Reality

[Jason]

Searching for reality! Oh the irony!

Searching for real reality! Oh the absurdity!

[propellerbeanie]

Searching for reality! Oh the irony!

Searching for real reality! Oh the absurdity!

Searching for the real reality! Bloh the redundancy!

[outofthebox]

Reality? I despise the very word. People that smoke pot and go online seem to be drawn to that word. That and TIME and SPACE. Who gives a shit? It's just a waste of brain chemicals to think about things that are clearly beyond conprehension and articulation. They ought to think about here and now, theres plenty here to keep your mind busy. Real problems that need real thought and solutions.

[LooF]

Reality? I despise the very word. People that smoke pot and go online seem to be drawn to that word. That and TIME and SPACE. Who gives a shit? It's just a waste of brain chemicals to think about things that are clearly beyond conprehension and articulation. They ought to think about here and now, theres plenty here to keep your mind busy. Real problems that need real thought and solutions.

beyond conprehension? prove it.


problems that lie here and now? the "problems" are unique to yourselves-- and your problem is certainly not mine.

[propellerbeanie]

Reality? I despise the very word. People that smoke pot and go online seem to be drawn to that word. That and TIME and SPACE. Who gives a shit? It's just a waste of brain chemicals to think about things that are clearly beyond conprehension and articulation. They ought to think about here and now, theres plenty here to keep your mind busy. Real problems that need real thought and solutions.

First you learn to think, then you grow a pencil thin mustach, and you can solve some mysterys too. But Jack, clearly time and space are not beyond comprehension, or they would be hard to paste a common name onto. Let us just say that they are beyond your comprehension, and let it go at that.

Saying thought is a waste of brain chemical is like saying exercise is a waste of energy. That reminds me. Junior Buddha needs a workout. If my body were as buffed as my brain I'd look Gorilla on steroids. Instead I look like a cow living on milk shakes. Now I'm on a sea food diet. If I see it I eat it.
Fido

[outofthebox]

I'm so excited that someone here actually thinks they can comprehend and articulate time and space. Please throw in reality as well. I find myself amused that you'd take the liberty with my post to imply that I must assume that exercise is a waste of energy. How can you make that comparison? You seem smart enough to read. Where did I say that thought was a waste of energy? Clearly things like reality and time and space are beyong comprehension and articulation. Perception is reality to the individual who is doing the percieving. Time and space are so complex we just make a watch or a measuring tape to make ourselves beliveve we can measure it.

[LooF]

nothing is beyond comprehension as long as there is a structure, however complex it may be.




even if it was impossible to know those things

why should we stop thinking about it?


you said we should stop meaningless thinking and stop wasting chemicals-- so i ask you

is living a life meaningful to you?

if it is, then it must be because you have something of value

and if this thinking be the value for some, then it is not meaningless.

if it is not, then why should you be alive?

[Jason]

Reality? I despise the very word. People that smoke pot and go online seem to be drawn to that word. That and TIME and SPACE. Who gives a shit? It's just a waste of brain chemicals to think about things that are clearly beyond conprehension and articulation. They ought to think about here and now, theres plenty here to keep your mind busy. Real problems that need real thought and solutions.

Look at the top of every page on this forum and these are the words you will see "GENIUS FORUMS
- Discussion of the nature of Ultimate Reality and the path to Enlightenment -"

If you despise the word "reality", and if you think such things are a waste, you have come to the wrong forum.

[outofthebox]

Ah, the not welcome mat.

I look at life like a journey with no destination.

We're all in the same boat. Everybody has to make the journey pleasant.

I value the guy who swabs the deck more than I value the philosopher who just thinks and produces no fruit.

I value the men who row during the calm and set the sails more than i value the the thinker who offers nothing fruitful.

I value the potato peeler more than the ones who speculate about direction but lead us nowhere.

RESULTS MY FRIEND. FRUIT. PRODUCTION. WITHOUT THOSE THINGS TO SHOW FOR ALL YOUR THINKING, YOU ARE JUST ANOTHER USELESS,FRUITLESS,DEAD WEIGHT WHO WILL MUTINY AT THE FIRST MISSED MEAL. A JACKAL. A DEMOGOGUE.

What fruit has all your thinking brought forth. Thinkers are useless without fruit. If all your thinking bears no fruit, pick up a mop and start swabbing smartly.

[Jason]

RESULTS MY FRIEND. FRUIT. PRODUCTION. WITHOUT THOSE THINGS TO SHOW FOR ALL YOUR THINKING, YOU ARE JUST ANOTHER USELESS,FRUITLESS,DEAD WEIGHT WHO WILL MUTINY AT THE FIRST MISSED MEAL. A JACKAL. A DEMOGOGUE.

What fruit has all your thinking brought forth. Thinkers are useless without fruit. If all your thinking bears no fruit, pick up a mop and start swabbing smartly.

It is you who has failed to produce fruit. You claim the cure to sickness and disease, but fail to produce any proof or explanation. Explain your cure or be destined to forever be known as the hyprocrite of all hypocrites.

[Jamesh]

I look at life like a journey with no destination.

Well that is folly - the destination cannot be other than death, nothingness, no thought. So there is a destination and with such a destination there can be no result for oneself, so the degree of production in the meantime is neither here nor there -EXCEPT that production causes happiness, otherwise we wouldn't bother continually trying to produce, continually trying to expand.

[MKFaizi]

So many pompous words. So much drama.

The tension! The agony! Such emotional intensity!

