What is Fun?

[Tim R]

Have you ever contemplated what Fun is?

Is it taking risks? Is it the tension you feel in the prospect of the possibility of something going "wrong" without the component of being serious about it? 

Why are some things fun? What is it about them? Everything can be regarded as a fun activity (right?), but why? Is it the sheer joy of Being? Is it involvement? 

Or is it simply activity for it's own sake? Just like Love that loves everything for its own sake?

[Someone here]

It's a neurological thing bro 

[Origins]

It's neurological as well as many other things.

The neurological perspective is good for processing the cause and effect of the individual collective inner actions that produce the internal phenomenon and where relevant external phenomenon, fun, however there's more to it than that including more than what I will say on the subject. Beyond its obvious relations to inner modelling that bring about self awareness like its emotional, cognitive and other psychological ties, it also says something existential about the nature of why we needed this kind of drive and say, as one tie, its utility in the object of survival (exactly, one tie, therefore not a deduction that is exclusive to that). How different would not just our existential interactions be with existence but also how different would our whole society functions outside the context of fun? Fun also overlaps with many other incentive functions that define certain parameters of motivations like ambitions, passions and loyalties so without fun, more than just thinking about how our present existence might entirely cease to function what I think is reasonable to do is to imagine how it would still function outside the context of fun, perhaps we'd evolve other features. I recommend thinking about those to develop your neural connections, enjoy your curiosity (fun) here .

[Guest SirVladimir]

@Tim R Fun is healing. Life is like a cosmic playground, fun at all times, with judgement laid over it. Fun is the sheer enjoyment of being - you are inseparably bounded to the river of life, you are self-creating everything, you are absolutely involved in your own creation. Contemplate, how is awakening to love different to awakening to fun? Fun often penetrates into the mental "cubicle" the ego creates - the self-constrained, self-applied rules that it perceives must be abided. Whenever you experience fun next time, remember what a random avatar SirVladimir said - just overhear his distant whisper - to notice how "close" you are to reality, how "sucked in" you are into creation, how "theory and frameworks" collapse in the spellbinding presence of presence. This is your golden ticket out of the ego's cubicle; out of the illusory, four-walled search for self-expression. 

Don't listen to neurotic explanations about fun. It's so much greater. You hear the hum. 

Edited October 5, 2020 by SirVladimir

[Origins]

And just to add to my comment:

35 minutes ago, Origins said:

It's neurological as well as many other things.

The neurological perspective is good for processing the cause and effect of the individual collective inner actions that produce the internal phenomenon and where relevant external phenomenon, fun, however there's more to it than that including more than what I will say on the subject. Beyond its obvious relations to inner modelling that bring about self awareness like its emotional, cognitive and other psychological ties, it also says something existential about the nature of why we needed this kind of drive and say, as one tie, its utility in the object of survival (exactly, one tie, therefore not a deduction that is exclusive to that). How different would not just our existential interactions be with existence but also how different would our whole society functions outside the context of fun? Fun also overlaps with many other incentive functions that define certain parameters of motivations like ambitions, passions and loyalties so without fun, more than just thinking about how our present existence might entirely cease to function what I think is reasonable to do is to imagine how it would still function outside the context of fun, perhaps we'd evolve other features. I recommend thinking about those to develop your neural connections, enjoy your curiosity (fun) here .

God asks everyone at the end of their existence, "Well, I gave you this life, so ahh did you have fun? Like really give it your all?" and on this particular occasion it happens to be Jordan Peterson: "Life is suffering. That's the one core teaching I tried to pass onto my students."

God responds: "Well you really got it then didn't you, this whole life thing I mean, like you really hit the nail on the head! (says in a bemused kind of way - because we're supposed to learn how to turn the actualisation process, which can be painful, into as blessing of an experience as possible, because of course, that's when you know you're really actualizing, when you have the emotional intelligence, inner knowing, self awareness to be able to have fun in as varied of situations as possible). Haha 

I like Jordan though, but he really does have a lot of things just slightly wrong that because of this, he missed the moon entirely with some of his reasoning about existence and the nature of continued existence. If there is (a) God, let's just entertain either possibility here, it probably wasn't the foundation for his reasoning about why to begin life on planet Earth. 

To Jordan's credit though, suffering in the context of the number of possible varied experiences we could be living is a complicated subject, but most of us are fortunate enough to be at least average, and the average is living far more fortunately than the experiences to be really suffering about, so its a horrible generality in todays times. Our capacities outweigh our misfortunes, though its our understandings that have magnified those misfortunes for most people to the point in which its seemingly impossible for their capacities to overcome what they'd under sensible conditions be able to flick way like a grain of sand on their hand.

We are average beings living in expansive environments with primitive understandings, whereas to Jordan it seems we have incredible understandings, have genius minds with primitive environments (including inner environment) filled with enormous suffering.

We all need to be very careful about who we take as an authority, and if its ourselves, what understandings we take as authority over other understandings.

