Self-inquiry Work Is Extreme Empiricism, Is It Not?

[Baul]

Isn't enlightenment work just extreme empiricism, just on the opposite end of the spectrum from extreme rationality? You are totally enveloped in your sense-experience and are searching for You or the observer of experience within experience itself (knowledge of You). This is a practice of empiricism, is it not?

[Leo Gura]

Yes, you can think of it that way, although that's takes you out of empiricism and right back into rationality.

It's so empirical you can't even call it empirical.

It's so empirical it goes full-circle, beyond all the 5 senses and the mind to pure Truth.

And this fact cannot be understood by the rational mind. The rational mind hates it! It's like poison to philosophy.

[Baul]

@Leo Gura, it takes me "of" empiricism, or "to" empiricism? You're suggesting I drop definitions and all beliefs and systems of how the world operates (on a rational basis), but definitively what we are practicing is extreme empiricism, which is not entirely right -- in most cases, it is wrong. How can we effectively rely on an entirely empirical mind for investigating reality, practically speaking? Most of the modern world as we know it, is built on cumulative knowledge which has been acquired rationally, not empirically...it seems like stunted perception. Which we do not see, does not exist? What we do not sense, does not exist? Is this right? I can't see how it's right....I'm trying. I can't see how people would be able to schedule anything or do anything. Is this viewpoint only necessary for consciousness work?

Edited July 18, 2016 by Baul
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[Leo Gura]

@Baul Sorry, that was a typo. It takes you OUT of empiricism when you think of somethings has empirical or rational. That's rationalism.

True empiricism is so empirical it has no name or category or opposite.

You can also call it phenomenological.

No, most modern everyday knowledge is HIGHLY empirical. Which is why it's useful. Science is effective because it is highly empirical and sticks close to the facts. Well... within the confines of the limited scientific paradigm.

When it comes to nonduality, we are talking about ABSOLUTE TRUTH, not scientific everyday knowledge. ABSOLUTE means that you get to realize the very structure of existence. Which is infinite and impossible to grasp in any intellectual way whatsoever. You will NEVER grasp it with mind alone. This is a TOTALLY different endeavor than you've ever encountered. So throw all your ideas and beliefs out the window. You need to kill all notions of understanding or intellectualizing. They are all false (despite being useful for everyday life).

Start questioning the foundations of everything you believe, including science, space, time, self, world, others, dreams, and life. All of it is NOT what you think.

We are talking about RADICAL stuff here. Things like: there is no time, there is no space, there is no death, there is no big bang, there is no evolution, there is no Earth, you are not a human being, and existence and non-existence is an illusion. This is totally mind-breaking stuff. You cannot think it.