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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Living with no context
#16194899 - 05/07/12 01:30 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Is it possible to live without context as a human outside of an insane asylum?
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Kickle
Wanderer


Registered: 12/16/06
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How could one know they are living without context if there is no context to let them know?
-------------------- Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: Kickle]
#16194914 - 05/07/12 01:35 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Oh, true that.
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate


Registered: 09/20/05
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Interesting exercise idea: Try to write down, in as much detail, the entire context of your life.
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: Lion]
#16194938 - 05/07/12 01:41 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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When I first started going through my existential melt down 3 years ago, I tried to write down exactly what defined 'me'. I wrote several pages. None of it felt right though. Now I'm down to just 'I am?'
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
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enlightenment in the madhyamaka system of buddhist philosophy is pointed to as being the complete freedom from all reference points (including the reference point of being free ) - so i guess this is the same thing as living with no context in the mind. the only way to find out if this is truly possible would be to achieve such realization. you can gain some faith in its possibility by watching yourself become less and less burdened by context as you practice and extrapolating it i guess too.
the existential meltdown sounds pretty cool
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: deff]
#16194972 - 05/07/12 01:53 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Well, I have been watching myself, and I've watched a deteriorating ability to interact with other humans and society. I can still do it, but it's getting harder.
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
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maybe it's more a case of a deteriorating need to communicate rather than ability? i find when i have no need to communicate, forcing any communication becomes kinda awkward. if that's the case, maybe it's also a matter of being in the wrong environment / around the wrong types of people? you communicate here fine
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: deff]
#16194992 - 05/07/12 01:59 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yeah, that's it. I'm pretty quite these days. I'm just running out of things to say. 
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
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sounds peaceful to me
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: deff]
#16195006 - 05/07/12 02:02 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't.
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
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i'm listening to a talk by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and this quote just came up:
"if you are a buddhist, loneliness is dawn of wisdom. you are supposed to invest on this loneliness. if you are lonely, you are feeling awkward with this samsaric life. you can sense that it's not working. you can kind of feel that it's all a little bit over-promising, sort of. so you can feel this. so this feeling awkward, feeling not belonging to this is actually a very important factor a practitioner is supposed to invest."
thought it was kinda applicable here
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate


Registered: 09/20/05
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I would recommend engaging your mind in the world, and not receding away from it as you seem to be doing. It can be a positive thing to limit your words and interactions with others, but it sounds like it's causing your some stress or negativity.
For a long time, I tried to subdue my thinking mind. With psychedelics, I reached a point where I could barely interact with anyone. I was so in tune, painfully in tune, with everyone's vibrations, but I'd lost the ability to interact on a personal level, and became almost terrified with how much I seemed able to read people's thoughts and intentions. Eventually I was able to ground myself, and learned how to contribute to a conversation, how to listen and really try to process what people are saying and formulate a useful response, how to be in the world again. The negative side was that was I was dragged back into ego games that I thought for a while I had transcended, and I 'lost' myself in consensual human reality again, and felt (and still feel) that I had lost my spiritual path. It's a balancing act, I suppose. I'm not at a point where I can say that I have good advice to offer based on my own state of being, but I think this advice could be helpful for you to keep in mind. Don't just turn off your mind and float downstream. Activate it, hone it, saturate it with diverse knowledge, and use it to your advantage. Engage in the world and make an effort to develop good relationships.
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: deff]
#16195038 - 05/07/12 02:11 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Wow, cool stuff.  I often get pretty lonely when I'm around others. Strangely enough when I'm alone meditating, or walking in the woods, I don't feel lonely.
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: Lion]
#16195045 - 05/07/12 02:14 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Lion said: I would recommend engaging your mind in the world, and not receding away from it as you seem to be doing. It can be a positive thing to limit your words and interactions with others, but it sounds like it's causing your some stress or negativity.
For a long time, I tried to subdue my thinking mind. With psychedelics, I reached a point where I could barely interact with anyone. I was so in tune, painfully in tune, with everyone's vibrations, but I'd lost the ability to interact on a personal level, and became almost terrified with how much I seemed able to read people's thoughts and intentions. Eventually I was able to ground myself, and learned how to contribute to a conversation, how to listen and really try to process what people are saying and formulate a useful response, how to be in the world again. The negative side was that was I was dragged back into ego games that I thought for a while I had transcended, and I 'lost' myself in consensual human reality again, and felt (and still feel) that I had lost my spiritual path. It's a balancing act, I suppose. I'm not at a point where I can say that I have good advice to offer based on my own state of being, but I think this advice could be helpful for you to keep in mind. Don't just turn off your mind and float downstream. Activate it, hone it, saturate it with diverse knowledge, and use it to your advantage. Engage in the world and make an effort to develop good relationships.
I try, but I'm getting more and more tempted to just totally let go and float off into infinity. I don't see the point of trying to build a sand castle that's just going to wash away again and again.
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
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same here... i also sometimes get this very distinct sadness around others - i guess related to impermanence and the lack of meaning in light of that impermanence mixed with compassion for them. i remember another talk by DKR where he talked about this sadness and said we should try to see other people's pursuits as like kids building sand castles at the beach unaware that the waves are going to soon demolish it, etc. (or something like that, my memory is a little shoddy)
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
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Re: Living with no context [Re: deff]
#16195050 - 05/07/12 02:15 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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lol wow... i posted that before reading your sand castle remark
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: deff]
#16195056 - 05/07/12 02:16 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yeah, I feel how other people are trying to create something together with me, and I'm feeling less and less inclined to play the game these days, and it makes me sad knowing that it reminds them also of the futility of the game.
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White Beard

Registered: 08/13/11
Posts: 6,325
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Re: Living with no context [Re: deff]
#16195062 - 05/07/12 02:17 PM (11 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
deff said: lol wow... i posted that before reading your sand castle remark 
 Cool stuff.
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
Posts: 9,406
Loc: clarity
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yeah i can relate with that
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