silene

@Fearless_Bum Where is home?

We're all in a struggle for survival, which inevitably involves creating boundaries between what "I" is identifying with, which is trying to survive, and everything else, which is maybe a threat to our survival, resources for us to consume (crossing the boundary into I), or neutral. I doesn't only refer to my individual body/mind, but extends whatever else is within my identification circle, such as my family, my social circle my community, my nation etc. So I guess if I can extend "I" wider and wider, I'm getting closer to God. The birds in my garden are territorial, have a sense of I without using that word (although who knows what the birdsong means) so this isn't just a human structure. Maybe humans, taking self consciousness further than most animals, are therefore better placed to understand and transcend I-ness, with all it's associated frustrations and suffering.

Thanks for your viewpoint, what's all we're all doing even Tony! This teaching he gives of 'nothing appearing as ... ' I find a bit confusing. 'Appearance' suggests that someone is seeing the appearance - if there's no observer then how can there be an appearance? At the end of the day what he offers is talks to an audience, it's as though that's his practice: listening to him talk. If that works for you, gets you the energetic shift (as I think he calls it) then brilliant. If not and you get benefit elsewhere, that's brilliant too.

To me it means self-reference. The human organism as a whole, referring to itself (we're just another species of monkey after all )

I watch his videos sometimes (tho I haven't caught up with this latest one yet), also Jim Newman who has a similar message. Very minimalist style of spirituality, taking no-self consistently to it's conclusion. Although it resonates well with me, he offers no practical methods or techniques to change anything about myself, because supposedly trying to seek an improvement is part of the problem. Listening to him is like spring cleaning my mind of the accumulated spiritual clutter - but when I've cleared out the belief systems what then? I still go back to my meditation practice despite what he says.

Where I struggle with the no-self discussion is that no-self comes as a pair with self. There's a distinction being made between self and not-self. So doesn't self need to exist for us to say there is not-self? At least I need to know what self is like, in order to know that this experience isn't self.

So, aren't other particles and waves 'observing' (interacting with) each other behind my back, to keep them in existence? What's so special about me observing to keep them alive? And by this logic the particle doing the observing needs to be observed itself, to exist. Sounds paradoxical to me, if we make the assumption there are separate things being observed, and doing the observing.

For me, asking the question verbally 'who am I' is the opening chapter to this technique, then later the words fall away and I'm left with a simple observation. Which starts of as a paradox of the looker looking for itself, until relaxation deepens, the separate observer takes a rest and the deeper unified field of awareness is revealed.

If the conservatives are saying that decent healthcare is unaffordable, it implies that poorer people aren't receiving it at the moment under the private system, so do they have a better idea or are they prepared to accept the status quo? I'm British not American , but I get the impression that healthcare in the US is overpriced by a profit hungry private industry. Nationalising it would transfer the purchasing power from insurance companies to the government who don't have the incentive to push up prices. But we still must consider the need to attract enough qualified staff and innovation. In our system there's a long-term shortage of recruiting local staff and we've relied on immigrant workers for a long time, with Brexit this is becoming more noticeable.

@Endangered-EGO What you're doing reminds me of self-inquiry, the mind attempting to find itself. Maybe you've tried it. The very thought, "my mind" is a self-reference, a paradox, like the analogy Leo gives of his hand trying to grasp itself. Mystical schools teach the practice of embodying infinite mind, or no-mind (same thing).

@Stovo and if that causes higher inflation, it reduces the relative size of the debt too.

"I" am already a fragment of reality thinking it has escaped into separate existence. You're already far out of reality, apparently. "Getting back" to reality is the work of spirituality, get on your path and practice diligently.

As far as I know it's the govt who create money via their central banks buying bonds from the banks in the money markets, eg if there's a recession to stimulate the economy. The banks can then lend it to us and businesses (i think this is also called quantitative easing). They can also reduce the money supply if things are getting overheated, by doing the reverse and selling bonds. https://www.dummies.com/personal-finance/investing/where-does-money-come-from/ Contrary to usual opinion, businesses don't make money, they make profit (money comes from their customers).

The map isn't the territory. Oh wait, yes the map is in the territory so I need to zoom in and draw a little picture of the map inside the map. But this still isn't the whole picture, I need to zoom in again and draw another little map inside the map inside the map ...

If you want something doing, ask a busy person.

@Opo the anti-abortion Christians often don't use the word foetus, instead using something like unborn child. So they equate abortion with killing a child and children are innocent. Some anti-abortionists also support the death penalty, self-defence, wars, eat meat etc so a blanket no-kill philosophy is actually very rare. It's a complex subject. But it does challenge me to explain why I make such a big distinction. Why do I think it's ok to kill an unborn human organism, but killing one after birth is the worst crime? And how to justify a cut-off date for abortion? The growth process is a continuous progression from egg & sperm to the finished adult body, and putting an absolute cut-off line in a greyscale process is bound to be a bit arbitrary.

"Thou shalt not kill" perhaps?

All's fair in love, war and car parking. At least that's how I feel when trying to park sometimes

To me this looks more like choosing the lesser of the evils, rather than choosing something good. Killing a foetus isn't good, and unwanted pregnancies aren't good, so I'm inclined to a compromise position. It's also about who makes the decision: the individual, the government, the church, the courts, doctors etc. Heaping all choice and responsibility onto a single category isn't a good idea for a human species which exists on multiple levels from the individual to the collective. So we need choices within boundaries for all elements.

What is 'knowing'? Experiencing in the present moment; having memories; or a theoretical understanding? Eg I've never been to New York but I think I 'know' what the Statute of Liberty is from pictures etc. Knowing is a word with various meanings, therefore there's multiple distinctions between knowing and not knowing.

I'm basically pro-choice for all abortion within a time limit (although I don't know enough about the subject to define exactly what the time limit should be). But I think it's very unethical to have different rules for disabled or even slightly different (eg 6 fingers), to make it easier to abort them than "normal" foetuses. Just give all women the right to an abortion, and allow them to make their choice in private, no questions asked.

@Adamq8 It's Aspergers in English too, I know what you mean about the literalism of people with it. And I don't think it's just Zen monks being stage blue, all monasteries I've come across have a lot of blue, but also some green because they're more surrendered to nature and don't fight it.

@Max8 you've identified various conditions: introversion, anxiety, depression, aspergers, autism. They may well be interlinked, but I'd suggest clarifying which areas you can work on with regular self-help (perhaps introversion & anxiety), and which ones need specialised help (aspergers, autism). It depends how severe the symptoms are as to whether self-help is enough. Also be grateful for small wins: these issues are relative, so reducing introversion, or managing it, is more achievable than completely stopping it.

Normal religion: it's all about what you believe. Nonduality: it's all about what you experience. Funnily enough we still have the same oneupmanship about who's got the best or deepest level

But what worries me is that it could be the other way round and I'm being played. Ie that aliens are real and in order to hide this, a reverse psychology is used to make me think it's the superpowers' military all along! Being somewhat of a rationalist I'm inclined to believe Occam's razor and go for the conventional explanation. In other words, I may as well accept I don't chuffing well know either way