Best Of
Re: How is dependent origination different than determinism?
@lobster said:
Determinism proposes that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to one's free will.
Yuk! Life is just luck? Yuk?
If there is truly free will, all would be chaos.
Imagine trying to cross a busy road or getting paid for doing no work.
Re: The limits of the mind’s understanding
When it comes to us focussing on consciousness, if anything, it's the other way round, we serve as instruments through which consciousness examines and refines itself....
Indeed.
We do refine, reframe, return to different forms of self. The Real Self (TM) ... as trademarked is the flux, flex, featured and experienced in a continuum through which we wonder, wander and ultimately enfold into ...
lobster
Re: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
He is not wrong, if you don’t know the domain well you cannot accurately determine a “good” course of action, and what from one perspective may appear good and desirable from another may be quite despicable.
Jeroen
Re: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
The number of people through history who thought they were doing evil things for evil reasons is probably relatively few. Everyone thinks they're doing what's right and good.
As he says in the middle, at differing times differing qualities will be of greater value due to circumstances. I think the problem is when those qualities get hardened into "THE good for all time and all people". Homogeneity has the benefit of efficiency and trust, but is vulnerable to changing circumstance and things outside its domain. Diversity requires greater effort but brings innovation and resilience.
I think why democracy and science have shown themselves to be of value is that they have self correcting mechanisms to them. Autocracy and belief based truth can be more effective when they line up with reality, but lack the ability to correct mistakes.
person
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
You can use a black light to light up the urine that mice dribble when they run. Tracing these urine paths can lead you to the water & food supply sources that they are depending on, or to the means by which they are coming in or out of your home.
how
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
On a more serious note @Jeroen, the house mouse (Mus musculus) reaches sexual maturity in around six weeks, a female can have between 6 to 10 litters in it's lifetime,( around one year) with up to 6 pups per litter...
This is why it is important to carry out a preemptive strike by setting humane traps as soon as one is spotted, or you could end up with an infestation on your hands...
@Fosdick's sister learnt this the hard way....
Shoshin1
Re: Being fed up with all things spiritual
I think it was Nisargadatta who said something like-
"You don't actually experience suffering, you are suffering the experiencing."
Re: Year End - New Year
Happy New Year folks. I'll be off to bed in an hour or two, but expect to see that little has changed when I awake.
Fosdick
Re: Being fed up with all things spiritual
Bill Gates has finally succeeded in getting microchips implanted in you. They replicated inside your body and now all acted in unison. It was all part of the plan all along. Now you will start fulfilling your assigned tasks. Your spiritual journey is over. You’re an automaton now.
We hope you’ll still stay on NB and send reports.
Or looked at another way, if it wasn’t Bill Gates or drone birds, maybe it was a galactic ripple in the cosmos. Or a microscopic ripple in YOUR cosmos.
It does seem actually very interesting to suddenly have a new uninvited lens through which to see things. By all means check it out. Besides spirituality there may be other things that will look different now. See where it takes you. Some of the best opportunities are (seemingly) random, sudden.
Steve_B