Joseph Maynor

What I mean is you have it. There is no 'I'. You're free.

If this were true, what would be the need to say it?

Regarding the spirituality angle: When it's a badge of honor to be seen as nonreactive, it's definitely easier to suck things up and take the higher road. However, once someone slips into a moral reframing, e.g., this person is no good for us or for for such and such, the nonreactivity turns to reactivity. This can show up as reactively schooling someone to be nonreactive.

I still feel like the issue of reactivity vs. nonreactivity is unclear to me, although it is clearer today than it was even a few years ago, and I am much less reactive than I used to be. It's definitely not as simple as be nonreactive. I find that often people who are obsessed with nonreactivity are reactive but they want to be seen as nonreactive as a kind of spiritual attainment. You can see this when they get triggered, and then the reaction is sometimes weirdly huge, even if it's done indirectly or passive aggressively. Everyone reacts. All I can say is I have improved in this area but it took a long time.

Regarding the reactivity blog post. I feel like nonreactivity is a great ideal, but we all react. Pay attention and honor your reactivity. But yes, reactivity allows others to get under your skin and a have a certain power over you. This is a nuanced topic that I've never seen anyone really deal with adequately.

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Why is the mind seen as a cause of not being free?

I'm sensing you don't like mind. You see it as a problem to be overcome.

This is similar to Spinoza's Epistemology: (different ordering though) 1. Intuition -- Consciousness of God/Nature in the Light of Eternity (Corrects both Reason and Sense Experience) 2. Reason -- Corrects Sense Experience 3. Sense Experience -- This is where the human ordinarily knows thru Thought and Extension, including emotions

If there were no finite, how could the Creator create in space and time?

Are we the same? How can we know this?

I find it amusing that saying I'm the Creator gets a side-eye even from spiritual people. I get it, it's a radical insight.

Maybe the answer is it both does and doesn't matter paradoxically.

And then the follow up question is are You the Creator?

I am the Creator.

Interesting insight. You might want to drill down a bit more on this one. This topic has fascinated me now for a while.

I'm not discounting emotional spiraling and blaming, because those are here too and I still do it. But often the wise friend of mine will get me out of the emotional quagmire by guiding me to considering a larger system at work which is causing the problem or impasse. Then, this releases suffering immediately because I realize nobody is at fault, it's a system issue. Then I can plan accordingly. It takes it to a level where optimism and calm returns.

Wisdom is neither accepting nor rejecting thoughts but properly considering them IMO. Sometimes this means finding the meta structure that the thoughts are revealing that take you beyond suffering toward planning and creative action.

When does death come?

Chinese mixed with Indigenous people. What's cool about Taiwan is all the temples are still standing. The Japanese influence is also present as well as a Western influence. Culturally, Taiwan is very different from China.

This is kinda funny because this was the advice I was giving you about the neo-advaita beliefs like a year ago.

This is what is conventionally thought, yes.