"Brah"

ACTUALLY, i called you a proselytizer, spiritual myopia seems to be an inevitable outcome of such a standpoint.

and i pretty much enjoy arguing with everyone. i'm a word nerd.

 

You called me someone who claims enlightenment when I have never even remotely implied that I do.

And just think, just this morning you were making condescending remarks about me and my "prized thesaurus". Like I said, mamaK -- it takes one to know one. (Although for the record, I've been on the thesaurus sobriety wagon for quite a while now )

Travis

 

oh, I knew.

 

I'll just sit back and put my feet up and watch awhile.

will you make the treats this time Neo? maybe those little crackers I like so much... with some brie?

 

nah, I'm probably not enjoying this as much as you are. This kind of discussion is an all day event, every day, with the people I live with.

Except worse. Much worse.

 

actually it's not as enjoyable as all that. but I'm downloading something so I'm hanging out. plus the cheese & crackers woulda made it better. :toetap05:

oh well. *shrug*

 

Ah, ok. I'm just here because I figured I should at least keep up with my thread. It would be irresponsible to unleash this horror upon the world and then not at least keep up with it.

 

I'm afraid the damage is done, Dr. Frankenstein.

 

Yes, I'm sure many people harbor irreversible hate for me now.

*shrugs*

 

what would Stalk think of you, Neo.. tisk, tisk!

 

Deep down, I think he'd be proud.

 

Boy!

I think so to.

 

I'll probably defriend you on the hipforums tomorrow if this thread isn't gone.

 

Do what ya gotta do. :cheers2:

 

:cheers2:

Its at the top again!!!

 

That's what always confuses me.

Liberation from the cage we built for ourselves in order to escape our liberation.

 

That one always confused me as well. My only intuition about it is that the "cage" was initially just an exploration of a different way to relate to reality. It was only when we mistook that particular version of reality as the entirety of it that we imprisoned ourselves.

But perhaps the entire process of experimentation, false identification, imprisonment and liberation serves a greater purpose in the grand scheme of things.

I don't let the mystery of the human condition stifle me any longer, however. I suppose you could call it practical idealism. I see my imprisonment and I see how to get out. How I got in just doesn't hold my attention in the way that it used to.

Travis

 

Well, it's interesting to me because I'm convinced we are on repeat. Of course, many people identify with the belief of reincarnation, the repeat of the human condition over and over again until we acheive this "enlightenment" or liberation, but then what? We return to where we came? So what was the point of leaving in the first place, and why will we not leave again? That's why I always questioned the permanent nature of enlightenment.

 

I found my calling.

This thread is not going to die.
yet.

 

See, this is a question which shouldnt even have to be asked, but thanks to religious superstition, it plagues many of us.
The oldest of spiritual texts can be interpreted in many ways, but I would never take them literally, nor most of the people who interpret them. 'We' never left anything, and 'we' are not going anywhere, outside of the raw datum with which reality manifest's itself. That solitary force which is, only because of itself, is never removed from us. It's not possible, when you take it to be permeating, pervading, the natural forces which uphold the structure and are (imo) fragments of the whole; refracted emissions of one pragmatic force (life, in essence).
For radareyes to say that he is no longer as interested in the the beginning as he used to be, implying that he is only concerned with where he is going, has me wonder just what he think's he's looking forward to. Obviously he makes a cleare distinction between the two, though removed from time and space Im sure. It's interesting because he seems to enjoy deciphiring cause from effect, and has the mind which traces expression back to a single point of origin.
I can not make that discrimination between beginning and end (of a single human's experience with life, or reality as it experience's itself) because I have no reason to believe there is anything more waiting for us besides our ability to emulate the act of creation to a modest extent. And though we are a result of life itself, and our living it attached to the mind and body can be considered imprisonment if we so chose (in some cases, rightly so, no doubt), I cant imagine how any selective process is being enacted which is coducting a task of plucking out single individual (souls? spirits?) from some ethereal at certain timed intervals, and placing them in the womb according to an unwritten moral code which dictates (lol IRL) that in order to deserve 'true life' we must relinquish attachment to this one, transcend primal desire and learn to yearn for what can be called higher states of bliss, under the premise of acting in the benefit for all sentient beings.
The mind is something which I no longer take to be an interfering medium to the divine, and while that may be the #1 spiritual no-no, I also no longer give a shit what is preached about how to live life, my own, this one experience I get tangled up in the cosmic dance. If a belief in enlightenment (wether eternally cemented or perpetually undergoing definition according to circumstance) keeps the void out from the forefront of your consciousness, then I see nothing wrong with it, it is like any other belief. Personally, I feel enlightened every time I have a beer, a feeling of euphoric existing which is equal to those I've incurred by several hours of silent meditation.