GENIUS FORUMS

I have a very vague memory of something that may or may not be relevant to The Way. As a very small child, I have no idea how old, but likely less than 7, I remember seeing the world in a certain way and liking that world very much. Maybe the only reason I knew that I liked it very much was because I was starting to be able to think differently somehow: I could start a chain of thought that might have been intriguing to me, but changed my experience in the world in a way I didn't really like - or at least in a way that I knew was inferior. I remember observing what it was like to start a chain of thought, and then stop and come back into the world that I knew was right, thinking to myself "no, you just don't even think that way to get here!". What I think happened was that I started using these chains of thoughts more and more. I don't know whether or not I've completely forgotten about that original world, or even whether it was the world of the Tao when I was young and unconscious. But in my reluctance to keep on concentrating on Wisdom, I thought I would share and try to dristract myself from the guilt. :)

-Skip

I remember thinking when I was 4, following that "chain of thought" the whole world seemed to exist in, "Why am I here? I don't need to be here." Little did I know, it was true! I didn't need to be in that world. "If I didn't exist, the world would still be here. So why do I exist, and why now???" The first part I still can't answer except with a "because...", but to the "why now": "there is only now!"

I didn't really have that. I just remember at 11 I looked in the mirror, and said "I am going to find out what this world is all about."

My first philosophical question was "Why am I me?"

It was Plato who claimed we are born with full knowledge. However, as we grow old we forget that knowledge. The way to get it back is by self-reflection.

See Plato's Meno @ http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/meno.html

One thing you should know is that for Plato, Virtue is Knowledge.

I think most people have brushes with deeper insights into life when they are very young. Particularly when the mind is still fresh and developing, around the ages of three to five, and not yet hardened into the adult world-view.

Some kids have stronger experiences than the norm, which can have an impact on them, and even though they might suppress these experiences while getting on with the perilous business of growing up, there is every chance that seeds of wisdom have been planted, which can blossom later in life.

Often, when adults have mystical experiences and altered states they are rekindling insights and altered states that they had when they were very young, which can give these experiences a sense of familiarity.

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