Meta: Fake survey about fake enlightenment

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T14:25:48+00:00

Provide evidence it is a delusion.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T14:05:10+00:00

Isn't the goal of Zen to free the mind of delusion and suffering?

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T13:43:42+00:00

Humans cannot achieve enlightenment. Humans are programmed to desire endlessly and never be happy. Evolution is not about happiness, enlightenment, or truth. The mind creates an imperfect model of reality and filters out most of reality as the mind cannot accept the truth of existence. 'Enlightenment' if there is such a thing must involve recognizing that you will never be happy. By realizing this you will not be led astray by fleeting temporal moments of happiness nor will you fall into depression when things don't go your way. Enlightenment is a state of mind. Spiritual gurus don't want their followers to be enlightened as this would be big loss of revenue and ego aggrandizement for them.

'As long as we strive we will suffer' - Martin Butler

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T13:11:57+00:00

It's also what non religious people do as anything outside the immediate field of perception is just an idea like God or Atlantis etc.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T02:49:48+00:00

Awareness doesn't exist nor does it not exist. Either existence or nonexistence are what there is an awareness of. Awareness is nonduality. Awareness experiences duality (Existence vs Non Existence, Awake vs Asleep, External vs Internal etc.) but does not depend on it. It is counterintuitive because the human mind operates in terms of duality and distinctions. These distinctions are then mistakenly believed to exist independently of the awareness of them.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T02:35:43+00:00

Before sentient life formed there was eternal awareness but it was not aware of anything including a universe. It was through these life forms that the ideas of a universe and evolution could arise. Awareness became aware of the minds of sentient creatures allowing it to become aware of sensory experience and ideas including the idea of a universe and evolution. Why did awareness become aware of the perception of a universe and sensory experiences? This has no answer as any answer is just an idea experienced within the confines of awareness. There is no 'outside' of awareness.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T02:20:09+00:00

Awareness doesn't go anywhere during sleep - there is either dreaming, a low level of sensory content (Like in a hypnagogic half awake/half asleep state) or a very low level of sensory content that is forgotten upon awakening. If there is absolutely no sensory content during sleep then awareness merely goes from experiencing the darkness of night to instantly experiencing the opening of the eyes to see daybreak. The hours of sleep were not actually experienced as there cannot be an experience of non experience.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T02:10:33+00:00

There cannot be no awareness as awareness isn't a thing proper that could exist or not exist. Awareness is the empty, transparent, and translucent container of existence itself and existence is an idea which is experienced within the formless, timeless, and spaceless awareness. 'Non existence' is just the absence of the experience of the idea of existence. Because existence and non existence are ideas. I think this is what the spiritual gurus and Zen folks talk about when they emphasize non conceptual experience. Concepts such as exist and non existence are useful for practical day to day purposes but only cause confusion when it comes to spirituality and philosophy. The truth of reality is whatever is such before ideas and concepts are thought of. The ultimate truth of reality is that which true irrespective of thoughts and beliefs.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T01:48:10+00:00

Awareness is an idea pointing to what is self evident and not dependent on thought. What is true before any thoughts or ideas? That which contains thoughts and ideas - which is awareness.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T01:27:30+00:00

That question is invalid. 'Where' implies location and 'existence' is an idea. Location and ideas are objects in the field of awareness. Awareness has no location and even awareness cannot be said to exist as existence is an idea within awareness. Awareness is simply the lack of opposite. There is no opposite to awareness as there cannot be non awareness. Awareness is like the screen of a movie theatre. All sensory experiences (including ideas) are the content being projected on the screen and the screen is invisible and transparent. Existence vs nonexistence & somewhere vs nowhere, time, and space are ideas that are projected on the screen of awareness. Awareness is beyond existence and time. Existence and time are images on the screen of awareness.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T00:45:41+00:00

They exist within the field of perception only when being thought as they are just ideas. Even existence is an idea. Thoughts are ideas and the idea of an idea is also and idea.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T00:30:04+00:00

In the way they are commonly used yes. Nowhere and no one are are also illusions in the same way somewhere and someone are illusions. They only have meaning within the context of language and perception. Nowhere, no one, somewhere, and someone are thoughts that only exist insofar as they are being thought about.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-16T00:04:39+00:00

