Who do we think we are?

First topic message reminder :

Ok, sports fans.........

Before we ask ourselves any other questions........

Here is the #1 priority question........

Who the heck do we think we are?  

I’m not aware that this question has ever been seriously asked before.  The only precedent of which I’m aware is when it was simply posed by Paul Gauguin.  

I would not pose this question unless I thought I had the rudiments of an answer.  I’m seeking help from anyone who would be willing to participate in fleshing out the answer.  
..........

(The continuation of this ‘topic post’ is the no. 3 post (on the first page https://openmindsforum.forumotion.com/t361-who-do-we-think-we-are ) of this topic.....)

Aaron,

smelly, Alan Watts and virtually any thoughtful person will embrace personal relations as an essential aspect of existence.  

This is the basic intuition of pantheism.  

Some of us are not willing to stop there.  

smelly wants the world to stop.

He wants to turn the clock back, by unilaterally denying time.

We all want this, ultimately.



(cont.......)

How the Swans Came to the Lake

You really aren’t seeing this here, are you?

“... there is a couple of self effacing, double helix of negation in the above Appolonian/Dionysian analysis of 'Religion' ...

In the east of yoga and buddhism there is an inward looking search for understanding, in the west the abrahamic religions focus of "God" as an external source to be feared and propitiated.

Unfortunately for the equation they both in history produce the same kind of authoritarian state and it seems just a little odd to me that in the west the draconian thought control produced certain inalienable rights among them militant free thinking.

While the buddhist civilizations of compassion and respect for nature are more expert and successful with the brutal suppression of the individual.

Human life and the collective, generational struggle of it seems to mirror the individuals struggle to understand it's self. Moments of compassion and respect and long stretches of struggle as war ... as a participant in a war with an hostile universe bent on imposing as much pain and suffering possible till it kills you ... ‘and did you exchange, a walk on part in the war for a lead roll in a cage?’”

There are no pure lands beyond here.

People are beaten down by all of these systems.

The UFO delusion is no different.

It goes no further here, as Captain Picard said of the Borg.

https://www.shambhala.com/how-the-swans-came-to-the-lake-746.html?fbclid=IwAR0d05iLzY1ZW3XCoufD-FZN4oqK9Ng9VgeM-8uZNQwJ_P9_7Vwmtv9XaxE

Ack wrote:

So in the whole domain of ways of liberation. There are roots for the stupid people and roots for the intelligent people. And the latter are faster. This was perfectly clearly explained by Wua Nung, the six patriarch of Zen in China. And it’s sutra where he says the difference between the gradual school and the Sudden School is they both arrive at the same point, but the gradual is for slow-witted people and the sudden is for fast witted people. Can you, in other words, find a way that sees into your own nature, sees into the Tao immediately?  

There is no such thing as progression through time.

The person sitting in the train station reading the newspaper is not the same person who will get off the train.

The person sitting here now reading this is not the same person who will die.

Our seeming to go along in a course of time doesn't really happen.

A path there is but no one who follows it.

Nirvana is but no one who attains it.

And what of the Bodhisattva?

Is the Bodhisattva is just a deluded fool?

You have no idea what you mean.

Anyone with a name for here is a limited fool.

dan wrote:Aaron,

smelly, Alan Watts and virtually any thoughtful person will embrace personal relations as an essential aspect of existence.  

This is the basic intuition of pantheism.  

Some of us are not willing to stop there.  


(cont.......)

What you will is irrelevant.

What you be here is another matter.

Your life has not satisfied you.

So you have left your life.

Happy trails grand pa.

You are out in the cold on your own and I am here.

ack,

As pleasing as Alan Watts is to listen to, I don't buy it.

I made My living in antiques for thirty years, I bought a fake picture once, never again.

Same as I don't buy this god , jesus, muhamed ali stories.


hobbit

.

Yes, the Bodis are fiction.

If you look into the essence of the Buddha, he wasn't a Buddhist, same for Jesus, not a Christian.

Others created words to duplicate their being.

But the being isn't in the words.

IT is here alive as us.

You can hear their song here too.

I am not alone, oh no.

My awareness was always here throughout my whole life.

I imagine it was and always will be, before this aspect was birthed, after this aspect withers, but that's just my imagination.

Some would say this is the knowing that is always here.

Don't know.

No savior or god.

Just this, straight on.

OK, I won't belabor this, but I may remind you every now and then, as you guys share your delusions here.

.

smelly,

There might be a word for you........ ungrateful.  

Would that be a fair description of your state of mind?

