UnbornTao

It is a story coming from an Indian cosmology. It claims that someone who is thought to be "advanced" is believed to continue to "function" after death. Fantasy aside, what it is essentially saying is that someone died.

I wouldn't engage in fantastical thinking.

It's a Breaking Bad meme.

"Jesus Christ Marie, they're minerals!"

This one. We assume that being alive is the same as knowing what life is.

Get the nature of life first

In that case "to personally understand a fact" may be a more apt expression. "Direct" may better be used for existential matters and breakthroughs, in my view. If direct means (is being defined as) the thing itself, I assume that doesn't pertain to the relative domain.

"Sanity is a function of mind; what's true is true already." - Anonymous.

What is a tree?

@zurew i might elaborate and engage with your points, but the essence is what I wrote above.

Directly grasp is used when referring to kenshos or absolute matters. That apple assertion sounds weird. You might say you concluded, inferred from facts, believe, etc. but I don't know whether one could directly grasp the health of foods or relative matters. Yes, we can easily fool ourselves. Certainly in my estimation most people are describing relative things (experience or state) when attempting to get across their presumed awakening. The bottom line is that this breakthrough (which is rare) can't be accurately communicated so it must be validated for oneself. After all, someone like Gautama might have been hallucinating, deluded, lying. To be clear I'm not claiming to know my nature--I've had a couple of what I consider to be glimpses, into who I am. This is a trap. We would be analyzing the finger instead of looking at the moon. What if we call it blueberry jam? Whatever we have of the absolute is not it. Yet, a metaphor: everything within the ocean is the relative domain. Now, imagine an infinite ocean and it would be the absolute. Being is what is. Experience is indirect and a function of perceptive organs. Direct experience is a misnomer: it is being the thing contemplated, recognizing its nature as not different from your own. I actively avoid talking in a way that feeds fantasy, so don't take these too seriously. This is another way to say that intellectual understanding doesn't mean you actually get it--and this distinction isn't clear to many. What's true? That's the gist of it.

It is empty inside. Dad joke of the day.

Stinks

Why not one of the latest M4 or M4 Pro MacBook Pro's? If you are okay with macOS and aren't going to game on it, in terms of power/efficiency, durability, and especially battery life, they're great. Also, long term software updates. But it'd have to be one with 24gb of unified RAM--it's presumably quite efficient too. I'd also consider the path Windows is going down with the invasive AI, spyware, etc.

"I'm naked on the middle of the street right now and I'm not even on LSD".

Exactly

No lasagna for you.

Low quality post. If you'd like, start a new thread but this time being clear on what you are trying to get across.

"What we have opened up so far in this experiment is an opportunity to get clear that most of us are not clear where our experience of the world, of others, and of ourselves in the world is actually happening. In other words, we often encounter life through some theory or belief, rather than encountering life as we actually live it. As a result, we attempt to comprehend or understand life as it is encountered through these theories or beliefs, rather than comprehending life as it is actually lived. And as a consequence, we interact with life (the world, others, and ourselves) from these theories or beliefs, rather than interacting with life as it is actually lived. A master encounters life as it is lived, and as a consequence deals with life as it is lived, rather than dealing with life through the filter of some theory or belief. It is not that a master has not theories or beliefs, rather a master holds his or her theories, beliefs, knowledge, and experience so to speak above himself or herself so that it doesn't act as a filter, but illuminates what is encountered." --Werner Erhard and others

