What is life really all about?

[Mia]

Descartes had some really interesting ideas, but a lot of not so good ones either.
I'm not sure I understand your point OP, that we create our own world via our mind? That's easy enough to see. That the person you envision yourself to be is not necessarily the person you are? Certainly true.
I think you need to define "conceptual" better in order to be able to work the argument better, unless I missed it.
You also need to read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_is_a_hand
although it's tangential to what you are trying to say I think.

 

[Minister]

You bring forth a line of reason that is totally valid. Must admit I felt struck reading through. However, a great many explanatory models, for human existance and acting, are competing on being TRUTH.
The one you are presenting is only a slice of the pie, the other slices claim validity just as much, to the picture as a whole.

Keep thinking

 

[southflorida]

The quote is from Rene Descartes, 16th century philosopher was part of a movement known as rationalism. Too much ego in it for me to be a subscriber............

I have an idea of who he was. His quote is very famous.

But, in relation to the conceptual self, it is the other way around.

Since we believe we are the "I" - we confuse the thinking and identify it as if our "I" is doing it.

We believe there is an "I" doing the thinking, what I'm saying is that there is no "I" - there is only thinking and identification with this thinking.

It's like that quote:

Whenever we get there - there is no there there.

 

[Stoner4Life]

This is a question that we all ask ourselves at one time or another...right?

Well, after many years of contemplating it, here is my answer:

Life, or what is more accurately can be called the human condition is all about successful "self-survival."

There are two domains where our "self" does everything to survive:

1) physical domain, where the average human being spends 5% of his or her attention. In this domain, as long as you have air, water, food, and a roof over your head, you're good to go. We used to spend a lot more time here when we lived in caves, maybe 50%, maybe less. But, once we got physical-survival pretty much figured out, we switched our attention to the domain where we currently swim most of the time. Some swim in this second domain 99.9% of the time...lol

...us sitting online in this forum is a perfect example of this second domain

2) this second domain is the social-domain, or what can be called "social-survival."

This is where the average human being - NOW A DAYS - spends the other 95% of his or her attention.

In this domain, even the physical survival is turned into social-survival.

Here in the social-survival domain you want not only food, but a Big-Mac...lol, not just a roof over your head, but a MTV-crib...yo!

Not just a car, but a SUV that is bigger than a city bus...lmfao

Not just clothes from the second-hand store, or from your older brother, but some designer jeans and shoes and shirt...etc...etc...etc.

Now, here is the clincher! Every moment of your life, this means 100% of your time on this rock spinning around the sun, everything you do, think, feel, sense, is nothing more that a "self" survival tactic.

We normally believe that attaining what we want and avoiding what we don't want will make us happy. This is a "false" assumption. What we really get is a feeling of victory or success when we succeed in getting what we want, and a feeling of relief when we avoid something we don't want.

These feelings are always temporary, and it's always only a matter of time, and a very short amount of time, btw, before the "self-survival" principle creates a new desire for us to chase after.

Either way, what we are always doing is running toward something or away from something, and these two impulses are two sides of the same coin.

They keep us running after something that we will never get.

It is the ULTIMATE ILLUSION that our self-mind uses to keep us persisting as a human RAT chasing the "invisible" cheese.

Death is where the line is drawn, and the running stops, unless reincarnation is possible and you will start chasing a new cheese in a new human RAT outfit

The funniest part is that this "self" that we are surviving as ===>>> is completely "conceptual."

It doesn't really exist.

It is a story being played inside your thinking.

And this story is based on who you think you are, or to be more accurate "the way that you think you are."

The story is created using past events (memories) and also future projections (imagination).

As you can see, both of these are conceptual.

The perceptions you are having right now are also 100% conceptual.

All of our organs of perception are secondary processes. This is a scientific fact...btw...for those that don't already know that.

So as you see, what you believe and assume to be your "self" is actually nothing more than a snowball of conceptions (beliefs/assumptions).

These concepts are like bandages that we wrap around the invisible man IN A DESPERATE ATTEMPT to make him real.

Society and culture is where this all starts when we are very, very young, and it continues until death puts an end to this BS.

The first memories you have of your "self" when you were just a child - is the first CONCEPTUAL bandages you started wrapping around yourself (with the help of culture and society obviously).

