What We Think We Know

[wandelaar]

@ Ilumairen

 

OK - so be it.

Edited August 10, 2019 by wandelaar

[manitou]

3 hours ago, OldDog said:

 

You may be right ... But I don't think it is because it is "them" that are taking the jobs away as much as it is that the nature of jobs is changing. It takes less people to produce due to technological advances. It is technology that is displacing workers. So, yeah, I can see your point of scarcity. Scarcity of sufficient work to engage the number of people we have to support.

 

 

I think that's truly the case, as well - that the technological advances have had everything to do with the lack of jobs.  BUT....it's so much easier to keep pointing the finger and blaming the government or something.  Not so easy at an old age to go back to a trade school.  I just moved away from Appalachia - and the area I lived in had been gutted by technology.  All the people that worked the steel mills, all the folks that worked the pottery, and all the folks in the coal mines.  There are NO JOBS in that area.  So people smoke crack to leave the world for a while.  It's an unfortunate area to be born into - although very beautiful.

[Everything]

7 hours ago, manitou said:

 

 

ALLOW.  That seems to be the gist of all of it.  I'm glad you mentioned that.  I'm going to be working with a woman today who lives across the street - she is an absolute nervous wreck.  Her mind races constantly, she is a nervous talker as well.  I am going to start her out on meditation today; I just want to try and get her to empty her mind and relax her body for at least 30 seconds, lol.  Glad you said 'allow' because I think that word will resonate with her.  She's pretty much a control freak, so the concept of Allowing will be foreign to her.  That's where I'll come in.  Thanks.

Well, you can try, but to succeed and actually be of benefit of to any other, you need to come from the Source within you. So rather, I would say, meditate, to first tap in to your own source, and the source within you will take care of everything else. You simply allow the benefit, you don't go do that, it is an action that happens and is defined through your alignment with the greater non physical energy motional being that you are being and becoming thus then. You allow it, through the path of least resistance. How do you know you're allowing it? You feel very good. How do you know you're not allowing it? You don't feel very good. 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Everything

[OldDog]

2 hours ago, manitou said:

BUT....it's so much easier to keep pointing the finger and blaming the government or something.

 

Fair enough. So let's talk a little about it ... even at risk of drifting off topic a bit.

 

No doubt the part of the country you describe has been hit very hard and the result is almost a complete social collapse into a drug culture. Where to look for blame. Who to look to hold responsible? Certainly one could look to big business ... industry ... for accountability. They produced the jobs to begin with ... then brought in the technology to do the work more efficiently (think cost/benefit) ... and where technology could not acheive just the right ratio, moved the business off shore where labor was cheaper.

 

So, what role government. I would posit that government has not been affective in addressing these situations ... neither before the fact or after the fact. Yes, before the fact. Could a more enlightened government have foreseen some of these things and acted to mitigate. What do we expect of government? But it would appear our government has not had the desire to act preemptively. Why is that?  Who have we placed in government and what have we mandated of them?

 

An interesting thought occurs to me at this point ... the ancient notion of the mandate of heaven. Hmmm?

 

I may have carried this exploration a bit far. To bring it back around to the topic of knowledge ...

 

Who do we listen to when we talk about government and policy? The discussion ... conversation ... space is taken up by heated rhetoric full of emotional content that addresses issues superficially ... shallowly. The conversation shifts away from how best to address an issue to who to hold accountable ... either individually or collectively ... and who is better suited to be in control. At this point meaningful content is lacking.

 

I think the linked article is trying to make a case for how this comes about and gives clues as to how to break out of this mindset. It trys to get us to ask ... How do we know what we know? Where does our knowledge (about society and governing) come from? How sure are we that what we think we know is reasonable? But coming out of a space where dialog is driven by name calling, demonization of others, hate speech, accusation, ad nausea ... you cannot begin to answer these questions.

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by OldDog
Clarification

[Everything]

2 hours ago, manitou said:

 

 

I think that's truly the case, as well - that the technological advances have had everything to do with the lack of jobs.  BUT....it's so much easier to keep pointing the finger and blaming the government or something.  Not so easy at an old age to go back to a trade school.  I just moved away from Appalachia - and the area I lived in had been gutted by technology.  All the people that worked the steel mills, all the folks that worked the pottery, and all the folks in the coal mines.  There are NO JOBS in that area.  So people smoke crack to leave the world for a while.  It's an unfortunate area to be born into - although very beautiful.