Many have, and do, live lives that are nasty, brutish and short.

In contrast, you are availing yourself of many aspects of modernity.



(cont......)

I think we have proven your errant view of the situation and your words for it are completely irrelevant.

Struggle all you like.

It is clear who hobbit is Ack, can't you see him?

Haha, this standoff is amusing.

But no one is really here disagreeing or agreeing, nor needs to.

The lines are being clearly drawn for those that need them.

When you are beyond the lines, have fun with that too.

.

smelly,

Do you recognize beauty?  

Some struggle to produce art.  

You too have created art.  

Is being an artist misguided?

Folks have many kinds of vocations and avocations. Is all this misguided.



(cont.......)

.

99,

And I don’t know if I am God or not, but the speculation about it may lead to useful insights.

I merely make an honest effort to ground my speculations in some aspect of reality.  

I do the best I can....... it’s WYSIWYG.


Ack,

It’s hard to tell if smelly appreciates our art.  

He does enjoy adding his own graffiti.  I’m not sure what Leonardo would have thought.  

I guess we must be privileged to have smelly devote so much of his attention to our humble efforts.



(cont.......)

.

.

Being an artist is part of who we are.

Living is an art.

My life is a work of art.

It was a big part of my journey to nowhere.

A portal for sure.

Where did these images and words come from in me?

I never put them there.

But they come out in beautiful unexpected ways.

I don't understand it and I am working on mastering some of these modes of expression.

This all seems very beautiful to me, even the ugly parts.

I think we all have latent abilities that have been dormant and have arisen over thousands of years and come and go today.

Who could ever really explain inspiration or great art made from intuition?

We are driven to make.

It is an obsession.

It takes focus.

If I was structuring an awakening training regime, and i could at this point, like the Finder's Course does, artistic expression would be included.

I never speak about it, but art came to me spontaneously, as did poetry.

For me, this is evidence of things unseen.

That's good, because for me its always fresh, I'm a blind donkey after all and I expect nothing.

I am free to express my self as my mind and heart feel to in life, bound by no one else's beliefs or vision for what I should do.

That is the gift of awareness.

Freedom and active authentic expression is how we realize in part and pierce our delusions and beliefs.

We don't need to lie to ourselves or each other.

We can be completely authentic with each other and naked.

This is my natural state of being here.

Self discovery is really exploring the tree of your own life.

In this way, what is here always is discovered by us, like a new country.

.

Ack, I appreciate authenticity in a delusion world, this is most beautiful to me.

So, when I know you are lying, I will spit and throw shit, if you show me who you really are, that is beautiful.

Shit is smelly and may be beautiful as well to some.

Your delusions are repugnant to me, as they were in my self, but In accept they happen and must run their course, like poison, because your minds are poisoned by others until they aren't.

You have to self reboot your mind.

Jesus called this being born again, by reentering the womb.

I know what he meant having gone through it.

I never understood when I called my self names.

Ack wrote:Awakening training regime huh?

My wife and best friend went through the Finders Course.

It can be very interesting to explore this with other people.

We have had our own finders course going on here on OMF over the last 3 years and before I showed up.

It is all very clear what is happening here, isn't it

Yes it is, if you look through things, into them.

I am here demanding authenticity if you be true seekers of your self, you will respond, if not, we know you only live for your delusions.

I shine my light here looking for human beings.

Art is not delusional, it is naked singularity.

Don't fool yourself, it's so easy to fool yourself.

But we all fool ourselves until we see through it.

That's all realization is.

Ack,

If I may, just test my own understanding of hobbit’ thoughts......

hobbit believes in cosmic consciousness, he also believes in aspects of biological evolution.  

He certainly believes in mathematics, especially as represented in its geometrical aspect.  

hobbit is very ambivalent about the presence of humans.  

I have asked him about where, if anywhere, we might fit in.  

I think he is sympathetic with mystical monism.  


smelly,

You suppose us to be seekers of Self........

That is a very promising statement.  I did not imagine that you might ever utter such a statement.  Maybe it was a slip of the tongue.  

In other words, we’re all trying to figure out who we are.  Sometimes you suggest we are nothing........ nothing to see here, just keep moving along.  

But, I think you’d agree that even nothing, or especially nothing, has an infinite potential.  

So what?  Well, some of us enjoy watching flowers bloom.  

We might even suppose that our enjoyment of flowers is not unrelated to their existence.

We might suppose the Earth is a cosmic art museum. Many suppose it would be a shame to have it destroyed. Part of our potential might be to work on its continuation.



(cont........)