Joseph Maynor

You seem pretty confident in your assessment here. Are you sure?

Interesting. Doesn't this assume being is a thing though? We must individuate being in order to ask if it is aware of itself, which is laying a concept over being.

I don't feel comfortable saying I'm being. I feel like that just adds a concept on top of being that's not always there. Being doesn't need the concept "I'm Joseph" to be present to be being. That's an Egoic projection onto being. Of course my Ego wants to be being!

Oh yeah? How do you know this isn't just in your Mind? We can make anything up using our language. You ever see the Fiction section in a large bookstore? Who do you think made all that sh*t up? Us! The storytelling animal.

Does being care that it's infinite? Or does your Mind care that being is infinite? Is being speaking words? What is that which speaks words?

Ok. But you use a lot of words to describe being. Big, abstract words too like "infinity". Do you ever wonder if the Mind takes you on holiday with these philosophical concepts?

So you think the Mind can understand being basically and put being into concepts that are actually legit and true in a factual sense. Can you put your personality perfectly into concepts? Can you put a tree perfectly into concepts? Being slips through the fingers of concepts. "I am God" is a concept, a creation of the Mind. The Mind trades in concepts. Being is silent as to concepts.

Anybody can get triggered into the unenlightened Ego-Mind under the right circumstances. That's why we need to be forgiving (within reason).

In what sense?

If you mean this literally, I think I might agree with you.

Exactly. That's where my Path is headed. Emptiness. You can loosely think of being as "emptiness" without any thought-story caveats. People want to define being and that's just food for the Ego-Mind. That keeps you chained to the Ego-Mind. The whole idea of Enlightenment is to locate being (emptiness) and to transcend the Ego-Mind.

I appreciate this post too. Very well said. Does being say it wants immortality? Does being say it's you or that it's immortal? No, those are thoughts that the Ego-Mind is clinging to on top of being. The Ego is what doesn't want to die. And the Mind as agent of the Ego will rationalize a gaggle of metaphysics to itself to try to assuage that fear.

Bingo! This is close to what I loosely "believe". Being doesn't require any thought to be. Nada! Your belief that you're God or what have you is laid on top of being. That's a thought that the Ego-Mind is clinging to on top of being. "I am God" is a belief, a thought, talk, blah blah blah, or what we call chin-wagging. Being doesn't care about chin-wagging or metaphysics or defining yourself in any which way your Mind fantasizes "you" to be. "You" is a thought that's laid up on top of being. Being doesn't need a "you", see. Once you transcend the Mind you can see this.

I don't know why picking some form to play has anything to do with it. Who is picking such a form? And being is not something you do, it's just being. Being is not you. You are the Ego-Mind. I think it's the Advaitists who want to define being as me. I think that's a step too far. That's a belief. Being is just being. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Good discussion guys. We can do this respectfully. I think the key difference is I don't define being as me. I don't say I am "consciousness" or I am God either. That stuff to me is just a belief laid up on top of being.

Ok. See, you went a step further than I do. I say being has no properties because all properties are clinging to thought, talk, belief. Mortality/ immortality is a duality. Being is a transcendence of the Mind and its categories, including but not limited to its dualities.

Is being immortal?

Where we disagree is you think being has the property of "infinite emptiness which can take on any form that it wants." That's a thought you're laying on top of being. I stop at being. Just being, no properties because properties are all talk, all thought, all belief. It's just being, not me, not God, not my being, none of that -- just being.

Being. And even this isn't quite correct because being doesn't fit into any conceptual box. I'm not obsessed with defining who I am. I'm ok with emptiness. Emptiness and change. I don't need to carve out a no-change for me to exist in. That's only clinging to a belief. Thanks for the fair question. To say being is me is to cling to a thought. Being doesn't need a thought to be being.

Oy. Don't speak for me please. I never said "this is the only time existence or dream ever." Those are your words not mine. You don't play fair. You don't need to "defeat" me to ensure that your cherished beliefs remain intact. I've never experienced someone attempt so many shady rhetorical moves in a discussion on here. Why would my mere disagreeing with your beliefs trigger such conduct from you? That's the question. Can you even handle being disagreed with? It doesn't appear so. You are clearly invested in your beliefs. Holding on for dear life! No pun intended. You can keep your beliefs, I'm not going to take them away from you. It's ok. Everything is ok. You're safe. Let's all take a deep breath. I want to honor @cetus56 and stop this sniping back and forth right now. Let's bury the hatchet. We can operate above the belt in our discourses on here.

I'm pushing you to inquire, to think outside of your box. I'm a "weird, troll, Materialist, most asleep person on the forum" now. All your words in this thread about me. Why do you say such things, some of them somewhat hurtful? All I've done is challenge you and you go ballistic with the rhetoric. Look at yourself and how defensive you are. All I did was challenge your beliefs and you flipped-out. That was a test my friend.

Leo also talks about Enlightenment freeing you from death. Watch this video:

I'm weird? What the hell is "consciousness"? How do you know "consciousness" doesn't die?

You must be in your 20's. People in their 20's think they'll live forever. You're far away from death, but don't think you've escaped it. There's no escaping death. 8-80, man, woman and child, all eventually will die. You ever been to a cemetery? You think cemeteries are a hoax? It's like the Apollo moon landing, right? One big hoax lol. Nobody gets out of this alive, including you.

But what exactly is the "me" that will not die? And how do you know this?

Somebody's dying around here or else the global population would become unsustainable really fast. Of course the Ego wants to go beyond life and death. The idea of being annihilated is why we make up stories -- fear of death. So, what's the belief, that "consciousness" survives death? Is that your story?