Mason Riggle

I find it doesn't really matter which perspective you take. Am I dreaming this Forum and this comment right now? Or is this Forum 'real'? If I can't tell the difference, then what's the difference?

@Leo Gura I think it would be very interesting to hear your insights on the link between Language and Perception/Creation, if there is such a link to be made. Here are a few quotes to give you an idea of what I mean, and where I might see this type of video going. "Language is not a handmaiden to perception; it is perception; it gives shape to what would otherwise be inert and dead." - Stanley Fish "If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a different world." - Ludwig Wittgenstein "Language is the biggest barrier to human progress because language is an encyclopedia of ignorance. Old perceptions are frozen into language and force us to look at the world in an old fashioned way." - Edward de Bono "All of these concrete metaphors increase enormously our powers of perception of the world about us and our understanding of it, and literally create new objects. Indeed, language is an organ of perception, not simply a means of communication." - Julian Jaynes "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." - The Bible (Is the creation story of the Bible a metaphor for 'imagining (speaking) reality into 'existence' through duality?) Thanks for everything! Keep up the amazing work.

https://media.giphy.com/media/VeHPrLCLonEhgupsrH/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47alzog14old6h509f7yhw42jg7xlfz0f2o3wpvfh5&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

Fooling itself. Fucking itself. Dreaming itself. Creating itself. Experiencing itself. Imagining itself.

Of course! You're always fooling yourself, silly!

@impulse9 I suppose all metaphor is lost on you. You'll never see the forest through all those trees.

@impulse9 Leo will tell you psychedelics are a tool.. a useful tool to 'get you there'.. Like a car.. if you want to get somewhere, and I tell you that getting in a car and driving will get you there easily, this is true, even though walking will also get you there, albeit rather slowly and laboriously... but 'getting there' has little to do with what kind of car, how fast it is, what color it is, etc... you still need a map, and a good idea of how to read it.. etc.

^more stories.. it's all an illusion designed in such an infinitely beautiful way that you've forgotten that you forgot who you really are..

Are you so sure? Wanna trade stories?? You think you're the only one who ever tripped balls into insanity?

more stories you are telling yourself now so you can remain asleep, which is fine.. it's just not Truth.

@cypres it's more like a strange loop than a circle.. the map is not the territory.. reality extends infinitely in infinite 'directions'.. outward, inward, forward, backward... everything is so intimately connected to everything else (no separation, there isn't actually an 'everything else'.. everything is already all there is) such that there is only ever 1 thing... everything.

@TompsterLobster recognize that anxiety is one end of a spectrum (depression being at the other).. anxiety can be thought of as 'the mind being attached to notions of the future' (what if, what if, what if) where as depression is the mind being attached to notions of the past (I should have... it should have been.. if only things had been..). Becoming aware of this in moments of anxiety, and redirecting focus back to the present moment will quell anxiety or depression. You can consciously practice bringing your attention to whatever is true of your present experience and literally notice the anxiety wash away (unless of course your current experience calls for you to feel anxiety, such as an immediate threat to survival, in which case increased adrenaline etc. are appropriate).

@The0Self bingo.

@cypres nothing/everything appearing as something.. It's an illusion that occurs when 'what is' imagines that it's not what it is.

@Rilles

what's next for who? Nothing to do, no one to do it.

It's because language is inherently dualistic, and you can't use dualistic language to make an accurate model of a non-dual reality. You can't logic your way into understanding an a-logical existence.

@Wilhelm44 I think that rings true.

but did you do it 'freely'? This is the sticker.. what is meant by 'free'? For anyone who presents a case for 'free will', please define 'free' for me. Free from what, exactly?

What else is there?

@Someone here not all people are so prone to deny evidence, however it seems a disproportionate amount do when it comes to free will. It seems to me that there are reasons that can be known why people are so in denial of reality in this one area.. such as fear of not being in control.

^this is correct. Drop your notions of 'first', 'manifest vs. non-manifest' and the questions resolve themselves. It's always right now... Infinity/Nothing appearing as Finity/Something

@SBB4746 maybe you're doing sober sex wrong. Don't get me wrong, sex on meth is amazing, but I'd put it more like 2x better, than 100x better (I suppose this has to do with context and experience... I'm 46, been married twice to very sexual partners.. and so the amount of mind blowing sex I've had isn't perhaps typical.. sex when you are 20 is good.. but sex when you are in love, have a partner you're comfortable with and with whom you know what feels good and what doesn't is multiple times better!), and trade offs of ingesting meth (feeling grimy and strung out during the come down) are horrible. Addiction is a complex beast, and the particular 'substance' of the addiction, whether it be meth, caffeine, fast food, porn, sex etc. has less to do with how addicted one becomes than most people realize.

@Someone here The 'No Freedom/Freedom' duality collapses. What is left is 'being', whereby the only Truth is Now. Que sera, sera.

@Someone here I think I misunderstood you. I said 'anyone presented with compelling evidence will helplessly change their beliflefs..' You replied, 'This can only be true if free will exists.'. The opposite is true. People 'helplessly' (unfreely) change their beliefs when presented with compelling evidence. If I showed you your father's head on a pike, this would convince you of his death, unless you deny the evidence. Either way, whatever you believe after I present you with evidence is not up to you.. Either you will find the evidence compelling, or you won't.. but it's not up to you which occurs. The randomness and chaotic nature of reality only strengthens the argument against free will.. I think we agree on this. I think denying the evidence of free will has more to do with how brains are programmed to evaluate evidence.