Ryan Rudolph wrote:Cory,
Most people have the intelligence required to realize wisdom, so don't talk as if people are too dumb to understand you. What humanity lacks is pain tolerance, a rebelliousness against the reality of submission, and the ability to love reality.
What I mean is that they do not have the emotional intelligence, or an expanded intellect with a wide vocabulary, which is related to pain tolerance and intellectual curiosity.
To do what? It's not like I would ever expect any particular person to go all the way in anything, I don't have big expectations and hopes for people. My contention is: everyone can "take on board"
some truths, and you can save people a lot of trouble by deflating their egos, stopping them from going on their arrogant tangents and plans. They might not totally "get it", but they will have a lot more doubt about their previous ambitions. A lot of the most simple truths aren't that hard to understand. Furthermore, life is an art. Rather than resorting to painting on a canvas, recording music or writing a poem, you can create social situations that draw all types of personalities together, creating interesting contrasts, conflicts and lessons for outsiders to absorb. If someone is involved who is too dense to get anything, that person will actually teach a great deal, albeit unintentionally and involuntarily.
Also, I think intelligence frightens people who are horrible with language and have an incurable weak character rooted in an imbalanced ego, it makes them feel inadequate and lacking.
haha, I don't care? They have friends and family to support them, and at bottom, their suffering will drive them towards new activity and growth. Humans are resilient creatures, and I think this "protector" attitude you are showing indicates unrealistic self importance and self centeredness. Your powerful intelligent words, in the big picture, aren't that big of a deal. In fact, humans and all their touchy feelings aren't that important. People bounce back, life goes on.
It would be like a bus driver having a conversation with a quantum physicist about the nature of quarks. You may not realize it, but your use of language is far more complex and developed for what most people are used to, and can understand. Being an expert in anything alienates you from non-experts.
Ryan, I am a fisher of men. There are people in my life I've been working on for years who are still on my side. You're not the only one that has listened. The issues I focus on are universal issues, often very simple points, related to overcoming the human condition. Your analogy about the physicists and bus driver is way off. Really it is. A spiritual philosopher tackles the issues in everyones heart and deals with some key subjects that almost everyone already has an opinion about.
Moreover, from I first met you, before I exposed myself to much philosophy, I remember thinking, “what the fuck is this guy talking about?”
To be fair, I was young, confused, shooting from the hip, and, if I recall, I was talking a lot of shit, using no shortage of pretentious words. :p I don't use very big words anymore, and I tend to focus on straightforward issues in public or with newbies.
If you read the teachings of Jesus, most of his disciples didn’t get what he was saying, and they followed him around for a good chunk of his adult life.
1) As I was saying, I don't expect people to be completely and utterly self realized with other worldly confidence. I expect them to understand a few simple points, and be left with less worldly motivation and be more humble.
2) As I was saying in the 10 commandments thread, I speak truths to most people as a spiritual discipline. This is a really important concept, as it's the complete opposite of seeking comfort through submission to other physical bodies and the herd. You make people uncomfortable and hate you, to really explore the depths of psychological submission and free yourself from it. You do it to gain strength. But you also put effort into understanding the unique situation of the person you are talking to, and bring him to a truth that is relevant to his current goals. Often you undermine and crush his goals, but then you're doing yourself a favor. It's a victory over evil.
3) You don't have access to Jesus' disciples. The Gospels mention the confused ones because they make for good parables. 99% of Jesus life is unknown, we don't know who his best friends, peers and teachers were.
The spiritual path, then, is much about the capacity to feel good about the things that make humans sad ... to accept reality into ones heart. A weightlifter is very analogous. You deliberately and intelligently harm yourself, and then heal back - all for the sake of bearing the weight of truth.
Yes, maybe, but you could also be addicted to the negative emotion involved in constantly stirring things up with people who are incorrigible.
What if you reach a point where there are no more negative emotions? And that the more you do it, the less you care? And that you feel joy and have fun? That's pretty much where I'm at, the result of hard work, but the motivation to do that work came out of luck/grace.
I could be wrong, but you cannot cause someone to be a philosopher,
Your framework is more simplistic than mine. I don't think like that. I cause myself to be a greater philosopher through making myself known and transparent. But I don't recommend doing that without a certain level of purity and lack of attachments, otherwise the hypocrisy registers too high on the spiritual corruption meter.
they must have the some inclination from the outset, so to push it upon people who do not have the philosopher traits is like beating a dead duck with a stick, and then receiving the maggots that get sprayed up into your face.
Not a good analogy. Again, you simplify reality and other people, likely to preserve your vanity. You make reality ugly perhaps because you are ugly.
Personally, I am selective who I start a philosophical conversation with, and I test their waters by seeing where we can find common ground, and then I gently poke tiny holes in their arguments and see if they notice. It could be my own weakness, but I have gone in with guns a blazing, and your mind becomes filled with the thoughts and emotions of others. It drains your own life force.
The internet is good in the sense that you don’t have to deal with the direct exchange of people’s emotions. Philosophical attack is definitely far less mentally draining through remote technology. Basically, there isn’t as much of the telepathy through the internet.
Well, I don't do the guns blazing thing. I aim for and hit very narrow targets and study the results like a scientist, having a very open mind to all of the consequences, absorbing all the negative energy and converting it into positive. There are no mistakes in my reality. Every wrong, through a creative act of will, becomes right. The degree you go wrong is the degree you go right, if you love your wrongs and put the work in through that love.