You’d have to settle for close enough here.

This is my point. We can’t do it exactly, we just approximate. With every single experience we have, we can only approximately communicate it to other people. But here’s the kicker: does thinking about the taste of water feel like you’re actually drinking water? If you were parched in a desert, would thinking about water really hard actually bring the experience of water? Obviously not.

Once you have experienced something, thinking back to it, you are already kind of approximating it to yourself. You can’t manifest the exact experience even for yourself. Let alone to others.

I’m just highlighting this because it’s a pretty significant thing to get in this world where we are communicating by text a lot, and being very quick to judge other people’s experiences. Not saying you’re doing that though.

But how would I know if our experience of the taste of water is the same?

What does water taste like?

That’s a pretty tall order. How do you confirm that you objectively share the same experience if you can only ever access your own subjective experience?

I love this

No, but it seems unusually aggressive for very little reason.

Not nihilism, Nondual Buddhism.

Lots of psychoanalysis in this thread.

A lot of things, but they are “just” beliefs. They’re just narratives about narratives about narratives but they may be useful. I believe my hand will burn if I put it on a candle flame. Which is an intense experience I’m inclined to avoid. But it’s neither a good or bad experience. I’m not going to go telling people that they should believe as I do. But I can tell them that by my assessment, it’s pretty damn likely they’ll experience pain if they put their hand on the flame. Up to them what they do with that.

In terms of my worldview, I “believe” that we’re just being, existence, experience. “Matter” is a story. “Spirit” is a story. Both camps demand an opposition to another which is inherently dualistic and as such, misleading and pointless. Putting any of this in words is silly because each word in itself is just a story, a concept, a belief. Best but deeply flawed description of reality I can muster at the moment is that it’s an experience of a free fall in total darkness.

Meditation and philosophical inquiry. Spent a lot of time believing the default vaguely-Christian-materialist-dualist framework that western culture has been brainwashing people into for centuries, pretending it’s “objectively true”.

Build a community. Don’t just expect people to randomly see you do something and get inspired. Actively build a real life face to face community with certain values - and don’t expect help. Welcome any that comes but don’t expect it. Do not discuss politics explicitly, focus on core values.

Organize a weekly outing event to pick up litter or something. Chat with people. Do it even if nobody shows up.

Also known for poor debating tactics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_the_stone

These are more accessible modern works that point you to more classical works if you’re interested:

Tantra Illuminated by Christopher Wallis

Roots of Yoga by Jim Mallinson

Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau

The World of Tibetan Buddhism by the Dalai Lama

People like to recommend the Heart Sutra and Pali Suttas, and Bhagavad Gita but I’d say it’s better to get some intro first so you can at least become aware of any prior assumptions you have about the world and realize those works come from a wildly different experience of being.

Bonus: Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe The Hermetic Tradition in African Philosophy by Theophilus Okere Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram

🙏🏻

Welcome! Hope you enjoy.

If you steer close to questions about metaphysics and spirituality, I highly recommend stepping outside the western paradigm. A lot of our philosophy is saturated with Christianity-influenced background assumptions, way, way more than people realize. Reaching all the way to modern psychology. It was very fascinating to recognize (and discard) them in my own thinking - and I was a basic intellectual atheist with what I incredibly naively thought was 0 Christian influence in the way I viewed the world.

Ah, I see. Unfortunately online one has come to expect people saying things like this seriously, especially when people discuss anti-authoritan ideas.

I read some Plato and philosophical works but my focus has been more on Indian and Buddhist philosophy.

Unless you are an avid reader, I don’t think it’s a good idea to try to read everything as listed. Figure out what your genuine questions about life are and read the works that attempt to provide answers. That’s why having HTRB on the background is highly useful. Don’t read just to say you did, seek to gain understanding, which is easier when you can make the books relevant to your life.

There’s something deeply ironic about saying people should be forced to read Orwell…

How to Read a Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book

Because people severely lack media literacy. People say read Orwell… and alt-right was saying it for years too.

There’s someone in this thread saying kids should be forced to read Orwell. Which I think illustrates the issue perfectly…

When I practiced Zen Buddhism formally, yes.

Though I still do open sitting for a few minutes to conclude whatever meditation I was doing. My nonduality teacher recommended it and I found it useful.

Edit: for those interested, The Way app from Henry Shukman is a decent intro to this. Though finding actual Zen Buddhist community is better.