Playing with Perspectives

[UnbornTao]

Direct experience is self-validating. If it is in fact an authentic insight (big if), it reveals what's already true as a conscious experience. Otherwise, it is something else. 

Edited Thursday at 10:00 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

We confuse what we are as a conscious entity or being with our selves. We think that we are a person, the particular one we've crafted throughout our lives. This might not be true. Who are you for real?

Edited Friday at 01:40 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Fear isn't what prevents you from doing dangerous things; knowing you would hurt yourself is. Without fear, do you think you would jump in front of a marching train? Of course not. You're not oblivious all of a sudden; you simply stopped generating the activity of fear.

Fear isn't actually needed when it comes to taking sensible action. Knowing the potential consequences of a particular action is enough to prevent you from doing it. Fear is an unnecessary add-on to that process.

Edited Friday at 01:42 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Have you ever felt truly heard--another person grasping your experience? It doesn't always have to be a profound or life-altering interchange, though. Besides, noticing that a communication hasn't occurred isn't a given either. 

I've been paying attention to this dynamic as of late. Someone tells me something, but it is as if there's a wall between us.

What does it mean to truly listen? How to get another's experience as it is? Doesn't it look like you often fail to listen? You hear another's words and understand them, yet that is not the whole story, is it? True listening is grasping another's experience as it is, not filtered through your self-agenda. It is about their experience, not yours. This point bears repeating.

Am I interacting with my own interpretation, beliefs, desires, opinions, etc., relative to what another said, or am I getting their experience?

Edited Friday at 04:08 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Quote

Becoming “awake” involves seeing our confusion more clearly. - Chogyam Trungpa

 

Edited 7 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Cultural arrogance: when a group of people believes it has things all figured out.
Assuming you already know what something is undermines openness.

In time, we may discover that even our most fundamental or cherished beliefs were inaccurate--or just plain wrong.
That’s the very spirit of science.

It’s like being on a road trip: whatever landscape is visible through the window at any given moment is mistaken for a true reflection of reality.

But the landscape is always changing.

Edited 6 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Trying to define power:

1. Capacity.
2. The ability to consistently produce results non-randomly.
3. Effective manipulation (handling) of yourself, your circumstances, and others.

Edited 5 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Clarify the purpose of your actions. Why am I doing this? What is its function, and is it meeting it?

Edited 6 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin.

Edited Friday at 02:09 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Desire implies a separation between you and the thing desired--this comparison between your current experience and the imagined one creates suffering.

When the object of desire is achieved, you look for the next one. The content of desire may change but the activity is a constant.

Edited 6 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

You may be tacitly believing right now that your experience and worldview are true and real, even universally-shared. They are yours, and that seems to be your main concern, not whether they're true, accurate, or factually-based.

Have you ever assumed that the way you experience life is the way others experience it, too?

Say you hold a negative outlook on life in general and have been stuck in that viewpoint for years. You then see a group of monks on a monastery being enthusiastic and energetic while doing mundane activities, and that sight challenges your worldview. I am generating this outlook; it isn't something imposed upon me. What am I doing with my mind such that this particular outlook is created in the first place? And from that realization, you are freed to do something different.

Edited Friday at 02:27 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Boredom could be seen as:

1. arrogance; thinking that the way you think reality works is reality.
2. frustration without hostility.

Edited 6 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

What comes to mind when considering your own person?

What prevents you from behaving differently? Has some aspect of your self-makeup been changed over the years?

Your person, or persona, isn't etched in stone. You can transform as a person and still exist.

Edited Friday at 02:30 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Where is mind in your experience? Can you find it?

Edited Friday at 02:31 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Perception is indirect by nature; it is about something, not that thing itself. Whatever the thing is for itself is unknown. Perceiving is a process mediated by biological inventions--the senses, in this case. 

Edited 7 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

As humans, we live within invented, conceptual worlds but generally fail to notice that they are fabricated; we believe them to be reality, just like a fish doesn't recognize it's always swum in water. For example, we live as if our particular culture were true. 

Edited Friday at 02:44 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

What are the differences between being smart, being clever, and being intelligent?

Edited 7 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

When the perceived causes of your unhappiness are resolved and yet your unhappiness remains, that might be a rough revelation. You had unconsciously assumed that happiness was to be found in--or produced by--factors external to you. Yet, upon looking into it, you realize that happiness was never circumstantially derived, but rather a function of being okay with your experience, whatever it may be.

Edited 6 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Quote

The difference between the student and the master is that the master has made more mistakes than the student can count.

Reconsider your relationship to failure. Failing is integral to the process of learning and of succeeding at any pursuit. Failures are stepping stones to success. Do not try to avoid them; use them as feedback. Fail faster and intelligently.

Correct as you go. As soon as an opportunity for correction arises, take it.

Edited 7 hours ago by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Attachment may be fundamentally motivated by the fear of groundlessness.

Edited 6 hours ago by UnbornTao