Mason Riggle

@WelcometoReality the 'dream' metaphor represents the notion of a 'groundless ground'. 'Physical Reality' seems to be contained within 'seeming' itself.

God loves to pretend it's not what it is (nothing/everything) so that it can seem like something.

@chedegaard yep.. ego exists when it does, and vanishes when it doesn't. Thoughts of 'I' occur in reality like a whirlpool occurs in a river.. they arise when they do, and disappear when they don't.. but the whirlpool is not the cause of itself, even if sometimes it's shaped in such a way as to perpetuate itself, or eventually destroy itself. Should the whirlpool ask itself, 'what am I?', perhaps it would conclude that it's merely a function of everything that it doesn't consider to be 'itself'.

"What should I do?" We might recognize that 'should' is actually always 'should if'.. You 'should' do x, if the goal is y... but by changing y, you change x.. 'shoulds' are relative. Should I go to the store? Well, you should, if getting something from the store is your goal, but your goal is to take a nap, then you shouldn't go to the store. What is the goal of the Universe? What should it do? Well.. who's to say how the Universe 'should' exist? Another thing that can be recognized, is that there really isn't anything for you to do, because you're already doing the only thing you will ever do, which is 'be how you are', and you are always doing this, effortlessly. Any attempt to be 'other than how you are being' is just more 'how you are being'. We also have no idea what the consequences of our actions will be. "Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.” The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.” The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune." - The Story of the Chinese Farmer

"Kindly let me help you or you will drown,” said the monkey putting the fish safely up a tree. “The reason you want to be better is the reason why you aren’t, shall I put it like that? We aren’t better because we want to be. Because the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Because all the do-gooders in the world whether they’re doing good for others or doing it for themselves are troublemakers: on the basis of “kindly let me help you or you will drown,” said the monkey putting the fish safely up a tree. Sometimes doing good to others and even doing good to oneself is amazingly destructive because it’s full of conceit. How do you know what’s good for other people? How do you know what’s good for you? If you say you want to improve then you ought to know what’s good for you, but obviously you don’t because if you did then you would be improved. So, we don’t know. We do not really know how to interfere with the way the world is.” —Alan Watts

Alone = All One. Realizing you are alone, even when it seems like there are 'others'... is the same as realizing everything is imaginary, even when it seems real. It's important to recognize that 'seeming to be real' (imaginary) and 'actually being real' (real) are the same thing. Consider.. is this forum real, or does it just seem that way? If you can't tell the difference.. then there is no difference. If there was a difference, you could notice the difference, but you can't. There is no difference between being 'alone' and 'being with others', any more than there is a difference between 'me imagining I'm typing this comment' and 'me actually typing this comment.'

There is actually nothing to do, because there is no 'you' separate from 'that which is not you'. There is just 1 thing happening the 1 way it is happening... and that 1 thing is 'everything that's happening'. 'you' are part of what is already happening, not a cause of what is happening, the same way a whirlpool occurs in a river, and isn't 'causing itself to swirl'. There is no 'whirlpool' that 'does things'. Whirlpools happen. To understand this, is to understand that you are always God. There is no 'disconnected from god'.. there is just God. There is nothing to do, other than 'be yourself' and you are always doing this, effortlessly. You never have to try to 'be how you are'.. you just 'are how you are' without trying.. any attempt to be 'other than how you are' is just more 'how you already are'. To understand this is, is to understand that you are always God.

If you don't get caught up in the words 'I' and 'think', it makes sense. You could say, 'inside therefor outside.' Or 'I am because I experience myself.' Or 'We are because I dream.' Or 'It is because it imagines.' The experience of existence is inseparable from the existence of experience.

Solipsism is really nothing more than the acknowledgement that I can't prove to myself that you are having an experience. Solipsism can be rejected, because I also can't prove to myself that you are not having an experience. It 'seems' to me like you are having an experience, just like it 'seems' like there are trees... and that seems to be the same as there 'actually' being trees, and you 'actually' having an experience.

@CBDinfused no reason it can't be. You are part of 'my experience', I am part of yours.. they are both part of the same Experience(happening). Similarly, when I see a tree, everything occurring inside the tree seems to be occurring, even if I can only see the outside of the tree. The tree and [my perspecive] are both part of everything. Is there anything inside the tree if I can't experience it, or is there only stuff going on inside the tree when I look? That part doesn't seem to matter.

