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Ideas
MindGate
United States Veteran
Just writing ideas down, refining them. No need to really comment. Just sort of an online notepad in case I want to show people. Feel free to respond if you want, though. 
Unity:
We perceive only Our Reality
What we see, what we sense in our Reality.
What we think of as life, as us, is perception.
Take away perception, what do you get? Just our consciousness, our thoughts.
'You' exist just within your mind, what you can see.
Your mind is all that makes you up, what you think you are.
But, your mind in and of itself doesn't exist independently.
How could it? You clearly aren't everything that exists, you can't control Reality.
You are one part of the whole, the Ultimate Reality
The Ultimate Reality is everything, all emcompassing.
We only are able to see bits and peices of it, since we can only perceive things through our senses
We are only a part of the whole, we can't see the whole picture.
We only can see Our Reality, what exists from our senses, what our mind sees.
Ultimate Reality makes everything up.
We can't really comprehend it, it is impermanent. Everything is impermanent.
It is always changing, just chaos. It is infinite and finite, in a sense.
The Ultimate Reality is everything and nothing.
It 'just is.'
Since we are only part of it and have limitations of the body, we only experience part of it.
We experience it in such a way that we think we are independent, separate.
We create duality, when we are just truly part of the Ultimate Reality, everything.
This duality is Our Reality. It is what we perceive, what our mind says.
Unity:
We perceive only Our Reality
What we see, what we sense in our Reality.
What we think of as life, as us, is perception.
Take away perception, what do you get? Just our consciousness, our thoughts.
'You' exist just within your mind, what you can see.
Your mind is all that makes you up, what you think you are.
But, your mind in and of itself doesn't exist independently.
How could it? You clearly aren't everything that exists, you can't control Reality.
You are one part of the whole, the Ultimate Reality
The Ultimate Reality is everything, all emcompassing.
We only are able to see bits and peices of it, since we can only perceive things through our senses
We are only a part of the whole, we can't see the whole picture.
We only can see Our Reality, what exists from our senses, what our mind sees.
Ultimate Reality makes everything up.
We can't really comprehend it, it is impermanent. Everything is impermanent.
It is always changing, just chaos. It is infinite and finite, in a sense.
The Ultimate Reality is everything and nothing.
It 'just is.'
Since we are only part of it and have limitations of the body, we only experience part of it.
We experience it in such a way that we think we are independent, separate.
We create duality, when we are just truly part of the Ultimate Reality, everything.
This duality is Our Reality. It is what we perceive, what our mind says.
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Comments
The Ultimate Reality really can't be a concept, but Our Reality can be considering it is a wrong view of that ultimate truth.
FWIW,
Check this out: limits of language intro. Might fire up more ideating.
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Wittgenstein/wittgenstein.html
2 things.
1) Thanks.
2) A couple of months ago I conceived my first idea on Reality called "The Theory of Everything and Nothing." It gave rise to my notion that everything is part of an infinite Whole. When debating this with my girlfriend, I had to counter the Creator God argument. In this case, I was trying to discredit the Bible. My argument went like this:
"God, according to the Bible, seems to have personality. He has shape and form. He has the same emotions as man, he seems to have brain and thought. His thoughts seemed limited, considering he did not know whether or not Adam would be good or evil. He seems like man. How could a person, with personality and form and thoughts, possibly conceive an entire universe? Right now, try to think of a color that doesn't exist. Its impossible, because your mind is limited. God cannot be humanlike at all, because he thought would be limited too. For the Bible to say that God is humanlike in nature, it makes no sense for Him to be the creator of everything."
Seems to go along with the idea that some things are beyond the grasp of the human mind.
We could go exploring rooms, or following a person who comes in the hotel. Though, our view would still be limited. We could go to the 54th floor of the hotel and see who is there, but we don’t know what is going on below us then. We could go to the top floor and claim that we know how many floors there are, but people could be adding things above us. We can only see so much.
Reality is like that in the sense that we can only see what are senses show us. We are limited to our brain and body, which are limited. Our vision only goes so far. We can only feel what we touch. We can only hear things from a certain distance. But that isn’t even our limit. Our senses aren’t just limited, our mind and comprehension is limited.