Yeah people smoke because they don't know any other way to feel better. Not knowing, that they cannot feel better, because it doesn't require an action to feel better. So people often then are befuddled by that. "So what do you want me to do then?!" Do you see the self contradictory thought patterns? That's why they feel bad.

 

YOU DON'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING TO FEEL BETTER. 

 

And then they lose all hope. And then they are holding on to ideas like "there is no hope." And they live daily by it. There is no hope, there is no hope. All is doomed. And then they realise, they can experience no hope for ever and ever, and they will be supported fully in that believe that there is no hope. So ofcourse you wanna die, cause you're literally flowing your soul through you, for the sole purpose of contradicting all that you truely are, ofcourse you would be feeling bad thus then. But they don't do this on purpose. So? You got no way except through teaching meditation. To help them realise they do have a way to let go of those thoughts which don't feel good. And the decision happens, when they have suffered enough, and they say well, enough is enough, there has to be a better way. So at first, you meditate simply to feel better, and feel very good.

 

And that's basically it, the rest is taken care of by the Source of All Creation. Naturally and effortlessly. It's the beginning of a good life and the end of suffering.

 

Why? Because you no longer care about the world outside of you, it's no longer got anything to teach you. You no longer need the conditions of your life to point to you, why you feel bad. You can simply feel bad, let go of whatever thought that causes you to feel bad, and done. The rest is taken care of by The Source of All Creation. You simply allow yourself to be your evermore being and becoming evermore. Along the path of least resistance, naturally, effortlessly, in full joy and more evermore. In geater allowed realisation evermore.

 

It's so easy and simple. People have a hard time understanding it, because they are used to trying. So they try and think, hmmm, maybe this guy wants me to become some boring sloth, I better not meditate. THATS A THOUGHT. That you would be thinking then. And if it doesn't feel very good, it's got nothing to do with all that you truely are. That's why I and so many teachers teach meditation. To help you realise the thoughts of who you truely are, the thoughts of your own soul! The thoughts that feel like bliss to you. For your own evermore greater full blown self allowed greater realisation evermore, in evermore greater being and becoming of your very own evermore greater allowed freedom and joy evermore!

 

You don't need to do anything to allow all of that. You just need to understand, you deserve that, it's infact why you exist at all, for the joy of all being and becoming evermore. So you are unconditionally worthy of that evermore. And you need to understand, the only thing that doesn't allow you to come to your own natural self allowed full blown realisation, of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore, in fully realised joy and bliss and all the better feelings of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore. The only thing that doesn't allow you to realise all of that, is a simple thought that you think in the here and now moment, that doesn't feel very good. So it's not of who you are, not compatible with your true nature of all that you truely are. And as long as you keep holding on to those thoughts and keep thinking them, and activating them, you can never allow this greater knowing to flow more fully to and through you. So you simply let go of all thought, meditate, and voila. Done. It's all coming back to natural full self allowed realisation and harmony and alignment and balance, effortlessly naturally, automatically, in accordance with your true nature and that of the Source of All Creation, as you then flow the energy which creates worlds through you, and so you got evermore allowed acces to infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom. You feel better evermore.

[Everything]

21 minutes ago, OldDog said:

 

Fair enough. So let's talk a little about it ... even at risk of drifting off topic a bit.

 

No doubt the part of the country you describe has been hit very hard and the result is almost a complete social collapse into a drug culture. Where to look for blame. Who to look to hold responsible? Certainly one could look to big business ... industry ... for accountability. They produced the jobs to begin with ... then brought in the technology to do the work more efficiently (think cost/benefit) ... and where technology could not acheive just the right ratio, moved the business off shore where labor was cheaper.

 

So, what role government. I would posit that government has not been affective in addressing these situations ... neither before the fact or after the fact. Yes, before the fact. Could a more enlightened government have foreseen some of these things and acted to mitigate. What do we expect of government? But it would appear our government has not had the desire to act preemptively. Why is that?  Who have we placed in government and what have we mandated of them?

 

An interesting thought occurs to me at this point ... the ancient notion of the mandate of heaven. Hmmm?

 

I may have carried this exploration a bit far. To bring it back around to the topic of knowledge ...

