UnbornTao

Playing with Perspectives

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What is intuition? 

Edited by UnbornTao

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Setting aside the roles you play expands your sense of self, deepens your presence, and increases your vitality. As a very specific example of how this principle may play out in a social context, imagine you are being hunted by a lion. In this life-or-death situation, all your social concerns and agendas are immediately dismissed as irrelevant and unreal. You realize that they are not objectively real and are, essentially, invented. This recognition frees you from them - at least temporarily, in the example above. It is not the best example but hopefully it gets the point across. 

Edited by UnbornTao

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Recognizing that you as a person are not special can be liberating, even though it might be fiercely resisted at first. 

Edited by UnbornTao

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This seems to be a common, albeit implicit, tactic in spiritual and philosophical circles: being deliberately vague and overly intellectual in order to fool yourself and others - even unconsciously - into thinking you know what you're talking about. It's the trap of mistaking the social game - interacting with others, agreeing with them, convincing them, liking each other, and so on - with genuine understanding.

Edited by UnbornTao

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Dwelling on what something means to you may obscure the possibility of realizing what it is for itself.

Edited by UnbornTao

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It is not the truth that hurts you, but rather your relationship to it - your unwillingness to acknowledge it.

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Have you ever seen how a cornered rat behaves? We generally despise having our fantasies destroyed; we want them to be validated and widely-adopted. 

Edited by UnbornTao

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Effectiveness is a dynamic relationship defined by the purpose of the interaction and demands aligning yourself with what is happening as it occurs.

For example, imagine you are eating ice cream, and your purpose at that moment is simply to enjoy yourself. In this case, you are being effective: your actions align with your purpose. But if your purpose at that same moment were a different one or were inconsistent with the activity of eating ice cream - say, improving your health or saving money, perhaps - then you wouldn't be effective in that regard. This is a rather lame example, but hopefully it gets the point across. 

This might sound obvious in theory, but in practice, recognizing, in one's experience, this principle as it is occurring can be surprisingly subtle and challenging. Most times, we aren't really aware of why we act the way we do, even though we think we are.

Edited by UnbornTao

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What's true, especially what's existentially true, isn’t confined to any domain or paradigm of human knowledge, which are conceptual in nature. It isn't even limited to our faculties and senses.

Why would we presuppose that the truth is accessible to such means in the first place?

What is is already the case; it is not limited to the mind, language, or experience - not even to the brain or perception. Personal preference, criteria, and cosmology aren't relevant in this pursuit either - as if you could somehow fit the truth into a conception of existence.

What's true is itself - prior to the conception of the human organism! For example, a thought about something is a thought about something. The thought isn't the thing, therefore no belief is or can be true.

What are the implications of this fact? 

Edited by UnbornTao

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Making new, finer distinctions within your experience is what learning is about.

Edited by UnbornTao

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Real skill is experientially-based.

For example, being given instructions by a football coach is probably a positive first step, yet that, by itself, doesn't transform your skills. Intellectually understanding the assertions isn't enough. In such a case, you'd need to ground that understanding on your experience of the activity - into something you can actually put into practice. 

If you can't do what it is you think you already understand, you may be missing this principle. Now, try to apply it to the couple of skills you intend to master.

Edited by UnbornTao

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How you perceive reality might be causing a vast amount of your suffering. How do you see life and your self? What beliefs are you attached to?

Edited by UnbornTao

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Emotions are one of our most powerful drives in life, yet we tend to think that we are above them in a way - that our minds or intellects are somehow in control of them. 

Notice, for example, that most people tend to judge a communication mostly by the impressions it makes on them and by how these impressions make them feel. This is significant.

Edited by UnbornTao

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A few signs of intelligence seem to be:

  • Being inquisitive rather than assumptive
  • The ability to consider and integrate various perspectives
  • Humor
Edited by UnbornTao

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Thinking is having a thought you've never had before. How often does that happen for you? 

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Seeking value undermines the search for what's true.

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The extent to which you recognize the truth and align yourself with it is the degree of your spiritual growth.

Edited by UnbornTao

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In order to become aware of your conditioning, create contrast by changing your environment. For example, when people travel to a culture entirely different from their own, it becomes much easier--if they’re paying attention--to notice how their culture operates, and by extension, how they themselves think and behave.

Edited by UnbornTao

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Answers and beliefs undermine questioning.

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Master your work. 

If you're going to do something, do it well. Otherwise, why do it at all? 

Edited by UnbornTao

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