Mason Riggle

"Don't hate what you don't understand." - John Lennon, also Fake.

@taotemu there are many degrees and facets of 'enlightenment'... A math teacher is more 'enlightened' about Calculus than her students. Anyone can be a guru, if they have something to teach you.

@gettoefl juicy Goodness

@Happy Lizard consider, is it good or bad when a Lion kills and eats a Gazelle? It's good for the Lion, bad for the Gazelle. We might then consider, the bigger picture process of Nature, Lions eating Gazelles, shitting on the planes, fertilizing the grass, which in turn feeds the Gazelles... that process of 'Life' is what is Good, with a capital G.. at least life seems to beat the alternative...

Nice.. this is how telepathy happens.

Deliberation happens and intentions get played out. Meditation happens if and when it does.

@gettoefl I'm sure we agree here.. as I said, I don't think there's anything I 'should' do. I don't have a should code. I do exactly what I desire.

There is no 'what I should do'.. but there is 'what I think I should do'... and I always do whatever I think I should.

@gettoefl I always do exactly what I think I should do.. or 'what I want to do'.. same thing.

@Happy Lizard it might help to understand that 'Good' is not the same as 'your idea of what is good'.

I hope I die young, as late as possible.

Perhaps the notions of Heaven and Hell are metaphorical. Heaven is just a word for a hypothetical 'ultimate state of 'being' which the Universe desires and Hell is 'that ultimate state it desires to avoid'.. two hypothetical ends of an infinite relative spectrum. Thus, when understood as this between two people, they can communicate moral prescriptions(shoulds and shouldn'ts), based on past experiences .. "If you don't want what history has revealed you don't want, you shouldn't do 'x, y and z'." To avoid 'hell' (if you don't want a shitty experience you don't want) then don't cheat on your wife and shoot the neighbor kids.. That's not good (God) yo.

Man, I should have made myself better looking.

“You are an incredible mystery that you will never figure out. To be this mystery consciously is the greatest joy.” — Adyashanti

@cypres intentions arise unintentionally.

This makes them opposites. Destined- whatever will be will be. 'Free Will'- whatever will be, could be other than it will.

I consider anything I do as 'being myself'. I consider myself to always be my authentic self. 'Trying to be like myself' and 'trying not to be like myself' are the same thing. The are both 'what I'm doing', which is 'being like myself'.

The funny part is, the only thing you ever do is be yourself, and you're always doing it, without ever trying to.

While you're at it.. try to notice where your thoughts come from. From your perspective, they merely arise in your awareness from 'nowhere', no different how than the words I'm typing arise in your awareness. You have no more idea what you will think next than you have what I will type next. I could start writing about Buffalo Style Flamingo Wings... where did that come from? You have no idea. The same thing is happening in your own mind. Where is the freedom?

How does it decide what route it wanted? Could it want something other than what it wants? I see no freedom here. The Universe is slave to how it wants to be.

@Someone here this assumes nothing of the sort.. 'consciousness' and 'death' are mutually exclusive. If consciousness is, death isn't. Is the 'you' who you were yesterday dead, or did consciousness continue in some different form? What's the difference?

@Someone here the existence of 'you', and the existence of 'death' are mutually exclusive. “Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” — Epicurus.

I think most people use the phrase 'Free Will' to mean the opposite of 'Destiny'. Destiny: the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future. (notice that this literally describes any future that happens, no matter what that future looks like. Of course what happens in the future happens necessarily, otherwise that's not what will happen.) 'Free Will' for most people, is defined as the opposite of 'Destined'.. but 'destined' has no opposite.. whatever happens is always destined to happen, otherwise it wouldn't happen. If you press them to really consider what they mean by 'Free Will', they won't be able to say what they mean, because it's a nonsense notion. The phrase itself, 'free will', is an oxymoron. Its self contradictory.. like a 'square circle', or a 'tiny giant'. Consider what most people understand the word 'will' to mean.. I will go to the store.. The sun will rise. What changes when we add the word 'freely'? I will go to the store freely. The sun will rise freely. 'Free Will' must mean something other than just plain old 'Will'.. so what most people don't realize, is that the term 'free will' must mean something 'other than will'... but we know this makes no sense in any context.. "I will go to the store freely" must mean "I will go to the store other than how I will". "The Sun will rise freely' must mean "The Sun will rise other than how it will". Sure, if you want to play language and definition games, 'Circle' can mean the same thing as 'Square' as long as I think 'Circle' means 'a shape with 4 equal length sides and 4 ninety degree corners'. Anything can mean anything you want it to, if that's how we're playing the language game.. but then it becomes impossible to use language to convey meaning to others, and words only have meaning to the person saying them, and mean nothing to the person hearing them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Any attempt to interfere with how things are occurring is always just more 'how things are already occurring'". You literally can not interfere with how the Universe is being, because anything you do is 'how the Universe is being'.

@Windappreciator not if she's her mother.