 

Who do we listen to when we talk about government and policy? The discussion ... conversation ... space is taken up by heated rhetoric full of emotional content that addresses issues superficially ... shallowly. The conversation shifts away from how best to address an issue to who to hold accountable ... either individually or collectively ... and who is better suited to be in control. At this point meaningful content is lacking.

 

I think the linked article is trying to make a case for how this comes about and gives clues as to how to break out of this mindset. It trys to get us to ask ... How do we know what we know? Where does our knowledge (about society and governing) come from? How sure are we that what we think we know is reasonable? But coming out of a space where dialog is driven by name calling, demonization of others, hate speech, accusation, ad nausea ... you cannot begin to answer these questions.

 

 

 

You don't understand. The greatest evil in all of creation, is actually the most incomprehensible of innocence'. If you don't believe that everything in all of creation is innocent evermore, you literally got no way of even computing the true knowledge that you seek. Of true knowing and true SELF ALLOWED realisation. Why? Because at first you simply believe because it feels better. And then you understand it feels better, because it is in harmony with your greater truth and nature of being. It is literally compatible with your nature to think "all of creation is innocent evermore, the source of all of creation is literally unconditional love, and INFINITE more than all that. But the human cannot understand the greater knowing, because the greater knowing, if they understood it, they would simply feel BLISS at the very least. So how do you help someone come to greater realisation? You point at the unconditional source of all of creation, and of their own greater allowed realisation, how? You point at their emotional guidance system, that indicates wether they are allowing their own greater allowed self realisation or not. And if they are not they don't feel good. So you say, love is the answer that you seek. Why? For if a human is not feeling love, they are literally blocking their greater knowing in that moment. You see how this is all related? Why do you wanna know? Cause you want to be free forevermore. Why do you wanna be free forevermore? Because you wanna feel joy, as you do all the things you wanna be do or have in utter freedom evermore. 

 

So what's the easiest way to feel very good, and allow your greater knowing? You stop offering thought, then you automatically allow yourself to receive and realise the thoughts that the source within you holds for you forevermore. You literally are the knowledge, you are made out of it, you can feel it in your bones, you are literally an extension of it, you are literally an extension of the Source of All Creation, of Infinite Intelligence and Eternal Wisdom.

 

Then you can talk about the joy, of coming to know the greatest evils/innocence that has ever existed in all of creation.

 

And you simply blink your eyes, and you begin all of creation anew, like a snap of your finger. Why? Because you come to full realisation. So what happens? You are here and now. You exist. And you are free evermore. The point is to be that. To allow your evermore being and becoming along the path of least resistance, that is the path that feels the best why? Because it is THE ONLY PATH. You can try and suffer all you want, it wont last forever. It is too painful and pointless to suffer for an idea that is simply self-contradictory and less than the greater infinite truth, that is infinite, infinitely being and becoming evermore. Nothing and no one can teach that to you, except you can allow yourself to experience it, by being willing to experience the unavoidable good feeling positive energy motional emotions that come with your self allowed full blown realisation of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore.

 

So you meditate to feel better, that is the path of least resistance to the path of least resistance to your evermore greater allowed realisation evermore in full freedom and joy. 

Because if you ask for something, you need to be willing to receive the answer. And when you ask a big question, you get a big answer. And if you are not willing to receive the big answer. It's like going 200 mph straight into a brick wall. The energies collide, and you burn out. That is why you need to release resistance, steadily and gradually. To simply allow yourself to feel better unconditionally. To allow your evermore greater being and becoming evermore. Always more fully here and now. So you cannot do the allowing. You simply meditate and let go of thought, to make room for the allowing. To allow it to happen. You open yourself up to your own greater non-physical consciousness. Which knows the path of least resistance towards all that you truely want to be do or have and is showing it to you at all times, every single moment of your life, 5 billion times per second. But you need to be on the same wavelength to perceive it and allow yourself to naturally and effortlessly receive this greater knowing evermore, relentlessly. And you simply allow it, by no longer thinking all those thoughts which don't allow it for you. That's it. That's literally the only trick in the book. 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Everything

[kyoji]

On 8/9/2019 at 10:38 AM, escott said:

Regardless of what we think we really have no control over what we think it believe, it just happens. This is why I will not insult, belittle, or hate people for what they believe. Some people need their beliefs to survive, to try to destroy a person's entire belief system is dangerous.

