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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2018 12:24:12 GMT -5
I remember them well, the good old days. There were two sections, one was monitored for meanness, the other was a no holds barred free-for-all. It was like the wild west. It was a much more interesting site before the purge and walkaways, sure A few members may have found the antics of the old wild west to be distracting.. but I know for a fact that some people were able to put those distractions to good use Eta: ok, forget the word "fact". I should have said I know from direct experience that distractions can be useful. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2018 12:43:25 GMT -5
I remember them well, the good old days. There were two sections, one was monitored for meanness, the other was a no holds barred free-for-all. It was like the wild west. It was a much more interesting site before the purge and walkaways, sure A few members may have found the antics of the old wild west to be distracting.. but I know for a fact that some people were able to put those distractions to good use I enjoyed the old place, but grew tired of it after awhile. I like the tone now. There are some wise and seasoned voices and some very bright new voices that I like to listen to in this rendition of the forum. Some times those were hard to hear amongst all the antics, my own included, in the previous version. |
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Post by Reefs on Jun 13, 2018 0:16:28 GMT -5
I'm reading some of the archives and there seemed to be MUCH more activity say in 2010 or something, or even a few years later. Just curious: where did all the people go? Someone should write a book and call it "What happened", hehe. |
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Post by Reefs on Jun 13, 2018 1:10:37 GMT -5
A few members may have found the antics of the old wild west to be distracting.. but I know for a fact that some people were able to put those distractions to good use That is actually true. Some folks had a realization in the middle of a food fight that changed their perspective forever. But that's very very rare. There are also certain benefits coming from food fights in terms of understanding how mind works. And as long as it is only about ideas, that may even be okay to some extent. But when there's personal vendetta involved then these kind of activities take on a life of their own. And I think tag-teaming is a key factor here. Normally, in a one on one interaction, when you call someone else's bluff, they either quietly disappear or they start a fight and leave with a bang. But if each side can find a tag team partner, then the food fight can go on forever. And that's basically what happened here (and still continues on the other forum). |
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Post by Reefs on Jun 13, 2018 1:40:54 GMT -5
I enjoyed the old place, but grew tired of it after awhile. I like the tone now. There are some wise and seasoned voices and some very bright new voices that I like to listen to in this rendition of the forum. Some times those were hard to hear amongst all the antics, my own included, in the previous version. I agree. We've got some really bright and insightful people here. Most of them rarely post. Some haven't posted in a very long time. Food fights generate a lot of activity (20 to 30 pages or more per day) by usually just 4-5 members. So after a while the entire forum is dominated by just a handful of people and gets drowned in noise and toxicity. In the end it wasn't the noise but the level of toxicity (which clearly got out of hand) that lead to a change in forum policy. Basically, most members and even the mods had already given up this forum. So seeing some dominant old energies leave and some new energies coming in now is actually a good sign. This used to be a rather diverse place. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2018 6:58:13 GMT -5
...in terms of understanding how mind works. And as long as it is only about ideas, that may even be okay to some extent. If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? |
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Post by laughter on Jun 13, 2018 7:23:48 GMT -5
...in terms of understanding how mind works. And as long as it is only about ideas, that may even be okay to some extent. If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? Here's a specific example: recognizing the difference between the belief swapping of science vs. neti-neti. It's hard for me to untangle what meditation revealed and what intellect revealed, but both were factors. Not everyone needs to encounter this particular realization.  |
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Post by andrew on Jun 13, 2018 8:21:56 GMT -5
...in terms of understanding how mind works. And as long as it is only about ideas, that may even be okay to some extent. If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? I wpuld say the pursuit is misconceived in one way, but then again, only as misconceived as the objective itself. To put that into a positive spin, if the objective is to discover who we really are, then I would say that understanding the way the mind 'reifies' might be useful for some. The understanding won't stop the reification happening, it comes with the objective. In a sense, reification is the metaphorical boat that transports us from one side of the river to the other. But understanding the nature of the boat may be useful to the extent that we don't end up mistaking the boat for the other side of the river. Jeff Foster famously talked about this in terms of the Brown Bear. |
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Post by preciocho on Jun 13, 2018 9:18:23 GMT -5
