LastThursday

Isn't that your life purpose? What do you think?

We all carry our parents inside of us wherever we go. Peace can only come from inside and asking yourself: "How am I like my parents?". What should you lose, and what should you keep? From there comes release, forgiveness and compassion. You'll know what to do from there on.

Also, don't forget me. I am also humbled and bow before you most enlightened master @David Hammond.

@David Hammond @Preetom it's funny how we judge and compare each other based on our attributes. It's as if we were sweets in a sweetshop; there are nice sweets, and chewy sweets, and sugary sweets, and sour sweets, and enlightened sweets and un-enlightened sweets. And some leave a bad taste in the mouth and some don't.

@AlphaAbundance yeah it's nice. And you're most welcome. The truth is, you make an impact on everyone all the time, it's like ripples in a pond, and you're the pebble in the centre. You SHOULD feel gratitude for that, even if you don't always. And the gratitude should flow in all directions.

"Doing stuff" is just an invention of the mind. There's a kind of panic which sets in when you're not always doing something, or aiming for something. If you're not doing something, some people call it time wasting, or wasting your life or whatever. But you're absolutely right, there's no reason to do anything other than the pure survival things of breathing, eating, sleeping and so on - everything else is extra. If you're Enlightened my guess is (my opinion, I don't really know), is that you don't actually 'do' anything - you just have the appearance of doing to other people. You quack like a duck and walk like a duck, but you're not a duck, instead you're just in the flow of being God (or whatever). It would be like asking a river: "what are you doing?" - it's a blatantly ridiculous question, obviously it's not doing, instead it's being a river. Unconditional happiness, is just 'being a river'.

Now you're getting closer. It's nothing to do with happiness, it's to do with the avoidance of potential pain (or suffering). But just think, if you are unconditionally happy, then suffering is gone, doing those things will be a cinch - you'll do them gladly and without effort and resistance.

@AlphaAbundance if everything makes you happy, then what's the issue exactly?

That presuposes that the purpose of things like socializing, life purpose, business, entertainment, relationships and hobbies are all to do with happiness; and that unconditional happiness trumps all those, so there's no point. None of those activities are conditional on happiness. You can do them for other reasons. Here's a few reasons: To help others To improve your skills To distract you from boredom To enlighten yourself To learn about yourself To bring joy to others To earn more and more money etc.

Interesting. If I did not identify with @LastThursday, but instead identified with @Leo Gura would I be able to see through your eyes? Or is there a fundamental separation going on between us? Are we separate because of identification?

That is excellent, you're making the first step on the path and there's no turning back. Make doubt and contemplation your closest friends and they will take you far.

Spot on. All of reality is a just memory, nothing more. Except a memory is not the past; the past is a memory. A memory is just a sensation of familiarity. And in turn, that sensation is just a belief. We believe we exist, because it feels/seems familiar.

We are all suffering and feel pain. We all want relief. Suicide can seem like the least worst option. And we get to seize back control and self esteem by being able to choose when and how we go. But even a life of suffering is really amazing and precious and it's okay just to carry on and grow and mature and learn how to escape the suffering in the end. Maybe you get to live and not suffer?

Some gimmicky titles you might find in an airport bookstore: ANXIETY: How to deprogram fear and win socially UNXIETY: The smart way to beat anxiety (or your money back) Beat Anxiety, Win Back Life: the smart person's guide to social freedom Anxious? How not too give a @!?@ in the 21st Century. STATUS ANXIETY: the story of your anxiety and how to overcome it. The Art of Anxiety: how to unlearn fear in 7 days (or your money back) The Anxious Ape: the psychology of anxiety and social interaction. I don't want money, just a brief mention in your book will do...

I believe I am existing. And so far, I've held on to that belief. But it may change. But are we individuals? Are we really separate from each other? Do we not have to blend together in order to communicate? If this conversation had a name, it would be @LastThursday + @Zetxil. Both are valid and equal.

@winterknight does anything that is not in your direct experience exist? Is direct experience continuous or discontinuous? By direct experience I mean 'conciously aware of' or 'reality'.