Say it louder.

[Mskied]

Im going to chime in here about the intelligence and the spirit.  The two are intertwined, and to untangle the spirit from the complexities of the processes invented by human beings to describe and interact with each other and matter is a difficult thing to do, especially the further from the actual spirit we become.  

 

The spirit is something that becomes what it is based upon what we experience and understand, and that is the first misstep we take- for our experience of reality is basic in its design, and so to define the prime spirit of human life would be to reduce human life to the basic and essential truths that we all encounter.  When the magician or devote has done this, they can then establish the spirit in which we aught to interact.  Aught is a terribly demonized concept nowadays, what with everyone pursuing individuation, but it is really the foundation that we spring from.  The intellect is born and begins to assimilate life based upon what it encounters, and describes this experience in its own language, often gathering the language of other observers from the Super Ego.  The Super Ego is group consciousness and it is the opinion of all people that come into contact with the individual Ego.  

 

If we cannot or will not come to agree on the basic methods of life that sustain life, we will fail to nurture life.

 

If we wind up with individuation, then all is chaos.

 

 

[Everything]

2 minutes ago, Mskied said:

Im going to chime in here about the intelligence and the spirit.  The two are intertwined, and to untangle the spirit from the complexities of the processes invented by human beings to describe and interact with each other and matter is a difficult thing to do, especially the further from the actual spirit we become.  

 

The spirit is something that becomes what it is based upon what we experience and understand, and that is the first misstep we take- for our experience of reality is basic in its design, and so to define the prime spirit of human life would be to reduce human life to the basic and essential truths that we all encounter.  When the magician or devote has done this, they can then establish the spirit in which we aught to interact.  Aught is a terribly demonized concept nowadays, what with everyone pursuing individuation, but it is really the foundation that we spring from.  The intellect is born and begins to assimilate life based upon what it encounters, and describes this experience in its own language, often gathering the language of other observers from the Super Ego.  The Super Ego is group consciousness and it is the opinion of all people that come into contact with the individual Ego.  

 

If we cannot or will not come to agree on the basic methods of life that sustain life, we will fail to nurture life.

 

If we wind up with individuation, then all is chaos.

 

 

So just the fact that you talk about this concept of chaos, as if it is something that is bad and to be avoided, it shows, you are not in alignment with the perspective that the Source within you has about that same concept. Otherwise you would be feeling delighted to talk about chaos and all that you love so much about it.

 

So I'm gonna effortlessly point out, that the individuation is actually evermore fully realised, through the appreciation and integration of the whole as a collective. For if you got nothing outside of you to compare the self with, there is no self! INFINITE VARIETY. And so there would be no awareness whatsoever. You see, your individual becoming evermore is a DONE DEAL. You are becoming evermore than all that you truely are being, evermore. But wether or not you allow your own greater realisation of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore? That can be known effortlessly, how do you flow? Are you flowing counter to the energy motional nature of your own evermore greater allowed realisation of being and becoming evermore? Then you simply don't feel good. And you have to understand, this being and becoming is eternal. The never ending stream of desires that flow forth from you is the very thing that puts ETERNITY into eternity. You are literally like inseperable from all of existance. You worry about humanity turning into chaos, your soul instantly becomes the evermoreness of the one who is existing as the humanity which exists waaaay and beyond the idea or notion of any vulnerability whatsoever. Can you allow yourself to come to realise the creation? That YOU brought into creation, you co-created it. Not a hard thing to do, if you focus, in harmony with your emotional guidance system, to allow your very own effortlessly self allowed full blown realisation evermore, of whatever you wanna be do or have, because it feels very good.

[Mskied]

There are two types of Eternity, choose well.

 

Type A- Static and secure

Type B- which actually has another name:  Infinity, meaning, no constancy, no stability, ever changing evermore.

 

 

[Everything]

2 minutes ago, Mskied said:

There are two types of Eternity, choose well.

 

Type A- Static and secure

Type B- which actually has another name:  Infinity, meaning, no constancy, no stability, ever changing evermore.

 

 

Whenever someone says this or that. Simply replace the word "or" by "and".

Contemplate.

Then replace the word "and" by "is".

