Janus

As Ashleigh Brilliant says (paraphrased): My biggest problem is what to do about all the things I cannot do anything about

I would extend that also to anyone acting as though they are enlightened, even if they don't come right out and say they are. I guess I just don't lik...

Yes, but it often seems to be somewhat patronizing, to come from a sense of superiority as though "We know better".

I don't think Budhhists, or adherents of other religions generally look with much favour on secular forms of creative expression.

I wonder whether, given the immense diversity of human nature, one person's harmony of the spirit is not another person's disharmony.

Yes, they do generally seem to be rather restricted in their behavior and their moral attitudes to human behavior; particularly in regards to homosexu...

Yes, probably Hume may be interpreted as merely wanting to point out that it is not deductively certain that the future will be as the past. But on th...

I don't see why being yourself may not include "wearing masks".

I agree, it's a challenge. On one hand it might sound like a triviality: of course I am myself, who else could I be? I think it means being fully acce...

Didya read the following paragraph, Posty? :grin:

You could well be right; I have never studied Hume intensively. I had formed the impression, though, that his so-called 'problem of induction' consist...

:cool:

I don't deny that meditation can yield results; I know it from experience. What I am skeptical about is the notion that it can be deliberately practic...

I agree; I do think people chase the awakening "dream" or myth for emotional reasons. I have done it myself! And there's nothing wrong with chasing th...

But it's not a dismissive attitude because I am open to hearing good reasons to support belief in what you say I am merely dismissing. If I then dismi...

Hume denies that it is rational to believe there are laws of nature, but he also denies that it is rational to believe that there have been events whi...

This is simply untrue. I consider religion to be a very significant aspect of human life. But philosophy seeks to establish truth, and religious claim...

What...close but no cigar?

As I understand it Krishnamurti's 'teaching' is a 'no-teaching"; in other words he rejects tradtional systems and faiths, beliefs in the guru and so o...

That is nothing more than your conveniently dismissive assumption about my psychological motivation. But you don't know me, and thus have no idea what...

I can't see why it should seem a combative question. Its perfectly reasonable to ask people to justify any claim they care to make. On the other hand ...

You haven't answered my question. How many awakened individuals have you met? How do you know they are awakened (assuming you have met some or at leas...

Of course there must still be a concept of "me', it's only my feeling towards me that changes. In the most radical case I may no longer fear death, or...

I don't deny that more radical transformations do, rarely, take place, but I don't believe they can reliably be achieved by any deliberate form of dis...

Well maybe I have benefited more than I thought from svriptural studies and meditation, since I am no stranger to feelings of bliss and love. Actually...

How incredibly, outrageously presumptuous of you! Meditation bore a great deal of 'fruit" for me in terms of learning to relax, still the mind, and to...

Perhaps, but how would you know whether K, or anyone else, is awakened? How many awakened people have you met in your life? I have never met anyone I ...

Even if no teaching could bring about a radical transformation, it doesn't seem to follow that people could not be helped to transform by what K, or a...

Do you genuinely believe that when you perceive a tree you are perceiving a "mental image"? The very notion of a "mental image" is based on a scientif...

Is that you in the video? If so you need help, and if not, then it was not your reaction, no?

The point about pathlessness is that to follow a path is to slavishly submit to others; to a guru, a formula or to traditional beliefs, rather than to...

In a broad land the horizons are vaster; if the land is broad enough the horizons are broadened to infinity. No path is needed, no?

Since you seem to think thought is the enemy you might prefer U G Krishnamurti.

Well then you obviously need to broaden your horizons.

If all lost together then not alone, no? If we all find or make our own paths, we need not do so in isolation, do we? Indeed it would be impossible to...

Why would pathlessness entail lone climbing? But, surely K would agree that his teaching, indeed no teaching (and that is his main point) could bring ...

What would it mean to say that perception is veridical according to you? I mean it obviously wouldn't be veridical under the BIV or Matrix scenarios. ...

The body is necessary for experience; it's as obvious that you can't have experience without a body as it is that you cannot have experience without a...

Firstly, I don't think BIV or Matrix scenarios are worthy of serious consideration; apart from their implausibility they just push the real world back...

I have long been convinced of the pointlessness of the question 'Is perception 'really' direct or indirect?'; whether perception is thought to be dire...

Haha! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IABRgZH12YA&feature=youtu.be

Sure, but I've already acknowledged several times that the creative side of math (probably) cannot be done by machines; I think this is so because tha...

To do math is to calculate, measure or follow a set of rules; all of which computers can do. Of course creative math, invention and discovery, is some...

Sure, but I am not disagreeing with that at all. My point is that metaphor is not the core of propositionally determinate modeling, and nor is the dis...

The hard sciences, including mathematics are on the most determinate end of the spectrum; they are the paradigm cases of determination, I would say. T...

Ha, that's hilarious (and very wise to boot!). I am fond of Zizek's live performances.

Yes, but I didn't say that poetry is not science; which is of course 'trivially true'; a mere matter of definition. I said that poetry cannot become s...

For me this passage highlights the schizoid nature of philosophy: poetry aspiring to become what it can never be: a science. The grotesque alternative...

Music (as performed) is an essentially dynamic form, whereas as painting, for example, is not. Having said that there is a dynamic performance in the ...

Yeah, it's interesting to think of the different ways in which painting, for example, can capture flow; life, movement, intensity; very different than...