What do you believe?

Discussion in 'Eastern Philosophy' started by seekeroftheway, Jan 31, 2006.

  1. seekeroftheway Let go your conscious self... Registered Senior Member

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    This is, quite obviously, the philosophy section, but philosophy is a rather broad term. What do you believe? What is philosophy to you? How do you feel about other beliefs you've been expose to? I'm brand new, I'm getting a feel for the place. All minds welcome.
     
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  3. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    This is the Eastern Philosophy section, which tends to be different than the West in that the concern is more existential, not a matter of deciding which set of beliefs to adopt. I could say more, but perhaps this is a good place to start.
     
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  5. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    i dont believe any one thing really, i have many questions but no real answers.


    ive been exposed to many different beliefs and i donr favour any over others really, opening your mind to everything and bieng pretty open minded is key in philosophy,


    i dont believe anything, but i philosophies beyond reason,

    each life is a story and an individual philosophy,

    peace.
     
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  7. VitalOne Banned Banned

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    I like the Buddha's philosophy:
    "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."
     
  8. seekeroftheway Let go your conscious self... Registered Senior Member

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    Very nice...ok, believe is not the word I'm looking for. You are correct, spidergoat, philosophers such as ourselves (eastern, if you must call it that) are not so stupid as to waste time fighting wars over who is right and wrong. Now, existentialism, what are your views on that? Like how the universe works, how we coincide with it, with eachother, so on?
     
  9. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    Welcome seekeroftheway........Well, don't know about you but the world seems in a right mess, and this includes the past.
    I see a pattern where generally people of the Earth become attacked, oppressed and subjugated by a bullyingmindset whic beliefves in a 'spirit' over 'matter' philosophy....and/or sky-god which rules over Nature
    Then in moern times the belief SEEMS to change. they drop 'spirit' and claim there is only 'matter', and carry on oppressing, and even Nature nowis under threat, which means thousands of other species made extinct, and this continues daily at an alarming rate. THIS philosophy fueling this march to self-destruction is the materialist philosophy

    So looking at all this is intuit that THEmai problem throughout philosophical thught has been the idea of there being a schism between 'spirit' and 'matter'. andthat the believers on both sides of this schism inevitably become divided from themselves, from community, and Nature

    so i feel the need to explore how spirit/consciousness and matter were never really separated in te first place. wht created this delusion was when male philosophers create conceptual abstracts and then BELIEVE in their tought processesto be ACTUAL. and from this flse premise they acted on it and created the hell we are in today

    so if one is serious, there HASto be a radical shift away from this linear move to self-destruction. we must see how Nature is ALIVE. THE primal inspirer for such insight are the psychedelics. to take tem respectfully but also integration has to include education--ecological awareness. understanding our place in Nature and how to live so as not to destroy it for all other species. because we NEED the diversity. We are not isolated unis. we ar utterly interelated with al eco systems.
    SP IT IS UNDERSTANDING THIS I FEEL WHICH IS THEmost important thing we can do
     
  10. seekeroftheway Let go your conscious self... Registered Senior Member

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    One might agree in that case that life would be much, much better for everyone and everything if we abolished A LOT of technology that we have in the world today, mostly war machines, oil rigs, the most destructive stuff. But then we have to wonder, what is really the most destructive? Just three years ago in fallon nevada, a leukemia burst was seen in small children due to arsenic poisoning in the ground. Every day, people in places like New York and LA breathe frightening amounts of chemicals and even materials into their system. So who would be the true enemy if we were to try and find a better unison with the environment?
     
  11. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    the world is "perfect" (in a subjective sense) humans are the only thing that unbaleces the harmony of earth, the other animals, plantlife and natural lands are in perfect harmony and cycle, but humans are the inbalence in everything,


    the universe is a mystery and will remain so to humans, we the limited cannot truley understad the limitless,

    there are many many ideas philosophies and theorys that are great, i have many myself, but true understanding is beyond us,

    i like the daoist approach to theorys about the universe, alot of buddhist philosophies touch on the universe and its mysteries, indian philosophies and egyptian alike also speak alot about the universe and its creation and our part in it,


    i read all type of pjilosophy, it dosent matter to me if it was written 2000 years ago in early china, 1000 years ago in tribal america, or today by some guy on the internet, i enjoy all philosophy especially ancient eastern.


    peace.
     
  12. Xerxes asdfghjkl Valued Senior Member

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    It was this attitude, the taoist idea that we 'cannot truly understand', which kept the chinese from conquering the world-- even though they had invented the printing press a thousand years before the west.

    Really? I read all types of pjilosophy, too. And psilogony.
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    You should realize that Taoism was not the dominate philosophy of the ruling class in China, it was Confucianism, and China did do a heck of a job of conquering.
     
  14. Xerxes asdfghjkl Valued Senior Member

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    They repressed science.. or they repressed the drive to science because you "couldn't really know" anything. Taoism was born in the perfectly ordered society of the society and held them back, though it did allow for stability.