Interesting how the word, reality, can be so provocative.

What is it about reality that provokes emotion? Is reality an emotive state?

On a primitive level, I reckon so. The life of eels. Synapses; neurons.

Impulse. Medulla brain.

Surely, there is philosophy above the level of snake; something other than this strike for a strike.

Faizi

[propellerbeanie]

What is it about reality that provokes emotion? Is reality an emotive state?


Faizi

Reality is the problem, and how that problem is defined has a lot to do with the solution, and perhaps is the solution. The most dangerous variable in nature is other human beings, and sometime their definitions of reality, perhaps, as the product of a certain God with a certain preference for a certain race or political outlook gives that person authority beyond equity, and power beyond political restraint.
In a sense, the way we define reality is the same as our definition of ourselves. Some people believe reality ends at the door, and some believe it ends at the city limits, and some believe it ends at the national border. And I don't want to make this thread political, but it sticks in my head that Sen. Mccain on a talk show spewing about some inadvertant deaths of innocent people in Pakistan said it was a tragedy. The reality is, that if those people were here their deaths would have been murder, as the deaths by violence of all innocent peoples everywhere are.

[propellerbeanie]

I'm so excited that someone here actually thinks they can comprehend and articulate time and space. Please throw in reality as well. I find myself amused that you'd take the liberty with my post to imply that I must assume that exercise is a waste of energy. How can you make that comparison? You seem smart enough to read. Where did I say that thought was a waste of energy? Clearly things like reality and time and space are beyong comprehension and articulation. Perception is reality to the individual who is doing the percieving. Time and space are so complex we just make a watch or a measuring tape to make ourselves beliveve we can measure it.

Jack,
You said it was a waste of brain chemicals. Where do you think human beings get their energy? Do we lay in the sun? Or, do we eat food for the chemical energy within?
The problem of time and space is infinite, in the sense that we must try to grasp the whole with only a sample. So we do not have finite definitions of these qualities. Still, these qualities give reference to all that people do, all our reality, and all of our existence. When we try to define reality and existence we come up squarely against the infinite qualities of time and space, and so reality, like time and space remains beyond modeling, and objectification.
Your reference to swabbing the deck and hauling a lanyard has everything to do with philosophy. We live in complex societies full of simple relationships. Very often, the drudgery required of people, that society cannot live without -would be without meaning -without the perspective offered by philosophy, or by religion, politics, or nationalism, or any number of lenses that guild our mean lives. No one does the job required, nor gets the true value of any labor without the expense of intensity, and the wages just help one to get back to doing what they do to give their lives meaning.
I am what I do, and if that is a shitty job because of the lack of a philosophy that gives my labor perspective, then wages alone will not give my life meaning.
I do good because I see the point, and I only want people on my boat who see the point, and when life seems pointless as it does in days like ours when government and religion and educational institutions do not meet our needs, then the point of excellence becomes clear to all those who find value in fundamental relationships, and wish to birth a new society from an old.

[Creative Fossil]

reality? the reality of this thread is that there is a mighty big ego present in it. I don't think that took too much thought and deduction?

[SBN Charles]

Searching for reality! Oh the irony!

What do you mean by searching? ~How do you, yourself search?

[Jason]

Searching for reality! Oh the irony!

What do you mean by searching? ~How do you, yourself search?

Not sure I get your question properly, so tell me if you think I'm misunderstanding you....

I meant searching for a reality, or an understanding of reality, that was more correct or true than the reality I had currently. Further than that, I wanted the absolute truest understanding of reality possible. The search was based upon the possibility that my current reality, or current understanding of reality was in some way flawed.

My actual search involved instrospection and analysing my reality: my consciousness, my sense perceptions, my thoughts, my beliefs, my feelings etc etc to see what was true and/or false about these things. The search also involved reading what other people had written about reality(e.g. Zen, other philosophers etc) and having discussions about these things, like on this forum.

(Looking back at the quote of mine, I now think the second line "Searching for real reality! Oh the absurdity!" is a better expression of what I was tring to get across than the first line.)

[David Quinn]

When a philosopher feels the urge to search for reality, it is an indication that he is experiencing confusion and doubt, that his current understanding is indeed flawed. When this happens, he needs to break away from his current understanding and search out a new one.

--

[oborden]

Searching for reality! Oh the irony!

What do you mean by searching? ~How do you, yourself search?

By walking about.

[sue hindmarsh]

Marsha wrote:

So many pompous words. So much drama.

The tension! The agony! Such emotional intensity!

Interesting how the word, reality, can be so provocative.

What is it about reality that provokes emotion? Is reality an emotive state?

On a primitive level, I reckon so. The life of eels. Synapses; neurons.

Impulse. Medulla brain.

Surely, there is philosophy above the level of snake; something other than this strike for a strike.

The fact that there is only one Reality and that everyone is experiencing it, doesn’t seem to put people’s minds at rest - quite the opposite, as we often see on this forum.

People love to love what they love. They don’t want to let go of things they believe make their life worth living. So you have people believing in and depending upon their own thoughts, as if they really belonged to them. The reality is: our thoughts (as well as all other things) are a whim of Reality’s. Knowing this means that you can see immediately the truth of things as they arise. It also means the emotions have nothing to play with, i.e. you don’t have to protect you or your thoughts against anything else, since everything else is the same as you and your thoughts.

So Marsha, there is a level above the “strike for a strike” mentality, but to get there, people have to let go of the lies they love to believe in.

Sue