One reason why a nihilistic disposition towards life might be adopted is justifying one’s lack of action. Motivating you to "think" this way lies a deep-seated bias and desire for what's agreeable and convenient. It consists of doubting why to do anything, instead of why not to do it; hoping to find a reason, motive, an inherent meaning that moves you to action, as if they were hidden under rocks. Just so, you choose to remain lazy and complacent, gratifying your immediate impulses, avoiding any kind of confrontation and hard work. Nihilism keeps you comfortable in your unconsciousness, passivity, and defeatist attitude. In its nature, this mindset is still based on a self-agenda, on "selfish" unconscious behavior. Ask yourself why you decide to adopt it, if you do. Another essential component of this is not having realized that it is a deliberate choice on your part adopting such mentality at some point; it isn't inflicted upon you by the "world" or circumstances. Acting depressed is your activity, which you can stop generating. This involves becoming experientially aware of the action's root itself. Another option is recognizing that this is something you want to experience, since you are generating it, so you might as well enjoy it. It is serving a purpose for you. It consists of imagining now a future that is hopeless, so in order to shift that, one can create an image of a positive future for oneself, or stop generating a future altogether, by being present. Not recognized within this disposition is that taking non-meaning as negative is still meaningful. Operating from the same dynamic, you are giving that fact a negative meaning. To listen to the claim that life is devoid of meaning requires hearing it as such; if it is devoid of meaning, it cannot be negative! It could be said that reality transcends meaning. Life is like a blank slate on which you can build any meaning you want. Make it constructive and empowering. It could be, among other things, discovering the truth, understanding everything, transcending your self, mastering life and a couple of skills. Clearly, creating something requires being responsible for realizing it. Being the source of your life's meaning implies that it be entirely dependent on you rather than on any outside factor. As with play, the main reason behind your acting could just be enjoying the process for its own sake; playing the game itself, joyfully acting with full presence, attention, sensitivity, awareness. This, by the way, isn't to say that an invention's objective value and use should be undermined or dismissed--definitely engage in the creation of functional, real, powerful things. Given that a game is ultimately played for its own sake, it is not held as something that will bring about an idealized sense of personal fulfillment. This allows us to delve into it freely. Existence itself might ultimately be meaningless, as with any creation, in the end. Meaning itself is constructed and comes after the existence of the thing. The point is playing the game wholeheartedly, mastering it, and after all is said and done, putting the pieces back in the box. Otherwise, enjoy your actively depressive stance, as it is meaningful to you.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Good question and a better one to ask oneself: What is greed?

Effectively, in this case no. That's what is meant by direct. The realization is the beingness of it; there is no separation. Is is you now. Therein lies the mystery. Why it occurs is just that it somehow occurs. Some people might spend their lifetimes meditating without getting very far, while another might comprehend it without much prior work or intention—or with no previous training at all, like Ramana, though he is an extremely rare case. Go figure. Then again, “why” might not apply; it’s us getting ahead of ourselves. What is it? (I’m talking about the realization itself, not the thoughts about something called “awakening.”) You're still considering it as something. It is no thing, nothing, not nothing, something, everything, all and neither. It exists in the domain of paradox. One can't grasp infinity through the mind. As a game, try to think of infinity. Now, notice everything your mind comes up with is not and can't possibility be, it. The best it can do is imagine, "lots and lots going on forever." This is a notion and as such, relative. Oh, and just to be clear, that doesn’t mean you can’t say anything about it—that’s what language is for. So, if you want a definition, it’s becoming deeply conscious of the absolute nature of you and existence. And there's no substance to it so in truth nothing to be explained. You can articulate shifts within your experience and perhaps the impact it had on your mind, but these are secondary to it, and seem as varied as there are individuals in the world. There is no position to be had. Either one grasps it or does not. Where the work needs to happen is within your experience. What we think of it makes no difference and is standing right now in the way of us wondering about it. Here, we’re having fun chatting. We find ourselves unconscious of our own true nature. Why? We just do. Everything we do occurs within the "dream", so it itself can't produce an experience of waking up. Who does? You. As we exist within it, everything we have is our experience of the dream. In this state, we encounter a paradoxical fact; everywhere we look, ourself isn't to be found. And yet, it seems that having the intention to wake up opens up the possibility for it to occur. That is contemplation. Is the event of waking up caused by what preceded it within the dream? From within the dream, it might appear that way. Having awoken, though, whatever action was thought to be the catalyst, is recognized to have been part of the dream. Independent from all that, somehow "you" woke up. Have you heard of the koan Mu? That’s the ultimate “answer,” and appropriate here. Mu