Mason Riggle

You call it 'the will'.. I call it 'what will'. Voluntary actions arise involuntarily.

"Why are you hitting yourself? Because it feels so good when I stop." How could you know what up is, without any concept of down? How could you experience love, without any experience of evil to contrast it against?

"Ignorance is bliss, but only for the ignorant. For the rest of us it's a right pain in the arse." - Ricky Gervais

My older brother and I contemplate things together. As brothers, no topic is off limits and since we both know we are having a good faith conversation there is no tendency to strawman, ad hom, etc.. if either of us has a question about, or disagreement with something the other has said, we deconstruct the point of disagreement or difference in understanding. We love to 'steelman' the other persons perspectives, and point out each others biases and logical fallacies, like it's a game. It was actually a conversation we had late into the night one evening that led me to actualized.org. We got to talking about consciousness, knowledge, knowing, etc. a conversation that started out with the simple mutual observation that at times, you can feel like the smartest person in the room, and at other times, like you can't keep up with the conversation. We both feel like fairly aware, rational, intelligent people, but recognize that there are people on the planet operating at a much higher 'consciousness' that we do. Spending time with our musician/comedian friends, for example, we notice how quick witted, fluid, playful, and 'meta' the conversations tend to be.. so much so that at times we almost struggle to 'keep up' with it.. contrasted with spending time with some of our other friends, where the conversation is all very literal, dry, un-nuanced, shallow, etc.. This one 'observation' or 'insight', and an evening of mutual contemplation about it, was the beginning of the end of my 'atheism'. A catalyst of my spiritual journey. So perhaps find a contemplation partner? Sort of what you're doing with this thread. A group contemplation about contemplation.

@Gianna is a cup the inside of a cup or the outside of a cup? It's both, and that doesn't seem contradictory to you.

@Terell Kirby wasn't trying to crap on marriage.. heck, I'm married, it's awesome. There's a ton of value in it, societally, and individually... but there's a reason for the cliché 'nothing good comes easy', is all I'm saying.

@WaveInTheOcean nice. Gotta give the credit to the great Alan Watts. "Life implies death. Or shall I say, death implies life." - Alan Watts "If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants" - Sir Isaac Newton

@Actualizer777 once, when I was in my teens, there was a movie that all my friends were excited to see, and naturally I wanted to see it to. When I was invited to go with those friends to see the movie, my mom did not allow me to go. I had such intense fear of missing out, that I acted out, had a temper tantrum, behaved extremely poorly, etc. Well, my mom is not a pushover, and doubled down, vowing to never give me permission to go see that particular movie. I was devastated over what I was potentially missing out on. To this day I have never seen that movie.. and I don't miss it one bit. It's not even a thought that crosses my mind (at least it hasn't for many years until now). I hope you get my point.

@Actualizer777 playing with fire IMO... but maybe not. I don't know the two of you. Have you considered sleeping with men? What if you're missing out on a great experience? How many women do you think you will have to 'sample' to get a good idea of whether or not there's something you're missing out on? You could sleep with 1000 women and realize you've only sampled like .00002% of the buffet.. (I ask these things rhetorically, for your consideration, not looking for your answers.) My suggestion (and it's only a suggestion, based on my life experiences, which may be completely different from yours) is this: when you are experiencing FOMO... practice gratitude for what is true in this moment, which is all you truly have. "We manage to never really connect with the present moment and find fulfillment there because we are continually hoping to become happy in the future, and the future never arrives." - Sam Harris

If that's how you define God, then you're right.. you are not God. You think 'God' and 'the laws of physics' are 2 different things. Because all words are metaphors, and as metaphors go it's a fairly commonly understood one, even though (you and I might agree) it carries a lot of baggage and there is much disagreement about what it means. We could use other words.. like 'Everything' or 'Consciousness' or 'The Universe' if you prefer.. all just metaphors. You are Everything. You are Consciousness. You are the Universe. These sentences all point to the same thing, but it's tricky to understand what is being pointed to, especially if you don't deeply grasp what a metaphor is, what duality/nonduality is and how it works, etc. It's similar to saying, 'The inside is the outside'.. this sentence seems contradictory, but it's really not. Inside implies an outside, outside implies an inside. The word 'inside' only has meaning relative to 'outside'. There is no such thing as 'just the inside' of something. Inside only has meaning relative to outside. You are only 'who you are' relative to 'that which is not you'. That which is not you defines who you are. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I don't think anyone on this thread uses the word 'God' to mean, 'some magic entity which exists outside of reality who can manipulate reality', but this is the definition you are arguing against, because that's how you define it. This is a such a silly semantic argument.. it's like telling someone who says, 'I'm going to run to the store real quick.' that they'd get there quicker by driving. When they said 'run to the store' they meant 'drive to the store', but by purposely misrepresenting what they meant, you give yourself the opportunity for a quick pedantic zinger. If you meant drive, why use the word 'run'"? Well, because 'run to the store' is a commonly understood metaphor that many people understand to mean 'drive to the store', and so in this instance 'run' doesn't mean 'jog quickly'... but if metaphor is completely lost on you, you won't get it.

