Is the self anything but fear?

[rickScott]

@macdougdoug

But despite your experience you still believe that IT is an answer.

I don’t know if there’s an IT to get. If there is I don’t know what IT might be. I envision it as a kind of master key that unlocks the door to understanding.

@nobody cleverness and imagination, great as they are as motors for the recycling and progress of culture - can actually be an added difficulty when it comes to psychological death/choiceless awareness/freedom from thought - also freedom of thought is not the same as freedom from thought.

Agreed!

[rickScott]

@macdougdoug

However, if you really want to understand suffering, you must see the totality of the movement which includes the goal of enjoyment.

Yes, it’s all part of the puzzle. (I’ll add that to my IT list.)

[rickScott]

@DanMcD

Thought IS suffering when it projects a ‘time’ when an “IT” may be found, no?

Thinking that you are on a viable path to IT can feel very very good.

[DanMcD]

@nobody

Thinking that you are on a viable path to IT can feel very very good.

That’s the only thing the ass can look forward to, is to ‘one day’ catch up with that damn carrot

[rickScott]

@DanMcD

That’s the only thing the ass can look forward to, is to ‘one day’ catch up with that damn carrot

Hee-haw baybey!

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[sivaram]

What is that “IT”, in the present conversation? I really do not know what it is but four members said something about “IT” in the present thread.

[macdougdoug]

Don’t worry @sivaram we don’t know what IT is either

[rickScott]

@anon78228991

There are two different energies involved in all this: first, there is the energy of the question itself; and then there is the energy taken up by the search for an answer. This second form of energy is a dilution of or a diversion away from the first. Could we explore this by looking a little more carefully at the nature of the mind that puts a question? (Probably in a new thread.)

Sounds good.

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[rickScott]

@sivaram

What is that “IT”, in the present conversation?

“I get it!” means I understand whatever ‘it’ is fully, I grok it. When I talk about getting IT I mean understanding the nature of reality.

[sivaram]

Okay

Post must be minimum characters

[rickScott]

The search for IT might be a fool’s errand. Or it might lead to understanding.

I suspect it’s both, that these ‘opposites’ are in fact closely intertwined.

[DanMcD]

Thought wittingly or not, occupies the brain and then creates an imaginary entity that seeks a path to freedom?

[rickScott]

Sounds like the Roman Catholic Church!

This happens, probably quite often, we have a genius for fooling ourselves.

But that something can happen doesn’t mean it necessarily does happen, right?

[macdougdoug]

@DanMcD

Thought wittingly or not, occupies the brain and then creates an imaginary entity that seeks a path to freedom?

Don’t forget the imaginary path and the imaginary goal (the mythical freedom in our mind) at the end of it that the imaginary entity (me) has to get to - so good luck to all!

[DanMcD]

Brings up the ‘radical’ K statement, Freedom is at the beginning, not the end.

[sivaram]

There is a Buddhist quote on foolishness.

"The fool who knows his foolishness is wise at any rate so far but the fool who thinks that he is wise is a fool indeed "

[Inquiry]

@nobody

I know the snake is really a rope, but I choose(?) to keep make-believing it’s a snake.

I believe the snake is just a rope because Krishnamurti and others have me convinced of it. But conviction is not realization - it’s just belief. My belief that the “snake” is just a rope brings relief, but it doesn’t bring awakening. So I have comforting knowledge that makes it possible to live with the snake, but I don’t have the clarity, the emptiness, to see that the snake is just a rope.

[rickScott]

Yes, the right words from people you trust can be very comforting. And we all need comfort sometimes, refuge from the madness. (At least I do.)

[Peter]

Sivaram, I think you can get min characters by adding …(…dot, dot, dot, dot, …etc)