what is a person?

[de_paradise]

What is a person. (ie. What are you?)

[Lotus Flower]

What is a person. (ie. What are you?)

 

Are you talking person as in personality and what makes your personality or are you speaking more in terms of human being/person?

 

So abstract or concrete??

[mYTHmAKER]

What is a person. (ie. What are you?)

 

Sounds like " Who am I"

[minkus]

A person is a monkey in clothes calling himself a human lol.

[mwight]

I am a collection of cells acting in concert to give rise to an illusion we call consciousness. I am in fact an advanced cellular society. A collective mind made of 100 billion citizens, each sharing information in the form of electrochemical signals sent out over a vast neural network.

 

Have you ever wondered with the advancement of telecommunications and the internet, if we are all coming together in a similar manner? We all share information, via the internet, and influence countless others with our online interactions. Perhaps we unknowingly giving rise to a collective consciousness in which we play the roles of neurons.

 

(taken from my about me )

[Taoist81]

"Well, that depends on what the definition of 'is' is...."

[Desire]

I am a collection of cells acting in concert to give rise to an illusion we call consciousness. I am in fact an advanced cellular society. A collective mind made of 100 billion citizens, each sharing information in the form of electrochemical signals sent out over a vast neural network.

 

Have you ever wondered with the advancement of telecommunications and the internet, if we are all coming together in a similar manner? We all share information, via the internet, and influence countless others with our online interactions. Perhaps we unknowingly giving rise to a collective consciousness in which we play the roles of neurons.

 

(taken from my about me )

 

I guess a cell is alone. Lone cells act in such concert to make the 'I'. I am alone.

 

If people can come together, acting with such concert as the cells, there I see something/someone being alone.

 

Do you find your self relating to that?.

[mwight]

I guess a cell is alone. Lone cells act in such concert to make the 'I'. I am alone.

 

If people can come together, acting with such concert as the cells, there I see something/someone being alone.

 

Do you find your self relating to that?.

 

I have always been alone. I believe there is only ONE being in existence, and we are apart of it, just as our cells are apart of us.

[Lotus Flower]

I have always been alone. I believe there is only ONE being in existence, and we are apart of it, just as our cells are apart of us.

 

Now THAT is an interesting concept. One many humans do not want to explore though...

 

I like that train of thought though...

[mwight]

[mwight]

I like that train of thought though...

 

 

When I went down to the end of train tracks, everything that I was burned to the ground, it was a hard time in my life. Try realizing you don't even exist, and trying to keep it together at the same time. LOL

 

Since then I have shifted my paradigm, and learned to wear my ego more like a sweater. This ego I show to the world is no more real than a character I play on a video game.

 

I had a dream once a long time ago that I and a yogi were sitting in the stream, he pointed to some bubbles grasping onto a blade of grass underwater. "We are like the bubbles" he said, and then I woke up.

It took me many years to really realize what that really meant.

 

In essence I believe we are all one being, we are simply having different experiences simultaneously.

It is my hope that maybe someday we can all awaken and leave this place, or at least the ones who want to.

 

I have fun playing my character, but I want out of this endless theater. I want to achieve nirvana, liberation, union with god, whatever name you want to call it, To exist eternally as formless awareness, to never be reborn into a phenomenal reality, and realize truth eternally. No pain, no pleasure, nothing at all, just voidness.

Edited March 2, 2008 by mwight

[林愛偉]

Edited March 1, 2008 by 林愛偉

[Desire]

In essence I believe we are all one being, we are simply having different experiences simultaneously.

You believe so?. Is it not only a hypothesis?. You mean to say, you don't doubt that at all?.

 

(Is not belief beyond the ability to doubt?. Or are people metaphorically calling 'the most favourable hypothesis'

belief?.)

 

To me it sounds like a attempt at consoling myself, if and when I feel deprived of something or when I relate to another's grief.

[Lotus Flower]

When I when down to the end of train tracks, everything that I was burned to the ground, it was a hard time in my life. Try realizing you don't even exist, and trying to keep it together at the same time. LOL

 

Since then I have shifted my paradigm, and learned to wear my ego more like a sweater. This ego I show to the world is no more real than a character I play on a video game.

 

I had a dream once a long time ago that I and a yogi were sitting in the stream, he pointed to some bubbles grasping onto a blade of grass underwater. "We are like the bubbles" he said, and then I woke up.

It took me many years to really realize what that really meant.

 

In essence I believe we are all one being, we are simply having different experiences simultaneously.

It is my hope that maybe someday we can all awaken and leave this place, or at least the ones who want to.

 

I have fun playing my character, but I want out of this endless theater. I want to achieve nirvana, liberation, union with god, whatever name you want to call it, To exist eternally as formless awareness, to never be reborn into a phenomenal reality, and realize truth eternally. No pain, no pleasure, nothing at all, just voidness.

 

So, from your view, what do you view as the reason you are here now as in your life?

 

I realize I am opening a can of worms and there may be some people that are going to get upset because I am asking such a question where some will take it the wrong way and think I am asking "what is the reason for us?" That is not what I am asking though...I am asking you personally what you think your reason is. You believe that eventually you will realize truth. Have no pain, pleasure, etc.

