wandelaar

It looks like it is not a spiritual book. That's correct. But as far as common sense wisdom goes, the book appears to have some very good ideas. And Lao tzu is not against plain common sense, quite the opposite. So I think (and hope) that the book I linked to can be used to assist in adopting a (philosophically) Taoist way of life if we simply ignore its ego boosting aspect (that unhappily is found in most self-help books).

@ OldDog I think the Tao Te Ching contains lots of common sense wisdom, together with transcendental visions that go beyond it but don't contradict it. Common sense wisdom can be found everywhere around the globe. And it looks like an interesting part of it is explained in the book that I linked to. What you are writing also falls under the same category. I am somewhat of a perfectionist myself, so I have ordered the book to see what can be done about this. And to help me in interpreting certain passages on perfectionism and overdoing things in the Tao Te Ching.

Perfect!

Yes - as far as I could see transcendence is lacking in the linked book. But on the purely practical side I saw some correspondences in the sense that striving for perfect solutions or accomplishments is self-defeating. Paradoxically: good enough is best.

http://www.sunypress.edu/p-100-chuang-tzu-for-spiritual-transf.aspx Anybody read this book? Any comments?

Is pure consciousness empty of thoughts, images, perceptions and feelings?

Since wandelaar said so! But you are still beating around the bush, why don't you just tell us why you think the soul can travel in space independently of the location of the brain. I might agree with you or not, but at least then we can explore how such a supposition relates to the theory of relativity.

If that's how it works than it would be basically a physical process and thus it would follow the rules of quantum physics and relativity theory. (However the theory of information exchange by way of biophotons at the current stage of investigation is speculative at best.)

The problem remains that there is no way to investigate the consequences of supposed capabilities of X (be it a soul, a telescope or whatever) as long as nothing concrete is said about what the capabilities of X are supposed to be.

Instruments aren't the problem, the problem is that you refuse describe what you mean by the claim that "our individual souls are a refined thing that can travel to different positions in space-time regardless of the locations of gray matter, dark matter, or anti-matter". Subjective experiences are also experiences, and experiences are facts. You could at least describe which subjective experiences made you think that our souls can travel in space independent of the location of our brain. Otherwise there is no way to answer your question.

As long as you don't specify what it means for our consciousness to be at some position in space this all remains empty talk without any possibility of further investigation.

Is our consciousness a thing that can travel independent of the position of our brain? And if so: how would you define its momentary position in space?

One could first accelerate with a = g and then decelerate with a = -g (where g is the gravitational acceleration on the surface of the earth), so that such a journey for the astronauts on board would be nice and comfortable. Take note that the acceleration is to be reckoned relative to momentarily comoving inertial frames (as interpreted in the context of the special theory of relativity). See: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/acceleration.html http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/Rocket/rocket.html

@ rideforever Aren't you doing the same thing (bragging about your supposed superior knowledge), that you criticise in others?

The occupants of a spaceship travelling at nearly the speed of light will experience the distance that is to be travelled as contracted according to the Lorentz contraction. So for that kind of speeds one has to use the special theory of relativity to get an idea of what is happening.

Thank you! I just bought Peng Yoke Ho's Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science and Civilization in China a few weeks ago. I look forward to your next post.

https://books.google.nl/books?id=NQcRAQAAIAAJ This book could be very interesting, if only there were an English translation...

It's a strange combination, but on the other hand it could also be meant as an example of supreme sageliness to be able to find ones way in all kinds of environments whether it is dealing with wood, metal, stone (?), money or people...

Let's return to the text. Was Prodigal Northpalace also the guy who made the altar with bells?

Might be an interesting read although Chuang tzu would probably be considered as not the real thing by the author, let alone western Taoists. Based on the preview the book probably errs in the opposite directing of the new Age books it criticises. Maybe I will buy it nevertheless, but I have hardly any space left for new books.

@ Marblehead Somebody once told me a story that he visited a radio broadcasting station and was allowed to see the heart of the broadcasting equipment. That apparently gave him a dizzy and nauseous feeling and he was told that one shouldn't be in the direct proximity of that equipment for too long. That's why I asked about your experiences.

Interesting - did that have any immediately perceptible bodily and/or psychological effects?

@ Marblehead Solutions can be infinite in many senses other than containing infinitely many possibilities. The golden ratio mentioned by LiT is a perfectly definite number. And the important number π has infinitely many digits. Besides - infinite processes are very important in (applied) mathematics! Keeping it simply by banishing infinite processes and/or numbers would paradoxically make things much more difficult.

My search for an acceptable interpretation of ancient Taoism is not finished yet, and so I see the appearance of fallacies and tricks in otherwise serious topics as a serious obstruction. It takes almost no time to post tons of nonsense but it takes inordinate amounts of time and energy to post well reasoned refutations. So the "gamesman" in such discussions is almost certain to "win". That's why I consider it best to not get sucked into those silly games at all. Maybe your ideas about Taoist philosophy have already taken a definite shape and so you can better appreciate playing some tricks and having some fun?

https://medium.com/present-tense/finding-the-flow-why-hyperfocus-is-not-the-superpower-of-adhd-and-flow-is-something-we-should-b43b1ec5d4fa https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-ways-I-can-trigger-my-ADHD-state-of-flow https://www.thecut.com/2016/07/when-adult-adhd-looks-something-like-flow.html Looks like research on the possible relation between flow and ADHD is only just starting.