The second characteristic of maya is more subtle. Anything that appears is not real. This seems like a contradiction. Anything that appears must be real by virtue of its appearance. It has a presence and therefor must have a reality. But we can also say that anything that appears must also disappear. This implies that anything that has a beginning must also have an end. Including your birth. If you are born you must die. If you believe in your birth and death, and your existence consists of the span of these points, the you will suffer, because it implies you were born to die. This sounds harsh but there is no denying birth and death are linked to each other. Finally our perception of life is bound by space and time, or perception of it is a product of maya. This points to human consciousness being finite and limited, appreciating reality in specific forms and their evolutions. It cannot conceive beyond those boundaries. The implications are enormous. For instance, there seems to be a space or sense of division between us and everything else. This implies who we are is separate from everyone else. This sense of duality causes suffering because it separates us from the source of our existence. Examining what reality is not we can see what it is. Reality is unchangeable. It does not have a beginning or end, but always been and always will be. It is not bound by space and time and therefor doesn’t have different parts or facets, nor qualities or characteristics, it is absolute and infinite and therefor beyond the dimension of form. If we believe we are the body and our senses we are disconnected from our essence. At some point, when realize there is no substantial reality to this formed existence, we can then take the steps require to lift our awareness beyond the changing field, and let it merge with, or dissolve into, the Absolute Pure Consciousness.I'm not entirely sold on this one really. I mean I know that what our brains make is a best guess of what is "out there" but does that mean that none of it is real? All we have is our senses to interpret reality so I really don't know where he gets all of this stuff from. I asked how did he know and I got "personal experience".
Actually looking at the whole thing, I’m surprised I bought it to begin with.
Thanks for writing. What you are asking speaks to the nature of Truth. As I say in the article, whatever appears must also one day disappear. The only thing that never appears and disappears has been here forever. You can call it pure existence or God or true self. This is something we can't appreciate with our minds. So whether it is literal or metaphorical is not really the question, we are still using the standards of the mind to establish both. The fact is that the mind and personality don't exist, since they are changeable, and we drop them in between lifetimes. The only thing that really exists has existed always. It has no beginning or ending. I believe it is the deepest part of our nature. That nature is the same for all of us. It is the Oneness. Pure, Free, Forever.the only way you can know the unchanging is to have a direct experience of it. The best way I know of doing that is through meditation. In meditation, you turn your attention inward, away from the forms and phenomena. Yes, of course, this world is a product of the mind’s imagination. But it is possible to transcend the mind. The mind does not have an independent reality beyond the consciousness which gives rise to it, in the same way that the wave is not separate from the ocean. That pure ocean of consciousness is all that there is. As I say though, you need to have a direct experience of it. Without that, it is just a concept of the mind.
why are you bothering to communicate with me? The reason is, that you know deep down what the truth is. It takes an extra atom of consciousness for that truth to be revealed. You need to have that extra atom or you end up thinking that the sum total of your existence is contained between the moment your body was born and the moment it dies. You are not the body-mind-ego. You are eternal. But again, no amount of words will make this evident. Only direct experience.When I tried to talk to him and say that what he felt is literally replicated in a lab with magnets he didn't budge. Is it really that hard to convince people that their personal experience isn't what they think it is.
Yes. It is almost impossible to argue effectively with a delusion. Consider the guy that told you that stuff. If it was a delusion of his, then to him, it felt to him that what he was imparting, was absolutely true and real. Beyond that, the contingencies that are most salient in directing what he believes, are likely now fundamentally enmeshed with his personal life maintenance. Iow, words alone, no matter however craftily constructed and utilized, aren’t likely to persuade the delusion into a reality based belief.
Yeah, he kept saying that I HAD to experience the truth for myself and everything. But what all that tells me is that he had an experience, but that the experience doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
You’re getting the hang of it Xian.
I mean from what I gather what he seems to think of as being real is something that doesn’t change and is permanent, which seems…stupid.
IMO, as soon as something takes form, i.e. when it has acquired physical “properties”, it may be said that it has become unfolded in reality. Prior to that it exists in the abstract as an “implicate”, an enfolded probability.
David Bohm proposed that the universe is in a constant state of “enfolded implicates” and “unfolded realities”, usually labeled as “constant change”.
Change is the only constant. Which seems a good thing when your “unfolded reality” sucks donkey parts. Come on “enfolded implicates”, unfold already!
sounds super confusing to me. But I guess the ultimate point to grind to what this guy is saying is “how can you be sure”. Because if I know anything is that history is riddled with people who thought they knew but were shown wrong
But what really gets to me is how this guy puts an experience over evidence. I tried showing him that such things can be replicated from a lab and whatever may come from them doesn’t mean anything. Nada. It’s like why do I even bother?
"I tried showing him that such things can be replicated from a lab and whatever may come from them doesn’t mean anything. Nada. It’s like why do I even bother?"Welcome to the club.
You’ll find that after you lose your cool, get cranky and stomp off saying you’ll never have anything to do with that person again, your innate inclination to help people will once again rise to the top and you’ll engage them again.
You might never get through to them, but if you do the feeling is glorious. So you go through the cycle again and again, like a junkie, waiting for a pay-off that may never come.
I don’t know. My mom wouldn’t buy it, and several Buddhists I tried with wouldn’t either (it hit the same wall eventually). I think just live and let live is fine for me. It’s not worth the anxiety.