[Gesundheit]

Defining fun is not funny though.

[Tim R]

11 minutes ago, Gesundheit said:

Defining fun is not funny though.

No?

[Byun Sean]

fun is a higher state of being

[Ibgdrgnxxv]

Carefree

[March]

5 hours ago, SirVladimir said:

@Tim R Fun is healing. Life is like a cosmic playground, fun at all times, with judgement laid over it. Fun is the sheer enjoyment of being - you are inseparably bounded to the river of life, you are self-creating everything, you are absolutely involved in your own creation. Contemplate, how is awakening to love different to awakening to fun? Fun often penetrates into the mental "cubicle" the ego creates - the self-constrained, self-applied rules that it perceives must be abided. Whenever you experience fun next time, remember what a random avatar SirVladimir said - just overhear his distant whisper - to notice how "close" you are to reality, how "sucked in" you are into creation, how "theory and frameworks" collapse in the spellbinding presence of presence. This is your golden ticket out of the ego's cubicle; out of the illusory, four-walled search for self-expression. 

Don't listen to neurotic explanations about fun. It's so much greater. You hear the hum. 

what's your take on fun vs acing life by always making the emotionally difficult decision? just personally i feel i may have deluded myself thinking that fun = making the emotionally easy decision, thus anti-self actualization

[Gesundheit]

4 hours ago, Tim R said:

No?

Okay, maybe a little 

[Guest SirVladimir]

28 minutes ago, March said:

what's your take on fun vs acing life by always making the emotionally difficult decision? just personally i feel i may have deluded myself thinking that fun = making the emotionally easy decision, thus anti-self actualization

The notion of fun I speak of (and I should really call it Fun with a capital F) does not abide by self-help rules. It will not always be conceived of as fun to you - sometimes, the ego will call it evil, suffering. Our perception of the paragraph I have written above might be radically different - because language is our common ground, humanity's great blender in which meaning gets mixed and slashed.

The heights of fun are unexplainable; the closer to Fun with a capital F you get, the more the distinction between fun and miracle starts to break.

I used to be a man of intellect and theoretical bitch-slapping. Over the years, I have converted to an immersed, sensing, in-the-moment snowflake.

I am very much a beginner - there is not a finish line. It only ever reaches deeper.

Do not contemplate what fun is from a human paradigm, do not apply logic on an existential judgement, do not sit in your room and ponder over and over until your skin starts to crawl what fun is. Realize this: The ego is a self-created jail. You have thrown yourself to a not-knowing wolf, and you are pretending you do not know.

I know it seems hard and unexplainable and "what?" 

My recommendation for you is to practice surrender. Don't worry if you do not have psychedelics now. Do shamanic breathing. I have visited primordial ages in my 60-day marathon, which I have taken note of here on the forum. Doesn't that sound fun? 

Edited October 5, 2020 by SirVladimir

[Gesundheit]

I'll try..

Fun is, basically, a feeling of joy. It comes in different tastes and degrees, ranging from feeling slightly intrigued to feeling immense ecstasy.

The way it gets created is by desiring certain outcomes. Then the desire goes subconscious, and it starts operating from there. Whenever that desire gets fulfilled, a feeling of satisfaction manifests in the form of joy. Without satisfaction, there will be a range of feelings from boredom to suffering. So, basically, the opposite of fun is boredom and they're prerequisites to each other. You can't expect to have fun at some times without feeling bored at some other times. The amounts of fun you're capable of feeling are identical to your capacity to feel bored. The more uncomfortable you are with boredom, the more fun you will be able to have. If you stopped having problems with boredom, all the fun would stop. The desire to move from here to there would disappear, thus taking the duality of fun vs. boredom with it.

This is my juice after 10 days of retreat.

[Thestarguitarist14]

Fun is being in the present moment ad doing an activity for no reason other than the same if doing it.

[aurum]

14 hours ago, Tim R said:

Have you ever contemplated what Fun is?

Is it taking risks? Is it the tension you feel in the prospect of the possibility of something going "wrong" without the component of being serious about it? 

Why are some things fun? What is it about them? Everything can be regarded as a fun activity (right?), but why? Is it the sheer joy of Being? Is it involvement? 

Or is it simply activity for it's own sake? Just like Love that loves everything for its own sake?

I find anything that is done without coercion or manipulation to be fun. I.e doing something purely for the its own sake and the enjoyment of it.

[March]

11 hours ago, SirVladimir said:

My recommendation for you is to practice surrender. Don't worry if you do not have psychedelics now. Do shamanic breathing. I have visited primordial ages in my 60-day marathon, which I have taken note of here on the forum. Doesn't that sound fun? 

Ight, thanks man. I can see where you're pointing to

[Oliver Saavedra]

Go play, fun is what you feel

It's a feeling more than a concept

[blankisomeone]

You’ve never had fun?

if you have then you know what it is

[vizual]

Fun is the absence of boredom

[Fadl]

Fun is satisfying the ego somehow.