Yes, but you do realise we’re on a forum about breaking through illusions, and recovering the Truth of the Absolute? Is it heresy to introduce the Absolute? I’m just agreeing with @Aeris ‘Choice is a Total Delusion’. I don't feel as though there is confusion. If free will is not the application of choice, then what is it? If choice is not governed by free will then how can it be a choice? The two are one and the same. Also, what do you mean by exist? Isn’t existence just a belief? For the 'idea of a choice' to exist, you must believe it exists. And a belief is just a choice. @tecladocasio @Zetxil in my opinion you are still clinging for dear life onto a sense of self agency and individualism, and you may feel uncomfortable giving that up. But that's ok, reality continues even when you see through the veil.

Ok, so I just pushed back the point at which the choice is made. Let's see if I can explain what I'm getting at a different way. It boils down to this: the world is analogue and continuous with no boundaries (a non-duality if you like), but a choice is finite and bounded. So how do you get from one to the other? The main problem is that You are part of the analogue experience and so is the entity (You) that is doing the choosing. By way on analogy. Imagine being a master mason with a large block of marble ready to be carved. That marble block could be carved into an infinite variety of forms, the block has infinite potential options open to it and there is as a consequence an infinity of choices that could be made. But. The mason is building a church. The number of forms (doorways, windows, buttresses etc.) is drastically reduced, to a finite number. The mason decides to build part of a window. You see the mason is not completely free to make any choice s/he likes because they are artificially constrained. Their 'Free Will' is not 'Free'. It is 'Constrained Will'. What about true 'Free Will', i.e. one that isn't constrained by anything? Say the mason takes the first blow out of the marble. And with each successive blow changes his/her mind about where to strike next. And in the end s/he has carved a beautiful statue. When was the choice made to make a statue? Was it one choice or a thousand choices? The reality is that no choice was made at all. From the marble block to the statue was one continuous happening without gaps - there was no room for choice, because there are no 'gaps' in the analogue world. The mason is just deluded into thinking choices were made.

This is an artificial situation. See, you have set up your options a priori, and then you make your choice after that fact. That is the delusion of choice. This is how we all justify having free will. In order to make a choice, you must have options, in order to have options, you must carve up the world into separate compartments. The carving up of the world, is the delusion. If you truly believe in randomness, then choice is not compatible with it. Choice is deliberate, not random. Free will cannot be truly random.

The previous arising thought does not exist. It is just a thought of/about the previous arising thought. There is no connection: just a thought happening now, giving the illusion of two thoughts being connected together. It's as slippery as an eel. The 'feeling of familiarity' of having had a previous thought is not in itself a thought however, it is a part of thought, the same way the colour red is.

@tecladocasio so you agree it's 'something else'. In that case who/what is doing the choosing? What is it choosing from?

A decision or a choice requires there to be something to choose from. No? If yes, then by definition it is dependent on something.

So. Is a choice a 'thought' or 'an action' or 'something else'?

@tecladocasio Choice depends on the number of options available at any given moment. Your mind likes to simplify, so it pretends the number of options are limited and also pretends there is a deadline for choosing. It also likes to pretend there is an action to be taken as a consequence of the choice. The reality is that at any given moment, there are a huge number of potential options. You narrow down your options to Latte or Cappucino - a thought then 'pops' into your mind to have a Latte. You then action that thought by telling the staff you'd like a 'Latte please'. You tell your friend about your coffee shop story later in the day. The reality was this, you could have: Walked out the coffee shop. Gone to the toilet/restroom before buying. Chatted to the person next to you in the queue. Sat down and did nothing. Looked at your mobile. Held up the coffee shop with a pretend gun. Made a choice for latte and 123 days later walked back in and actually ordered it. Hopefully, you get the point. You discard all the thousands of choices you could have made, and instead you try and justifiy having free will, with the choice you did make.

@Sharp I so hope you are still with us. I also hope you had the conviction to look into the eyes of your loved ones, when you told them what you were going to do and how much you loved them. If you are going to go ahead anyway, I really really hope you do it right and don't end up a vegetable locked into a useless body dribbling into your hospital pillow for the rest of your life, unable to talk to your loved ones as they visit you every day. I too am curious about death, but I'm going to wait for death to find me first. If you need to talk, I'm 100% here for you mate. Just PM me.