I am curious to see what you think of your life then.

 

You believe so?. Is it not only a hypothesis?. You mean to say, you don't doubt that at all?.

 

(Is not belief beyond the ability to doubt?. Or are people metaphorically calling 'the most favourable hypothesis'

belief?.)

 

To me it sounds like a attempt at consoling myself, if and when I feel deprived of something or when I relate to another's grief.

 

I would say that it is his belief and others may have doubts because that is not what they believe.

 

Who are we to say who is right though? Maybe this view is correct.

 

I look at people in my life that hold their convictions strong and have no doubt whereas I doubt their beliefs. From that experience, I tell myself to realize that they are going to believe what they want and it is not up to me to ask them if they doubt it. I will just respect them enough to let them have their beliefs whereas I will continue my search

[Oolong Rabbit]

This all sounds like a lot of intellectual masterbation. Just sit down and meditate

[Lotus Flower]

This all sounds like a lot of intellectual masterbation. Just sit down and meditate

 

 

Maybe it is, but I am an intellect at heart and thrive off this

[Oolong Rabbit]

Maybe it is, but I am an intellect at heart and thrive off this

 

I have a BA in philosophy . I thought philosophy would give me some answers, but all it did was create more questions. The reality is that I have learned more about who and what I am by sitting and meditating than any philosophical work I have ever read. The constant stream of thoughts just adds layers between us and our original nature, and there's a lot of wisdom in the old taoist notion of forgetting. Then again, I'm just a rabbit with a teapot on his head, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

[sheng zhen]

I have a BA in philosophy . I thought philosophy would give me some answers, but all it did was create more questions. The reality is that I have learned more about who and what I am by sitting and meditating than any philosophical work I have ever read. The constant stream of thoughts just adds layers between us and our original nature, and there's a lot of wisdom in the old taoist notion of forgetting. Then again, I'm just a rabbit with a teapot on his head, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

It much better to use the head to balance teapots than to use it in thinking...

[Wayfarer64]

I am short and stout, but I am not a tea pot...

 

I am a spirit living as a human

 

tip me over & pour me out

[Lotus Flower]

I have a BA in philosophy . I thought philosophy would give me some answers, but all it did was create more questions. The reality is that I have learned more about who and what I am by sitting and meditating than any philosophical work I have ever read. The constant stream of thoughts just adds layers between us and our original nature, and there's a lot of wisdom in the old taoist notion of forgetting. Then again, I'm just a rabbit with a teapot on his head, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

Well, maybe that is the problem..my BA is in Psychology...my MA (I am currently going for) will be in professional mental health counseling. Could be that Psychology and Counseling are leading me down the wrong path...

 

Hell, I am just a hand holding a lotus flower, what does that say about me??

[Oolong Rabbit]

It much better to use the head to balance teapots than to use it in thinking...

 

And even if the rabbit twitches and the teapot shatters on the floor, the tea remains tea (although in a form that is now much harder to drink).

[Oolong Rabbit]

Well, maybe that is the problem..my BA is in Psychology...my MA (I am currently going for) will be in professional mental health counseling. Could be that Psychology and Counseling are leading me down the wrong path...

 

Have you ever heard of the thud experiement?

 

hqaptRYjhq4

 

Hell, I am just a hand holding a lotus flower, what does that say about me??

 

It says you should beware the monks with a statue that is missing a hand

[Todd]

I have a BA in philosophy . I thought philosophy would give me some answers, but all it did was create more questions. The reality is that I have learned more about who and what I am by sitting and meditating than any philosophical work I have ever read. The constant stream of thoughts just adds layers between us and our original nature, and there's a lot of wisdom in the old taoist notion of forgetting. Then again, I'm just a rabbit with a teapot on his head, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

Should one not use the mind in exploration?

 

Its a fine line. Philosophy on the one hand, a never ending stream of words, referring to other words. On the other hand we have sleep. This is about as close as we can get to no thoughts.

 

I find that there is a third option, which is natural curiosity. This natural curiosity may express itself with a question, or with a dropping of assumptions and simply looking. Trying to suppress natural curiosity is tying our hands behind our backs. Natural curiosity is actually the most powerful thing that we have.

 

If someone can ask a question in all sincerity, without expecting a definite answer, they are doing more to walk their path than someone who meditates for two hours every day in nirvakalpa samadhi.

 

If we don't have the stability to stay with what the questions opens up, then it cannot work its magic, however. So there are two sides to every coin.

[mwight]

You believe so?. Is it not only a hypothesis?. You mean to say, you don't doubt that at all?.

 

(Is not belief beyond the ability to doubt?. Or are people metaphorically calling 'the most favourable hypothesis'

belief?.)

 

To me it sounds like a attempt at consoling myself, if and when I feel deprived of something or when I relate to another's grief.

 

I don't doubt this no, I am certain we are all one. Perhaps I am just delusional though.

[mwight]

So, from your view, what do you view as the reason you are here now as in your life?

 

I am enslaved, trapped, bound to this world. My purpose in this life is to break free, and never return.

 

I am not enlightened, of that I am certain.

 

I will be reborn again if I died today, of that I am also certain.

 

The purpose of my life is to awaken, and achieve liberation.