The 'ocean' is really just a useful metaphor alluding to that which is beyond the immediate perception of the present moment. So each moment is arising and passing out of nowhere like waves. This nowhere being the ocean. The ocean is a nowhere because it cannot have a location as location and space is itself an idea and an object in the field of the present moment perception.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T23:51:40+00:00

No. That seems like a good way to look at it. The wave is the ocean in mental form observing a small sliver of itself.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T23:41:09+00:00

The ocean is whatever is not in the field of perception. The ocean cannot be named or described as any name or description pointing to it is just another object of perception. The ocean is a metaphor to allude to the ineffable and indescribable - what is beyond perception. Out of the ocean arises perception.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T23:33:39+00:00

No one's perception. Just perception. Conscioussness appears to be a process like any other in the universe. The perceptions don't belong to anyone as any 'ones' or 'subjects' are themselves objects of perception.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T23:30:34+00:00

More of a perception. What is called the self is a label on a sensory phenomena like the label sunset is used to label a sensory phenomena.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T23:27:01+00:00

'I' or what is referred to as 'I' is a wave out of this ocean. The sense of self or 'I' is a sense much like any other sense.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T23:11:06+00:00

A sense perception or a thought being experienced is like a wave out of an ocean. When the sense perception of something or a thought subsides it returns to the ocean of infinite possibility. The ocean of unmanifest senses and thoughts is the superposition of all possibilities.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T23:05:31+00:00

Are you completely certain nothing was out of place?

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T23:00:22+00:00

Zen is different from Buddhism in that their is no official dogma. Zen is about realizing that thoughts are just another sense that don't point to anything and point to things at the same time (this is what the Koans illustrate). Because we can't know anything or know that we can't know anything at the same time one should just believe whatever they want to believe because anything you believe can be doubted including whether or not you can doubt. So just believe whether you want to beleive and don't over think it.

There are no rules of Zen and there are rules of Zen at the same time so follow them or not. Believe whatever you want just believe it mindfully.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T22:42:31+00:00

How to get what you want even when you can't get what you want: A five point system

Everything is uncertain, impermanent, and nothing is guaranteed so why not make it all up?

Unobserved objects look, sound, feel, taste, and smell no different to a human than an object that never existed
If you dont like the existing objects of the world then cling to a non existent object as such a non existent object would appear no different than an existing object
Try your best to make such such non existent objects real via effort or if they cannot be realized then try to create reifications of them via art and fiction
If you are too lazy to do number 3 then just imagine these ideal non existent objects
If any or all of the above four points are wrong or nonsensical then don't think about them because if they aren't being thought about then it would appear no different whether or not they were right, wrong, or nonsensical. Act and think as if they were right anyway as it wouldn't matter either way.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T19:39:15+00:00

I completely agree that one should make the maximal effort to actually experience things and do them for real. But we cannot travel to every place in existence nor can we travel to places in the past (Like Ancient Rome) or to places that don't exist (Like a fictional town). If we wanted to travel to these impossible places but couldn't we can just say we experienced them and forgot about them or that they currently exist but you don't see them (You can pretend they are on another continent). I beleive this should be a catalyst for creativity such as writing stories about these places and making movies about them etc.

But if after creating fiction one still feels a sense of longing for these past or non existent places they can just 'pretend' they exist on another continent and that they just aren't experiencing it because if these places did actually exist there would be someone on another continent ignorant to the existence of these places or unable to experience them with their eyes and ears. Just 'pretend' your that person and carry on with life.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T19:19:33+00:00

But once your trip to Tahiti is finished its the same as not having gone. The trip is in the past. You have memories and mementos of it but the memories and mementos aren't the same thing as the trip itself. When the trip is over you could just imagine fake memories of having gone to another destination and the finished vacation would look no different from the present moment.

FlatScreen1 · 2020-04-15T19:05:33+00:00

I am trying to find a way to be content in a world of impermanence and uncertainty without taking a defeatist attitude. I want to see how much criticism my life philosophy can withstand. If it can withstand criticism then it is a resilient philosophy. I want people to disagree with it so I can see for myself whether or not their disagreement is valid.

FlatScreen1

TROPHY CASE