Mason Riggle

Member
  • Content count

    1,995
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Mason Riggle

  1. @Marioxs34 nah, you're probably fine with this line of inquiry. It is a bit paradoxical. Leo will often say things like, 'The map is not the territory', and in the same breath say that the map IS the territory. These two things seem contradictory, but this contradiction is mostly due to how we use and understand language. The leaves are not the same as 'the tree', and yet, the leaves ARE the tree.
  2. Here's a metaphor that may be helpful in finding God. If you look at a tree.. you might say, 'the tree is growing leaves', but then you may also recognize that the leaves are part of the tree, and not separate from it. Is there really a 'tree' separate from 'the leaves it's growing'? Is there really a 'God' separate from 'what God is doing'? You might think.. the trunk is not 'the tree'.. the branches are not 'the tree'.. the leaves are not 'the tree'.. the roots are not 'the tree'.. but then what exactly is 'the tree'? You think God exists separate from you.. separate from reality.. something which is causing floods, and causing trees, and causing you.. and all this stuff.. but all of this stuff is not separate from God.. it is God.
  3. @Marioxs34 this will all depend on how the word 'God' is defined. God knows himself through you. The Universe is experiencing itself as you. You are God, it's all you..
  4. @Marioxs34 the contents of experience can be illusion (not what they seem), but the 'seeming' itself.. that's real. It's the only thing I know for certain.. THIS IS. This is. <--- The territory. (experience) This is ________(fill in the blank). <--- The map. (reason)
  5. you actually can not experience this.. you are just mistaken about what you are experiencing. Recognize that 'experience' itself can not be an 'illusion'.. something seems to be happening, rather than nothing, it's self evident. It's always possible to be mistaken about the contents of experience.. but not about the fact of experience itself. The map (the contents of experience) is not the territory (experience itself). All descriptions of reality, are not reality. The contents of your dreams is not the same as 'dreaming'. When you fly in your dream.. they flying wasn't real, but the dream can not be denied.
  6. @Tyler Durden does it matter which it is? Things are always exactly as they seem.. until or unless they seem otherwise, in which case things are still exactly how they seem.
  7. I was severely depressed (nearly suicidal) for over two years.. it was my reaction to situations in my life which felt beyond my control. This was about 10 years ago. This depression was, in a way, what led me to spirituality. I am no longer depressed (or anxious), even during extremely difficult times. Haven't been for years. I'm free.
  8. @OBEler this was a great series which highlights a major cause of the US Opioid epidemic. This is kind of 'old news' within the addict community, as this same story of transitioning from prescription opiates to much cheaper street drugs has played out over and over for so many people and affected so many lives. But it always helps to spread awareness!
  9. Where do you think Mathematical Insight comes from if not contemplation?
  10. "But as a matter of conscious experience, the reality of your life is always now. I think this is a liberating truth about the nature of the human mind. In fact, I think there is probably nothing more important to understand about your mind than that if you want to be happy in this world. The past is a memory. It's a thought arising in the present. The future is merely anticipated. It is another thought arising now. What we truly have is this moment. And this. And this… And we spend most of our lives forgetting this truth. Repudiating it, fleeing it, overlooking it. And the horror is that we succeed. We manage to never really connect with the present moment and find fulfillment there because we are continually hoping to become happy in the future. And the future never arrives. Even when we think we're in the present moment we're in very subtle ways always looking over its shoulder, anticipating what's coming next. We're always solving a problem. And it's possible to simply drop your problem, if only for a moment, and enjoy whatever is true of your life in the present. This is not a matter of new information, or more information. It requires a change in attitude. It requires a change in the attentiveness you pay to your experience in the present moment." excerpt from "It's Always Now." by Sam Harris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSIAMaAYYj0
  11. @Someone here I have a lot of success with noticing that there's nothing for me to do. When I consider what it's like to 'be me', I recognize that I'm always being myself without trying. It's effortless. There's literally nothing for me to do, which I'm not already always doing without trying. What could there possibly be for me to worry about if there is absolutely nothing for me to do about any of it that I'm not already always in the process of doing? “If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.” ― Dalai Lama XIV
  12. @Iesu it seems like there's a you, and a me.. and that 'seeming like a you and a me (and whatever else there seems to be)' is the one thing I am.
  13. One key to making sense of Solipsism, is to recognize that it doesn't matter whether or not there REALLY ARE others (can anything be known to exist beyond our own experience?) or if there only SEEMS TO BE others, as long as you can't tell the difference. This is made clear by considering the following- Does this forum really exist, or does it just really seem to exist to you? Do you see how it doesn't matter which one is the case?
  14. YOU should pm ME, so WE can talk about there's only ME.
  15. "I have no other self than the totality of things of which I am aware." - Alan Watts
  16. "What should I do?" Notice that you are already always doing what you think you 'should do'. Clearly you thought you should write a post on here about this, so you did. The only way to do 'other than you think you should', is to think that's what you should do. You are happening, automatically, exactly as you will happen.. and from the perspective of 'the Universe', this is always exactly what 'should be happening'.
  17. Any attempt to deviate from what is occurring, is just more what is occurring. There is one path, and you're always already on it.
  18. It's easy to surrender (effortless) when it's realised that in any moment, there's nothing to do that you're not already doing. Trying to be myself, and trying not to be myself are the same thing. Both are 'what I am doing', whichever one I do. I am always already 'being myself' without trying to do that. It's Absolutely Effortless. I couldn't stop being myself if I tried.. that would just be more 'me being myself'. "I am. Ohhhh, I AM!"- Leo Gura
  19. It's kind of how lightning chooses the path it loves... if there was something God loved more then THIS, than that is what would be, but THIS is, because THIS is what God loves.
  20. All this questioning about what you 'should' do goes away when it's recognized that you're already always doing whatever you think you should. This can be noticed directly. Consider, the only way for you to do 'other than you think you should', is if that is what you think you should do. There is only 1 path, and you're always already on it. Before enlightenment, carry water, chop wood.. after enlightenment, carry water, chop wood.
  21. When you look at the world in such a way that there is no difference between 'yourself' and 'that which is not yourself', you may begin to understand that everything is an expression of Love, including your wondering. "“What I am really saying is that you don’t need to do anything, because if you see yourself in the correct way, you are all as much extraordinary phenomenon of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns in running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars, and the form of a galaxy. You are all just like that, and there is nothing wrong with you at all.” - Alan Watts
  22. He's a Master at communicating very complex, and often paradoxical ideas in relatively straight forward, cohesive ways. His videos can induce meta-understandings of topics, where previously only surface understanding existed. He's fearless in the way he goes about living his truth, which by his example, gives other people courage to be themselves fearlessly. He is flawed and Human, and to me, that is not a weakness, but rather just more opportunity to learn from him what is flawed in me.
  23. No. I like what I like. I desire what I desire. I can't choose to enjoy flavors I don't enjoy. I can't want what I don't want. I can't desire what I do not desire. My desires were formed over time, by my genetic makeup, which I did not choose, my environment, my experiences, etc.. Even if I could cause myself to desire that which I currently don't, I'd first have to have the desire to do that.. where did that desire come from?
  24. @WokeBloke I do not. I don't choose my desires. Do you?