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Manjushri

Why is reality arational and not rational?

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14 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Firstly, no human being is rational. There is nothing rational about survival.

Secondly, the concept of rationality depends on a duality created by the rationalist which carves up the world into rational vs its opposite. So by the very logic of the rationalist, to say something is rational is to say something else is not, which be definition means the world contains both rational and not rational things. Which means the world is not rational. If everything in the universe was rational the label "rational" would cease to have any meaning. The only value this label has is precisely because there are irrational things afoot which you wish to distinguish from the rational things.

Rationality is a self-defeating category. As all categories are. Because they are projections of the human mind.

Calling reality rational is as silly as calling reality "sexual" just because you like sex. Some stuff is sexual, but most stuff is not. Likewise with the rationality label. Reality contains sex but it is not limited to sex. Sex does not even account for 1% of reality, neither does rationality.

I'm trying to improve my teaching skills on "meeting people with where they are at". At times it seems creating a model that assumes rationality can be a helpful teaching tool. In the SD model: imagine an Orange-level person with attachment / identification that they are a "rational thinker" - they see everything outside of their rational framework as being irrational. If we allow that and call the Blue Stage "irrational", Orange "rational" and Yellow "post-rational", it can introduce to them a level of thinking/being beyond their delusional sense of rationalism. Once they open up and explore this possibility, they may get direct experience with a "post-rational" being (flow states, intuition, a glimpse of nonduality). This could loosen their attachment / identification to rational thinking. Then with more exploration, these three categories collapse.

Or, do you think it's more effective to "cut straight to the chase" with an Orange level "rationalist"?

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Provided "reality" = "ultimate mode of being (of phenomena)" and provided rationality is based on Arestotelian logic:

Reality is neither rational, nor arational, nor both, nor neither.

1) Why not rational?
Because nothing can withstand ultimate rational analysis, i.e. nothing can be found under rational analysis investigating into the ultimate mode of being although phenomena ceaselessly appear. This is a contradiction that cannot be rationally resolved.

2) Why not arational?
Because without rational analysis reality cannot be fathomed/approached (although it cannot be grasped by rational analysis).

3) Why not both?
Because of the law of contradiction.

4) Why not neither?
Because of the law of excluded middle.

 

 


Please do not pay attention to my empty words if you are following Leo's teaching !!
Sometimes my empty words may appear too negative, too rational, too irrational, egoistical or even like trolling because my path is a non-path and is nothing but deviation and incompatible with all teachings known.

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@Adam M

What is time? 

What is a waste of time? 

;)

I'm a social being, and having philosophical discussions is really rewarding. Especially when they are concerned with metaphysics/epistemics. 

I wanted to understand why Leo claimed that 'reality is arational'. He replied, in the meantime I was trying to figure it out. Off to meditate. 

 

 

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On 11/15/2018 at 0:54 PM, Gligorije said:

Rationality is the property of human beings. But, you can argue that there is no reality without perception, which means that it goes through the rational filter. Of course it's not an inherent quality to the object in it, but we can argue that nothing is inherent to an object. 

Perception and rationality are two different faculties of the human lens. But if we are unconscious, we come to mix them up.

When I was 15 and learning how to draw and paint, in high school art class, I learned that perception and my mind's ideas about what I was seeing were two different things.

Before that, I had never seen the world in my entire life. All I ever saw were my ideas and labels of things. Tables were just tables. Chairs were just chairs. Things were essentially as I thought they were, and not as they actually were. I lived my life through a projection of a very subtle framework that I had woven throughout my life.

But when I really started to perceive accurately, I realized that there were no separate objects at all. It was just one huge two dimensional plane of shapes imbued with colors. And that plane changed completely if I moved even one inch, or the lighting changed slightly. 

My mind had no useful information to tell me about the world in front of me as far as accurate perception goes. In fact, the mind could only distract and delude me away from accurate perception.

So, at that point, all I needed to do was to trust that my perception was accurate and to let go of the need to cleave to my mind's notions of the world, and that was 95% of the battle of learning to paint and draw. And I learned it all in a one-second long insight into the nature of reality and perception. 

And I had a feeling like the implications of that insight spanned into the other senses as well. Though, I didn't figure that out until much later. 

So, rationality and intellect will always try to strong-arm their way into the mix and distort accurate perception. The trick is to learn how to disengage from the rational/intellectual strivings and simply perceive. Meditation can help you learn to detach from intrusive thought processes like that. You just have to recognize when they're trying to sneak in. 


If you’re interested in developing Emotional Mastery and feeling more comfortable in your own skin, click the link below to register for my FREE Emotional Mastery Webinar…

Emotionalmastery.org

 

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@Emerald Thank you for your lovely high school insight! 

The filter is strong ;). 

 So can we say that reality is arational in your opinion? Why even bother labeling haha! 

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