Right now, think of a color that you’ve never seen before. A color that isn’t related to any of the colors we’ve seen so far, one that seemingly doesn’t exist. It’s impossible because our mind is limited. We are unable to see, or comprehend, what is beyond ‘our reality.’ Our Reality is what we can see, hear, taste, feel, smell, and think.
But surely YOUR Reality isn’t the Ultimate Reality. Your Reality is different than someone is schizophrenia, or even your friend’s. They perceive different things so Their Reality is different. What do we perceive, though? Clearly, ‘you’ aren’t all that exists. You see things that are outside of what ‘you’ are. Your friend perceives things outside of who ‘they’ are.
You aren’t making up what you perceive; your mind isn’t in control of what it perceives. If it was, we should be able to control everything about reality, like a vivid dream. Clearly this is not the case. We must be perceiving the Ultimate Reality, what everything is. The Ultimate Reality exists outside of you, but it wouldn’t be fair to say it is independent of you. You are part of the Ultimate Reality, but you, your conscious, perceive different parts of it.
The Ultimate Reality IS everything. It’s you, your house, that dog in the alley, Russia, North America, Earth, Mars, the Milky Way, Andromeda, the Universe and beyond. It is everything, but since we are limited to our body, we are limited to only perceiving part of it. We only perceive a 4D plain, and we can only see how far our telescopes and satellites go. We can’t see anything beyond that. Our minds capabilities are limited to our experiences.
Clearly this Ultimate Reality, what exists outside of you, is impermanent. We see this every day, it is just the nature of things. You are not the same as you were a couple seconds ago. Cells died and new ones made. Your mind, your perceptions changed. Memories added to your mind. You are different.
One day you will die and your body will be recycled. You aren’t a separate entity. If your arm gets cut off, that arm will eventually be broken down by bacteria and such. It will be recycled. You aren’t separate; your mind just makes up this duality because of your perceptions. You will be recycled too. There is no ‘you’ to be separate. We will go into the concept of ‘non-self’ later on.
This is just all broken down logic. So, let’s recap:
1) You have a body and a conscious/mind.
2) Your body and mind have limits. We understand this.
3) We perceive things that are outside of our mind. Though, our mind computes them into our senses.
4) Since there is something outside of our mind, we are not the only thing that exists.
5) The things outside of our mind, everything that exists, part of the Ultimate Reality which is independent of what you perceive. It is everything and all that exists. If you were to die, it would still exist. Your body would disintegrate and your ashes would be recycled into new things.
Hard to explain...
This 'Ultimate Reality™' you speak of seems to just be nature and the laws of physics. Questioning what gives rise to these laws can lead to some interesting lines of thought, but I don't understand what there is to gain from it.
Instead of thinking, I'd recommend observing. Just meditate without pondering the meaning of life. As you pointed out, we can't figure out the meaning of life or the nature of reality, however, we can observe it. So, just observe, don't try to explain it.
Sorry if I come across as argumentative, I am just not sure what purpose that pondering serves. How does it help you?
I am reading over my post and thinking "god, I sound like a jerk...". That's really not the intention, sorry. I guess there's no nice way to ask "what's your point?" =/
@ShiftPlusOne
There really is no "point." Theres not much point to anything. Its interesting to ponder, though.
So here's what I am getting at... there are many teachings which help me directly or lead to a stroke of insight later down the line. They are not pointless, they make my life better and in turn, helps me appreciate the little things and be more compassionate. You could make the rather nihilistic argument that being a better person and helping others is ultimately pointless, but that's a whole other can of worms.
That leads me back to my original question... how do those ideas help you? I think they just satisfy your intellectual desires, but are ultimately a hindrance.
@Jeffrey, that's an interesting thought. "We are limited by our senses" is something I often say, however that's no excuse to let our senses hinder our minds. Thanks for that.
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True, it just satisfies my intellectual desires.
