Ann B decided to come along to see if philosophy was for her and first reaction is that she will come again. Everybody enjoyed the short videos.
I did write to an American Philosophy professor asking did he believe that our knowledge of the world is in our mind. He replied
Yes it is . Of course it has already been proven, many times over, it is just that the proof has not been persuasive over the power of naive realism. The eyes are cameras not projectors.
Below is interesting articles I found on the net.
I’ve always wanted to know the truth about life in terms of who we are, what we are doing here, God, the whole enchilada. That desire predates all my OCD and depression. You say “just this” is the truth, and that at least makes sense. But then I read there is no person or no separation anywhere…that idea does not compute at all. What is meant by those statements?
Reply:
Regarding your question. I don’t claim
there is no person. There is a person. It is obvious. But there is no
abstraction behind that – at least none that can be found. We’ve
been led to believe that all of this perception is my perception.
This is my life. These are my thoughts. But have you ever
found the object all of that supposedly belongs to? That abstraction
can’t actually be found. This isn’t some kind of deep or
difficult thing. It’s obvious. It’s perfectly obvious to any
child. Because we have to be taught to believe in some imaginary
abstraction.
But there is no doubt but what all of
this is happening. So here it is all happening. And there is no need
for anything more. Because this is the totality. It’s already
complete.
The desire to understand why we are here
and what it all means and all that is, in my view, a compulsion. It
serves to try and protect us from the unbounded immensity of this
present happening because we wrongly imagine that the immensity of
what is happening is terrifying. We mistakenly interpret the
unboundedness as a threat.
But my experience is that when I simply
stopped assuming those things to be true and instead began to look
directly for myself at what is actually going on, the terror
transformed into allowing.
That’s kind of a misleading statement,
though. Because terror didn’t actually transform. It was just a
misunderstanding to begin with. It’s like that cliche story about
the snake in the rope. It never was a snake. It was a rope. But it
was mistaken for a snake.
So it was never something to be
terrified of. It was just a misunderstanding.
As for separation. My experience is that
the actuality is obviously not separate. Separation is conceptual.
I addressed this in a comment recently,
but I imagine most won’t have read it.
My actual experience – and I imagine
yours too – is seamless. We speak as though it had seams,
boundaries, borders, and divisions. We speak as though there was
separation. We say my experience and your experience. We talk about
this object and that object. We speak of divisions between various
senses.
But in my actual experience none of that
can be found. What is actually happening can’t be divided. I can’t
find my experience versus your experience. I can’t find the
divisions between objects. I can’t find the distinction between
hearing and seeing.
Because of our conditioning
we think that the separations are obvious. We think that
because we can speak of this object and that object or hearing and
seeing or whatever that it means that the actual divisions are there.
But, in fact, I can’t find them. And I don’t believe you can
either. Not if you really look honestly.
None of what I’m proposing here is
something extraordinary. It’s actually quite ordinary. In fact,
it’s what babies and very young children seem to know as the
exclusive reality. They don’t seem to know of separation.
We have to be taught separation. We are
taught to see separation where there is none in actuality. And we are
taught to invert things such that we imagine that the obvious is
non-obvious and that the imaginary is obvious.
But if you really look right now. Just
look. See if what you’ve learned is true. See if you can actually
find the separation.
Perhaps you’ll find as I have that the
separation is conceptual.
Not that thinking is wrong or bad or a
problem. But just to prove that separation is conceptual, try this.
For a moment don’t think. I know that might seem like an
impossibility. But actually, it’s pretty easy because naturally
you’re not thinking quite frequently. So just tune into one of
those moments between thoughts.
And in that moment of no thought, notice
how there is no separation. Separation is only a concept. It only
comes from believing thoughts to be a truthful narrative about life.
But in that moment without thought there
is no separation. At least that’s what I find.
Again, this isn’t to say that thought
is a problem. It’s not. Not at all. How could it be?
But with this simple experiment you can
see for yourself that separation isn’t obvious. Non-separation is
obvious. We’ve just inverted things. We just got mixed up.
Everything is as it must be. Certain conditions simply led things to be as they are. That's reality, that's the truth. Fighting against it, this is what leads to suffering. When you stop fighting the reality of the present moment, when you accept that everything is "as it should be," you'll find peace, and you can act and react to the situation without all the inner turmoil that we needlessly create.
Paying more attention to thought than to right now masks the inherent perfect Is-ness of this incredible Now. And if you pay attention, you can witness the next one in its perfect beauty.
Analysis is paralyzing, dampening perception. Worry of the future creates the experience of fear now. Regret or guilt of the past creates depression and anger now. It is the resistance to what is that creates stress. It is the desire for something to be different that creates unease. It is the judgment of right Here, right Now that creates suffering. Hanging on to the projection, hanging on to the emotion deadens the experience of What Is, this priceless, eternal moment.
Should things be different? How can you possibly know? Have you experienced the fullness of what is happening right now? Be the witness to everything. Life moves. Things come and go. Stuff happens. But the witness remains. Awareness is aware. That’s you. Be exactly as you are and let everything as it is.
