Karl

Zerostao 2016 November election results brought to you by Killing Joke

In terms of modern education, media and literature I think this is true. Modern education seems purposefully designed to destroy thinkers. The upshot is that bright people prevented from thinking are like fleas that jump against the lid of a box, when the lid is removed the fleas only jump to the height of the original lid. Where fleas aren't damaged by this process, unfortunately humans are. It's mental torture right through the formative ages when the mind is malleable. Those that can't jump higher than the lid leave relatively unscathed, good little worker drone citizens fit for factories, offices and civic duties.

We don't all spend our time like that. This is the 'digging for Gold' because you doubt you can know what gold is. We don't experience consciousness itself, consciousness is purely what permits us to experience things. You are talking about focus of awareness, in other words choosing to focus or not to focus. Now, you ask the question 'what is awareness' 'what we are' ? And these are non relational question pertaining to self inquiry. These questions lead to circular reasoning which is why I said to answer 'where am I ? How do I know it ? What should I do. This removes the direct emphasis on self. Trying to open consciousness with consciousness is definitely a fools errand. Awareness, at least in metaphysical terms, is easy to answer, it is the senses either extroverted or introverted. In epistemology awareness is simply the active expression of consciousness. So, exploring the interior is fine, but we need a flashlight. We need comprehension, a certain amount of knowledge before the experience will bring results, otherwise we are stirring up nothing but the imagination or emotions-and as cool as that can be, it isn't knowledge and you explicitly stated a question about awareness and self-because you recognise these two concepts, it is proof that you actually do know, but the internal integrations are ungrounded. The way of exploring introspectively without aid of the right tools is somewhat like a child scribbling on a pad something that looks like words, then they ask their parents to read the story. They haven't yet made the cognitive connection to symbolic concretes and so they copy the general form of writing in the belief that this will reveal the magic words to them. I can fire this stuff off all day everyday because I know, it isn't the kind of know which is feeling, nor 'I read it out of a book kind of knowing'. That kind of thing is either whim, or memory; it is false knowledge. This talk of primary to consciousness will just get you to infinite regression, you are a smart guy you can figure that out, if there is a something prior to consciousness- let's call it a void-then there is something prior to the void and so on and so on. If you say that the void, Brahman or whatever IS it, then there is no reason that the consciousness can't be IT, and as you already are conscious, then we can stop looking for anything beyond it. However, if you have self doubt, then there is a reason, there are many ungrounded concepts (floating abstractions) in your mind that aren't secured to reality. Some people cannot cope with reality, I understand that and it's not my purpose to insist that they must, we all have to choose these things. So we may choose to ground the abstractions, the curtains are drawn, the illusions and stories vanish, the old play ground gets locked and shackled and we can't get back in. Even if we want to get back, once we know reality we cannot and I think that can be a terrifying prospect- rather than the void that you are trying to run to, it is reality that you are running from. All your searches drive you further from knowing reality because you aren't intending to find it.

In the weird world of film and media, prostituting oneself in the hope of gaining favour is common amongst both men and women. Politicians live in the same world as media and entertainment and I expect the number of tapes hidden in safes are almost too many to count. However, if you are in the entertainment business then this kind of thing is likely as common as getting drunk-it's only when the dirty washing gets aired during an election attempt that it becomes damaging. Long term politicians take far greater care to ensure they don't get caught- which sums up Bill Clinton and Hillary-that they are either too dumb, or hardly concern themselves with getting caught.

A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse ?

Poke a wound and make it sore.

That's why the USA was born as a country of laws and not a country of men. However, only if the laws protect the rights of men can they be just laws. Choosing between bad and worse really is a negative sum game, it's like a bit of murder or a lot more murder. If you are a victim in both cases then you have a problem.

You don't think you think ? Or you think you don't think ?

