hundreth

The Buddha was very clear about this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ātman_(Buddhism)

Sure, but this is the core teaching of Buddha - that there is NO SELF. No self in any frame, not relative, not absolute. There is nothing impermanent in his philosophy. He's in direct opposition to the Vedic interpretation of the ontological self. Now we like to behave as if they all said the same thing, and it's just a given that there's an absolute self and we are it. Buddha would argue this is yet again, another attempt for our egos to grasp at a concept of self to help us fall asleep at night. There is nothing more terrifying than mortality, so much so that if we remove the concept of relative self, we invent an absolute self to cling on to.

Thanks for the response. I understand that consciousness is a loaded word, but the Buddha did not teach "Absolute Consciousness" unless you're arguing semantics. For simplicity, let's consider consciousness to be more or less synonymous with "Atman" or the "Para-Brahman" - the Absolute. But the Buddha explicitly speaks in depth about there being no Atman. No absolute or eternal soul to grasp to. All is Not Self: The Buddha’s Rejection of Atman https://inthewordsofbuddha.wordpress.com/2015/08/02/all-is-not-self-the-buddhas-rejection-of-atman/ Either I'm misunderstanding you, I'm misunderstanding the Buddha, or you both disagree on this. I appreciate your kindness in actually speaking to this.

Fair enough, if you're looking at it from the frame of reference of the root of the tree.

This is solipsism. I don't believe this is what is being taught here. The metaphor I like is many leaves off the branches of an infinite tree. It's all one tree, but each leaf is connected and experiencing it's own perspective. So "Fred" is just as real as you are.

Not a fan, I find his constant virtue signaling and smug arrogance off putting. He enjoys hearing himself talk more than he enjoys genuinely learning. He's aware of non duality, and an intelligent guy. You could do a lot worse with a role model, but you could do way better as well... I don't find him funny either, unfortunately. He takes himself too seriously to be funny.

You don't think the current state of affairs has become toxic? I believe they are a necessary force, and they do bring compassion and concern to an extent, but what kind of compassions is this public shaming and militant silencing? There's compassion, and then there's virtue signaling, identity politics, victim mentality, and power games. Here's an example of someone who is non toxic green. If you look at her articles, she's the one who wrote the article about the shrooms study disproving the self. "I’m already equal. So why do today’s feminists keep saying I’m oppressed?" https://qz.com/1210845/the-subconscious-sexism-of-todays-feminist-movement/ Her other article: "Scientists studying psychoactive drugs accidentally proved the self is an illusion" https://qz.com/1196408/scientists-studying-psilocybin-accidentally-proved-the-self-is-an-illusion/ Seriously dude? This is the conclusion you came to about this guy without ever meeting him or knowing anything about him, and you wonder why it's coming off anti-male?

Lol why all the posting and speculation? Do some basic research on the dude.

He grew up in Nepal around meditating monks. He didn't invent meditation. In fact a meditating monk was one of his greatest inspirations.

Bernardo Kustrap talks in depth about this from the standpoint of monistic idealism vs. solipsism. I suggest looking into his work. The simple explanation I can try to give for his ideas around this subject is that everything arises in consciousness, and each of our "personal" awareness fields is like a tiny branch or leaf on the giant tree of consciousness. So we're all part of the same consciousness, as individual nodes, each with our own "personal awareness." This is different from solipsism which suggests all experience is situated within my personal awareness.

So you're supporting the Islamic "movement" because they don't drink, they're a religion, and they makes sounds you like. Got it.

I recently read Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and absolutely loved it. Amazing piece of literature, and a highly recommended read. With that said, Hermann Hesse is a German poet writing with a German romanticism flair about Eastern philosophies and Buddhism. Being from a Western background, I resonated deeply with the text and it's take on the spiritual journey. I wanted to take a closer look at this and do a deconstruction on the effect of our our Western filters being applied here. I came across this wonderful article and wanted to share it with you all: https://tricycle.org/magazine/romancing-buddha/ A few excerpts: Would love to hear your thoughts!

For someone searching, it appears you have more answers than questions. This is a pretty dark worldview. Go back to the basics. You have a wife and a family, there's much to be grateful for.

I don't believe we will ever get to a complete Utopia. That said, we are doing very well now. It's not perfect, but capitalism appears to be the most "stable" system out of all we've tried so far. Does that mean it's perfect? Far from it. Does that mean we won't come up with a new system that is more virtuous than capitalism? No, we may come up with something new. Right now there are more questions than answers. We have the issue of inequality, and too much inequality is destructive. You can't remove all inequality. The current system is stable because it allows human competitiveness to stabilize itself. If you try to remove human competitiveness as Marxism attempted, the entire system will destabilize and the most corrupt will gain power. So what do we do about inequality? For one, life isn't a zero sum game. Just because there is inequality, doesn't mean we aren't all benefitting from it. Our quality of life as a collective has improved. At the extremes of inequality, capitalism has flaws. What do we do about those who are unable to compete? What do we do about rampant consumerism and the psychological burdens of this idol worship? Unfortunately we don't know.

