totality of existence than to the individuals and segments that compose it. Kind of inspires one to subjectively embrace it all rather than to take on further subjective biases and positionalities.
-Rob
Hope for the Future, Hope for the Present
A sapling is not an imperfect tree; it is a perfect sapling. So it is with the world - always the same, always different. In one of the Soctratic dialogues, one of the interlocutors says to Socrates: "you can't step in the same river twice!" to which Socrates responds, "indeed! nor can you step in the same river ONCE!". The world is in a constant state of flux. As such, what basis do we have by which to deem anything an 'improvement'? That anything is less than the perfect expression of that which it is is entirely a matter of ego. That something is a problem rather than an opportunity is simply a matter of perspective - and yet, in either case, it is both and neither! It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less.
We view cancer as being problematic. The complementary view to that perspective is that it is completely opportunistic. If we think in terms of spiritual growth, and not simply prolonged existence, the whole context is transformed.
And there are countless views which fall in between these two extremes.
One might view a cancer patient with distain and resentment for not taking good care of their health.
One might view them with pity for being too ignorant to properly care for themselves.
One might look at them with despair, and anger for the potential loss of closeness or loss of life that their disease represents.
On the other hand someone might view them with sympathy and try to offer support.
One might view them with compassion and offer them an ear to talk to, or a heart to confide in.
One could even view them as an inspiration, and work to improve one's own life in honour of the struggles of the cancer patient.
One might even simply view the patient as a reflection or extension of oneself...
There's really no right way to view it. Cancer is what it is...neither a problem nor an opportunity, and simultaneously both.
In terms of illuminating people with hope for the future, we must understand that it is we who are the saplings. None of us is an imperfect tree. The struggles that we see are the perfect consequence of that which we are.
A tree could not be tall without a world for it to be tall in, nor can a problem be a problem without someone to perceive it as such. The mere fact that there is an increasing tendency to identify problems and issues in the world is a sign of what we have become.
When the world is not concerned with integrity, these things all go unnoticed. To the unevolved soul, theft is not problematic, it is simply statistical.
Fortunately the world is evolving. Theft is viewed as a problem. The danger is simply that we may begin to lose hope as more and more corruption and greed and pride is identified in the world. We must remember that things are not in fact becoming worse; it is simply that we are becoming more aware of the extent to which things can be improved!
Fortunately, this growth is ongoing. Everything is the perfect expression of that which it is. As things are perfect the way they are now (with growing awareness and compassion) so shall they be perfect in the future (when the perfection of the present is fully illuminated), since what is perfect cannot become imperfect (for that would be an imperfection).
Now, some may dismiss these ideas, citing that believing that everything is perfect, even when we do not see it as such, is not advantageous to anyone in the slightest. It should be noted however, that in alignment with the unseen perfection of the Allness of Creation, one facillitates the growth that one would like to see. It is the resistant states of perfection which such objectors object to! so they would do well to refrain from objecting - "be the change" as Gandhi said.
There is hope!
-Rob
"The universe is uncaused, like a net of jewels in which each is only the reflection of all the others in a fantastic interrelated harmony without end." -Ramesh S. Balsekar
We view cancer as being problematic. The complementary view to that perspective is that it is completely opportunistic. If we think in terms of spiritual growth, and not simply prolonged existence, the whole context is transformed.
And there are countless views which fall in between these two extremes.
One might view a cancer patient with distain and resentment for not taking good care of their health.
One might view them with pity for being too ignorant to properly care for themselves.
One might look at them with despair, and anger for the potential loss of closeness or loss of life that their disease represents.
On the other hand someone might view them with sympathy and try to offer support.
One might view them with compassion and offer them an ear to talk to, or a heart to confide in.
One could even view them as an inspiration, and work to improve one's own life in honour of the struggles of the cancer patient.
One might even simply view the patient as a reflection or extension of oneself...
There's really no right way to view it. Cancer is what it is...neither a problem nor an opportunity, and simultaneously both.
In terms of illuminating people with hope for the future, we must understand that it is we who are the saplings. None of us is an imperfect tree. The struggles that we see are the perfect consequence of that which we are.
A tree could not be tall without a world for it to be tall in, nor can a problem be a problem without someone to perceive it as such. The mere fact that there is an increasing tendency to identify problems and issues in the world is a sign of what we have become.
When the world is not concerned with integrity, these things all go unnoticed. To the unevolved soul, theft is not problematic, it is simply statistical.
Fortunately the world is evolving. Theft is viewed as a problem. The danger is simply that we may begin to lose hope as more and more corruption and greed and pride is identified in the world. We must remember that things are not in fact becoming worse; it is simply that we are becoming more aware of the extent to which things can be improved!