...in terms of understanding how mind works. And as long as it is only about ideas, that may even be okay to some extent. If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? There's many benefits to understanding how the mind functions, but it might be backwards to think of that understanding as self discovery. What is discovered is that you are not the mind that can be understood. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2018 9:29:01 GMT -5
...in terms of understanding how mind works. And as long as it is only about ideas, that may even be okay to some extent. If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? For me discovering how the mind works (through meditation) gave rise to the notion that something is not quite right, askew, even backward and that who I am is not my thoughts. Then in listening to some of Paul Hedderman's talks, he was quoting Ramana, about something presupposing its existence and becoming a parasitic filter that intercepts what is happening and takes ownership, I came to understand the "how". My problem now is that I keep falling into the role (hole) of being a separate self ("selfing" in Hedderman vernacular)and reacting to "external" world ad nuseum so basically I'm no different than anyone else even with all the insight. |
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Post by preciocho on Jun 14, 2018 6:33:37 GMT -5
If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? For me discovering how the mind works (through meditation) gave rise to the notion that something is not quite right, askew, even backward and that who I am is not my thoughts. Then in listening to some of Paul Hedderman's talks, he was quoting Ramana, about something presupposing its existence and becoming a parasitic filter that intercepts what is happening and takes ownership, I came to understand the "how". My problem now is that I keep falling into the role (hole) of being a separate self ("selfing" in Hedderman vernacular)and reacting to "external" world ad nuseum so basically I'm no different than anyone else even with all the insight.It may be helpful to differentiate between playing the role of a separate person and being identified with separation. All people are conditioned vessels, and we get conditioned by what's appearing now, and have already been conditioned by everything we've experienced. Why do you find reacting to the external world problematic? |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2018 7:50:04 GMT -5
For me discovering how the mind works (through meditation) gave rise to the notion that something is not quite right, askew, even backward and that who I am is not my thoughts. Then in listening to some of Paul Hedderman's talks, he was quoting Ramana, about something presupposing its existence and becoming a parasitic filter that intercepts what is happening and takes ownership, I came to understand the "how". My problem now is that I keep falling into the role (hole) of being a separate self ("selfing" in Hedderman vernacular)and reacting to "external" world ad nuseum so basically I'm no different than anyone else even with all the insight.It may be helpful to differentiate between playing the role of a separate person and being identified with separation. All people are conditioned vessels, and we get conditioned by what's appearing now, and have already been conditioned by everything we've experienced. Why do you find reacting to the external world problematic? Yes. Thank you. Exactly. |
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Post by Reefs on Jun 14, 2018 8:44:56 GMT -5
...in terms of understanding how mind works. And as long as it is only about ideas, that may even be okay to some extent. If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? The benefit is usually post-SR. |
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Post by Reefs on Jun 14, 2018 9:03:41 GMT -5
If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? I wpuld say the pursuit is misconceived in one way, but then again, only as misconceived as the objective itself. To put that into a positive spin, if the objective is to discover who we really are, then I would say that understanding the way the mind 'reifies' might be useful for some. The understanding won't stop the reification happening, it comes with the objective. In a sense, reification is the metaphorical boat that transports us from one side of the river to the other. But understanding the nature of the boat may be useful to the extent that we don't end up mistaking the boat for the other side of the river. Jeff Foster famously talked about this in terms of the Brown Bear. The Brown Bear phenomenon is very common in non-dual circles. It's a special kind of mind games, a high stakes identity poker. I'd say there are actually two kinds of Brown Bears, there are those who actually had a realization but have mistaken it for something that it is not, and then there are those who never actually had a realization and are just speculating or pretending. |
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Post by zendancer on Jun 14, 2018 9:12:31 GMT -5
If the primary objective is to discover who you really are... is there any benefit to the pursuit of understanding how mind works? The benefit is usually post-SR. I found most benefits prior to SR, but after SR it was much easier to explain to other people what's going on and to appreciate the depth of the primary illusion (that one is separate from "what is"). The path from living in one's head to living in one's body is a path of discovering how thoughts psychologically separate us from the truth of "what is." As one becomes psychologically present, unified, and focused upon whatever is happening in the moment, various thoughts that used to capture one's attention simply don't occur because they've been seen through and left behind. |
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