GENIUS FORUMS

I think there's too much emphasis on esteeming oneself in the eyes of others - not just in academia, but everywhere. I can't sympathize with the insatiable and endless need people have for more self-esteem. You nailed it there. It's the ego rearing it's ugly head, no doubt. I don't think we need an...

An article in The New York Times mentions that a tenured professor at the University of Miami (FL, USA) gave up his post after allegations of sexual harassment of one of his female students. This brought to light the treatment of women in the philosophy field in general. Here at Genius Forum, there ...

1. How do you live day to day? (As in "literally" what do you do as a daily course of action) I spend some time on the internet, but mostly I just sit or lie down. Just. Not watching television, or reading - just sit there. I listen to my husband talk about things - he wants me to interje...

1. How do you live day to day? (As in "literally" what do you do as a daily course of action) I spend some time on the internet, but mostly I just sit or lie down. Just. Not watching television, or reading - just sit there. I listen to my husband talk about things - he wants me to interje...

Nat says "PM away."

Just what exactly is "universal consciousness"? Other than an egotistical attachment to the preservation of self-existence (fear of death) expressing itself, of course. Consciousness is clearly a thing (as it is differentiated by what it's not), which is therefore caused, and therefore ca...

A person can only at best know their own experience of reality When the experience of reality is perfect, i.e, delusion-free, or to the degree it is perfect, the person automatically knows every other experience of reality as well. I assume you don't mean that to include the specifics of empirical ...

[I'm not sure that "consciousness" is the right word either though as there is only one universal consciousness] I cannot fathom why that statement is not a result of delusion. Consciousness is clearly an emergent property. All things are emergent properties. You contradicted yourself her...

Thank you Russell. I did hesitate on that word, choosing it instead of the word "human" to broaden the meaning to something more all-encompassing. I'm not sure that "consciousness" is the right word either though as there is only one universal consciousness, and it is the individ...

Great question, Elizabeth. I wonder though how much we'll have to stipulate in terms of the nature and source of delusion to address it. Shall we run with the ego/ignorance paradigm as something thus stipulated to facilitate the discussion? Yes Dan, ignorance of the truth and the blockade that the ...

In another thread, 'exactly to what degree can we weed out our delusions on reality?' (Sorry I couldn't fit the word "exactly" into the title due to title length limitations.) First, let's put some parameters around "reality." It is not possible to know where every stone in the u...

A quality conversation with someone who subjectively have no false conceptualizations? No one could ever get past anything they say. A conversation with someone who doesn't have any false conceptualizations would be quality, indeed. A conversation with someone who is deluded but convinced that they...

Elizabeth, might I be placed in the category of the enlightened? I am tired of being excluded! No one thought to send me a card on Enlightenment Day this year. But that's not what hurt the most... I can not draw that imaginary line around you. You are not left out though. We are all Ultimately One.

And Elizabeth, do you speak as one of the 'enlightened'? Or are you just repeating something you've heard? Would you be comfortable doing away with the category altogether? I was not repeating anything that I had heard, and of course I would feel comfortable with doing away with that category or an...

Really the main question I would have, and possibly anyone would have, is that if enlightenment results in freedom from delusion, why are they so deluded who preach it? It is easy for the deluded to think they are enlightened, and it is easy for the unenlightened to think that the enlightened are d...

Spot on. Very good.

Thanks for the clarification. "Gay" originally meant "happy" and I often thought that it was interesting that the term gay was applied to homosexuals rather than heterosexuals. Under your definition, this observation makes even more sense.

The passive want forgiveness (sameness, outer-belonging, homosexuality). The valiant push for redemption (inner-quest, synthesis of new with old, copulation). What do homosexuality and copulation have to do with this? Surely you don't mean that all passive people are homosexual - in fact most of th...

That actually happens quite often, especially in cases of depression and PTSD. A feedback loop gets established from feeling down too long or being severely traumatized, and the mind keeps going back into the depressive cycle, increasing the chemicals released during depression and reinforcing those...

Elizabeth, "Evil isn't so much permitted to exist". So, I take it you have no belief in a higher power capable of eliminating evil through an act of will or anything like that. I kind of had that understanding of your world-view already, but you do seem to have sympathies for paranormal p...

Elizabeth, "Evil isn't so much permitted to exist". So, I take it you have no belief in a higher power capable of eliminating evil through an act of will or anything like that. I kind of had that understanding of your world-view already, but you do seem to have sympathies for paranormal p...

OK, so that's two votes against the notion of evil as force for evolution of good. What would you guys suggest, then, is the answer to the question of why and how evil exists and is permitted to exist? Evil isn't so much permitted to exist. Evil exists because it is good at what it does. It provide...

evil exists to force good to evolve higher. Through exposure to the torments of evil, and through dealing with those torments, good becomes more resilient, patient, intelligent, capable, etc. According to this understanding, it is not really "bad" to be "evil", because evil perf...

Too much reasoning on internet forums is almost like academia, there's no first hand knowledge of life, no direct confrontation of fear or test of character. Indeed it is easier to be a buddha in a monastery than on the streets. There is a line of what life conditions even allow buddhahood to exist...

For the myopic, longer-term compassion is indistinguishable from anti-social recklessness. Very true, and the reason that so many US protestors are getting maced, arrested, and the like - as but one set of obvious examples. Finally... offer people the Tao, but make them understand how it's in their...