Do You Think It’s Healthy To Stay Away From Conceptual Meanings As Much As Possible

[Joseph Maynor]

In the sense that this just re-enforces the mind.

I imagine some person living alone on a tropical island.  Rising with the sun and falling with the sun.  Silent lucidity amongst the crashing surf upon the beach rocks. 

Maybe this is the best formulation — avoid all non-essential meanings.  Be a lean person not a glutton with meanings.

Themes:

Shutting down the mind.  No overintellectualizing spirituality.  No philosophizing.  No mind.  No reading.  No studying.  

Edited October 7, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[vizual]

Can you elaborate what you mean by meaning? I mean, what is meaning and what is not meaning?

[Joseph Maynor]

@vizual Conceptual meanings.  Words.

[The White Belt]

I don't think it's healthy. I think it's healthy to realise that all concepts are pointing to something less abstract.

[Viking]

depends what you use them for. if you try to use them to understand something that cant be understood by them, it's bad, if you try to use them to solve a calculus question, go for it.

[The White Belt]

Imagine you are going on a long journey.

Only in this journey you are refusing to use any maps, any gps, any signposts. You are going to have an absolute mess of a journey, and will go back on yourself endlessly.

Now imagine the same journey. This time you won't take your eyes off your gps and maps. What was the point? Even if you get to your destination, you have missed all the beauty of the journey, you failed to be mindful and you missed the brushing of the wind on your face, the glow of the sun. You might as well not have even began your journey.

The journey is self actualisation.

Balance my friend. 

Edited October 7, 2017 by The White Belt

[Natasha]

@Joseph Maynor Use your conceptual mind as a tool when you have to work, plan, make decisions, contemplate, etc, and in between those, go for streatches of non-thinking. This requires a bit of a training to go back and forth. Eckhart Tolle, actually, suggested this practice in one of his talks, and I've been using it and it works for me.

[JustinS]

@Joseph Maynor I suppose as long as you can taste the pudding once in a while meaning you can get some direct experience or a shift in perspective.

[The White Belt]

@Natasha can you link this talk please? 

[Wouter]

I have gone ones to a talk about "speak fasting " as a tool for sprirituality. I haven't tried it yet. Maybe it is something for you.

[Natasha]

1 hour ago, The White Belt said:

@Natasha can you link this talk please? 

Start at 2 min to about 3:25 ish

 

[cirkussmile]

Yes. 

 

To clarify: one must go t the root. Concepts will never get you to Truth. Staying out of all mentalt activity is more beneficial than engaging in never ending theroies and concepts. 

[The White Belt]

@Natasha thanks :-)

[Saarah]

@Joseph Maynor That's called being a zen devil, see the video on that topic to learn of the pitfalls   

[Forestluv]

Find the one cocept that includes all concepts then you are good to go

[Joseph Maynor]

I’m discovering the #1 distraction to being for me is reading, phone, internet.  

But reading is huge.  We’re freaking addicted to reading! It is a distraction to being.  Notice how you hide in reading.  It’s so palpable once you start to build some awareness around this.

Reading while living an enlightened life is like trying to quit weed while living in a cannabis dispensary.

What we are trying to do is turn the mind off, turn awareness up, and let the authentic self do it’s authentic thing without interference.  When you read, your mind is turned all the way up to 10.  Reading, paradoxically, is a big problem: a huge trap.

Edited October 8, 2017 by Joseph Maynor