Mason Riggle

@KaRzual I like practicing mindfulness (present moment awareness). Practice staying very present. Practice noticing what is true Now.. notice the sensations you are feeling now. Notice what sounds you are hearing now. Notice what thoughts you are thinking now. This is what I mean by 'paying close attention to the present moment'. Notice that if you are thinking about the future, that is a thought occurring now. Notice that if you are thinking about the past, or remembering something, that is also just more thought occurring now. Notice that you have no idea what thought will occur to you next. What will you think next? You won't know until it arises. Recognize that everything, including your own thoughts, is simply happening, and you are becoming aware of it in each moment.

@KaRzual by recognizing you never had control. By simply paying close attention to the present moment, it can be noticed that your organism operates all by itself. It grows hair. It beats it's heart. It thinks thoughts.. and all of these things happen automatically. There is no 'you' hiding somewhere inside your organism controlling what your organism does. Notice that 'trying to be like yourself' and 'trying not to be like yourself' would both be 'what you are doing', which is 'being like yourself'. You just 'are' yourself, effortlessly, and you never have to try to do it. How hard are you trying to 'be you' right now? Not hard at all. You couldn't 'not be you' if you tried, because that would just be more 'you being you'. You don't have to 'let go' of control, because you don't have it. Control is an illusion.

I don't think this is something we all agree on. It's an assumption. Recognize that while it seems that we have bodies and that we interact with a physical plane of existence', it's possible to be totally confused about our experience... when we dream, it seems like 'we are interacting with a physical plane of existence' as well. My whole life could be a simulation, or an illusion, or a hallucination. I could be a brain in a vat, dreaming all of THIS right now. How could I know? What dream could someone who is dreaming have that would show them it's not a dream? If a character in your dream was trying to convince you that they are really interacting with you in a physical plane of existence.. and in the dream they showed you an apple, and pointed to all manner of physical things and interactions as proof of the 'realness' of the dream. that would all be possible within the dream, and you still couldn't know that your 'evidence that it's not a dream' isn't just 'more dream'.

@Hello from Russia society basically operates at the level of the Status Quo.. any movement away from the Status Quo is met with resistance,.. so whether or not I meet societies standards for 'sexual value' isn't up to me, it's up to society.. and when you push against these 'societal norms', society pushes back..

Dreams are just weird, man. Last night I dreamt I accidentally chopped off most of my thumb and half of 1 finger in a lawnmower, and had them sewn back on.. what could it possibly mean?!!?!?!?!?!?

@Javfly33 'real' and 'imagined' are the same thing. The past 'really exists' now, because it imaginarily exists now. real/imaginary is a duality that can be transcended to Real, with a capital R. (or Imaginary, with a capital I, but it's the same as Real) Is this forum 'real' or 'imaginary'? This is like asking if you want 6 donuts, or half a dozen.

Recognize that the inside of the cup and the outside of the cup seem like two separate things, but they are not.. they are both (plural) the cup (singular). You (singular) are 'self and other' (plural). It's all you. When you have a dream at night about your neighbor, when you are in the dream, it seems like the characters in your dream are having an experience which you are not experiencing, but do you suppose they really are? While you are dreaming it seems so, but when you wake up, you realize it was all you.

@mandyjw nice.

Remember that the bad news is, nothing last forever.. the good news is, nothing lasts forever. What you are asking is tantamount to asking, 'how can I enjoy flavors of ice cream I dislike, if the definition of 'dislike' means I don't enjoy them?'. "If you are going through hell, keep going." Perhaps consider that if you could accept everything as it is, then ''Hell' has no definition.

@RMQualtrough did you miss what I put in parentheses? I defined what I mean by 'matter', and it has nothing to do with 'purpose', and everything to do with perceiving differences. I's 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.. they are the same thing. Objectively existing, and 'seemingly objectively existing' are the same thing.

It literally doesn't matter (it makes no difference, there is no difference, there is no perceptible difference, etc.) whether or not 'objects' exist anywhere beyond 'the perceptions of them', so long as it seems like they do. I seem to by typing this comment on a keyboard. Is there really a keyboard, or just the 'seeming like there's a keyboard'? It literally doesn't matter which it is, if you can't tell the difference, which you can't.

Please wait 180 seconds before casting another vote....

Please demonstrate anything. This conversation is just as 'absurd' as matter.. and yet here it is.

@LastThursday yes. It is a mistake to think 'appearances in consciousness' and 'consciousness' are two separate things. One, not two. There are no layers to it. It's direct.

You are 'other people'.. you're all of it.. and that's where consciousness is found.

@Someone here I'm not suggesting consciousness is reducible to matter. This is a straw man. I said consciousness and matter are the same thing.

It's a combination of factors that determines what occurs. Consider the way flowers bloom. All the flowering plants don't make big beautiful flowers.. just the ones that get enough water and nutrients and sunlight, and they must be in the fortunate circumstance of being a healthy flowering plant, rather than a damaged one.. or rather than a non flowering plant.. or rather than a rock. We are products of circumstances.

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

If you believe this, smash your material skull open and see what happens to the subject of that experience.

@Someone here consciousness and matter are the same thing. Where is the the Universe? It's in your head, you see?

It's the same reason you set an alarm clock.. to wake yourself up!

I might describe it as the dissolution of 'separateness'. The same way you don't seem separate from 'your hand', you can feel this way about 'your friends' or 'your shirt' or 'the moon'.. you become all of it, and you can do this so succesfully that it actually becomes impossible to 'distinguish' anything from anything else..

@Someone here yeah, materialism is like half of a duality. It's like saying, 'this cup has an outside, but no inside'.

@Carl-Richard @Carl-Richard @Jacob Morres I'm quoting myself. It's totally legit. Go ahead and try to change something. Notice that whatever you do us just more 'what is already happening'.