Society for ego validation.

[grub]

The dynamics and setup of this place is just a means of supporting and propagating the ego all the talk of enlightenment notwithstanding.

Absolutely right, maestro. Even all that enlightenment chatter is just one more way the ego affirms its own existence. The search for enlightenment just so happens to go through the ego, not around it, eradicating itself from within by realizing its own illusory nature. The first step, then, must be to nurture and strengthen the ego, until it is strong enough to destroy itself.

(p.s. You could probably (perhaps, even accurately) term me the conflict type, with a little bit of the guru thrown in for good measure. Cheers.))

[Faust]

The great truths of life aren't empirically-testable, but they do apply to everything within the empirical world and beyond out of logical necessity.

what are these great truths of life?

Where does a cause end and an effect begin? That's a good question. In a deeper sense, there is no beginning or end to anything, which means there aren't really "things" in Nature. And when there are no "things" in Nature, causality becomes superfluous.

causality becomes 'superfluous'?? This seems incorrect, it's not superfluous it's very important to keep in mind at all times.

A

perfect sage is someone who is effortlessly conscious of the nature of Reality at all times, without interruption, and never gets taken in by the core illusion of "maya", not even for an instant. By contrast, an imperfect sage is only conscious of Reality intermittently.

what is the nature of Reality?

[Faust]

Absolutely. Boundaries, causes. No boundaries, no causes.

Isn't there a lack of boundaries BECAUSE there ARE causes?

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[quote]Also, not sure I've ever heard you actually address this directly, but surely you must have: do causes themselves lack inherent existence? [/quote]
Of course.   Causes are merely "things", after all.

causes lack inherent existence, but they still exist.

Also, given that the observer/self apparently hasn't existed for eternity, and yet the observer is supposedly the creator of boundaries/causes, how could it be said that causes stretch back infinitely into the past when they would lack any observer to create them?

Nature spontaneously creates this scenario of an endless past in the moment. It is as much an illusion as anything else.

What??? Nature SPONTANEOUSLY creates this? If it's an illusion then how can nature 'make it'?

The idea of a past stretching back endlessly only has truth and meaning in the context of the deluded view that Nature exists as an objective entity and flows through time.

how is this delusional?

Similarly, the idea that all things have causes only has truth and meaning in the context of the deluded view that things inherently exist to begin with. Both of these truths are correctives to particular deluded viewpoints and shouldn't be treated as anything other than that.

things don't inherently exist BECAUSE they're caused.

[brokenhead]

The only discord I saw was when Kevin went to America, . . .

Could someone please point me to where this is?

Yes. It's just above Mexico in North America.