We are travelling in life right now with another person, with each other. And our question is about whether we can travel without too many words. First of all, where do our words come from?
My reaction is to use thought to unravel this and then post a thought-driven response to it. But, for once, Iām going to challenge that reflex. If thereās one underlying message to your postings, itās a kind of exhortation to explore what lies ābeyondā thought. Iāve resisted doing this, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously, in pretty much all of our many conversations here. But Iāve decided to give it a shot.
But is this not just another reaction? Far more important than challenging a reflex is just to be aware of the reflex taking place and to pay total attention to it. Thatās the real challenge. After all, there is nothing beyond thought. And thatās the same challenge: to watch thought until it fades away without seeking something else to take its place.
Iām often aware of my reactions arising, I kind of sit back and watch them unfold. But my attention to them usually fades shortly after their initial arising, I donāt continue to watch them live out their lives and eventually dissolve. If you divide the lifespan of a thought into three parts, arising, persisting, and dissolving, Iām usually there (aware) for the first 1/3-1/2 of it. Which means I continue to be driven by thoughts, all sorts of mischief can occur in that second half!
Much of what we know we donāt articulate or think about; it isnāt conscious. And much (perhaps most) of what we think we know is belief, assumption, or opinion.
Agreed - I certainly lump all that stuff in with knowledge.
Some define knowledge as a subset of belief, akin to justified true belief.
And as for conscious/unconscious - I certainly canāt bring to mind all the stuff that Iām supposed to know (If you told me the capital of Tanzania, thereās a good chance Iāll remember that I actually knew it)
Isnāt it obvious we give an informed, knowledgeable, interpretation of knowledge, thinking the words, ideas, belief, are a means to elaborately talk about what are basically, words, ideas, belief? What I think is known and not known, true and untrue, is a strategy, a method, for maintaining a position in the scheme of knowledge. To learn, there needs to be a open mind, not accumulating knowledge, not a presentation of a thought process, or what is my restless thinking. I have to die to the self perception of a position in knowledge, the known.
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Or at least I have to free of it, not dependant on it.
Not be a slave to the delusion that what I know is true and must be defended against attack.
Why is there a need to defend my beliefs?
We know we need an open mind, but if weāre honest, we know our minds are not open and are determined to remain closed. So since I admit to having a closed mind, I donāt presume to know what an open mind looks like or feels like, as do you,
Sir, actually it is a question, having multiple answers. In the present context of relationships, I can say that words can affect the mind either positively or negatively.
Is it possible to have an attachment between two persons, with limited exchange of words?, in their trajectory of life.
Is there a role of mindfulness in a relation?, I do not know anything about it but just asking.
What is unlearning?
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Is the sitting back and watching also a reaction? This much more subtle second reaction brings into play the watcher, the observer, doesnāt it?
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No, where do your words come from? Right now, in response to this one simple question, find out.
From my mind, with limited understanding.
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Please donāt idly comment on my words.
Hi Peter,
Is our mind not always open?
To me it seems that the openness of the mind for old stuff is blocking the mind for the new. So a quiet mind is a mind thatās receiving, a bussy mind always in process with the old stuff isnāt capable of receiving anything. Like when iām talking i canāt listen adequatly.
Yes, there is in what I described the sense of a watcher and a watched. Both are ushered into being by the same mind, my mind. But they feel different in a subject/object way.
Why speak at all from limited understanding? You are only going to add to any sense of confusion.
After understanding that our understanding is limited, I felt that it is easy to infer that the chance of contradiction is more, especially in conversations with a life partner in the course of our life.
I canāt learn at all.
Is the realisation a fact or an idea? The idea puts everything back into the field of the self as central learner. The idea generates more ideas, including the opposite argument, the paradoxical argument and so on. The idea keeps alive the learner. The fact destroys the learner.
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