Maddie

The Buddha taught that we are not the five aggregates. So basically what ever we think we are, we are not that. He was basically teaching that the ego is not really us. But to say then why identify with what the ego is telling us in the here in now? is because the Buddha realized the difficulty of liberation and taught the gradual path. The gradual path includes acceptance of where we are in the present moment. This is why there are lay people and not just monks, even though the monastic life is the ideal for one example. So in anticipation of your next question, why don't I just not identify as a woman or man or anything? It's because I'm not there yet. I might want to fly but until I get on the airplane I'm still on the ground. To tell myself and others that I'm not walking on the ground when I am indeed walking on the ground is denial and delusion, and these are the hinderances to liberation. The path to liberation is knowing the present moment as it is. In the present moment my mind identifies as a woman.

In Buddhism the idea is to not identify with anything. So trying to make ourselves identify with something such as pure awareness is a type of grasping which is the opposite of what the Buddha taught. The Buddha taught letting go. I don't identify as a woman as the culmination of a goal but simply because that's where I happen to be at the moment. I tried to reject this identity and that did not work for me because it was motivated by control which again isn't letting go.

To me personally the idea of identifying with something abstract like "pure awareness" sounds like identifying with "world peace" or "Taylor Swift's guitar". It just doesn't make sense in the real world. Not trying to be mean but it seems like its too abstract to be useful or relatable.

Do the only thing that there is to do, be in the present moment.

Look maybe you were just getting way too metaphysical for me and if you were sincere then I am sorry for suggesting you were a troll. But I don't identify as pure awareness that doesn't even make any sense to me. I identify as a woman. I tried to not identify as a woman for a long time and the longer I tried that the worse my mental health got. Maybe the concepts you are speaking about are just too out there for me to relate to. Maybe you can explain what you mean by identifying with pure awareness because I have no idea what this is? ** I live stream a lot and get bombarded by trolls asking cheeky questions if that helps to put things into context.

May I ask you what you identify as? Is there a pure awareness restroom in public I wonder? 🤔

I think that was an excellent assessment of what is probably going on.

Yes this exactly

Ok so maybe you don't mean it this way, maybe you do, but this is the point where it no longer seems like a legitimate question and more like a back door challenge to transgenderism being a legitimate thing. I literally just gave you the textbook definition of gender, and your reply is no that's not right, don't you really want to know the truth. So tell me Salvijus, what is the truth according to you, lets just get this over with and state your actual agenda.

Typically its society that defines gender. https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1

I'm probably going to regret this, but what honest, sincere question do you actually have?

Yeah for real lol. Actually I think what I'm surprised about more isn't that there was a troll but it's that there's a few other people that don't seem to see it and I thought it was very obvious?

I think we're witnessing some inner Nungali ego dialogue LOL

I'm sorry you don't feel comfortable to post anymore as I do enjoy your presence, but as a trans person I have to deal with trolls on a regular often daily basis (I live stream regularly) and I do know how to spot them. I was going through his posts and I noticed that he wasn't really asking questions. He was making statements. Nevertheless I think its unfortunately that you don't feel comfortable posting here any longer, but if you do change your mind I am always happy to interact with you here :-).

This type of gaslighting is stereotypical troll behavior.

It's not the fact that he was making transphobic statements (he didn't really ask questions) that tipped me off that he was a troll. It was the gaslighting once it was pointed out that what he said was offensive. This is a distinguishing characteristic of a troll.

In case anyone is wondering why I am claiming that Salvijus is a troll, I do so based on multiple statements of which this is just one example of many. 1. First he has implied that transgenderism is something that needs to be justified. Being trans is an existence. As soon as someone challenges the validity of someone's existence there is a problem there. 2. Second he implied that "trans philosophy" (what ever that means) is not valid. First of all it is not a philosophy, again it is an existence. Secondly it is valid and to challenge that it is, is one of many reasons I believe him to be a troll. I'm all for answering legitimate questions, but trolls do not ask legitimate questions. They make statements disguised as questions to undermine the person they are trolling's position or point. *edit: Another reason that I believe him to be a troll is because then told that what he said is offensive, instead of apologizing he resorts to gaslighting and putting the burden of offense upon the person offended.

In case anyone is interested there is a weekly live Trans call in show. It's currently live.

I think there is a place for both modern Western medicine and TCM and other natural modalities. As a practitioner of TCM obviously I love what I do and think its great for a great number of things, but I am glad we have modern medicine as well, especially in the cases of trauma. Most of my professors were from China or Taiwan and they didn't have the divide like we do here. They would just learn modern Western medicine and TCM simultaneously. It's good to have lots of tools in one's toolbox.

Oh I do that too. Shall we play a bit of Where's Waldo? or in this case mischievous Maddie.

My ego wants to kick some people in the nards now and then, but I usually tell my ego "no ego lets not do that, if you're good when we get home I'll give you a cookie :-)" and then my ego is like "I really wanted to kick that person in the nards, but oh boy I do like cookies" 🍪🤤🩷

Impossible as he has transcended ego 🤭

Victim narcissism https://www.wellandgood.com/victim-narcissist/#:~:text=“Victim syndrome in narcissism is,therapist specializing in narcissistic abuse

I think exactly zero people were surprised there was a troll in a thread like this lol.

That is because it's obvious you ask questions because you want to know and you're coming from a good place.