No, consciousness is an axiomatic corrolary and awareness is where you volitionally place that faculty. There is no 'deeper than consciousnes' nor levels of consciousness. No one is trapped in consciousness, you are trying to escape from the very thing you are seeking and by that method you negate your self. There isn't any mystery to it other than what your mind is imagining. Waking up isn't really waking up, when you are conscious you are conscious of some-thing and that is all. Open your eyes in the morning and you are conscious of the inputs of your sense organs. The eye cannot see itself. Consciousness is the faculty for grasping existence and there is nothing more to learn about it from an epistomological perspective. Open your eyes and there is the world. I don't know why it's like this in terms of seeking something that isn't hidden, or trying to find something that was never lost. I think it's self doubt, that one cannot trust oneself to know the truth and so we spend long ours engaged in a process to uncover the hidden thing that will release us from the doubt. We believe there is some philosophers stone set within us that we cannot touch, but that we must merge with and find unity. I had spent years looking for that thing, lots of time stolen away in a fruitless search for something that was never lost, but the crazy thing is that even when this is discovered there appears no way to transfer that knowledge to others. It can't be done. The self doubt is so complete that the shield requires the maintenance of self doubt and the rejection of anything that tries to puncture it. I think of it as a gold mine in which a miner is furiously digging for the magic nugget, when all around him the walls are solid gold. The miner does not hear or see no matter what proof is offered, he just carries on digging furiously and shaking his head in annoyance of the idiot that 'doesn't understand'. The miner isn't looking for gold, he is looking for 'doubtless gold', it isn't an existent thing, it's a conceptual anomaly, a fools errand, but so unsure of himself that he is unable to determine what gold is, he is forced to carry on hopelessly trying to discover what is already abundant. I offer these questions again in hope: where am I ? How do I know it ? What should I do ? It's those questions that will lead you to banish self doubt completely, but I can't stop you digging in your mine, I'm just saying that you can know Gold, that there is no need to doubt your self about knowing it. That it isn't hidden from you, it is not lost, it's only your mind that doubts itself.

How lightly you dismiss your own consciousness whilst looking for a different one ;-) Spirit pertain to consciousness and an awakened consciousness does not look for itself, or another kind of itself. If you are still looking then you haven't awakened. To awaken stop looking. Nothing was lost that has always been found, but recognising that you have it proves allusive.

Hope springs eternal in the hearts of fools.

Find me a fully moral man or woman and I will show you someone who has no need of power. The fact is, the action of seeking power is the action of the corrupt, unless they seek power to destroy it.

LOL love to hear a man talk with passion about the tools of his trade.

Sounds like a guy who knows what he wants and goes after it. What do you mean by 'no integrity' ? I'm sure he does, or at least used to, do exactly what he said he did.

Equivocation on the word separately. Define that term if you please.

That's what wiki says and we aren't in PPD, we are in 'off topic', so you can jolly well shut the fuck up with your threats.

Just looked at official rape numbers and China 31K and USA 84K China is far more populous though so that would indicate rape is less common officially in China.

Ive checked on Jeff and he has quite a few issues with his MDF (fitted bedroom issues ain't it always the way :-)) How come you checked on Rene and posted, but you didn't say what you found when you checked on me ? I'm guessing it's messy, complicated with lots of jam and sawdust :-)

...a nice cup of tea. I love a nice cup of tea with my spiritual awakening so I regard them as virtually the same thing :-)

Ohhhh, yeah, that ....nah can't remember it........is that a shiny thing........goooooody

'Avoid eating fat' it says ? I'm not sure how many ways I can interpret that ?Unless I wrote it and can't remember because Inadertently advised myself not to eat fat ? That would be weird, like something out of Bill & Ted ( excellent)

I think it's now the advice to eat fat, particularly animal fats as they are good for you. There is a suggestion that it prevents grazing on carbs because fats stay in the stomach longer and that it prevents brain dysfunction such as Alzheimer's. There is a school of thought that suggests one of the reasons for promoting vegetarianism is that it weakens the mind and makes people malleable to propaganda.

Ah the old 'existence is a projection of consciousness' philosophy again :-/ Why doesn't this just die ? Consciousness is a corrolary axiom. There is no consciousness conscious of nothing, it's a conflict of terms. We only know we are conscious when we are conscious of some thing. A some-thing is an existent. We are not born with a conscious sense of self we learn it later on. At first we are conscious only of existence (that there is something and we sense it)consciousness is only apparent when we are sensing incoming data. As we grow we begin to notice that there is some faculty that is doing the grasping and now we have developed the concept of self. As an experiment-a crude one. Shut your eyes and visual existence vanishes and visual consciousness vanishes together. This is why children love peek a boo. Of course we are aware still and even of the imprints left on our retina, or the pressure exerted by our eye lids, we cannot completely blank out visual consciousness in that crude experiment, but that's a good way to get it across.

"I'm as Hungry as a horse a could eat a horse"

Yes, I know that pose. Our cat used to get in the litter box, squat and put its tongue out. Sometimes the tongue woukd stay like that for several minutes with the cat completely unaware. Funniest thing to watch, it was a dork cat.