Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[Wilhelm44]

1 hour ago, r0ckyreed said:

@Wilhelm44 No. Read his recent blog post on the topic.

@Leo Gura 

Aha, thank you.

Yes, the real tragedy for anyone, including Dr Tyson, is being stuck in a position of thinking that we know.

I recently came across the work of Dr Ellen Langer.

One of the practices is to make it a daily habit of noticing something new about someone or something that you think you know.

This is actually a practice that gives one more energy.

She also did an interesting experiment where she put 8 old men in a cabin for a couple of months, where they lived as if 

it was 30 years ago, ie they watched tv from that time, read newspapers from that time, and speaking about those past events in the present tense. The results were astounding, vision/hearing improved, they lived longer than the other controlled group etc.

Interesting tip: Don't tell urself you are getting older, simply say you are changing.

Very simple ideas, but very powerful, here's her Ted talk.

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Wilhelm44

[AION]

Consciousness and matter are one though. So if matter (the body) ages, it has an effect on the consciousness of that person. It is wrong to make a distinction between matter and consciousness. They are literally the same thing. The consciousness of a person can age, but it will die too through physical or/and spiritual death (consciousness de-identification) and following rebirth of the consciousness.

 

Edited 13 hours ago by AION

[r0ckyreed]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

That is irrelevant.

Red is just one quality out of infinite. You can replace red with any other quality and the quality does not age.

No quality ages.

All experiences of reality are made of qualities.

It doesn't matter that your senses change over time. Red is always red. But you may not have the ability to experience it. Just as you don't experience most of the possible qualities at all times.

Salty is still salty even if you aren't experiencing salty right now.

The contents of your mind can mature, sure. That is not the aging of qualities.

Even if you are blind, red is still red, just as cold is still cold even if you aren't cold right now.

Ah, very nice insight. It reminds me of a book I read from your booklist where a disciple realizes that Self cannot die and is not the body, prana, or mind because those are all changing. Pure Consciousness is Unchanging which is another way of saying it cannot die, as it is that which witnesses and imagines everything in existence. Consciousness couldn’t be changing because then it couldn’t witness change because it would be changing with everything else. 

I realized on a trip that death and birth, dreaming and waking is something Consciousness is constructing. That which is constructed will never be “infinite enough” to overtake the Infinite. There is nothing outside of Infinity to kill it and Infinity would have nowhere to go since it is already all that is. 

Brilliant Quote!

[AtmanIsBrahman]

7 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Salty is still salty even if you aren't experiencing salty right now.

How does that not contradict solipsism?

[r0ckyreed]

2 hours ago, AtmanIsBrahman said:

How does that not contradict solipsism?

Interesting point. If you are colorblind, then God would be imagining a reality without color. Does color still exist if you cannot experience it? You would only have your idea of what it would be based off your limits of consciousness.

[Leo Gura]

3 hours ago, AtmanIsBrahman said:

How does that not contradict solipsism?

Your ideas of solipsism are not it.

[Leo Gura]

8 hours ago, AION said:

The consciousness of a person can age

Consciousness does not age. What can degrade is one's state of consciousness. But all states of consciousness are timeless.

[Terell Kirby]

S. Kotkin has a great lecture on authoritarianism.

Leo is right, his political perspective is very mature, knowledgable & credible:

 

[r0ckyreed]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Your ideas of solipsism are not it.

@Leo Gura I think he’s saying that it contradicts with the external world being imaginary. If the color red exists outside of my consciousness, then that would be an example of an external world. But at the same time awakening is outside of most people’s consciousness but yet it exists. Color is a content within consciousness, so its subject to change. Hope this makes sense because science would say color is byproduct photons interacting with the brain. If there was damage to occipital lobe or retina, you won’t be able to see color. So does color exist but I have no access to it or have I created a universe without color? That’s the contradiction.

Edited 3 hours ago by r0ckyreed

[Leo Gura]

@r0ckyreed Infinity contains every possible quality.

Obviously all those qualities are not expressed before your mind this second.

Every quality is absolute. Red is absolutely red, for everyone. That's what it means to be red. Red is red forever.

Edited 2 hours ago by Leo Gura

[AtmanIsBrahman]

42 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

@r0ckyreed Infinity contains every possible quality.

Obviously all those qualities are not expressed before your mind this second.

Every quality is absolute. Red is absolutely red, for everyone. That's what it means to be red. Red is red forever.

What do you mean by red being absolutely red for everyone? Obviously people experience colors differently, not to mention other species entirely.

I’m sure you’ve anticipated that objection, so are you hinting at some kind of absolute noumena that exist outside of perception (at least of an individual organism)?

Also, isn’t everything a quality? So everything is absolutely itself.
But I don’t see how this makes qualities timeless. I would say that absolute reality is timeless, but individual qualities like the color red can come and go.

[QVx]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Every quality is absolute. Red is absolutely red, for everyone. That's what it means to be red. Red is red forever.

Enjoyed this obvious truth around qualities, in particular that red is of course red.

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, AtmanIsBrahman said:

What do you mean by red being absolutely red for everyone? Obviously people experience colors differently, not to mention other species entirely.

People can fail to see red. But if they see red, it is the same red.

Quote

I’m sure you’ve anticipated that objection, so are you hinting at some kind of absolute noumena that exist outside of perception (at least of an individual organism)?

I'm not hinting at it. I'm telling you directly that red is absolutely red. Red IS the noumena. Perception is noumena.

Quote

Also, isn’t everything a quality? So everything is absolutely itself.

Yes, of couse.

Quote

But I don’t see how this makes qualities timeless. I would say that absolute reality is timeless, but individual qualities like the color red can come and go.

They can come and go, but red is red, regardless of whether you are seeing it or not.

Timeless doesn't mean it is permanent in your awareness.

Don't you see that red is the same red throughout your whole life? The red from your childhood is the same red as today, and is the same red you will see when you are 100, if your eyes still work.

The red that the ancient Egyptians saw is the same red that you see today. Which is just to say that red is red and not anything else.

Everything is exactly itself.

Red is red, red is not orange, and red is not cold.

Edited 48 minutes ago by Leo Gura

[Terell Kirby]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

red is red, regardless of whether you are seeing it or not.

Tried to reduce red to atoms but all i got was red