Bazooka Jesus

Great video. Yeah, that's what it often feels like when you try to make a staunch solipsist see through his mental story. In one ear and right out the other, lol! But don't worry, you'll get there.

Yup, that's how language works. Ain't no way around it. But I full well know that it's just a random label. And that is what makes all the difference.

Eeeeeexactly. No need to slap a random label like "you" on it.

Nice story.

Exactly. The question if everything is meaningless or not is itself meaningless. All -isms are nothing but relative stories about reality, meaning that the opposite story (in this case "everything is meaningful") is equally true/untrue. What happens if you drop all stories?

"You" is a relative concept. The whole of reality isn't. Anyway, I am starting to sound like a broken record. You're free to believe in whatever fairytale you want to to believe in. Have fun.

It isn’t that there’s only one Self in the sense that is taught in a philosophy called solipsism. [...] I’d like to see a congress of solipsists arguing as to which one of them is really there. - Alan Watts -

This doesn't prove that everything is "you". Which of course cannot be proven, because it is nonsense.

You are definitely on to something here. If a certain event is traumatic or not doesn't really depend on how "objectively" bad it was but on how you experienced it. But just as there is no actual dividing line between objective fact and subjective perception, you can also not really separate the traumatic event from the overall energetic configuration (as you call it) which is both the result as well as the cause of trauma. Both are inseparably linked to each other. So by addressing the trauma, you realign your energy patterns and vice versa. I think that the best way to go about it is to approach the issue from both sides simultaneously, so to speak. To combine mental and physical therapy. Mind and body are two equally important sides of the same coin, so I don't think that it makes much sense to give one of them preference over the other.

Even that is just another story (as I pointed out in Razard's Nihilism thread). Isn't it funny how you can spin a story even around something like meaninglessness? But anyway, I know what you're getting at.

You can spin an endless variety of stories about reality... but spinning stories has nothing to do with spirituality. Ultimately, spirituality is about the transcendence of all stories and about the recognition of that which lies beyond them. The fact that spiritual teachers have to resort to telling you all kinds of stories in order to get you there is one of the great delicious ironies of this crazy existence. God is one sneaky Joker, ain't no doubt about it.

They were "awake" to the extent to which they were free from such dogmas. Which at least in the case of Alan Watts seems to have been the case.

True. It is much superior to anything that Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven & Co ever came up with.

For real though... from an absolute standpoint, there isn't more to it than that. Why does anything exist? In order to be experienced! And experience is only possible where there is (apparent) duality; so there is black and white, light and shadow, good feelings and horrible feelings. That's all, folks!

Here is an exhaustive treatise on the subject by the great late spiritual teacher Sri Baba James Brown: The divine purpose of a good feeling is to make us feel good. Nuff said.

Wait till they make a documentary about Actualized.org... mmmmm, I am already looking forward to that one. It's probably going to be titled "The Man Who Tripped Too Much".

@StarStruck I am curious... how do you feel about the Ligeti piece that I shared in my "Infinity In Music" thread couple of days ago? For me it is one of the most hauntingly gorgeous musical creations of all time, but I totally get when people say that listening to it makes their sin crawl, lol. I'd love to hear your reaction!

If NDE reports are anything to go by, you will remember after death why you decided to come here in the first place. And if you haven't done or learned what you came here to do or learn, then you will probably come back and do it all over again. But of course, all of that is just hearsay. Ultimately, you will have to find out for yourself.

I remember that when I was a little kid, I was absolutely flabbergasted when I learned that there are people who would give anything to be able to live forever. Even back then, the prospect of having to spend all of eternity in this present form seemed to me like the most horrific fate imaginable - bar none! Luckily, God is smarted than that. HALLELUJAH. Exactly. Can't experience something without its opposite. ☯️ Hallelujah again!

Nihilism is when you turn the "meaninglessness" of life into a story and hold on to that story. Enlightenment is when you let go of all stories (=> all -isms) and recognize them for what they are: Conceptual fantasies.

...which is why Carl Jung famously said: "Beware of unearned wisdom". Even though one might argue that unearned stupidity is even worse.

The truth will set you free... but it will piss you off first. - Ralph Smart -

Exactly. Which is why you have to be really really really careful to not put too much stock in your mind-made stories and always hold them very loosely. It's very easy to confuse the map with the territory, as Leo used to say (before he himself started to confuse the two and insist on the validity of his mental map). And this goes for spiritual seekers just as much as it does for scientists.

That's a very good point. Touché! As soon as you label something, you automatically imply its opposite. Concepts always come in pairs of opposites. "Light" implies "darkness", "white" implies "black", "me" implies "other", "God" implies "not God". Which is why I always say that the Absolute cannot be labeled, described or measured in any way whatsoever. Any word that you say about it is one word too much. (And yes, the irony of me saying all of that is not lost on me, lol.) --- Tao called Tao is not Tao. Names can name no lasting name. Nameless: the origin of heaven and earth. Naming: the mother of ten thousand things. Empty of desire, perceive mystery. Filled with desire, perceive manifestations. These have the same source, but different names. Call them both deep - Deep and again deep: The gateway to all mystery. - Lao Tsu -

Exactly. No story about reality is reality itself, no matter the content. Hence the statements "reality is matter" and "reality is mind" are equally nonsensical.