Playing With Perspectives

[UnbornTao]

Quote

The purpose of today's training is to defeat yesterday's understanding

Miyamoto Musashi

[UnbornTao]

 

 

[UnbornTao]

Miyamoto Musashi:

"Do nothing which is of no use"

Which is to say, stay on purpose.

[UnbornTao]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 1 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

 

[UnbornTao]

Quote

All philosophies are mental fabrications. There has never been a single doctrine by which one could enter the true essence of things.

― Avatamsaka Sutra

What is our experience of things? Is it the same as what things themselves are?

Edited December 2 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

 

[UnbornTao]

You might say "everything is constructed or an invention". Even then, do we actually know that's true? In any case...

Two possible dispositions to approaching that:

- "Fuck it, nothing matters" (and so you may go on to create "bad" things as a result), or;

- "Okay then, let's make sure the things I construct are functional, real, effective, healthy things"

Edited December 6 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

 

Edited December 5 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Learn to make new, subtle distinctions within the sense of smell and your experience of aromas.

Use these to learn about learning, and to understand and apply principles such as correction and feedback into your life:

1. fragrance-analysis - Unknown.docx
2. fragrance-terminology - Unknown.docx

I know the documents could be a bit more detailed, but that's enough to get us started.

Edited November 16 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

What does it take for you to create your own feedback?

One thing that comes to mind is paying closer attention to what you are aware of, thinking, and doing throughout any given process, activity, event. 

Increase your conscious sensitivity--openly aware to what's in front of you. And keep going in that direction of increasing awareness.

Edited November 17 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

 

 

[UnbornTao]

 

 

[UnbornTao]

Quote

The meaning of life consists in the fact that it makes no sense to say that life has no meaning.

--Niels Bohr

One reason why a depressive stance towards life might be adopted is in order to justify one’s lack of action. Motivating you to "think" this way is a bias for what's agreeable and convenient for you; it isn't inflicted upon you by circumstances or the "world." Why do something when it is much more convenient to undermine the reasoning behind any effort in the first place (except of your own undermining, of course)?

You may hope or set out to find a reason, motive, or inherent meaning that moves you to action, believing these to be findable somewhere, as if hidden under rocks. Just so, what you may have decided is to remain complacent, pursuing immediate gratification--which coincidentally isn't equally dismissed as other pursuits--, avoiding any kind of confrontation and labor. This negative viewpoint keeps you comfortable as it doesn't challenge you unconsciousness, passivity, and defeatist attitude.

This mindset is still based on your self-agenda and on "selfish" behavior. Ask yourself why you decide to adopt it, if you do.

Realizing that you are the source of this behavior is the first step to ending it. If acting depressed is something you do, you can stop generating it. Doing this requires becoming aware of the root of the action itself.

Also, recognize that you want to experience it. Since it is occurring in your experience, it is serving a purpose for you, albeit an unconscious one. Imagining a hopeless future is the essential component. In order to change that, create an image of a positive future for yourself, or stop imagining the possibility of a future altogether.

Harder to notice about this disposition is that non-meaning can't be negative! Hearing that as a negative means you are still operating from the same dynamic. Meaning as a complementary process implies that existence is prior to that addition. It doesn't mean anything that it doesn't mean anything.

It could be said that life is a blank slate on which you can build any meaning you want. Clearly, creating anything requires being personally responsible for realizing it, rather than outsourcing it to external factors. 

As with play, the main reason behind your acting could just be enjoying the process for its own sake; playing the game mindfully, with sensitivity and awareness. This, by the way, isn't to say that inventions should be dismissed, as they can definitely provide value, so by all means produce functional things, whatever function they're tasked to meet.

Given that a game is ultimately played for its own sake, it is not held as something that will bring about an idealized sense of personal fulfillment. This allows us to delve into it freely. Existence itself might ultimately be meaningless, as with any creation. The point is playing the game wholeheartedly, mastering it, and after all is said and done, putting the pieces back in the box. Otherwise, you might asv well enjoy your actively depressive stance, since it is meaningful to you.

Quote

Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box

---

Need to polish this up a bit

Edited 18 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

On 9/10/2024 at 2:34 PM, UnbornTao said:

One thing is what you "say" (think, believe, intellectualize, speak about), and another is what you actually experience and live as. Notice the discrepancies between these two.

"What we have opened up so far in this experiment is an opportunity to get clear that most of us are not clear where our experience of the world, of others, and of ourselves in the world is actually happening. 

In other words, we often encounter life through some theory or belief, rather than encountering life as we actually live it. As a result, we attempt to comprehend or understand life as it is encountered through these theories or beliefs, rather than comprehending life as it is actually lived. And as a consequence, we interact with life (the world, others, and ourselves) from these theories or beliefs, rather than interacting with life as it is actually lived. 

A master encounters life as it is lived, and as a consequence deals with life as it is lived, rather than dealing with life through the filter of some theory or belief.

It is not that a master has not theories or beliefs, rather a master holds his or her theories, beliefs, knowledge, and experience so to speak above himself or herself so that it doesn't act as a filter, but illuminates what is encountered."

--Werner Erhard and others

Edited December 14 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

 

 

 

Edited December 24 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

What is a tree?

[UnbornTao]

On 10/14/2024 at 5:07 PM, UnbornTao said:

Tiramisú recipe

 

 

[UnbornTao]

On 10/14/2024 at 5:17 PM, UnbornTao said:

 

 

 

 

What am I doing?

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/UnbornTao/saved/x7sRFT

I ended up getting myself a pre-built like a coward.  

Saved me quite some time, though (in the short term at least).

Edited December 12 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

What do you get out of excuses and justifications? Why does one engage in this behavior? What are the consequences?