axiom

@OldManCorcoran "Understanding" is also just appearance, and it relates to nothing. It is not actually understanding. The appearance of understanding is the appearance of understanding. Nothing more. It can be "understood" that the sky is pink, or that all humans have eight legs. Ultimately, understanding seems to provide some sense of reality and a locus, when actually nothing is ever real and nothing is ever understood.

@Leo Gura I'm sure you can recognise the synecdoche effect here. Seeking deeper states forever / a forum thread that lasts forever

https://findahelpline.com/us/topics/suicidal-thoughts

Ah yes Characters come and go.

@Water by the River Nice, although the suggestion that there is something that can be done or learned still seems to be there. There is noone already, so there is nothing that can be done. There are only appearances arising which may or may not involve what seems to be an individual on some kind of path. From the other side of the gate, it is said that to see apparent individuals believing that they exist, believing in their own agency... believing they have achieved enlightenment or indeed anything at all - is the sweetest joke going.

@MisterNobody The past is imagined in the present, so determinism falls flat. This was actually “proven” by John Wheeler’s Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser, a thought experiment later substantiated by MIT a few years back. Having said that, is is absolutely clear that thoughts are not chosen, they simply appear. That in itself eliminates the notion of free will.

You're not quite getting it. Consciousness and awareness are terrible pointers that cause much confusion. Consciousness is not what you think it is. It really doesn't matter either way, but you don't seem to understand where @OldManCorcoran is coming from, and that may be because you're married to the idea of "consciousness"

@Kingston Beautiful.

That's a shame.

I was looking at my hand just now. What I saw shocked me so deeply that I could barely type afterwards - but then I have been doing a ton of DIY this week.

I'll take one shrug and one seashore but hold the hope.

Staring at a hand is far too interesting. Staring at a rendered concrete wall, now that's something. I don't know why more people don't do it.

Once upon a time in a small village, there was a bustling playground filled with joyful children. Every day, they would gather after school to play games, share stories, and laugh with one another. Among them, a group of kids was particularly fond of a game they had created called "The Counting Challenge." The rules of the game were simple: each child would take turns claiming they could count to a higher number than the others, and the winner would be the one who claimed the highest number. Every day, they would boast about how high they could count, trying to out-compete their friends. One sunny afternoon, the children gathered to play their favorite game once more. A little boy named Sam proudly declared that he could count up to one hundred, while Sarah, a competitive girl, announced she could count up to two hundred. Not to be outdone, Tom claimed he could count to a thousand. Just as the children were arguing and trying to outdo each other, an old man who had been observing them from a bench nearby approached the group. The children fell silent, curious to hear what he had to say.The old man smiled kindly and said, "My dear children, I have watched you play this game for many days, and I see that you all love to compete. But have you ever considered the nature of the universe and the true meaning of numbers?" He paused, and a profound silence enveloped the playground. The old man spoke once more, his voice filled with an ancient wisdom that seemed to resonate with the very fabric of the cosmos. No-one could hear what he said. They were too busy counting. The old man opened his mouth to speak once again, but then decided against it.

I'm like that with pet shops - always some new animal to discover lurking in an unloved corner.

@Leo Gura You should visit the Grand Canyon. You can trek it in a couple of days, just have to be careful of the tarantulas and mountain lions. Camping out there under the stars is amazing. As hot as Hades, with a microclimate in the summer frequently over 50c / 120 Fahrenheit. The Colorado river remains icy though, so that's a great way to cool off. All in all, a great trip which I can recommend thoroughly.