    Conquering != Progress
     
  15. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    The natrual world is wild, and a erson can get injured and die. the actuality of this unpredictability is what i feel drove a ceretain mindset to try and control it. i would say the patriarchal 'spiritual' traditions seek to escape Nature, and materialistic science wants to control it

    doing this they simultaneously are trying to control themselves, suppress their wild deeper nature which is INTERCONNECTING with Nature. tis situation obviously isn't healthy, in te real meaning of the term. because you are fighting awesome energies in yourself
    te FEAR of tis wildness is what projects outward onto others and Natyre seen as a threat

    the general lack pf any maning in moderns lives is due to this denial repression suppression of our natrual feeling. and then culture comes int to manipulate this loss with modern technology, this puts a 'screen' between us and actual Nature. the sense of BELONGING here
    te patriarchal spiritual trraditions GUILT us about beloning here, and wildness, and warn us OFF exploring Nature wit sacramental substances. substances which fvery much inspire theprimal interelated sense of belonging
     
  16. seekeroftheway Let go your conscious self... Registered Senior Member

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    Are we really? We are unique because we are unlike all other creatures. Whereas the bear is equipped with the instinct and the physical prowess to hunt and seek shelter and survive, humans are not. Our trait is that we are capable of finding out how to survive, to learn, to adapt. A human can be born and raised in Africa and then be placed in antarctica, and given the resources, could survive. A grizzly bear in a similar situation would not.
    Another trait is, as Agent Smith so aptly quoted (sci fi freak, that's how I found this forum), "After much speculation, I have found that you humans are not actually mammals. You see, mammals move into an area and form a certain equilibrium with the environment. Humans, however, move into an area and multiply, until all natural resources are consumed. Forthwith, you move to another area. There is only one other organism that performs this way: A virus."
    So, are we really out of balance? Or are we simply unique and perhaps significant?
     
  17. seekeroftheway Let go your conscious self... Registered Senior Member

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    That they did. Qin Shi Huangdi was...quite the character, though. Firstly, conquered all of China and united it under one rule, then he thought, "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, I'm the first sovereign ruler of China, I'm like a god and stuff..." So, to seek immortality and make is reign one of totality(If any of the philosophers at the time had been brave enough to stand up and say anything, they would know that there is no such thing as absolution or totality or permanence, and Qin would've known he was screwed from the start...), he got all his best alchemists together and they told him "Heeeeeeeeeey, this liquid stuff is the only thing out there that can alter Gold, it must be all magical and stuff. We made it into a pill, take these and your life will be prolonged until your little spy prick over here gets to the immortal isles and brings back the immortal elixirs for you." So he takes a mercury pill daily. It made him a lot like this guy--->

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    And, ironically enough, the mercury shortened his life instead of prolonging it. Perfect example of yin and yang...
     
  18. seekeroftheway Let go your conscious self... Registered Senior Member

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    So go pull a hitler, or a Qin Shi Huangdi, go conquer Europe and kill all your kinsman, go chug mercury, go kill and then go die.
    Ooooooooooor, realize that although that may be a true statement, it will destroy you just as you destroy...whatever you conquer, and let someone else be destroyed for it instead of you. Brains, gotta love being human...
     
  19. seekeroftheway Let go your conscious self... Registered Senior Member

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    But is it not NATURAL to fear what one doesn't understand? You do realize that this whole principle of mechanization over nature goes back to the dawn of mankind. We were born with the ability to learn how to overcome obstacles, how to use those obstacles to our advantage, even. Nature is great, and powerful, and very hard to comprehend fully. So, as per our NATURE, we fear it.
     
  20. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    when we become alienated from our nature and Nature, qhich is continuum, that is when we become fvery very dangerous. this is evidencednow.
    there is a massive distinhction between being in AWE of Natur and fearing it. when you fear you dont love. fear is not understanding. take racism. doesn't te racist fear the 'other'? and then wants to conhtrol, kill, etc the 'othe' he fears?

    Look, take the Mayans, thyey believed that by doing certain riuals they could keep te sun rising and rain falling. tat is fear ish't it? te fear tat if they dont do abc then ther'll be death. lillte did theyknow it was rubbish they believed. tey also did much blood sacrifice for the same purpose!

    i think when you explore te sorce of most fear, ancient andmodern, it involves DEATH. so we ned to understand death and its relation to life. itnis the traditions which understood the cyclic nature of life death and regeneratin which have been the most intelligent
     
  21. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    the need for this type of sarcasm would be?, it was a typo im sorry for it.

    and i wasnt aware we had god in the building, are you disputing what i said?, and you actually think a human will truley know facts about what happened billions of years ago, witht he creation of existance, ?


    please inform me on the informationt hat you must hold, i would like to know the mysteries of existance please, almighty,

    and how did the daoists stop the emporers from all of this? the government was not daoist, and china was very good militant wise, what is your beef?

    peace.
     
  22. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    i dotn understand fully what you are saying, i understand the last part, and that is very true about the virus, all iw as sayign was humans damage the earth like no other lifeform, and we unbalence the earth, we have put it out of balence that is known fact, look at the global climate, and weather patterns,

    but what you said about humans and bears, a bear can survive there, its called a polar bear, wich is related tot he grizzly, and humans would die unless taught how to survive by there parents, if you went and put a whole african village in the north pole with nothign but there bare skin, they would most likely all die out,

    peace,
     
  23. seekeroftheway Let go your conscious self... Registered Senior Member

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    No, what I'm actually contradicting your point of us throwing things out of balance. What is balance, really? If you think about it, yin and yang AREN'T equal. A monument that could've taken thousands of years to build could be destroyed in an instant with massive firepower. If this is so, that creation and destruction are not equal, and that life is ever changing, perhaps we are simply the weight that is tipping the scales in one direction, and that although we are destroying parts of the planet and damaging it as is, that that is the road to greater healing when the scales tip back. Perhaps we are simply taking or first, or perhaps our last steps down the road to a "great renewal" that many mormons believe in, you see?
     

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