wandelaar

That may be, but the simple life is in line with chapter 80 of the Tao Te Ching, and modern psychology points in the same direction (at least for those people who voluntarily choose a simple life): https://visionpdf.com/voluntary-simplicity-as-a-well-being-attitude.html Not so strange when we think of the extreme ways that modern life deviates from the natural circumstances in which man evolved. Besides, why go for enlightenment (with the danger of going - temporarily - insane), when it is much easier to accomplish a relatively happy and content life by choosing a life style that accords with the kind of person you are? (But I do think that the simple life isn't fit for young people who still want to explore the world and make some kind of a career.)

Well - I know that one. Encyclopedias were in the old days what the internet is today. I still have some complete encyclopedias at home. But on the second hand market they have become almost worthless nowadays.

I already live quite simple, so for me the main step to take will be to stop reading about and discussing everything. I just have to accept that no man can be an expert on everything. But it's difficult.

Very good! This is a great option for some, and I am moving in that direction myself. But I will keep the modern luxury of a washing machine, a record player, the internet, etc...

Why couldn't it be both? This is probably all a matter of perspective...

Yes - discussions get boring after a while. At some point you know the positions of the Bums, and from there on it tends to move around in circles.

Then how do you post on The Dao Bums without using your thinking mind or landing in the hell realms? I always wonder how people just keep on bashing the thinking mind, science and technology even while they are using it!

@ Zen Pig You keep on bashing the thinking mind. But it is not the thinking mind that is after immortality or supernatural powers. The thinking mind is just a tool. It is rather the wish to rise above ordinary existence that is to blame. There are some nice stories in the Taoist and Zen tradition about those guys who waste their time and energy to ride in the sky and those kind of things. All they will accomplish by that is that the boundary of what they can do will shift a little bit, but the basic problem will not be solved. The basic problem is acknowledging that we are only part of the world and that we are therefore not all-powerful. The reason that we can navigate in the world is exactly that the world acts according to its own rules that we can then take as a given. As soon as you accept that, you will see that the "ordinary things" that you can do are actually quite amazing. It just needs some extra attention to become aware of it. The obstacle here is not the thinking mind but the mindless labelling of things and processes as such and so, and the illusion that that is all there is to it.

Currently I am wearing trousers such as these: https://www.atlasformen.nl/products/heren/kleding/broeken/elastische-corduroy-broek/c1122.aspx Remember, it is winter where I live.

I already have it balanced, I don't think absolute certainty is within reach for anybody: not for me, not for you, not for the awakened, not for the old or new Masters, not for the nondualists, not for the postmodernists, not for the scientists, not for the philosophers, etc, etc. Let's leave it at that.

All I am telling here is that absolute certainty is out of reach, even for the awakened. But apparently you want to make an exception for them?

I'm not believing in it, it's my considered opinion. And to me that's worth a lot more than the mere impression of absolute certainty that often accompanies the awakening experience. To me the awakening experience illustrates my considered opinion instead of the other way around. And I don't doubt that there are people who had the awakening experience . So I don't have to wait for it to happen to myself as proof that those kind of experiences exist.

I think that there does lie truth in the awakening experience, but that one does not need to have the experience oneself to reach it.

I no longer try to awaken as I found out that the awakened don't really know more than the non-awakened. The awakened often have the impression of absolute certainty during such experiences, but that doesn't prove anything at all. Awakened people can still draw hugely different conclusions from their experiences, although there is a common core of insights to such experiences. And that common core of insights can also be reached via rational thinking en modern science. So what is all the fuss about...

The concept that there is a constant and unchanging "you" inside of you is plain silly. You, me and everybody else are constantly changing like everything else. Please wake up, and leave those silly dogmatic concepts behind. Empty talk! Nobody stays the same from birth to death.

Discussions about Taoism can be useful when: 1. They force you to reconsider something you thought was obvious. 2. They force you to clearly state your position on some point. 3. They prove that that there is some error in you current opinion. 4. They point you to some literature or links that provide interesting information. 5. They lead to suggestions about Taoism in daily life. 6. They show you that it is possible to keep one's cool when discussing controversial subjects.

I am currently in the process of decluttering and returning to a simple life as I see that as the way to go for me as a philosophical Taoist. So accepting a gift (even when it is given from the bests of intentions) is actually adding obstructions to the path of the receiver of the gift if the receiver wants a decluttered simple life, because he now (in all probability) has to remove one thing more from his properties (which is very difficult to do without disturbing the giver if he finds out). Maybe it would help to give some healthy food, beautiful flowers or some other things that naturally disappear after being used and thus don't add to the clutter in the receivers home. In case of a teacher there might also be some other reason to refuse a gift, and that is that he doesn't want to be bribed in any way.

And that is often because of one's emotions distorting the interpretation of sensory input. Much of the methodology of scientific research is put in place precisely to remove such emotional distortions in the interpretation and handling of experimental data.

I see emotions as in roughly the same category as intuitions and gut feelings, they are not to be ignored but they are generally less reliable than sensory perceptions.

Source: https://starecat.com/angry-dog-empty-bowl-no-food/

Sensory input isn't knowledge either. It's the way we go about testing theories on the basis of sensory input that results in knowledge. Now you can indeed add emotions to your sensory input as yet another source of information about the world (because you yourself also belong to the world). And than you will see that your emotions (as far as they actually say something) sometimes have it wrong and sometimes have it right.

"emotional knowledge" There are such things as hunches, intuitions, instincts that are of use. Emotions however may be totally inappropriate such as manifests in phobias, racism, and forms of political and religious extremism. We need emotions to make choices in life, but in the establishment of facts they are best ignored.

Not everybody who nearly escapes death has a near death experience. But naturally nearly escaping death without a near-death experience is also a significant life event. And such a thing would emotionally affect me. But that is another discussion.

Some illusions die early on, and others never die (because one doesn't want them to die). Science needs neither.

I have no doubt that near death experiences exist. So even if something like it would happen to me, that would make no difference to my view on what kind of experiences people may have. I have also already thought and read about the different ways that near death experiences are interpreted, so having such an experience myself wouldn't start me thinking about something I never considered before. Actually what I have read here on The Dao Bums lately has made me more sceptical about spiritualist interpretations of mystical and mystical-like experiences. Not because I don't believe the Bums who describe those experiences (I generally do believe they had those experiences), but because - contrary to what they themselves think - their exotic interpretations are in no way proven by the experiences themselves. And attempts to rationally/logically/scientifically/psychologically investigate or explain what happened are usually vehemently rejected. So the preconceptions of the sceptics about believers in the paranormal (that I initially considered as misplaced) are actually confirmed in what I read here on The Dao Bums. My guess - but I could be wrong - is that having a near death experience myself would hardly change my view of life.