@CBDinfused I think it's because the 'shape' of the one thing there is, is a strange loop. A paradox. It defies logic. It's a dog chasing it's own tail, thinking it's tail is separate from itself. It's finite infinity. It's really imaginary. It's imaginarily real. The one thing (singular) there is, is everything (plural).

@SOUL ^this part of what you said is True. @IncognitoNotice the 'IF'.. 'if you want'... what if I don't want? Who decides what I want? Also, I can't have 'other choices' that the ones that arise. Consider, if you were me (maybe you are), then you would be making the exact choices I am making right now. You would have no choice but to do so. ^this is not correct. I equate 'the brain' with 'the body'. If 'I' am not 'my body', then who am I? Who are you talking to?

@Incognito hmmmm. Is my brain not 'my body'? I understand that my organism makes choices, like choosing these words carefully, but... could it make 'other choices' than the ones it does make? Also, I am an animal. But a rather intelligent dexterous one. I have powerful cognitive reasoning and memory function, which allow me to make vastly more complex choices than say, a mouse.. There's no magical 'free will' or 'self' hiding somewhere inside my organism telling my organism what to do, that separates me from 'other animals'. My organism functions all on it's own, just like a tree does, or a starfish.. which is exactly how it will.

"Our pleasures, however refined or easily acquired, are by their very nature fleeting. They begin to subside the instant they arise, only to be replaced by fresh desires or feelings of discomfort. You can’t get enough of your favorite meal until, in the next moment, you find you are so stuffed as to nearly require the attention of a surgeon—and yet, by some quirk of physics, you still have room for dessert. The pleasure of dessert lasts a few seconds, and then the lingering taste in your mouth must be banished by a drink of water. The warmth of the sun feels wonderful on your skin, but soon it becomes too much of a good thing. A move to the shade brings immediate relief, but after a minute or two, the breeze is just a little too cold. Do you have a sweater in the car? Let’s take a look. Yes, there it is. You’re warm now, but you notice that your sweater has seen better days. Does it make you look carefree or disheveled? Perhaps it is time to go shopping for something new. And so it goes. We seem to do little more than lurch between wanting and not wanting. Thus, the question naturally arises: Is there more to life than this? Might it be possible to feel much better (in every sense of better) than one tends to feel? Is it possible to find lasting fulfillment despite the inevitability of change? Spiritual life begins with a suspicion that the answer to such questions could well be “yes.” And a true spiritual practitioner is someone who has discovered that it is possible to be at ease in the world for no reason, if only for a few moments at a time, and that such ease is synonymous with transcending the apparent boundaries of the self. Those who have never tasted such peace of mind might view these assertions as highly suspect. Nevertheless, it is a fact that a condition of selfless well-being is there to be glimpsed in each moment. Of course, I’m not claiming to have experienced all such states, but I meet many people who appear to have experienced none of them—and these people often profess to have no interest in spiritual life." - Sam Harris

This doesn't really explain anything. Can you expand on this? How does one become conscious of their choices, or make the unconscious conscious? I'm inclined to wonder if one can do either of these things if it never occurs to them to do them, and then I wonder who decides what occurs to them.

@Dodo I get what you're saying. I just think your map could be a little more accurate. I'm pointing to something as well.

@Dodo they aren't equivalent from a relative point of view.. all maps are not equally accurate. ^I think this is one of the worst memes out there.. it may be the case that someone deliberately drew a 9, and it's a 9, and one of those two people is simply wrong.

@Dodo lmao.. that's kinda muh whole point.. it MUST appear how it likes.

I see subtle differences.. the word 'can' implies choice.. it implies that it has the option of appearing how it likes, or not. This seems like an error of language to me, which causes illusions like 'free will'. Yeah, well, that's just like, your opinion, man.

Well.. technically you said that it 'can' do whatever it likes to - that it 'can' appear how it likes to. I think it's a more accurate map to say it 'does' do whatever it likes to. It's a subtle difference, I agree.. but I think an important one, as long as we're peeling back the layers of truth here..

^this is perfect. And since the code is coding itself.. it will always code itself exactly how it desires/wants/likes to, and never any other way.

But don't you get that 'the programmer' is just another function? And that it's turtles all the way down?

@Dodo just because we are not separate, does not mean the organism Mason Riggle can know what the organism Dodo is thinking. There is no separation the same way a 'whirlpool' is not separate from a river. The whirlpool is a function of the river.. I am a function of the entire Universe. The words I type are a function of the organism Mason Riggle.. but it's all one big system happening all together, and the 'parts' can not be 'singled out' as the 'original cause of' any other part..

From any perspective, the Universe is exactly how it is, and never other than how it is.