Fortunately, this growth is ongoing. Everything is the perfect expression of that which it is. As things are perfect the way they are now (with growing awareness and compassion) so shall they be perfect in the future (when the perfection of the present is fully illuminated), since what is perfect cannot become imperfect (for that would be an imperfection).
Now, some may dismiss these ideas, citing that believing that everything is perfect, even when we do not see it as such, is not advantageous to anyone in the slightest. It should be noted however, that in alignment with the unseen perfection of the Allness of Creation, one facillitates the growth that one would like to see. It is the resistant states of perfection which such objectors object to! so they would do well to refrain from objecting - "be the change" as Gandhi said.
There is hope!
-Rob
"The universe is uncaused, like a net of jewels in which each is only the reflection of all the others in a fantastic interrelated harmony without end." -Ramesh S. Balsekar
On Wanting
Suppose you are writing a multiple choice exam.
1. You want to choose the correct answer.
2. The correct answer is (a)
3. You think the correct answer is (d)
Suppose you chose (d). Did you do what you wanted?
This is the basic gist of the argument that Socrates makes against Polus in Plato's Gorgias. The gist being that all we want is what is good for us, and so, though we may think that we want one thing, we may in fact want something else.
Consider the example of knowledge. It is possible to believe something that is false, though it is not possible to know something that is false.
eg: One can think one knows that Los Angeles is in the province of Quebec, but one cannot know that Los Angeles is in the province of Quebec.
If we apply the same principle to 'wanting', it seems understandable that one can think he desires something which he truly does not.
It appears as though the main thing which interferes with our acting upon our true wants is the problem of thinkingness. Our thoughts simply are not trustworthy when it comes to discerning these differences.
In the absence of thinkingness, reality, as-it-is, is self-evident. We often seem to be of the persuasion that within our thoughts is contained our humanity, when the case seems to be just the opposite - that in thinkingness we are trapped in a state of oblivion; where we can know about a great many things...only by virtue of such a dualistic view, we're never quite able to truly know such things at all. We fear that if we surrender our dreams, and our thoughts and our ideas, that we will somehow surrender something which is real in the process.
What we call our dreams are really what we think our dreams and ambitions are.
What we call good ideas are merely those things that we think are good ideas.
Having understood these principles it seems as though the way to truth dwells in the silencing of the mind…and since we are not the mind, the task of silencing it is no easy one! …it does not succumb to our will after all (just try and predict your next thought if you're in doubt of this - it's impossible! it arises spontaneously).
The mind is like a tiny tv screen in a massive arena. We give it so much attention that it seems to occupy the whole of our being…but the stadium is mostly empty...there is so much more to us than what we simply think we are.
All we need do is disengage from the mind…thinking will come to rest on its own.
“Truth is verifiable only by identity with it, not by knowing about it.” -David R. Hawkins
-Rob
1. You want to choose the correct answer.
2. The correct answer is (a)
3. You think the correct answer is (d)
Suppose you chose (d). Did you do what you wanted?
This is the basic gist of the argument that Socrates makes against Polus in Plato's Gorgias. The gist being that all we want is what is good for us, and so, though we may think that we want one thing, we may in fact want something else.
Consider the example of knowledge. It is possible to believe something that is false, though it is not possible to know something that is false.
eg: One can think one knows that Los Angeles is in the province of Quebec, but one cannot know that Los Angeles is in the province of Quebec.
If we apply the same principle to 'wanting', it seems understandable that one can think he desires something which he truly does not.
It appears as though the main thing which interferes with our acting upon our true wants is the problem of thinkingness. Our thoughts simply are not trustworthy when it comes to discerning these differences.
In the absence of thinkingness, reality, as-it-is, is self-evident. We often seem to be of the persuasion that within our thoughts is contained our humanity, when the case seems to be just the opposite - that in thinkingness we are trapped in a state of oblivion; where we can know about a great many things...only by virtue of such a dualistic view, we're never quite able to truly know such things at all. We fear that if we surrender our dreams, and our thoughts and our ideas, that we will somehow surrender something which is real in the process.
What we call our dreams are really what we think our dreams and ambitions are.
What we call good ideas are merely those things that we think are good ideas.
Having understood these principles it seems as though the way to truth dwells in the silencing of the mind…and since we are not the mind, the task of silencing it is no easy one! …it does not succumb to our will after all (just try and predict your next thought if you're in doubt of this - it's impossible! it arises spontaneously).
The mind is like a tiny tv screen in a massive arena. We give it so much attention that it seems to occupy the whole of our being…but the stadium is mostly empty...there is so much more to us than what we simply think we are.
All we need do is disengage from the mind…thinking will come to rest on its own.
“Truth is verifiable only by identity with it, not by knowing about it.” -David R. Hawkins
-Rob
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