There you got your answers. Works every single time. It is a universal permission slip, by which we can give ourselves an excuse we feel we need in order to allow ourselves to be our own evermore being and becoming evermore.

[Everything]

30 minutes ago, kyoji said:

Say it louder.

You can't destroy a believe system, any less than you can make a soul become less than all that it has become. Every thought any human has ever thought, still exists, but they are not necessarily backed up by infinite intelligence, by the Source of all Creation and evermore being and becoming evermore. So those thoughts that don't feel very good, they simply will never become, so it's pointless to suffer over mere self contradictory ideas. Getting caught up in the reasons why humans asked for the improvement that they seek, when the full blown realisation of all those improvements are being and becoming evermore.

 

What you can do, is block the further being and becoming, only for yourself, through yourself. And the reason this is done, is for a far greater reason, than you could ever even comprehend or understand. Untill you feel very good, and then you got acces to infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom, and then it is easy and effortless to integrate the greater knowing, so you can waaay more effortlessly simply allow the full blown self realisation of any other soul. Cause your soul knows the souls of all other beings.

[manitou]

1 hour ago, Everything said:

And you simply allow it, by no longer thinking all those thoughts which don't allow it for you. That's it. That's literally the only trick in the book. 

 

 

acceptance

[manitou]

56 minutes ago, Everything said:

Cause your soul knows the souls of all other beings.

 

 

This is wonderful, E-thing!  I'm not sure I've ever seen it put just that way before.  That is one of the legs of a 'tripod' when one is triangulating the reason a disease is being manifested.  One of the legs goes down into your own self, assuming you've done the inner work to find the source.  Another leg goes into the disease itself - what is the body trying to tell him?  The third leg of the tripod goes through the childhood memory that created the dynamic to grow, like a snowball rolling downhill.  Once found, the dynamic is tweaked by either a ceremony or sometimes just the awareness of the person changes because they now see the connection.

[Everything]

Just now, manitou said:

 

 

acceptance

It can offer some relief, but Not good enough. It's such a limitting concept. You try to hold on to what is already here, that is like old news. Allowance. Cause there is evermore. Who you truely are is being and becoming evermore. Not complaisant. Like, yeaaahh... I'm done... It's over... The end... No, you are being AND becoming ever MORE! You are eternal and infinite. And if you don't like it, it means you are thinking in contradiction to your own evermore greater being and becoming. So you don't really feel very good, and you can accept that, but if you allow that, its way better. Cause accepting that you feel bad is like holding on to it. The bad feeling exists literally for the sole purpose of helping you let go of whatever is you are holding on to that is causing you to feel bad, so you allow the bad feeling to be a wonderful blessedly valuable guide.... TO BE A GUIDE. Cause it exists for the purpose of you feeling better evermore. Guiding you to a place where you do feel good. Where you can allow the thoughts that do feel good, because they truely are in alignment with the whole of all that you are as a fully co harmonized blended being, physical and non-physical hand in hand, in evermore greater allowed realisation of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore, along the natural path of least resistance.

[Everything]

12 minutes ago, manitou said:

 

 

This is wonderful, E-thing!  I'm not sure I've ever seen it put just that way before.  That is one of the legs of a 'tripod' when one is triangulating the reason a disease is being manifested.  One of the legs goes down into your own self, assuming you've done the inner work to find the source.  Another leg goes into the disease itself - what is the body trying to tell him?  The third leg of the tripod goes through the childhood memory that created the dynamic to grow, like a snowball rolling downhill.  Once found, the dynamic is tweaked by either a ceremony or sometimes just the awareness of the person changes because they now see the connection.

Dis-ease. it is simply a physical and secondary indication "manifestation", of the primary indication, of the negative energy in motion, that is indicating, the physical being in discord or disharmony with the greater part of all that they truely are being and becoming evermore, as their greater non-physical consciousness.

So call it resistant energy, self contradictory energy. It is still the energy of their soul flowing through them, but in self contradiction. The soul doesn't do that, the physical human being does that. So they experience the negative emotion, first of all, as they hold on to this energetic thought patterns of discord and self contradiction, and if that doesn't discourage them to let go of holding on to whatever perspective is not compatible with their true nature of being and becoming evermore, the body just begins to cancel itself out, so to speak. Cause you're not ment to feel bad all of the time. That's not the point of your life. Not why you are here at all. So no point in that ever.

