UnbornTao

The social domain, which includes culture, is lived as an objective reality, something existing out there independent of, and separate from, us, as if it were a hidden "third person," object, or realm operating on its own.

Where is pain to be found? Try to locate it.

I'd say there's study, contemplation and practice. All three together can be called inquiry or research. @Leo Gura Study gives you the fertile ground for contemplation.

Show me a mind.

Really easy and comfortable to fall into that model, especially for "spiritual" people. I'd try to listen to the individual and his communications while taking the model lightly. Great guy imo. Intelligent and authentic from what I've gleaned from his books and talks. Also you might be confusing using the same words with talking about the same things. Don't readily assume that teachers who use similar words are talking about the same thing.

That question stems from your curiosity. Wonder and want to know. Identify your assumptions and beliefs as such. That will open up the door.

It's a film guys. Don't fantasize about watching TV increasing your consciousness.

I’d appreciate book recommendations on the following principles: authenticity integrity responsibility courage unconditional happiness openness

Have you got any experience with Vipassana? What resources have you found most helpful in your journey? I'm currently reading a straightforward, grounded and inspiring book called The Art of Living. Loving it.

Secure. Got a bit surprised by that.

"Among the great things which are to be found among us, the Being of Nothingness is the greatest." -- Leonardo Da Vinci.

What about a koan? Mu! There you go.

Those books are precisely his verbal teachings. The person and the teacher are different. You might be idealizing the teacher role. They are persons too. They can still do stupid things even though that image may interfere with your ideal of what teachers should be and behave like. Their actions don't detract them from knowing what they are.

That is not what I'm saying. You're confusing the person with his communications, which may have merit regardless. Read the books and ignore the author. I didn't even know his personal details, nor do I really care.

How do discovery and invention differ?

@Danioover9000 you sound really emotionally invested in this character, and upset for whatever reason. Dropping these kind of things can be useful.

How you speak, and the language you employ, reveals the way you think and experience things.

@Salvijus OK, fair enough. I can see where you're coming from. Math is a discovery created by humans. Appreciate it.

Isn't this basically falling into the trap of confusing the model for reality?

Where?

I don't know whether some Americans are just fishes who don't know they're in water, but over here Trump is an obvious pathological liar, ruthless manipulator, etc etc.

@Topspin715 we start from the assumption that there's an external, objective world independent of you. The corollary to that is that you are separate from that world. So we say: if humans were extinct, math would still be "out there." Would it, though? Weren't numbers themselves had to be invented at some point in human history? Isn't symbolism a kind of language? Language isn't found in nature. Rocks and trees don't care. The mere activities of perceiving and experiencing have to be present in order for math to be possible to come into existence. Where does math happen? Only through the human mind. Who chooses to put artificial boundaries on a supposed "object" and decides to add it to another object, making "two"? That in itself is an activity. Without the activity, the objects are just what they are. Reality is, math happens within it.

I automatically relate to "discovery" as an invention, don't know what's up with that. Was America discovered, or was it created? Depending on viewpoint, both are the case. An explorer discovered it. On the other hand, that land was created throughout millennia by natural processes. It's fair to consider math a discovery, relatively speaking, but not as existential, I'd say. Find me some math. Where is it?

I don't think so, not absolute truth. The absolute would be the domain of "enlightenment." Facts, yes. Probably math along with physics are the most grounded domains of human scientific knowledge.