GENIUS FORUMS

No, but, more seriously, why study when I can simply ask? If only you could "simply" ask. Humble simplicity and purposeful vagueness are different things. A simple question is well beyond your capacity. What's your motivation? I hope you can be honest in your answer. Or, am I to expect mo...

Alice, not saying I'm anything but fascinated by the starting point of this thread, its current direction, and all its possible outcomes, but I am curious: how long did you lurk before posting? I refuse to simply be an observer on the sidelines of life! Action is my by-word! And Shadowfax the name ...

What is enlightenment in the general sense that philosophers use it? I don't believe there is a general sense of the word. Kant wrote an essay on enlightenment , but it's hardly a consensus opinion. Michel Foucault famously replied , but I don't particularly enjoy reading Foucault. Neither of those...

Alice, not saying I'm anything but fascinated by the starting point of this thread, its current direction, and all its possible outcomes, but I am curious: how long did you lurk before posting?

What do you mean? You can study philosophy and never become enlightened, just as you can become enlightened and never study philosophy. Making enlightenment the purpose of studying philosophy might disappoint you, if it comes down to a choice between one or the other. So is a Form anything that two...

To me enlightenment is the whole purpose of studying philosophy and engaging oneself in philosophical thought. At some time you might have to choose between enlightenment and philosophy. What did Plato mean by there being another realm (or something) of unchanging forms which constitute ultimate re...

Besides putting it in that hole between what is essentially id and superego, I called consciousness "clear awareness". Isn't that sufficient, or how would you define it?

Gurrb wrote:how can one grasp reality-which is different from each individual-when they are focused on others' views?

In what sense is Reality different for each person?

Since genius is consciousness of the nature of Ultimate Reality, I think it important to know what consciousness is. I've come to think of consciousness as a middle ground between two forms of unconsciousness: instinct on one end, and a sort of overarching narrative of our own lives on the other. Wh...

There's several different ways of interpreting the title of this forum. One is by a description of posters, just as a "literati forum" would be a forum for people who've read a lot. Another would be by a description of content, just as a "literature forum" would be a forum for pe...

I suspect that people don't capitalize 'Reality' to be cute, like when they text without punctuation. I doubt it's done with much forethought. You don't change the meaning of another particular place, like 'Canada', when you start calling it 'canada'.

How so? I capitalize proper nouns. It's no more pretentious to write 'Reality' than it is to write 'Trevor'.

I do not understand why you people are obsessed with being geniuses. It boils down to what genius means, and whether or not that is a valuable thing. If being a genius is not virtuous, there is no reason to be one. If genius is not something that can be obtained through effort, there is no reason t...

uncledote, I'm thinking about the structure of mind; I'm thinking about where consciousness differs from unconsciousness, and the relationship between consciousness and other parts of mind (awareness, understanding, perception, knowledge). In six words, the difference between id and ego. To clarify:...

Ask someone who is conscious of Reality what he is thinking about, and he can tell you. This isn't pretentious elitism: if someone does not understand what it means to be conscious of Reality, he is neither conscious of Reality, nor is he a genius.

Edmond wrote:"genius refers to consciousness of Reality" is absurd.

Support this claim of yours with a reason. I'm not going to guess why you believe a particular definition of a word is absurd.

Here genius refers to consciousness of Reality. A genius is not so because he is praised often by others; neither does genius point to a high score on a paper test.

What is this Reality? Isn't Reality whatever is within me and before me and all around me? That is to say, aren't there an infinite amount of "realities" everywhere we look and don't look? Reality is a proper noun; there's just one. It's everywhere, and includes everything that exists. No...

I think Richard Feynman was an enlightened genius. I'm not quite sure what I mean by "enlightened genius". To me, it simply describes someone who is exceptionally smart. They're not just smart in one area, they're smart in many other ways/areas. So you want to be a polymath. Tell me, off-...

Who do you believe is an enlightened genius, and why? It's kind of important to see what you mean by this.

so it's not possible to be enlightened - know truth before my delusion alters it? You aren't enlightened, and you've admitted as such. You also agreed that unless you are enlightened, you can't know what enlightenment is. So, why on earth would you value it? You are valuing something that you call ...

what is the easy target you see? self? are you saying it's a relatively mundane hallucination to see through, and there are other, more fundamental ones which will result in enlightenment. please, what do you think they are? First, I'd like to point out that I don't care one whit about "enligh...

freedom from the belief in reality of 'self' = freedom from 'self' caused suffering = liberation, or enlightenment. could it be that simple? Why aim at easy targets? Freeing yourself from one delusion, you'll just create another, and yeah you might find it interesting for a while. But the cycle wil...

What other fucking terms are you going to use, man!? But still, if it pleases you, define the infinite in infinite terms. Why do you think "in infinite terms" is the opposite of "in terms of finite things"? There is absolutely no such thing as an infinite term, and since I've st...

Therefore, to be concerned about certain kinds of idea-constructs, to look deeply into them, to consider the implications, is sane activity. I'm concerned about your idea-constructs. I've willingly expressed fundamental definitions and axioms, and so have other forum members; you have only been wil...