Feel Who Is Thinking

[rideforever]

You might go to university and study philosophy or psychology or something high-minded, study many ideas books and authors.

 

But nobody will ask you .... "can you feel who is thinking ?".

 

They don't know ... and they don't care.

They don't care who it is.   

They don't care who they are.

 

Do you ?

[3bob]

feel the joker who is presuming such presumptions - (while riding on high horse)

[Starjumper]

I don't think Taoists give a flying flapjack about this "who am I" stuff.  It seems to be simply more sophistry and mental wanking ... but I'm so simple I wouldn't know.

[Marblehead]

Not only that, most of us don't even give a fuck.

 

[3bob]

although most beings do ask about and know suffering of some type at some time, their own and that of others....

 

[Fa Xin]

Who is it that cares what others care about ... ?

[Marblehead]

The Nowhere Man?

 

[wandelaar]

You either have to go all the way and eventually conclude that there is no one there who does the thinking, and that that's OK because our thinking is the Tao playing its games within us (that's the way of the intellectual who has to figure out everything for himself before he can accept anything), or you better don't worry about it at all (and that's the way of the "common man" who knows from experience which questions are practically useful and which are not). I took the long and hard way of rationally thinking it through to find out that the "common man" who never cared about it at all was right all along.  

Edited July 25, 2018 by wandelaar

[Marblehead]

Some things we have to learn the hard way.

 

[neti neti]

On 7/24/2018 at 8:36 AM, rideforever said:

You might go to university and study philosophy or psychology or something high-minded, study many ideas books and authors.

 

But nobody will ask you .... "can you feel who is thinking ?".

 

They don't know ... and they don't care.

They don't care who it is.   

They don't care who they are.

 

Do you ?

 

I am the feeling, and I am the thinking.

 

22 hours ago, Starjumper said:

I don't think Taoists give a flying flapjack about this "who am I" stuff.  It seems to be simply more sophistry and mental wanking ... but I'm so simple I wouldn't know.

 

I am the wanking.

 

21 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Not only that, most of us don't even give a fuck.

 

 

I am the fuck not given.

 

20 hours ago, 3bob said:

although most beings do ask about and know suffering of some type at some time, their own and that of others....

 

 

I am the suffering.

 

2 hours ago, wandelaar said:

You either have to go all the way and eventually conclude that there is no one there who does the thinking, and that that's OK because our thinking is the Tao playing its games within us (that's the way of the intellectual who has to figure out everything for himself before he can accept anything), or you better don't worry about it at all (and that's the way of the "common man" who knows from experience which questions are practically useful and which are not). I took the long and hard way of rationally thinking it through to find out that the "common man" who never cared about it at all was right all along.  

 

I am the Tao.

[wandelaar]

5 minutes ago, neti neti said:

I am the feeling, and I am the thinking.

 

 

I am the wanking.

 

 

I am the fuck not given.

 

 

I am the suffering.

 

 

I am the Tao.

 

Well - that would be egocentric in the extreme! I would prefer the modest philosophical Taoist proposition that fundamentally there is no "I" and that we are all in mind and body temporary manifestations of Tao until we die and are recycled into other creatures that then live for some time until they die, and so on and so forth. No "I" is needed to understand ourselves or the world, although the word "I" is extremely useful for referring to oneself without continually having to mention ones name.

[rideforever]

If you sit quietly and calmly .... then beginning a thought stream.... for instance say to yourself ... "calm .... calm ... calm ....". 

 

As this continues, can you feel where it is happening, where the thinking is occurring ?

 

Is it occurring in your left foot ?

Can you feel if it is occurring in the lower or upper part of the body, front or back, in the arms, waist, legs, heart, head.   Working slowly like this can you come to the area from which the thinking is happening ?   Can you develop a new inner sensitivity ?

Edited July 25, 2018 by rideforever

[wandelaar]

Can you?

[Starjumper]

43 minutes ago, wandelaar said:

Well - that would be egocentric in the extreme! I would prefer the modest philosophical Taoist proposition that fundamentally there is no "I" and that we are all in mind and body temporary manifestations of Tao until we die and are recycled into other creatures that then live for some time until they die, and so on and so forth. No "I" is needed to understand ourselves or the world, although the word "I" is extremely useful for referring to oneself without continually having to mention ones name.

 

Reject!  Those are word games.  Smells like Buddhism, not Taoism.

 

Whether it's I or me or myself or ourself or oneself or (my name), there is no Taoist proposition that separates out "I" from the others.  You yourself used the words we, they, ourselves, oneself; I don't see the difference.  OOps, I added a new word, 'yourself'.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Starjumper

[neti neti]

57 minutes ago, wandelaar said:

 

Well - that would be egocentric in the extreme! I would prefer the modest philosophical Taoist proposition that fundamentally there is no "I" and that we are all in mind and body temporary manifestations of Tao until we die and are recycled into other creatures that then live for some time until they die, and so on and so forth. No "I" is needed to understand ourselves or the world, although the word "I" is extremely useful for referring to oneself without continually having to mention ones name.

 

I am egocentricity, and I am the preferring.

 

I am the understanding.

Edited July 25, 2018 by neti neti

[wandelaar]

@ Starjumper

 

That's why I wrote that you either have to think the thing through to the end, or don't even start on that philosophical road and keep it simple. Doing it halfway only leads to confusion. As you don't like philosophy you can just take it easy and simply refuse to consider the questions of this topic. No harm done.

 

And that's exactly what you already did:

 

On 24-7-2018 at 4:54 PM, Starjumper said:

I don't think Taoists give a flying flapjack about this "who am I" stuff.  It seems to be simply more sophistry and mental wanking ... but I'm so simple I wouldn't know.

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by wandelaar

[joeblast]

I am Jack's Medulla Oblongata.  I am the neural mass responsible for autonomic functions like vomiting and sneezing.  I was formed during fetal development from the myencephalon.  I weigh 121 grams.

 

[neti neti]

The village idiot is a genius. The king is a fool.

[Marblehead]

1 hour ago, neti neti said:

The village idiot is a genius. The king is a fool.

Don't tell the king that.  You will be history.

 

[neti neti]

5 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Don't tell the king that.  You will be history.

 

 

What the king don't know, which is a lot, won't hurt him.

 

The idiot's curse is a blessing.

[rideforever]

Can you feel if it is occurring in the lower or upper part of the body, front or back, in the arms, waist, legs, heart, head.   Working slowly like this can you come to the area from which the thinking is happening ?   Can you develop a new inner sensitivity ?

[wandelaar]

I know one thing, and that is that pondering to much questions gives me a severe headache! So to answer all of your questions at once: when you don't overdo your thinking and your brain is not hurt otherwise, then you will not feel where the thinking is happening. And happily so, because feeling the thinking and feeling where it is happening would only hinder your thinking. Normally the body only signals that something is happening and where, when there is a reason to do so.

Edited July 26, 2018 by wandelaar