UnbornTao

And maybe one day, even humans.

@Leo Gura Doesn't the blog have a RSS feed?

Sight, you should know Spanish by now:

To build on your point, we might say that a belief is anything we think we know - of which we have no personal experience (which should make up most of our knowledge base.) While this distinction appears clear in theory, closer examination reveals that much of our so-called "experience" is intertwined with a great deal of conceptual thinking. If we directly knew something there would be no need for belief, so belief is an admission of ignorance. Belief is expected to fill, or at least cover up, this gap. Yet, ultimately, that remains a superficial effort, a pretense. Deep down we probably recognize the fact that this condition of not knowing cannot be altered by belief, no matter how fervently it is defended.

For entertainment.

There ain't no pill for enlightenment. That's the fantasy. Wrong Lisan al-Gaib

Definitely. Add to that the taken-for-granted nature of a certain domain of beliefs. Some of them are not just notions but rather show up as "reality" for us. The alleged certainty lies in not recognizing them as such. And not all of them are deliberately taken up. Still, what is a belief?

Ah shit, breaks my heart. Recently saw a video on Reddit of people saying goodbye to their dogs. Broke me in half. My doggy is ten. Time really flies, God.

Why do you expect another to fix your life?

@Human Mint Fantasy is a much broader term here, by the way. I recommend you go through some of the past threads. Essentially, we could say that no perceptive experience is 'closer' to the truth than any other. It is a fallacy.

-- Max van Manen

@Human Mint Didn't you listen to Pene_Descomunal77's video a while ago? Or read the Teal Swan thread?

I'd say that consciousness and cognition are not the same thing.

It provides a hopeful path in one's mind, and I think that's what underlies much of the clinginess. It's discouraging to drop something that essentially turns out to be a fantasy - in the context of consciousness work. It might have value for other purposes, such as healing or opening one's mind. But as you say, you always come down, for a reason. It's also easy to be swayed by dramatic shifts in state and mistake them for enlightenment, especially when there's no real prior contrast to help you discern what's what. Adi Da spoke about this trap somewhere.

We want a pill that could finally solve our personal and societal struggles, don't we? It's more snake oil than reality, in my view.