UnbornTao

Jesus, buckle up. Love kiwis.

Not with that attitude.

You can also question what life is and how the way you use your mind influences--and maybe even creates--your experience of it.

What if difference itself is relative (its substance being nothing)? Everything and nothing might be absolute. Perhaps A=A. Although A is a distinction. Just playing around.

Self and survival if i recall correctly, at least it is one interpretation. Could be a reminder to stay grounded and real, too. Or a Koan.

Possibility does not imply ease, simplicity, or probability; it means that it can be achieved, and it is possible. The challenge lies in your commitment to making it happen.

You become what you think.

Nothing like South Carolina's coffee.

Not as distinctions--they are what "everything" may be comprised of. For the sake of speculation: is everything distinct from nothing? What's the substance of difference? What if concept comes after distinction and not the other way around? Say concept needs distinction for it to take place, while distinction stands as something different in nature, perhaps prior to "thought".

Have yet to try American coffee in its proper form--with natural roast coffee instead of torrefacto (dark roasted, I think). And yes, espresso is meant to be served in small portions as it has a higher caffeine content.

An Americano is a brewing method that consists of an espresso shot diluted with water. You could say that, in certain parts of Europe (Italy, Spain), one might feel cheated if served a watered-down espresso.

Sounds good, thank you.

I suspect Americano? Expresso is quite intense.

Lisan al-Gaib

Tried it. Doesn't work so well with expresso. Perhaps with American coffee which is prepared with more water...

@Salvijus What do you make of being and self (or whatever terms used to describe what you are versus who you've taken yourself to be through programming, growing up, and learning? Are they the same? Here he's making that distinction, using self as being and ego as self. Self "rose"; it is extrinsic to being--and perhaps paradoxically not different in nature, but this is beside the specific point we are dealing with now.

Could you be falling deeper into the belief rabbit hole?

Question your experience of stuff throughout the day. What is boredom? What is learning? What is language?

We could start by moving towards recognizing what is essentially an "idea" and what is experience and actual. This puts us on an adequate footing to begin.

Hey, cheer up. We all go through shitty circumstances. Nothing like building hope and constructive things, looking forward to the future as open possibility.

What you described above might be what the assumption itself is about. Assumption isn't just intellectually fabricated; the self seems real and solid to us, so what is the act of assuming comprised of? For example, at some point, your memory of yourself stops. What is that about? We say that a body and a laptop are objective. They have shape and are physical. We can also consider non-physical "objective" realities, such as awareness. Where does the self stand? Say the self both exists and does not exist. It exists as constructed, as the result of an intricate web of mental activity. It exists as that contextual invention to which we adhere and largely depend for our survival. And ontologically, its existence is illusory, an appearance--it is invented, assumed and adopted. It might be extrinsic to existence. Not necessarily given up but seen through. As for relationship, that's the relative world of interaction, in which the self clearly comes into play. That is where it can be seen as a useful and convenient tool, perhaps even a necessary one. Self and other form the basis of relationship, yet what is the nature of each, existentially?

Thank you. What about the fact that things are distinct from one another? Is that "activity" (distinction) the same? A bit like: the opposite of distinction, which could be sameness, is also a distinction. As a side note, I initially considered distinction to be conceptual but am having doubts about it--might not be.

Good old Jung.

Nice. Hope God and you get along now.