Having kids and getting married should really be two separate endeavors. Marriage is not at all necessary to have children, or ensure the continuation of human populations. There are plenty of examples of animal populations where the job of the male, concerning procreation, is to simply impregnate as many females as will let him, as often as he has the urges, and that seems to work pretty well for them to ensure the continuation of their species, so really, 'procreation' has nothing to do with marriage. Marriage, in my eyes, is a very private endeavor between 2 (or more, I suppose) people, and nobody else. There is no need to get the government or religious institutions involved (these are myths perpetuated by religious institutions/governments/societies). Marriage doesn't have to be anything more than a shared commitment, like two people agreeing to take turns with the dishes. You don't need to sign any contracts, or state it out loud in front of family and God, to share this type of commitment. In fact, it's not even necessary to call it a 'marriage' to share a mutual life long commitment to the happiness and wellbeing of another human. It only requires the shared commitment. There would be no 'divorce rates' at all if there wasn't such an attachment to strictly defining what a 'marriage' is. There would just be a lot of people ending their commitments prematurely due to undesirable or unforeseen or overlooked circumstances, which sounds rather natural to me. Should I, after 'marrying' my wife, suddenly decide I'm just going to quit my job, spend all of our mutual money on unprotected sex with hookers, and then come home and beat her within inches of her life.. 'divorce' would seem like the best, most rational, course of action. You would think there wouldn't be a person on the planet who would tell that woman.. 'well, you did say for better or worse'.. and yet, there are those people who would say just that. There are wives who would stay in that marriage, because society (mostly Religious institutions) has convinced them that getting a divorce is somehow a worse option than getting physically assaulted every night. Who cares if 50% of marriages end in divorce.. that's not a bad thing, and probably keeps spousal murder rates down. Some people take that 'til death do us part' part very seriously.

@Blackhawk who said God can make feathers levitate? Do you see that you have an unrealistic notion of what 'God' is? God is not a 'doer of 'what's being done'. Your idea of God is too small.

@Peter Miklis yep, that's what we did. We eventually did get 'officially married', because it was easier to get her on my health insurance that way, and, should the situation ever arise where one of us has to make life or death choices for the other when they are unable to do so on their own, we legally can.

Ditto what @Peter Miklis said. I like to think of my marriage as a commitment between two people (think wedding vows). Institutions and Governments think of it differently, so be careful. A 'legal marriage' is a legally binding contract, no different than a business contract. Do you want to share a commitment with someone to raise children? If so, then I say go for it.. if that's not what you really want, then don't. Having a family can be extremely rewarding, but as Peter noted, it's not all fun and games. Are you prepared for the day when you're holding your wife's hand as she's dying from Cancer? Or the day your son wraps his car around a telephone pole? Do you have enough love in your heart to go and get your hands dirty?

@Blackhawk you don't believe you are god because the concepts you have of 'you' and 'god' are different than what people mean when they say, 'you are god'. It's as if you think '4' means.. a dog.. and you now want proof that 2 + 2 = dog. It's clear to you that it doesn't.. But if you knew what I meant by '4', then you would agree with me that 2 + 2 actually does equal 4.

@WaveInTheOcean the only point of clarity I would make, is that reality IS real because it seems that way. Seeming real and being real are the same thing. Two sides of the same coin, if you will. What is reality? It's imaginarily real, you see? It's really imaginary.

@fopylo everything in moderation. Even water will kill you if you drink too much of it, but water isn't bad. Sounds like you had a great experience.

@Blackhawk realize that 'providing evidence that you are god' would be tantamount to 'looking for evidence within a dream to prove you are not dreaming'. What evidence could a character in your dream show you to prove to you that you are not dreaming? You either wake up to the realization that you were dreaming, or you are still asleep and dreaming.

@WelcometoReality the 'dream' metaphor represents the notion of a 'groundless ground'. 'Physical Reality' seems to be contained within 'seeming' itself.

God loves to pretend it's not what it is (nothing/everything) so that it can seem like something.

@chedegaard yep.. ego exists when it does, and vanishes when it doesn't. Thoughts of 'I' occur in reality like a whirlpool occurs in a river.. they arise when they do, and disappear when they don't.. but the whirlpool is not the cause of itself, even if sometimes it's shaped in such a way as to perpetuate itself, or eventually destroy itself. Should the whirlpool ask itself, 'what am I?', perhaps it would conclude that it's merely a function of everything that it doesn't consider to be 'itself'.

"What should I do?" We might recognize that 'should' is actually always 'should if'.. You 'should' do x, if the goal is y... but by changing y, you change x.. 'shoulds' are relative. Should I go to the store? Well, you should, if getting something from the store is your goal, but your goal is to take a nap, then you shouldn't go to the store. What is the goal of the Universe? What should it do? Well.. who's to say how the Universe 'should' exist? Another thing that can be recognized, is that there really isn't anything for you to do, because you're already doing the only thing you will ever do, which is 'be how you are', and you are always doing this, effortlessly. Any attempt to be 'other than how you are being' is just more 'how you are being'. We also have no idea what the consequences of our actions will be. "Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.” The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.” The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune." - The Story of the Chinese Farmer

"Kindly let me help you or you will drown,” said the monkey putting the fish safely up a tree. “The reason you want to be better is the reason why you aren’t, shall I put it like that? We aren’t better because we want to be. Because the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Because all the do-gooders in the world whether they’re doing good for others or doing it for themselves are troublemakers: on the basis of “kindly let me help you or you will drown,” said the monkey putting the fish safely up a tree. Sometimes doing good to others and even doing good to oneself is amazingly destructive because it’s full of conceit. How do you know what’s good for other people? How do you know what’s good for you? If you say you want to improve then you ought to know what’s good for you, but obviously you don’t because if you did then you would be improved. So, we don’t know. We do not really know how to interfere with the way the world is.” —Alan Watts

Alone = All One. Realizing you are alone, even when it seems like there are 'others'... is the same as realizing everything is imaginary, even when it seems real. It's important to recognize that 'seeming to be real' (imaginary) and 'actually being real' (real) are the same thing. Consider.. is this forum real, or does it just seem that way? If you can't tell the difference.. then there is no difference. If there was a difference, you could notice the difference, but you can't. There is no difference between being 'alone' and 'being with others', any more than there is a difference between 'me imagining I'm typing this comment' and 'me actually typing this comment.'