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EternalCowabunga
Being of Great Significance



Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 7,152
Loc: Time and Space
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Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom
#7389014 - 09/09/07 05:41 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Do you post here because you are wise and want to try and express that wisdom through language in hopes that other people can learn from you? Is it wise to be trying to help people through such a limited medium as a message board?
Do you post here because you are uncertain of who you really are and your place in the world and debating intellectually makes you feel more secure? If you lost a debate, would your whole self-hood be in jeopardy?
Do you post here because you have come to certain conclusions in life and now you get amusement out of those who have not reached the same conclusions? Is it a mischievous game?
Do you lurk/post here to gain knowledge of ideas and concepts or to compare and get a new appreciation for your paradigm and someone else's paradigm?
I know I've seen these questions posed here before, but I think it is always interesting to ask these questions. I expect a lot of answers like "I post here because I am bored" and "why not?" but then I wonder if these people are being honest.
Now that I think of it, I think "Do you... because" is a wrong way to go about this. I guess the question is more of what is your attitude when making a post.
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rodfarva
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Registered: 07/31/07
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Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: EternalCowabunga]
#7389054 - 09/09/07 05:51 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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often, my most complicated thoughts are un palletable during everyday conversation. Normal interaction is usually limited to talking about events and other people. This is a non-embarassing place to discuss ideas. Thoughts about new ground are discussed the least between people in person.
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



Registered: 09/20/05
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: EternalCowabunga]
#7389321 - 09/09/07 07:09 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I post here because I have no self-restraint.
-------------------- “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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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: EternalCowabunga]
#7389328 - 09/09/07 07:10 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I post for all those reasons. I doubt anyone posts for just one reason.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Grok
Has Been a Bad Boy



Registered: 12/03/03
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Icelander]
#7389360 - 09/09/07 07:18 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I post here to save lost souls.
-------------------- Entropy is increasing. To send me a PM, go to my journal
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



Registered: 09/20/05
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Grok]
#7389439 - 09/09/07 07:34 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I can't tell whether you're being serious or not.
-------------------- “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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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Lion]
#7389470 - 09/09/07 07:43 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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That's mostly why we all post here. I think that most of us think we have the best idea of what the "truth" is. I know I do that and it looks like just about everyones ego is hooked into that kind of gratification.
The interesting thing is when you look deeply into the bottom line reason why we feel the need to do this.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



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Posts: 8,775
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Icelander]
#7389482 - 09/09/07 07:47 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I have no pretensions about saving anyone or passing on the truth to others. I think most of the posts I make here are just to get some kind of feedback so I'll know where I'm at in terms of the way I react to criticism, rejection, acceptance, etc. Sometimes I do think I'm being especially clever or being really helpful, but I accept that I'll only ever know the relevance of the things I say to me; they may or may not be useful to other people's paths.
-------------------- “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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Grok
Has Been a Bad Boy



Registered: 12/03/03
Posts: 1,262
Loc: Greener Pastures
Last seen: 9 years, 4 months
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Lion]
#7389556 - 09/09/07 08:09 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
bug said: I can't tell whether you're being serious or not.
Then consider yourself unsaved.
Quote:
Icelander said: The interesting thing is when you look deeply into the bottom line reason why we feel the need to do this.
I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Like what is our hangup with trying to get others to believe as we do. On a personal level I see myself doing this, and I understand why I do it...but looking at large scale belief assimilation forces, like the Mormon church. the media, etc...what drives this?
What it comes down to is that we all know that large groups of people with similar beliefs and therefore, likely, motivations, have a lot of power. Power to create change, which really is something we're all hung up on. How this power is used, the effect it has on leader's ego, and the changes that such groups seek are largely irrelevant. If you had the truth, and could get everyone on the planet on the same page...I dunno, doesn't that about make you God or something?
-------------------- Entropy is increasing. To send me a PM, go to my journal
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Grok]
#7389630 - 09/09/07 08:33 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Then consider yourself unsaved.
:( 
Quote:
Power to create change, which really is something we're all hung up on.
Amen. I am so in love with the idea of having spiritual power: the power to be inscrutable, the power to drive others' egoic minds to their wits' end - to surrender.
The people with the real power are people who would never admit it and who would laugh at you if you praised them for it.
-------------------- “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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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Lion]
#7389711 - 09/09/07 08:55 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I have no pretensions about saving anyone or passing on the truth to others.
I suggest you look a little deeper.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 8,775
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Icelander]
#7389737 - 09/09/07 09:02 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thanks.
-------------------- “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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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Grok]
#7389746 - 09/09/07 09:04 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Like what is our hangup with trying to get others to believe as we do. On a personal level I see myself doing this, and I understand why I do it...but looking at large scale belief assimilation forces, like the Mormon church. the media, etc...what drives this?
What it comes down to is that we all know that large groups of people with similar beliefs and therefore, likely, motivations, have a lot of power. Power to create change, which really is something we're all hung up on. How this power is used, the effect it has on leader's ego, and the changes that such groups seek are largely irrelevant. If you had the truth, and could get everyone on the planet on the same page...I dunno, doesn't that about make you God or something?
I have given this much thought and posted on this in the past. I think it's a form of death anxiety. The human unhealthy ego structure is verrrrrry fragile. It lives in fear of not being in total control of the self. It believes itself to be the whole of the self. Any threat (this includes being wrong about the most mundane things) is fear creating for an ego who defends its omnipotence by never being wrong about anything. Any unhealthy ego that has to face it's fallibility cannot uphold it's illusion of being the whole of the self. Only a perfect ego can convince itself that it will never end (die). Death is the egos biggest fear. This gets pretty subtle as the ego has many ways of convincing us that it doesn't think this way, but if you really study yourself you will find the thread and if you follow them you might just agree with what I'm proposing here.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Lion]
#7389762 - 09/09/07 09:07 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
bug said: Thanks.
Yeah bro I'm recycling old material. It's like a late Sunday night standup set, the crowd is small and I just want to go home and get some sleep.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate



Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 8,775
Last seen: 3 days, 17 hours
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: Icelander]
#7389773 - 09/09/07 09:10 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'm good at questioning whether my body might not really be immortal.
I think that's what the 2012 thing is about partly - people who don't want to have to experience physical death unless it is part of a great transformation of consciousness, the complete end of form and return to Oneness.
The ego is an aspect of the divine mind, unlimited consciousness: it is the Divine Mind's fear of death. It's what 'we' are. Shiiiiiiiit. And this trip is about shedding that fear, or surrending to it. We are all one.
-------------------- “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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EternalCowabunga
Being of Great Significance



Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 7,152
Loc: Time and Space
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: EternalCowabunga]
#7389797 - 09/09/07 09:16 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Yes, what you are talking about is what I mean by ontological insecurity, I see you call it death anxiety.
I was reading up on some psychology last night, specifically a book called "the divided mind" about people with fragmented or fragile egos. Basically it said that the ego has a number of strategies for maintaining status quo. Some people can appear to disagree externally but their "inner self", their true beliefs remain untouched because they depersonalize themselves from reality so that they can convince themselves of any fantasy even if it is completely contrary to reality, reality being what is objectively true from the standpoint of a healthy ego. Something like that...
I'm jealous of people with such strong egos that they KNOW they will never die. I think this is what the real goal should be of psychological and spiritual development. A fragile ego doesn't know anything because it does not know itself. It only knows a number of beliefs about ITself and other THINGS. It's really a pity.
edit: In response to Bug, you cannot be a ONE until the ego has a solid base. Without a solid base you are always at the risk of being divided.
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EternalCowabunga
Being of Great Significance



Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 7,152
Loc: Time and Space
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: EternalCowabunga]
#7389848 - 09/09/07 09:31 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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It's funny... I think it might actually come down to how many possibilities you can handle. Or maybe not handle, but willing to accept. An unhealthy ego is a terribly small closed loop, because it sucks everything into itself, reducing everything into one point. It's a paradox.. the more you take in to your self the less you can handle, go to fast too soon and you lose everyone. A healthy ego is always letting go, and so it expands into the surrounding area. A closed loop is a dot, and a dot is no more than a spot, a location. An open loop would be something like a wave, and a wave is so much more than a spot, it's more like a journey.
Nah, i'm just talking out of my ass now.
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MushmanTheManic
Stranger

Registered: 04/21/05
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: EternalCowabunga]
#7389932 - 09/09/07 09:57 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I post here because I am a wise-ass.
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shakercee
Atheistic Mystic



Registered: 04/08/07
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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: EternalCowabunga]
#7391212 - 09/10/07 09:31 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Do you lurk/post here to gain knowledge of ideas and concepts or to compare and get a new appreciation for your paradigm and someone else's paradigm?
That's the one for me.
-------------------- Pray, v.: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy - Ambrose Bierce Medical science has confirmed what the male world has known intuitively for millenia: that scratching your ass is a great aid to complex thinking. Its God's responsibility to forgive the terrorist organizations such as Jaish, Lashkar etc. Its our responsibility to arrange the meeting between them and god." - Indian Armed Forces "Hey Monkey!! Get Funky" - Tarzan and Jane
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BlueCoyote
Beyond



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Re: Ontological Insecurity or Sharing Wisdom [Re: EternalCowabunga]
#7391713 - 09/10/07 12:09 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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For me, the 'environment' here seems comforting
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