Since there is nothing underneath these bandages, it is quite easy to figure out that there is no real self to find when we put aside all the conceptions (beliefs and assumptions) that society has programmed into us during our life.

This programming never ends by the way, as long as we're alive.

What this all means and points toward, does sound kind of absurd: Our true nature and what and who we really are is infinitely nothing...lol

The truth is what it IS.

The truth obviously is never a CONCEPT, because a concept only REPRESENTS something, a concept is NEVER the thing itself.

Now, at least you know the meaning of the RAT race. And if you are living in the mountains all alone, it doesn't mean that you are not in the rat race, it only means you are living in the mountains all alone. The conceptual "self" survival remains and pushes you on forward - in an attempt to survive as whatever you believe and assume you "are."

Which is once again...all NOTHING but a concept...lol

isn't life interesting?

stop sniffing glue,

I should read through all of that which is nothing but your own concept and then answer yes or no as if even a moment of the above would pertain to me?

I think the cheese done slid off your cracker.......

 

[southflorida]

Descartes had some really interesting ideas, but a lot of not so good ones either.

I just know that he became aware that he could doubt EVERYTHING except that he couldn't doubt THAT he was doubting and had a deep insight from that.


obviously it was because he became aware that doubting IS itself...lol

I'm not sure I understand your point OP, that we create our own world via our mind? That's easy enough to see. That the person you envision yourself to be is not necessarily the person you are? Certainly true.

I'm saying that the "self" that we believe we are is 100% conceptual. That there is no objective reality like we believe in our western society.

I think you need to define "conceptual" better in order to be able to work the argument better, unless I missed it.

Conceptual is everything that is created by our "mind."

This includes everything that we perceive, because perception is a secondary process, where we don't see what is actually there, but instead we see our beliefs and assumptions recorded in our memory.

To be more correct - our mind interprets what we perceive, provides it with meaning, and delivers the necessary emotional charge in order to help the self-mind in its job of surviving as-itself, which includes the human body obviously.

You also need to read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_is_a_hand
although it's tangential to what you are trying to say I think.

Perception is 100% conceptual. It is like virtual reality. It is in some way similar to what we see on our computer screens or on the screen in the movie theater, except it is three-dimensional.

It is NO coincidence that TV's and Movie Theaters were invented and are so popular. Our life is just like TV programs and movies...lol

Reality is created through our Consciousness making distinctions.

Absolutely everything is a distinction that Consciousness makes. This includes both objective and subjective reality.

Consciousness is aware AS every distinction inside itself.

This means that Earth, Icmag, Internet, every cannabis seed, every ounce of weed, every bong, EVERYTHING there ever was, IS now, or ever will be - is Consciousness ITSELF.

It is what we ARE.

But this is only while I'm sniffing glue...like S4L said

 

[freeon]

Guy, your making this overly complicated. Life is about kicking ass and chewing bubble gum. I thought everyone knew this?

 

[southflorida]

You bring forth a line of reason that is totally valid. Must admit I felt struck reading through. However, a great many explanatory models, for human existance and acting, are competing on being TRUTH.
The one you are presenting is only a slice of the pie, the other slices claim validity just as much, to the picture as a whole.

I'm describing what I observe as the human condition. We live as human beings that are social creatures. The drive to survive as who we believe we "are" - and what I have been calling the "self" is crystal-clear.

There is NOTHING outside of self-survival (physical and social) - this is all we do 100% of the time after we are conceived, and after we are born, and until we die.

In this Universe - SURVIVAL is the name of the game.

Look at cannabis - how it does everything to survive.

Under such pressure from almost all governments and against all odds it continues to SURVIVE.

Just look at the GSC thread in the Smoke reports...lol

That is a perfect example of SOCIAL SURVIVAL

 

[vta]

Sex, drugs and rock and roll baby!