 

And otherwise its often just an excuse to let go and go. Like people feel like they need to suffer in order to be allowed to go into non-physical, like they're not allowed to go freely, cause the people around them don't like that. So they feel they need a good excuse. Like some people even feel shy about meditating. Like, oh the buss ran over me. Cause you really need to understand, nothing is changing, love ensues. Just the subject of death is messed up in the minds of humans, they don't even wanna talk about withdrawing their consciousness out of their body. So use the disease like a permission slip, to let go and BE FREE to come back to full realisation of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore. This cocreative dance we're doing here is really not a big deal, nothing serious going on here or anywhere ever. It's all for fun. And really, there's not much difference between here and there. We are still there right now. 

 

Glad to hear you speak so deep, I always love old people, I'm sorry can't help it. Like the wisdom you have you don't even realise how wise it is, untill I remind you by sharing my point of view of the obliviously obvious.

[OldDog]

2 hours ago, Mskied said:

... about the intelligence and the spirit. 

 

I like what you have to say here. It is a notion that is probably worthy of a whole discussion thread of its own.

 

As we discuss how to deal with the vagaries of life ... social, political, etc ... I am always looking for how the understanding that I have developed on body, mind and spirit can inform my actions in life. I see that as an essential part of becoming a developed, enlightened person. Hence, my interest in your ideas on spirit and intelligence.

 

But there are two lines of investigation possible. One being how we develop as individuals and then other how we develop collectively. Individual development is the context that TDB is usually involved in ... and has considerable insight with.

 

Where we begin to have difficulty is when we try to talk about collective behaviour. It would seem that when social and political topics come up, we are no better off than the average non-Bum. If we are going to have those kind of discussions, we should undertake to understand how we behave collectively.

 

 

[escott]

Some interesting stuff here, souls, infinity, eternity... I'll admit I've had some religious experiences in my life that seemed like the voice of God and the infiltration of my mind by demons. Those perceptions were a result of the worldview or model of reality that I held at the time. Now, I'm not really sure how to categorize those experiences. My world of beliefs was destroyed 31 years ago. I explored many systems since then and even tried to return to my original world only to walk away from it again.

 

What strange animals we are. We think our life needs a reason or a purpose. It doesn't. Out my back door I watch deer, turkeys, hawks, groundhogs, foxes, and I hear coyotes at night. I have a dog in my house, too. Do they need a purpose or reason to live? What makes me so different? Am I created in the image of God? Where did that idea come from? 

 

What do I know? The only thing I can say with any certainty is that I am alive, I'm here. Anything that I may think about the world I experience is questionable. It is dependent on my ability to sense and perceive and limited by my knowledge and ability to process information. The only thing for certain is that I AM.

 

Something i have recently found that gives me comfort is when i remind myself that, "I Am NOW." Because, NOW is all there really is. I guess that is what mindfulness is, when I pause to see the sunlight shimmer through the leaves, when I focus on the flavor of the food in my mouth, when I gaze into the eyes of my sons or wife, or when i just look around the room that I am sitting in and I forget all my memories and I stop obsessing about the future. I am here right now, that's all I know.

[manitou]

32 minutes ago, Everything said:

 

Glad to hear you speak so deep, I always love old people, I'm sorry can't help it. 

 

 

  You silver tongued devil 

[Everything]

 

9 minutes ago, escott said:

Some interesting stuff here, souls, infinity, eternity... I'll admit I've had some religious experiences in my life that seemed like the voice of God and the infiltration of my mind by demons. Those perceptions were a result of the worldview or model of reality that I held at the time. Now, I'm not really sure how to categorize those experiences. My world of beliefs was destroyed 31 years ago. I explored many systems since then and even tried to return to my original world only to walk away from it again.

 

What strange animals we are. We think our life needs a reason or a purpose. It doesn't. Out my back door I watch deer, turkeys, hawks, groundhogs, foxes, and I hear coyotes at night. I have a dog in my house, too. Do they need a purpose or reason to live? What makes me so different? Am I created in the image of God? Where did that idea come from? 

 

What do I know? The only thing I can say with any certainty is that I am alive, I'm here. Anything that I may think about the world I experience is questionable. It is dependent on my ability to sense and perceive and limited by my knowledge and ability to process information. The only thing for certain is that I AM.

