Investigating contrary perspectives

[egoless]

So clearly I see some major shifts in my understanding after I started to investigate the Truth for myself. However, to avoid deluding myself and double check my understanding I am trying to investigate contrary perspectives to mine. For example, I am trying to research what science has found out, what religions communicate on this topic, what various philosophers and critical thinkers have proposed. I want to investigate as many different viewpoints as possible. Being deluded is extremely tricky place to be. Because while trapped inside you will have hard time recognizing you are deluded! 

I want to ask all of you. Are you also investigating contrary arguments and perspectives to yours? Are we really sure we don’t fall into delusions? Who do you listen to, who’s perspectives are you double checking with yours?! Who’s investigations seem the second most truthfull after yours? Begin your investigation from there!

here are some:

 

Edited February 9, 2018 by egoless

[Joseph Maynor]

THOUGHTS, BELIEFS, CONCEPTUAL-TRUTH WILL LOSE THEIR ALLURE TO YOU THE MORE ENLIGHTENED YOU BECOME

It's hard to realize the limitations of beliefs without exploring that domain thoroughly.  I studied all that stuff too.  But the point you wanna get to is where you don't cling to beliefs at all.  Sure, beliefs are going to come into the Mind, but they will not have the importance to you as they do now.  The reason they are so important to you is because the Mind needs to realize that all beliefs are inherently false.  That takes a lot of exploration to come to that epiphany.  Due to our deep Western Philosophy, we do need a lot of COUNTER-education to become Enlightened, especially if you're a thinking-type of person who clings readily to thoughts with a strong faith in the paradigm of conceptual-truth.  What you should be focusing on is existential-truth.  The Ego is doing everything it can to keep you from doing that.  Why?  Because that's the death-knell for the Ego; namely, the day you start privileging existential-truth over conceptual-truth.

It's like this.  A young man is really attracted to females right?  He wants sex and all that.  An older man is less driven by sex and less attracted to females.  It's like that with thought.  Right now you are the young man with thoughts.  Thoughts look so luscious to you, right?   But you will reach a point that even the most amazing thoughts can move past you and you will not even take notice of them.  The thoughts will lose their allure for you, their spell over you.  You will see through the mirage of thoughts, beliefs, and conceptual-truth as you become more and more Enlightened.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[egoless]

@Joseph Maynor be careful with judging and labeling  people  

you absolutely have no idea on my current standpoint

[Joseph Maynor]

DON'T DUMP YOUR INTELLECTUAL LIFE SO FAST IN THIS WORK

There's an intellectual component to consciousness too.  There's experiential awareness and then there's cognitive awareness.  And actually both of these are happening simultaneously.  Being conscious means that you have a huge shore of reference, that you are as studied as much as you are aware of the present moment experientially.  We don't talk about this much and nobody ever seems to explain this right.  They just want to focus on experiential awareness.  Well, a baby has experiential awareness, but that doesn't make the baby very aware, if that makes sense.  What the baby is missing is cognitive awareness.  You need both to be conscious -- experiential awareness and cognitive awareness.  And cognitive awareness uses concepts, thoughts, the Mind.  

AN INSIGHT ABOUT ENLIGHTENMENT -- LOOSEN THAT GRIP ON BELIEFS ABOUT REALITY

The point of Enlightenment is to get you to detach from conceptual beliefs about reality, including the attachments of the Ego.  You can use beliefs in the moment as needed, but err on the side of avoiding thinking that truth is to be found via belief.  Ground yourself in Existential Truth, surrender to reality fully, and be what is fully, without clinging to any beliefs.  You want to live with an empty cup of beliefs not a full cup of beliefs.  Do not let the Mind fool you that conceptual truth is Existential Truth.

Being emotionally affected by conceptual contradiction implies the Rationalist Paradigm is being accepted implicitly.  The conclusion is not that I conceptually know -- it's that I conceptually don't know!  Just be in the Now and stop trying to conceptually know.  Conceptual Truth is not the filet-mignon of Truth as the Mind thinks it is -- it's actually observation in the moment that is.  One of the worst traps of the Ego/Mind causes us to believe is that conceptual truth is Existential Truth.  This is our worst trap!

BREAKING THROUGH TO AWAKENING

Enlightenment/ Enlightenment work isn't what you think it is.  That's the reason why it's so confusing to teach and to learn.  And that's why you have to keep banging your head against the wall until one day -- ah snap, you'll get it -- all of it -- not intellectually, you'll have an epiphany.  And at that time the search will be over.  The work won't be done, but the search will be over.  And after that time you may call yourself Enlightened if you wish.  You’ll realize the ridiculousness of all teachings after that point, so why not.  As long as you don’t attach strongly to that, it’s fine.

Enlightenment is the loosening of conceptual beliefs -- all conceptual beliefs.  Beliefs will still arise as part of what's here in the moment, but that doesn't mean that you need to identify with them.  And with that, conceptual beliefs become much less important.  One of the tricks of the Mind is to reinforce the belief that conceptual belief is SO IMPORTANT.  It's like -- crawl into this Matrix, it's so real!  That conniving little Mind.  But once you see through this fully, you'll have an epiphany that is impossible to reverse.  And it's got nothing to do with psychedelics.  You can't unexplode a grenade.  That's what the shift is like.  It's one of those oh!  Damn!  That's what it is.  It's a shift that happens to you, an epiphany.  It's not a conceptual understanding, but a shift in perspective to use a word.  It's not a paradigm-shift, as that involves shifting beliefs.  This shift is not a shift in beliefs.  It's like an anti-paradigm shift, to use a phrase.  And you can't force it, it just happens when it happens.  It takes a lot of work to convince the Mind that beliefs are not the truth.  So, you do need to do a lot of work in Enlightenment.  Whatever it takes to get the big crack for you.  

Beliefs are not good or bad.  They are simply here in awareness.  The issue is how beliefs are attached to -- how the Mind is trying to connect that belief to you and to reality.  That mental relation is the problem.  You can still have beliefs.  Don't repress your beliefs.  Just don't make them YOUR beliefs.  This is hard to communicate in language.  You gotta see what I’m pointing to.

You're still clinging WAY too much and too hard to belief.  That's what you got to fix.  You're attaching to all those concepts that the Voice is raising.  That's what you're gonna stop doing when you get the big crack.

Enlightenment theory is counter-weight theory.  You're not supposed to believe the counter-weight theory.  It's there to loosen up all your beliefs so that the Mind can finally come to see that no beliefs touch Truth.  You wanna have the shift that comes from that.  And only the Mind can make that shift, you can't consciously make it.  

Edited February 9, 2018 by Joseph Maynor