I keep saying it because I think it's cool. A teeny tiny "piece" of Infinite Mind runs across a fertilized egg and jumps aboard for 80 years. That's not the only thing that's always happening either. All sorts of other processes are going on - too many which we can't even detect much less know while stuck here. We detect the weirdness, presence or influence of some of those things/processes thru our little sciences, we're smart enough to know there's more to everything but..., oh well..., we're stuck here. No getting out until the 80+ year old in human form expires or gets killed off before then. There're lots of good deeds to do and good things to enjoy while we're feeling this personhood in happiness and suffering. This little planet with all it's cultures and histories that were recorded. But? there's more!
There is no "absolute" reality. Just Ultimate Reality, which is always changing, always different. There Ultimate Reality, everything, is something that right now we can't understand. We can't grasp it. Its always changing, everything is always changing. We see and understand this. Once we understand there is nothing to cling to, we stop clinging.
Since there is no absolute reality, there is no 'true' meaning to life. We give ourselves purpose. Our purpose is typically to be happy and cultivate happiness for others. Though, due to people's wrong views, they typically go about being happy unskillfully. Through skillful behavior and the understanding that there is no ultimate truth and there is nothing to cling to, we can be happy. We become happy by just being happy, then. Its as simple as that.
There is not ultimate good or bad. Just skillful and unskillful. What brings happiness to us and what doesn't. Its not the same in all situations, so we must be mindful. Everything is changing, we shouldn't cling. Theres nothing independant that exists on its own. It will always change, never be the same way. We can't cling. It brings unhappiness. Just be happy at every moment with your current position. Just do it.
There is no Ultimate, Absolute Reality to understand, and we are limited anyways to see beyond the horizon of our view. There is no ultimate truth. We just need to be happy, bring happiness to others. The Ultimate is never the same. We will sometime die and be recycled. So, we should just enjoy our time that we know we have here anyways.
Much metta to you all.
Our suffering isn't born from not having a good working theory on how the universe works; it's entirely born of craving and then attachment/clinging. Coming to conclusions isn't the answer, even if the conclusion is that there aren't any answers. Abandoning the craving is the end of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path is the way.
4 noble truths (explains that suffering is caused by attachment)
Eightfold path (explains how to act skillfully)
Not-self (explains the nature of things)
Impermanence (explains the nature of things)
What I'm saying is:
Everything is always in flux, changing. Nothing is ever the same at any moment. There is nothing to be attached to. There is nothing separate from anything else. Again, there is nothing to be attached to.
Once you understand that, you can stop being attached. Following the eightfold path will help you to do that.
And to refine your intellectual ideas I would point out that there is no change yet still process. Because there is no reference point there can be no change. To judge relative position.
cloud, so if you stab the monk in the hand with a fork, he has to be craving pain to feel anything, there's a lot more causes of suffering than just craving, though it is certainly one of the causes. also having a set belief of how the universe works can psychologically help some a lot, it wont end suffering but it can help reduce it some. maybe i'm even disagreeing with the buddha, but I'M ALLOWED TO DISAGREE, its a wonderful part of our religion.
Absolute is something set in stone. Clearly there is nothing set in stone. In fact, logically, it doesn't seem like there could be.
By ultimate, I mean 'everything.' Its another term I use for 'everything.' Since there is no absolute reality (a reality set in stone), all that exists is a changing, progressing ultimate reality (everything in general).
Understand now?
The ways of things stay the same.
Things themselves arise and fall, ever changing from this into that, no self essence.
That is about as much as I'd say, and even that could be off the mark.
My point was simply to not let your mind get set in stone; your ideas. We try and take the teachings of Buddhism and understand them (as we should), but if we try and come up with all of the conclusions conceptually (the big picture), those conclusions aren't what we're actually looking for (they are still simply the reflection of the moon, not the moon itself). That's all. We don't even need to talk about this anymore.
The world of appearances is where we practice and it brings us out of our heads and into the world. Eventually in the 10th oxherder picture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Bulls we return to the market.
Everything is always changing, progressing, etc. We shouldn't cling because we can't cling. Be mindful and use skillful actions. Pretty simple.
Namaste!