 

Something i have recently found that gives me comfort is when i remind myself that, "I Am NOW." Because, NOW is all there really is. I guess that is what mindfulness is, when I pause to see the sunlight shimmer through the leaves, when I focus on the flavor of the food in my mouth, when I gaze into the eyes of my sons or wife, or when i just look around the room that I am sitting in and I forget all my memories and I stop obsessing about the future. I am here right now, that's all I know.

You got acces to waaaaaaay greater knowing, but it doesn't come through you, if you don't know how to allow it to come from within and through you. It comes from your soul, which holds all this knowledge for you. And how do you allow it? You sort of learn to quiet your mind, and  meditate, for the purpose of feeling the greater knowing flowing through you, that feels very good. You can distinguish between human created thought, and inspired thought that you receive from the Source within you. Those inspired thoughts, they feel like absolute bliss. And you can effortlessly allow that, by meditating to release all thoughts you hold that do not allow this greater knowing to naturally come to and through you and flow more fully through and as you.

 

So through life experiences, you come to sort of put energetic requests of all things you want, and they grow in a sort of energetic soup and they become more and more, and literally, you can allow all that, as your soul, to come to full realisation. If you know how to relax and let the greater knowing of your soul inspire you towards your self allowed full blown realisation of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore. The result, is absolute extatic experience of tremendous love and joy. You got your non-physical greater consciousness, always got your back. It's the reason why you feel emotion. So you can always come back home to the joy of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore, in full blown greater allowed realisation evermore.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Everything

[OldDog]

11 hours ago, escott said:

Now, I'm not really sure how to categorize those experiences.

 

Perhaps the don't need to be categorized.  Guess the real question is whether you derived anything meaningful from them. But don't attach to them just let them go.

 

11 hours ago, escott said:

We think our life needs a reason or a purpose.

 

Personally, I think life is its own purpose. I don't hold much with the point of view that all is an illusion, that there is no reality, that sll is empty. I'm with you. I just know that I am. Have my hands full just working with that.

 

Btw ... out my back window are birds, deer, foxes, coyotes... and the neighbor's cat.

 

Sounds like you are in a pretty good state of mind these days.

[OldDog]

... Ah, but there's the rub ...

 

As I was reading last night (Smullyan, The Tao Is Silent) I came across a lesson that I think pertains to the question of what we think we know. There (Ch 35) he speaks about there being different schools of philosphy being roughly dviided into two camps. One being a absolutely serious, analytical, rational ... a sensible camp. The other being a less serious, free wheeling fun loving, spontaneous ... crazy camp. He subscribes to the later, claiming it to be closer to the truth. When asked by the other camp whether he an prove that, he exclaims ... "Yes, quite easily, provided I am allowed to give a crazy proof rather than a sensible one."

 

Therein is the rub. When we are encamped, we will only accept proofs that are based in the context of our camp ... we won't hear arguments from the other camps ... even if they contain some truth.

 

 

[ilumairen]

20 hours ago, wandelaar said:

@ Ilumairen

 

OK - so be it.

 

Thank you for being respectful. It is noted, and appreciated. 

[C T]

1 hour ago, OldDog said:

 

 

 

 

Personally, I think life is its own purpose. I don't hold much with the point of view that all is an illusion, that there is no reality, that sll is empty. I'm with you. I just know that I am. Have my hands full just working with that.

 

 Which school subscribes to that crazy content, I wonder.... 

[ilumairen]

 

16 hours ago, OldDog said:

Who do we listen to when we talk about government and policy? The discussion ... conversation ... space is taken up by heated rhetoric full of emotional content that addresses issues superficially ... shallowly. The conversation shifts away from how best to address an issue to who to hold accountable ... either individually or collectively ... and who is better suited to be in control. At this point meaningful content is lacking.

 

The last sentence is like an arrow aimed straight for the heart of "the issue."

 

16 hours ago, OldDog said:

I think the linked article is trying to make a case for how this comes about and gives clues as to how to break out of this mindset. It trys to get us to ask ... How do we know what we know? Where does our knowledge (about society and governing) come from? How sure are we that what we think we know is reasonable? But coming out of a space where dialog is driven by name calling, demonization of others, hate speech, accusation, ad nausea ... you cannot begin to answer these questions.

 

Pointed and pertinent imo.