Facebook as a spiritual tool

[Pietro]

[Yoda]

Pietro,

 

Thanks for your perspective... very helpful.

 

Your pal,

Yoda

[Apech]

That's interesting - thanks.

 

It kind of explains why people find social networking so engaging - although I have to admit I have never got into Facebook even though I have a page I hardly ever got there - actually I come here instead!

[Ian]

[Pietro]

Very interesting, as ever. But is it really integration? To me it sounds, not having thunk about it much, more like self-censorship at both edges of your personality to inhabit an acceptable middle.

Hello Ian,

at some point you need to rely on feelings.

 

Self censorship does not feel pleasent.

It never does, at least to me.

 

Of course restrain can feel good.

If you are restraining yourself from what is unreal.

This is why the monks path is a path of renunciation,

but not a path that leads to pain and despair.

 

On the other side Integration to me always gave a sense to wholeness.

Very different from self censorship and generally pleasent.

 

It is not a matter of censoring my edges,

but finding a way in which a part can operate in the presence of another.

 

You see, if I make a claim, here, that I know through my academic work to be false, I am surely saying something false. Because reality is One. Thus if some part of my experience (or of anyone experience, for that matter) have discovered something as false it cannot be true. Similarly, if I make a claim in my academic world, which contradicts my spiritual experience, I feel something is not ok.

 

But if I am in a context where I have to make sure that my claim honor both sides of my self, I might make some restrain, but I am only restraining myself from what is unreal.

 

And the resulting is pleasent. Feels pleasent. Now, understand me, there is of course the pleasure to be in touch with so many of my friends. A sort of happy light hearted feeling, like light bells, or sparkling lights (are you visual or auditory, Ian?). But this is not the feeling I am refering to.

The feeling is more an internal sense of wholeness.

Like a long warm note of saxophone. Like a general diffuse background light. Very different.

A feeling of becoming one (not of becoming the One, just one ); of completion.

 

How could I confuse them?

 

That's interesting - thanks.

 

It kind of explains why people find social networking so engaging - although I have to admit I have never got into Facebook even though I have a page I hardly ever got there - actually I come here instead!

 

Yes, I have to say I find that behind every addiction,

there is often an important need that needs to be satisfied.

Once you identify the need, if you can satisfy it in other ways,

it is often easier (and less harmful) to solve the addiction.

[Ian]

You see, if I make a claim, here, that I know through my academic work to be false, I am surely saying something false. Because reality is One. Thus if some part of my experience (or of anyone experience, for that matter) have discovered something as false it cannot be true. Similarly, if I make a claim in my academic world, which contradicts my spiritual experience, I feel something is not ok.

 

But if I am in a context where I have to make sure that my claim honor both sides of my self, I might make some restrain, but I am only restraining myself from what is unreal.

 

Ok ! But is that the only difference? Because I don't see you as someone who would often say in one context things he knew to be untrue in another, with or without facebook. Consequently I don't really imagine that having to speak to both camps simultaneously would make a huge difference to you.

 

Hope I don't sound too negative: just trying to understand. Could this pleasing note you experience not be simply an effect of your being present across a wider spectrum all at once? Or is that the same thing, in the end?

[Aetherous]

I'm personally moving away from facebook (deleted everything from my profile), because I see it as a total waste of time. Not just for me, but for my friends...and especially the people that stalk me! I am kind of thinking that it'd be much better if people were to come back to real life with real interaction. No one should have the ability to read my innermost thoughts and see my personal pictures anytime they want.

 

It's nice to connect with old friends...but it's much nicer to move on, and not have to deal with censoring parts of yourself so that everyone will be happy. It's good to be free of that.

 

As the Dalai Lama said, "Old friends go, new friends come."

 

And as my boss said, "The internet is ruining our lives."

 

But a cool perspective nonetheless.

[Pietro]

... I don't see you as someone who would often say in one context things he knew to be untrue in another, with or without facebook.

you got no idea, man!

 

...Could this pleasing note you experience not be simply an effect of your being present across a wider spectrum all at once? Or is that the same thing, in the end?

 

but a wide spectrum of what?

If this means that I am present across a wide spectrum of myself at once, then yes, this is part of the integration process.

 

If instead it is just self restrain, as you suggest, it would not feel like being present across a wide spectrum of myself, but across a narrow spectrum of myself. And a wide spectrum of society. And that would indeed feel different.

[Ian]

If this means that I am present across a wide spectrum of myself at once, then yes, this is part of the integration process.

 

Cool. Maybe it's more significant to you than I can imagine precisely because you have always had these two very separate parts of your life. And the integraton has had to happen first, for you to even be able to address both at once.

[Taiji Bum]

I didn't realize it before but I use Facebook much like Pietro does. Thanks for the essay on it.

[TwoTrees]

also have it. user name Two Trees, of course =D

[Pietro]

also have it. user name Two Trees, of course =D

can't find you. Friend me, or join group: The Tao Bums

:-D

[hagar]

can't find you. Friend me, or join group: The Tao Bums

:-D

 

Pietro

 

You always seem to have some fresh, academic twist on things. What I love about TB!

Right down my academic alley as well.

 

How different a tool like Facebook is experienced from different outlooks on spirituality! I'd have to say that your embracing it equals my rejection in force. Yet I do see your points about being acountable for what you say in all aspects of your life. Feels very true indeed.

I see your points about integration, wholeness, and even a sort of suspension of boundaries within both emotional and conceptual structures when forced to be responsible for your expression in a variety of groups, on or offline.

 

These are just my thoughts on the subject, and hold no universal validity:

I feel that real unity cannot really be experienced with the kind of suspension of disbelief that Facebook, or dating sites or this site have for that matter incorporate. As I see it, Facebook may serve its purpose to soften the edges of both intellectual and spiritual materialism. But it cannot by far replace a real interaction where those personas are removed. I struggle whith this myself. Yet do I unite my Self or selves by smoothing out my social facades, or moderate my idiosyncracies? Or more important; Is it honest? And probably most importantly, does it pave the ground for being authentic?

 

Instead of being Anders, the the Daoist, or Anders the post-modern intellectual, or even worse, Anders the SKIER, the ones who love me loves the part of me that is just Anders. But unfortunately, this "Anders" quality or part is not a sum of all my roles. What is Anders is actally my blind spot. And mostly composed of space and character faults. There's a crack in everything. And this is where any possibility of Unity seeps in, as a stealthy guest of my lack of intention. This is still a little spark of something that was allready present before I realized my preferences, skills and tastes. This unity is not a sum. Its space.

 

So it is with all human contact, and the wholeness, or oneness that may come out of those encounters with people who differ from me, real intimacy or unity is when I am uniquely me. Not the common denominator, but completely me. Maybe also a me that quarrels, or is unpopular.

 

My take on unity is this; It is the space between us humans, in the distance between our hearts and minds, and in our fingertips.

 

h