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 yesterday 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 yesterday 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 yesterday at 04:08 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Quote

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

 

Edited yesterday at 04:08 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Openness manifests as child-like qualities which our collective arrogance tries to shun off. Authentic curiosity and vulnerability may be considered weaknesses in social interactions. Being a grown-up is considered to involve removal of innocence. Of course, we know that it's an act.

The arrogance of knowledge: humanity often thinks it has it figured out. Certainty prevents openness. In the future, we might find that what we fervently believed was wrong or inaccurate, after all. This is what science is constantly up do: like on a car trip, whatever the current landscape is seen through the window is considered true. Then, the landscape changes.

Things we were certain about:

• The earth was flat
• Witches existed
• The earth was the center of the universe

The bare truth most of the time is that we didn't know. As a collective, we're pretty averse to acknowledging that.

That act of bravery, in which dear beliefs are let go of, opens up the possibilities for genuine contemplation and research.

The wise confront not-knowing and are comfortable basking in it.

Edited February 4 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

A perspective on power:

Capacity. The ability to make things happen. Effective manipulation (handling) on you, circumstances and others.

Edited yesterday at 02:00 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

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

Not knowing what to commit your life to creates catastrophic consequences in the long-term that might not be necessarily apparent at the moment. For example, by not choosing your career deliberately, at the end of your life you'll realize that you spent it on a job you disliked.

Besides, not making a decision deliberately can be a form of strategic action. You may feel forced by external factors to make a choice, yet a decision can be postponed until more information about the situation is revealed, for instance.

Why do we fall into the path of least resistance? Because, among other things, we aren't clear on what to commit our lives to; we haven't generated that decision for ourselves.

Edited yesterday at 02:09 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin.

Edited yesterday at 02:09 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Desire implies a separation between you and the thing desired. This activity creates suffering.

When the object of desire is achieved, you look for the next one.

Desire is continuous. Its content changes but the activity is constant.

Edited yesterday at 02:10 PM 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 yesterday 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 yesterday at 02:28 PM 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 yesterday at 02:30 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

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

Edited yesterday at 02:31 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Perception is indirect. It is "about" something, not the thing itself. It is a process done through biological inventions. In this case, our senses.

Edited yesterday at 02:33 PM 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 yesterday at 02:44 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Being smart is different from being intelligent.

The former is easier and mechanic. Machines can learn it much more easily than actual intelligence. Prevalent in academic circles. Rote memorization can be considered a form of smartness.

The latter requires holism, awareness, detachment, and creativity. It is harder to become intelligent and come across an intelligent person.

[UnbornTao]

When the perceived causes of your unhappiness are resolved and yet your unhappiness remains, that's a rough revelation. 

You always assumed unconsciously that happiness was to be found on external factors.

When looking into it, however, you realize that happiness was never circumstantially-derived. 

Good news!

Edited May 23, 2024 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

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

Failures are stepping stones to success. Seek them out. Fail faster and intelligently. Use them as feedback.

Adopt the student's mindset.

Change your relationship towards failure. See them as essential towards mastery.

Correcting as you go is the priciple being communicated here.

Edited July 15, 2022 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

We can choose between making ourselves miserable or making ourselves happy. The amount of effort that it takes is the same.

It is easier to be happy than to suffer.

Edited July 15, 2022 by UnbornTao