Mason Riggle

I am compelled by my highest desire, if that's what you mean.

@WokeBloke so you're happy taking responsibility for the way your hair grows, then? You can change how that happens, or stop doing that, since you are doing it?

@WokeBloke you said it, the tree is growing 'all by itself'.. There is no separate tree 'growing the tree'.. The tree is just growing how it will.. There is no 'you' anywhere controlling your organism.. it's just behaving how it will. You really really want to find some locus of attention which 'does things', but there simply is not.. The sensation of perceiving thoughts and sights and sounds is just more stuff happening as it will.

The map is not the territory, and yet it is. Your OP is like one tree asking another tree what a forest is.. can all these trees kindly get out of my way so I can see the forest?!

One can never convince anyone else of solipsism, only themselves, because according to solipsism, there really isn't anyone else who isn't being imagined by the convincer.. It would be tantamount to me convincing the characters in my dream that I am dreaming them up.. what a silly endeavor... and when 'others' try to convince me of Solipsism, that is tantamount to the characters in my dreams convincing me I'm dreaming.. what a silly dream that would be.

Can you conceptually collapse this, such that there is no distinction between 'the one thingless thing' and 'everything else'?

Don't try too hard.

@Wisebaxter for me, it's really liberating to realize that 'effort' doesn't take any effort. Whenever I try to do something, I never had to try to try to do it. I often notice that I am already doing what I do, without trying to do it, even if 'trying to do something' is what I'm effortlessly doing. This can be notice now, directly. Ask yourself, 'how hard am I trying to be myself right now?' Notice that it takes no effort at all.. you just always 'are being yourself', and you couldn't stop even if you tried.. because that would just be more 'what you are doing', which is 'being yourself'.

It helps to understand the difference between two different ways people define solipsism. I use solipsism and Solipsism to make this distinction. solipsism- I am alone, and everything else is a figment of MY imagination. Solipsism- I am alone because there is no 'everything else', it's all me. Everything is being imagined, including distinctions, and this 'imagining' is the ONE thing I am.. Everything. ALL-ONE.. Al-one.. alone.

That's just an arbitrary distinction you are making about 'who' or 'what' is responsible for 'what is happening'. For example, if I train a dog to bite, and it does, what caused the bite.. me or the dog? Both? What if I was taught to train dogs to bite by my parents. Did my parents cause the bite? What if I teach my child to write code, and I tell him to write a program that outputs 'hello world!'.. what wrote 'hello world!'.. did the computer do that? Is the computer responsible for writing 'hello world!'? I can watch the computer spit out page after page from the printer.. maybe the printer is doing that. Is the printer writing 'hello world!'? I see it doing that. I see all these pages of words created by printers. @WokeBloke You didn't answer me.. What is causing trees?

Don't you see that this process is happening all by itself without anyone doing it? What is causing the trees?

And isn't that happening all by itself? Is there a separate 'you' somewhere making that happen?

"You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it.. You are the storm." - Sam Harris

“Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?" - Epicurus

@WokeBloke if you think 'you' are 'the body'.. consider how 'you' would change if you cut off your hand.. 'you' remain, pretty much in tact.. are you 'your hand', or do you remain even without 'your hand'.. IF you ARE your hand.. are you not also 'your experiences'? Don't my words 'change who you are' similarly to how 'losing your hand' changes who you are? Do you see how 'you' are defined by all of the things which are not you? Can you see how there really isn't any difference? Two sides of the same coin.

Me being responsible for everything that's happening would require a 'me' which is separate from 'everything that is happening'. "I am. Ohhhhh.. I AM!" - Leo Gura

I don't know if that makes more sense than existence being eternal. Existence is self evident. It's here now.. and it's always now.

How can you be 'responsible' for something that is happening, that you don't even know how it's happening? Are you responsible for how your stomach digests food?

Yes, the same way you are growing hair.. That is to say, you are not responsible for how you do it.

Are you aware of how your brain produces thoughts? I am comparing 1 unconscious process with another. Everything is occurring within awareness, and awareness isn't 'doing' any of it.

@WokeBloke Consider.. is the tree growing it's leaves? Well, aren't the leaves part of the tree? The leaves aren't growing the leaves. Maybe it's the branches that are growing the leaves. The same way it can't really be said 'what is growing the leaves', it can't really be said 'who is thinking thoughts'.. Leaves are growing. Thoughts are thinking. It's all going along, going along, and there isn't anybody doing that. Is a volcano 'responsible' for spewing lava on the neighboring village? It was the volcano that did that right? Are you responsible for the thoughts you think? You thought those thoughts, right?

This is the illusive nature of 'self'. Who am "I"? Am I 'my thoughts?' Am I 'the thinker of thoughts'? Am I 'my body'? All of it? Am I 'my hand'? Am I 'my experiences'? What can be found, is that however I define "myself", "myself" is just occurring.. myself is never 'causing myself'. Myself just always IS myself.

Do you have any control over the thoughts your brain produces? How? By thinking about it? Please explain how 'you' control what thoughts your brain produces, that isn't some thought process happening automatically in your brain.

@At awe ?

Am I? I didn't choose my parents.. my time or place of birth.. any of my influences and experiences growing up.. I think in a language that was given to me. I don't choose what I will think next. I don't choose my desires. Again, "I" (define "I" however you like.. a thought, an organism, the whole shebang, God, doesn't matter) am something which is occurring, not something that 'does things'.