fireworks_god said:

I just have to say, Markos, its been great, reading and feeling your perspective.

I'm amazed and reassured that someone such as yourself has evolved to this point in life where your mind is extremely encompassing and complexly structured, and not only this, but that it seems to be that the individual facets of that mind are networked properly. At the same time, it appears that your mind, while being an immense, elaborate system, is free of clutter and needless, emotional residue - its structure is kept at a bare minimum to perform its required tasks, and it does not interfere or obstruct your direct perception of reality.

Not only all of this, but perhaps the most important aspect of what I perceive of you is that while your mind is quite advanced and formed, the formless beyond your mind, your pure state of being, is almost infinitely more deep and conscious. I feel that you are experiencing reality and pure awareness beyond the constrains of the mind.

I am not saying these things to cater to your ego, or mine, for that matter. I find these aspects that I have observed of you very interesting as they mirror myself to similar degrees, and considering your extensive worldly knowledge, your much longer time on this planet, and your apparent deep state of being to be a glimpse of where I may someday (soon ) be, if I continue on this path moment by moment.

I surmise that perhaps there are times when you are almost completely free of the operation of your mind, and other times when your being might get lost in the complex workings of your mind, but the majority of the time, keeping a most important balance between the two, depending on the situation present in your life at the time and what it requires from you. It seems as though you have followed the upward spiral and have indeed reached a higher place.

Some might get lost in the structure and elaborations of your expressions here, but it seems that you hold it as a mere convention, a tool, and a powerful tool at that. The meaning and the being run deep and are formless and most ripe for experience. 

Sorry, I just felt the need to express some appreciation for you and your being here, you've definitely helped me evolve and grow, perhaps this is partially why the similarities that I note developed in the first place. 

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Yup.

MarkostheGnostic said:

As to your kind projection of spiritual advancement: firstly, the same metaphysical depth that my being emerges from is the same metaphysical depth that your being emerges from - ONE and the same.

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Indeed, and to put what you said of this following what I quoted in my own words, which I probably should have done in the first reply, it shines through because you are more conscious and aware of that state of being. Your mind is not seperating you from it.

I like that you used the word "transparent", I used that word to describe a better functioning mind in a post at the revolution forum not even a couple of hours ago, and it is not a word I have used in that context before...

Anyways, I basically made that post because I've been having a lot of quick, new insights as a result of a long period of sobriety and constant seeking, and the state of mind and being that I've been slowly piecing together and striving for, with an idea of what I was developing but not as a whole, has really started to come to be, and reading your posts here, it really helped confirm and assure.

And, as to your closing comment, indeed. Do not attempt to grasp onto this experience or identify it as "your" experience, or characterize it into a sense of self. Just let it be, let it flow through you, experience without attachment... etc. etc. etc... 


Peace.

ferago2 said:

I'm studying philosophy in school myself. I'm in my 3rd semester of college, and so far I've taken an intro level class in which we read a whole variety of different philosophical writings, from political philosophy to metaphysics (do we have free will?) and epistimology (what are the limits of human knowledge?). I've also taken what's called "modern philosophy," which is really the progression of philosophical thought from Descartes (whose skeptical method would be useful on this board :p) to Kant, who has a whole lot to say about what we are able to know, and what we can never know. The third class I'm taking currently. It's philosophy of song, and we're focusing on what makes songs appealing, including analyzing the melody, rhythms, structure, lyrics and so on, as well as reading Shopenhauer, Plato, and some contemporary theorists.

Academic philosophy really breaks down into 3 areas: Political philosophy (self explanitory) value theory or aesthetics (what makes things beautiful, important, etc... like my song class) and metaphysics/epistimology (how the world is, and what constitutes knowledge). The later is probably going to be my area of focus, and is the most closely linked with what goes on on this board, although most of the posters here could learn a whole lot from any philosophy class's discussion of logic, and what constitutes valid and sound arguements.

I dunno what jobs you can get with a philosophy degree besides graduate school or law school, so I'm either going to double major in journalism, or triple major in that and another subject.

Hope this helps.

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At last a sensible answer! Thank you, that has helped me a lot.

CosmicJoke said:

i'm sorry, my last post was directed to you, but apparently i replied to the last post, which at the time was Markos' post - now that I know what you want, I can tell you more specifics.
The intent from my academic program was that you'd do 3 different things: apply for grad school in philosophy to one day be a professor of philosophy, or use it as a springboard into seminary school or law school.
philosophy in my school was the easiest degree you could get you could obtain, there were no math or science or language requirements, though it's most likely your general education requirements for arts and sciences will require you to fulfill some of these. the philosophy degree itself required you merely to take 40hrs of philosophy, including Symbolic Logic and 3 classes over the 400 level. Symbolic Logic is a course that involves systematically testing whether or not philisophical arguments are valid and sound by basically reducing them to math. In fact, there was a low level course in philosophy for non majors called "The Principles of Reasoning" that was a less intensive Symbolic Logic course to fulfill a math General Education Requirement. Another way in my school you could avoid taking a course through the math department was to take a psychology statistics class. Anyways, our philosophy department lumped in all the comparative religions, so you could take Old Testatment, New Testament, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism as courses. A perk of taking the Christianity courses is that you will most likely get an incredible, rather expensive, annotated Oxford edition of the Old & New Testament. a philosophy course in Christianity will fall closely under the lines of history, you will learn about the history and culture of the mediterranean 2,000 years ago and will most likely compare the Gospels through different means, like their different themes, the different political agendas of their authors, ect. However, there was also a phiosophy of religion course that showed different philosophers across time's "proofs" (very similar to geometry proofs) of God's existance.
There will be a political philosophy, and you may be excited to jump to into the works of Karl Marx and Nietzsche. There will be a modern philosophy course and you'll learn about Descartes "evil deceivers" and you will slave over Spinoza's long lists of axioms and definitions.

That's a philosophy major in a nut shell, man.

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