 

[Medium Pimpin']

life is all about family

 

[southflorida]

imho...this stuff is NOT complicated at all

what is complicated IS our conceptual "self" that has grown out of proportion and is causing us all non-stop suffering

the conceptual "self" is like a snow-ball rolling down hill always attaching new beliefs and assumptions ON TOP of the enormous amount of old beliefs and assumptions that are already there

none of these beliefs and assumptions are the truth, they are all REPRESENTATIONS and MIS-REPRESENTATIONS of the truth

our self-mind has no use for the truth, it only cares that we survive as the conceptual-entity that we believe and assume we are

but, it will fail, no matter how clever the self-mind is, death puts an end to this futile pursuit of self-survival

when we die, most of us will grasp that the memories of the past and the projection of the future kept us hypnotyzed chasing the invisible cheese

while the only thing that is true, this present moment, the here and now, was the only thing that was real, or to be more correct, the awareness of the present moment

this awareness of the present moment is the closest we can get to actually BEING who we are while still perceiving what we perceive

the true nature of who we are, infinitely nothing, can't be perceived, it is outside of human perception, and can only be directly experienced

we can directly experience BEING infinitely nothing, because it is who and what we really ARE, and the fact that we have confused ourselves with a false conceptual "self" doesn't change this - it just makes it look like we are watching a movie about a CHARACTER that we believe that we are

I guess this is why we love movies and spends on billions to watch them

while the most amazing movie is occuring in our own life

it is the movie about YOU

not the real YOU, but the conceptual you

and once this is grasped, the next step is to become aware of who is creating this movie and who is watching it

 

[Liza]

Guy, your making this overly complicated. Life is about kicking ass and chewing bubble gum. I thought everyone knew this?

You are right the game goes on. It may have been too rough for Buddha but it's too dull for me.

And I'm all out of bubblegum.

 

[southflorida]

You are right the game goes on. It may have been too rough for Buddha but it's too dull for me.

And I'm all out of bubblegum.

This kind of information is not for everyone.

I only post it here because there are a few folks that are actually sick and tired of being sick and tired and want to know why that is so

The reason is simple: We are trying too hard "creating, promoting, protecting, and persisting" (all this together is what I call SURVIVING) as the false-conceptual-self.

The non-stop running on the wheel chasing the invisible cheese that we will never get - leads to exhaustion and some serious wear-and-tear, not only physical, but also psychological and emotional.

To step of this wheel and simply BE who you really are is an option.

But, before taking that route, one has to see that he or she is currently running inside that wheel chasing the invisible (illusional) cheese!

 

[Liza]

I definitely see what you are saying. Got another nice quote. (I'm sorry I just love those, the small things in life, my kind of cheese)

I am not I
I am but a hollow tube to bring down
Fire from Heaven

 

[southflorida]

I definitely see what you are saying. Got another nice quote. (I'm sorry I just love those, the small things in life, my kind of cheese)

I am not I
I am but a hollow tube to bring down
Fire from Heaven

I like this quote...a lot

 

[delta9nxs]

"we are but a tube with an input and an output, all other perceived differences are superfluous"

rough quote from alan watts book.

 

[southflorida]

"we are but a tube with an input and an output, all other perceived differences are superfluous"

rough quote from alan watts book.

What is really quite difficult or even impossible for most is accepting that our self-mind is creating this whole reality. Without the self-mind what we call reality would not remain. Actually without the self-mind there is NOTHING.

We believe and assume that we are here and are looking at reality...lol

...While actually THE self-mind and organs of perception are creating all 100% of it.

...it is all 100% conceptual.

...there is NO objective reality the way folks believe and assume, as in rocks are hard and water is wet...it is all subjective, and all created through the mutual work of Consciousness, mind, and organs of perception.

This points toward the thing I have already written: The true nature of reality, Consciousness, and everything else is INFINITELY NOTHING.

None of this really exists - our self-minds simply create the illusion and simultaneously believe and assume that the illusion is real.

When one becomes aware of this insight it really is amazing how Consciousness pulls this off

...wild stuff for sure...

 

[draco]

we are hidebound by our conditioning. it provides security and continuity - kind of like a fortress we never leave.

can't leave it really - we built the walls!

in the unconditioned state, words and ideas do not exist. so till we reach that, we are just spanking the monkey...

 

[sso]

the purpose of life.


is whatever the fuck you want it to be.

thats the beauty of life.

i think that the absolute best you can do with your life, is to enjoy it.

it certainly beats the alternative, of not enjoying it.

 

[Fuzz420]

All i see in the OP post is lower vibration brought on by the condition of the reptilian brain.

Lose thy ego, and raise your vibration.

 

[bench warmer]

"I aren't. Therefore, grammar failed have I." - Yoda (but not in anyone's conscious reality)