UnbornTao

I don't think evading them is necessary; it's about learning to recognize a notion for what it is. If a concept is a mental representation of something--usually an experience--then it is non-objective. We can experience a concept, but that is not the same as the concept itself. Refer to the definitions above: experience means personally going through an event. A concept, on the other hand, is inferred and, in a sense, invented, whereas experience occurs as a phenomenon or fact, seemingly independent of our notions. Contrast a memory of something with your actual experience of it. Stand up now, then sit down. Compare your memory of standing up with the experience itself as it unfolds.

Thanks for the reply. Even though we obviously deem certain things more important than others, I'm not sure we necessarily have to compare or contrast them for them to have value. We could assess an object as important at one point, be done with it, and then stop applying value to it. What would an opposite to that thing be in such a case? It sounds like you are actually considering importance to be something objective, despite some of your claims above. For example, what is the value of an object dependent on? That may be the case, although it fails to get at the core of what value or importance actually is. Perhaps we could proceed by saying that value is a specific kind of relationship--what that relationship consists of remains to be seen. Coming up with an exercise or two would help us ground the investigation.

A phenomenon is what happened as it was experienced. Yes, it is still interpreted and is likely automatically filtered through our network of conclusions, preferences, and so on. I'm not sure what you mean by "particular or general phenomenon." The point is to see the difference between what we think happened--our mental activity around the event--and what we actually experienced as the event. As for the question: "And when we refer to the particular phenomenon could something else that were not identical to it have replaced it without us knowing?" I'd need some clarity on that. In the meantime, I'd add that we often struggle to separate the event itself from what we mentally add to it. We're beginning to see now just how pervasive conceptualization really is.

Source?

Someone walked into a bar.... wait -- Was there ever someone to begin with? - Taoist saying.

Keep it up! Withdrawal symptoms can be intense (I’m not a smoker), but as you said, they’re manageable. Just push through this phase of struggle and focus on the long-term benefits. Good luck.

Forgot adding concept: An abstract and general idea; an abstraction. Understanding retained in the mind, from experience, reasoning and imagination; a generalization or abstraction (mental impression), of a particular set of instances or occurrences (specific, though different, recorded manifestations of the concept). an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct. a directly conceived or intuited object of thought. -- And one more; phenomenon: From Late Latin phaenomenon (“appearance”), from Ancient Greek φαινόμενον (phainómenon, “thing appearing to view”), neuter present middle participle of φαίνω (phaínō, “I show”). A thing or being, event or process, perceptible through senses; or a fact or occurrence thereof. A knowable thing or event (eg by inference, especially in science) Appearance; a perceptible aspect of something that is mutable.

I was joking.

Inside-of-body experience.

@Paradoxed I'm not one of those that subscribe to the practice of breathing. Do something better with your time.

Might be too broad. What is it specifically?

Is it? Again, don't overlook the matter.

Too flowery. What makes something important? How do value and worth get to exist?

Well, we could say that importance exists in your relationship with something; whatever that “something” is comes prior to any form of value, use, or meaning. "What use or import does that have for me?" So perhaps importance is an activity we actively generate--it arises from relating what’s perceived to our needs and self-agenda. Somewhere in that process, “importance” gets created--perhaps. The contrast I presented above offers a good foundation for questioning this. For a fly, dog shit is certainly more "important" than a piece of glass--or whatever material the phone is made of. This might give us a hint as to where to look. I'd challenge the notion that thoughts come to you or that they aren’t chosen by you. It might turn out that you, in fact, fabricate them. Test it out: you can think about a pink elephant right now, and then switch to a cat, in the same way that you can stop thinking about them. Hey, keep looking into it and see if you can discover something. I will, too.

@Keryo Koffa Hi there. What do you mean?

Good question. As an exercise, we could, for example, pick a simple object we consider important--even just slightly--such as a water bottle or something similar, and compare it to something that might not even register in one's awareness, like a piece of dog shit on the street. Let's use that contrast to notice the associations that arise for us in relation to each item: Why is one object valuable to me and not the other? Where can "importance" be found?

@Reciprocality Stop trying to show off and contemplate already.

@Reciprocality Experience. What is it?

@Reciprocality Not describe it but inquire into it--you are being too intellectual. Experience, experience, experience. Your experience happening now. Try to clarify what that is for you, first. Then ask what so-called experience is, and try to see different mind activities such as interpretation, meaning-making, association, memory, versus what is actually happening regardless of its relationship to you. I think this can point us in a good direction.

Hey, leave God alone! It seems to me that experience always happens now, so this relates to what you said regarding experience being outside of time. What now is may not be a point in time. So, we could say that experience already is outside of time. What is it?

That sounds incredibly abstract. How do you see experience?

How you approach something determines the range of outcomes you can achieve. Who are you being? How are you relating to the situation? Instead of seeing the event as a fixed reality, consider how your relationship to what’s occurring shapes the event in the first place.

Start with who you are.