GENIUS FORUMS

Well put, Jamesh.

OH NOEZ!!!

I feel my Genius being drained from me as we speak!

Enlightened...

Enlightened...

Mostly enlightened...

Partially enlightened...

Aw, damn. Son of a bitching WOMEN.

LOL

The Hysterical One shouted, Sorry, your pleas will go unheeded by the wise! But, yes!, how your “life-partner” tag two-some inspires in me a blood-lust born of utter contempt for such insipid morality! You have already been bitten, stupid. Anyone who’s in the know can see that. Carry on. http:...

That's an urban legend. There's no reliable evidence that Socrates' wife, Xanthippe, was a "shrew."

BTW, can someone please do us all a favor and give the hysterical mantheist Leyla some Thorazine before somebody gets bit? I'd hate to get rabies, the shots are a real bitch.

In truth, Nat and I are pointing in opposite directions. He is pointing to animal consciousness, where words are meaningless and life is lived in immediacy. By contrast, I am pointing to full understanding of the nature of Reality and increased consciousness of consequences. It's two entirely diffe...

All contradictions are created by words - specifically, words used to construct logical antimonies. Nature contains no contradiction beyond that existing in human minds.

What great philosopher up to now has been married? Heraclitus, Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Leitniz, Kant, Schopenhauer—none of these got married.

Ever hear of Socrates? Just checking.

Hey Unidian, what other "wisdom" related forums do you post on?

None, really. But I do post at Future Philosophy, which is pretty much what the name says (and where we have an Eastern philosophy area), and Steel Woods, which is a fun place for friendly dialogue.

I'm not interested in convincing anyone here that I "have an understanding." There are any number of reasons various individuals might conclude that I do or do not have one, very few of which would have much to do with whether or not I actually do. In fact, this place is practically a muse...

Sapius , True, and it is perfectly clear as to what your words actually signify; don’t they? Neither this staunch approach may actually help any one, nor do the extremities otherwise, as in taking words at face value. Since it is absolutely necessary that the significance be realized through word...

David , I don't recall ever calling it "rational enlightenment". It isn't something I would normally do, because I know that it would create the misleading impression that enlightenment is nothing more than being in possession of a bunch of intellectual truths. As I say, it is the giving ...

Okay, a couple more replies won't kill me. First, to Hades : You speak of basically, an academic enlightenment. When one gathers certain information(wisdom), and experiences, and rejects other information(delusions)...he will pass the test and get his enlightened-diploma. This isn't authentic, this ...

Nat: I'm not seeking to "breakthrough into the Infinite," nor to "attain enlightenment," nor to "find the true path," etc. I recently unlearned all of that, hopefully (and in all likelihood) once and for all. No goal, no path, no attainment. Sapius: This seems absolute...

Yeah, I get it that he is just saying his view, which he believes because it is supported by old texts and lots of people, whereas David said what he said because that was the extent of his own thinking it through. How condescending. The implication here is that I only parrot other people's words w...

He thinks he can experience the totality by not forming any concepts about anything in his immediate experience, but that has nothing to do with enlightenment. Agreed, it has nothing to do with "enlightenment." And happily so, because I'm no longer interested in enlightenment, Nirvana, mo...

Nat, I do appreciate the academic perspective as I have not studied all the (er, much of the) academic side - but could you answer the question as it stands? Huh? What is academic about this? I'm a college dropout and I couldn't name more than five cities in India. I couldn't care less about academ...

Yes, that's a wonderful passage from Siddhartha . At least for the moment of that writing, Hesse really "got it." There are only a few classic writings that come about as close as words can come to conveying the whole thing through language, and Siddhartha is one of them. Highly recommened...

In authentic Zen, experience is not "taken into consideration." Consideration (conceptualization) is dropped entirely and only unconditioned experience remains. That is what is meant by "mountains are once again mountains" and "chop wood, carry water."

Hi David, thanks for the response. I'm going to address your comments only, for now. I don't have time to respond to the others who offer "read more QRS" or "you're a woman" rather than substantive argument. Like most rants, Unidian's piece above is overly-emotional and not very ...

Could you please make that any more simple?

It means the individual self is an illusion, but so is everything else, so it's the same as if the self and everything else were "real."

Any explanation beyond this is outside the capability of language.

I'm surprised that in ten years of philosophy you still worry this much about something as trivial as where a philosopher gets his money... I do? Actually, I'm not concerned with that at all, as long as the source isn't criminal or somesuch. I'm just pointing out that regardless of any realization,...

Yeah, I suppose. Your English is a little rough in places, so I'm not sure I "got it," but if you're saying that the Eastern approach undermines the false sense of inherent existence without requiring the impossible feat of functioning without a conventional sense of "self," I'd ...

Vlad! Vlad! Vlad the Impaler!

Vlad, Vlad, coulda been a sailor, coulda been a tailor

He turned out to be Norman Mailer.