by Brokeback Watchtower 14 Replies latest jw friends
I've been doing personal research on this for quite some time. What do mystical experiences have to do with it. What is this thing they call liberation?
To me it is the ability to see the world ego-less having the mind shut down the default mode network and the experience of total infinite oneness with no separation of a you and other like the big bang where everything that is, is a non demensional point with infinite density.
Kant had a few words to say on the subject.
To me it is the ability to see the world ego-less having the mind shut down the default mode network and the experience of total infinite oneness with no separation of a you and other like the big bang where everything that is, is a non dimensional point with infinite density.
Yeah, ya pretty much nailed it.
Do you practice meditation, Brokeback? I have in months past and enjoyed some benefits from it. I just did Tai Chi this morning with my wife, and I would like to start Aikido soon.
The word "mystical" increasingly seems synonymous with "metaphorical" to me, but has a lot to do with our physiology and psychology as we go through with this.
I also find doodling sacred geometry, including Metatron's Cube and the Tree of Life and the golden ratio, to be very very relaxing and soothing. They're also very helpful in art.
No I tried it but I prefer the chemical route with perhaps some meditation to augment it. I'm mostly interested in neuroscience, and so quite naturally the brain and what happens to it with mystical experiences, and liberation from ego/default mode network.
End of all suffering seems possible through such practices depending on the effects that such experiences bring about in the way the brain processes information due to neuroplasticity brought on by such pratices.
Neuroscience is amazing! Yes, the default network, the insula, all of this also relates to our beliefs and habits as well, including belief in God.
I know this is random, but neuroscience, Buddhism and linguistics helped me wiggle away from the WTS. Language, like anything else, evolves, and affects our perception and behavior as it does. If you don't have a word for "sour", then how does it taste? If you're told that God is in Heaven but listens to everyone's prayers in all languages, even in silence, that he cares if you cuss even if you really don't mind the word and the word has evolved over so many centuries, that God is unchanging while everything else evolves, at some point you have to wonder what this god is. You then realize there are no spirit creatures or gods to fear. You realize that if your physical brain was injured, you might not be the same you. If someone were to look inside your head, they'd see no "you" there. You realize a paradox, that you are the autonomous you, but there is no real you. You realize that you live in this world too, that there are perhaps multiple "yous" as your relationships differ with different people and circumstances, and that the "you" that matters most will be in pictures, memories, mementos, triumphs, failures, your actions and effects in the world.
I realized I am part of the world. And then I went to work proving the WTS was bullshit for myself.
I got Alan Watts and these two talking about it but that I find hard to wrap my mind around.
The term enlightenment in the western world has a rather romantic term, normally associated with self-realization (whatever that means to people). It also have a social connotation around being your real self as opposed to always following social norm.
I like some concepts of Buddhism, so the term we translate as enlightenment in Buddhism language exists in that faith. However, there's no accurate translation for the words associated to it, and most importantly, there's not a real specific final definition for what that means. I love what the "quest" (for lack of a better word) to enlightenment in Buddhism mean in terms of the things as human being that you have to be, mostly because all the work comes from the inside out, not from some book with rules or other nonsense.
What I don't believe from Buddhism is the concept of levels and using your enlightenment to prepare for the "next level" in your next life. I've never been fond of the concept of spending this life preparing for the next.
I hope this helps.
Thanks Scratch,
I'm thinking self-realization has to do will realizing everything is the Self . It would have to be a very intuitive knowing as facts are not available to prove such things in my estimation.
Here's a discussion by people claiming to be enlightened;
