Typist wrote:Our exchanges are a very common dynamic that's happened millions of times in the history of aphilosophy.
What history of 'aphilosophy'? You mean the religious practices from the East? The judeo/christian/islamic practices? The bodged-up new-age 'spirituality' interpretations of the bourgeois westerner? The wiccans? The warlocks?
Somebody says "be here now".
Being here now means giving our full attention to reality in this moment.
I am.
Giving our full attention to reality involves withdrawing our attention from the symbol world inside our heads.
Not necessarily, this is but one state of being that is possible to the human language user.
This isn't esoteric or complicated. It's just like turning off the TV so we can give our attention to a conversation. It's just a choice to focus on one thing instead of another, that's all. It's a choice to temporarily not divide our attention between the real world and the symbol world, ie thought.
What 'real' world? The one you find when you do what you say? This appears to be the bodys senses without the re-presentation of memory. Or are you a 'shut your eyes' kind of meditator?
To some people, this sounds like some kind of interesting adventure, or perhaps an intriguing curiosity, and so they are drawn to the conversation.
Shortly in to the conversation they realize they are being asked to take a break from thought.
And then, somewhere deep inside, an alarm bell goes off.
Uh oh, the "me", our most precious possession, is made entirely of thought. Thus, taking a break from thought is a form of death.
The "me" now starts scrambling around looking for an escape.
Some people get up and walk out of the room.
Others are torn between their curiosity and their fear. What usually happens here is that the "me" cooks up a clever strategy to have it's cake and eat it too. The "me" says...
Lots of assumptions about others again. You mean this is what happens or has happened to you.
"Hey, instead of being here now, let's talk about being here now. Let's analyze it!"
Or lets go on a philosophy forum and talk shite about it. Lets demonstrate that after "being here now" we can talk about things like philosophy with no actual knowledge of what we are talking about.
The "me" is hoping to circle around the cookie jar and steal little bites, without having to pay the price of dying.
And so the questions begin.
And every answer, leads to another question.
This question and answer game can go on for years, decades, an entire life time.
Not if you think about the questions and come-up with some reasonable answers rather than keep parroting what you've heard.
So if you are a fierce zenmaster Yogidom Boo Boo, you may try to help the reader perform an act of clear thinking. The suggestion may arise....
"Shit, or get off the pot."
"Make up your fucking mind."
If you're interested, try it. If you care to, share what you experience.
If you're not interested, drop it, and find something else you are interested in.
Either of these choices is good.
NLP says 'either choices' are no choice at all.
I have no truck with being a "zenmaster" nor a bear.
I've already told you and others what to study if they wish to have what we call the "stopping the world" state or the "uptime" state of being, which whilst not the same as the eastern practices at least come the closest from what I've experienced and are actually clear and achievable. If they want a description and epistemology that fits the western mindset to a tee when it comes to what the gnus rabbit about but never provide techniques for, then look no further than New Code NLP, if they just want to achieve their goals or discover what those goals might be then NLP alone should be fine. What you appear to ignore in your search for the fast pill is that the states you appear to attempt to describe also have practices, i.e. you're supposed to practice Yoga until you have stilled your body enough to do what you say, 4-5 years, every other day but optimally every day, may get you somewhere near where you need to be to gain what they say you can from 'being here now'.
http://nlpuniversitypress.com/
The thing with NLP tho' is you actually have to do it to learn it, so its really only optimal when there are two or more of you. So find a friend.
Why don't I feed you my answers to all this? Because you're the kind of knob who'll then say, "thats exactly what 'aphilosophy' says" and I can't be arsed to do your work, if your aim is to impart states of being that may be of use to others that is.
Try starting with John Locke's theory of mind for an approach to describing things so others can understand, but I'd give the
tabula rasa a miss, as I think this was introduced for other reasons and Kant and others pretty much put the kibosh upon this. Or try Ouspensky and Gurdjieff for a more interesting approach to such matters.
Staying stuck between the choices forever is a waste of time, and an act of quite unclear thinking.
I'll take your word for it.