Let's say you came up with a board game, one of the rules is "no cheating!" Everyone starts cheating. It's not the personality traits of "marxist people" - it's just the psychology of people in general. You can put the same people in different environments, and different outcomes will arise. It's not about "bad people", it's about systems that bring out the worst in us. We all have this darkness within us.

Do you honestly believe we're supposed to have a Utopia here? You are an infinitely powerful being who can dream up anything. You asked the question earlier, why not dream up something more pleasant? Because it's perfect the way it is. It's also clear you haven't done a deep dive into history. Marxist ideologies don't work. This utopia isn't compatible with human psychology. An amazing lesson from the man you despise:

Earlier you referred to terrorists and school shootings as far more sinister than SJWs. I would definitely agree, but this propping up of one over the other is a criticism. Clearly infinity loves terrorists. Sure, alright. So let's just accept terrorism? There is no way we can consciously make a transformation here? Even acceptance and compassion can AFFECT CHANGE. So is that self agenda? Are all forms of self agenda bad? Yeah, terrorists conflict with my self agenda. Yeah, SJWs conflict with my self agenda too. I'm conscious of it, but I also believe I'm here to exercise my self agenda. Clearly infinity loves when we play out our agendas. Infinity loves to play games. So what if Jordan Peterson doesn't look happy when he's ranting against SJWs? Who said the point of life is to be happy all the time? There's also something called delayed gratification. Even if you believe happiness is the ultimate goal, the reason why you sit there struggling through meditation in the beginning is for some pay off down the line. Delayed gratification is the birth of spirituality. I'm challenging some of your points, but I'm legit working through these questions myself.

You are hilarious, man. Here you are commenting and evaluating Leo's video through the lens of what? Leo's videos! It's like a dream within a dream. There's no "ground" to ground to.

Depends who you ask. I'm wrestling with this myself, but leaning towards yes. This isn't the only goal though, one among many. On one hand, you have those who argue for ultimate relativity and this makes "good" and "evil" arbitrary concepts. That may be true, but there are also themes deep inside us subconsciously, inside our humanity, inside our being that guide us towards a "better" way. There are ways to live that lead you into a life of despair, and ways to live that enrich your experience and those around you. That's a pretty good goal if you're going to choose one. If you've actualized yourself as part of a community, then as an individual, and ultimately are able to transcend your community, there's a great chance you are an agent of "good." At the end of the day, this is a choose your own adventure, this just happens to keep coming up over and over as the most enjoyable, challenging, and meaningful way to play the game. Have fun.

So are things 'out of balance' so to speak or is it necessarily this way?

Hey guys, this is something i'm working on understanding and reconciling with everything I've learned these past few years. For the most part, in these circles we have this suggestion to separate oneself from society and focus on inner being / non duality. This is a kind of freedom or liberation from externalities, societies, cultures, expectations, etc and allows one to just be present and bask in the grace of being. Now, this is all lovely, except I see a recurring theme in my own life and in those around me. Especially those one generation older than me (I'm 32.) In my own life, my parents each have their own struggles. My mother has chronic health issues, my father struggles with alcoholism. My mother is also very burdened taking care of my grandmother, who not surprisingly has even more serious health issues. Among others in my family and friendships, I see many take on a huge responsibility and devoting a large portion of their lives and well being towards caring for their parents. I fully understand there are situations where it warrants completely cutting off from parents especially if they are toxic. For most, there's this giant gray area and it seems a necessary burden and moral imperative to care for your parents. Though, this can sometimes feel like a bottomless pit. So I wonder, what do consciousness and non duality seekers have to say about this? Is this just another arbitrary societal illusion? Is this just a barrier to higher levels of consciousness? Is there a greater truth and inherent morality that involves caring for others as an expression of non duality? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thanks @Ocean. Your comment lead me to re-explore the chop wood, carry water proverb and with this practical situation I feel I understand it in greater depth.

I don't deny it, I'm just attempting to reconcile this with the message of "go live in a cave." On the other hand, for most of us, even though caring can be a learning / growth experience that brings about understanding, this can feel like an obligation at times. Any time you're "required" to take an action that doesn't seem to follow where you want to be expending your energies, this can feel like an obligation. I'm sure there are many out there who have transcended such feelings, but I'm speaking on behalf of myself and the layman. So there's this sort of chicken and egg, caring can lead to transcendence, but transcendence leads to caring.

I'm an INTP as well. I used to get caught up in all of this nonsense. An INTP behaves this way, an INTP behaves that way. An INTP has these strengths, an INTP has these weaknesses. If you continue down this path, you will get stuck inside an echo chamber and self fulfilling prophecy of who or how you are supposed to be. I don't recommend it. Especially considering you already know you have a tendency to get stuck in thought. You're just adding more thoughts to get stuck in, and these are the worst kind, because they seek to define you. Meditate, become directly aware of your individual processes and transcend them.