well, it's also as you said previously, Richard, experiencing unbounded awareness is pretty much its own verification.
I remember, as an aside, someone asking Maharishi, (this was on a tape), why is the experience of unbounded awareness blissful. His response was that, that is its nature. The person kept pressing him, and finally he said, "why is water wet?, why does fire burn?. It is its nature. Sure, I guess you can unpack the experience of unbounded awareness we can have when we meditate, but it appears to me, at least, to be an enjoyable experience at the time we experience it, and when that broadened awareness carries over into activity, or even sleeping and dreaming as well, although in my case, I don't notice it in those other two states as much. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <punditster@...> wrote : On 10/24/2014 7:40 PM, steve.sundur@... mailto:steve.sundur@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: > Richard, you want something silly? I give you something silly. Barry is having a near panic attack, pleading, insisting that someone explain to him the importance of the experience of unbounded awareness. I guess he's got a turd he wants to drop on that or something. But, here. Get this. Ask Barry to explain, how as a declared atheist, he explains karma, and rebirth, (which he is on record of buying into), and he mumbles, "It's not important. It doesn't matter. No, not important at all" Richard, explain that to me, please,................it you can. Go figure? No. I haven't figured that out. > The condition is called cognitive dissonance - that's when a person holds two or more conflicting beliefs at the same time. Barry used to be a professed Buddhist who believed in karma and a Self or Spirit that reincarnates after biological death. Logically in order for metempsychosis to work there must be a reincarnating soul-monad - a self that reincarnates - a "person" that reaps the karma of past or present actions. But the historical Buddha denied the existence of the Atman. Go figure. Barry posted this information to <alt.religion.gnostic> several years ago and he also mentioned on FFL his belief in the Tibetan Bardo state. Barry apparently studied American Buddhism under the Zen Master Rama and converted in 1977. This sets up the dissonance conflict because some people get confused by not understanding why some people who go around doing good and have good intentions, are yet forced to suffer and vice-versa - many times people that go around doing bad things, get rewarded. The theory of karma or causation is almost inconceivable. So, what happened to Barry is simple: after living in NE for so many years, he obviously has succumbed to peer pressure and has been turned into a materialist or a naive realist. You can understand how easy it is to get mentally brain-washed by reading about young people that go radical after watching just a single video. Some people are very susceptible to suggestion. Go figure. It is sometimes very difficult to stay on a spiritual path when your own family and friends don't believe in anything and you feel like a stranger in a strange land. Sometimes people tend to conform to the level of consciousness that surrounds them and they begin to reflect that on social media. It's not complicated.. > ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <punditster@...> mailto:punditster@... wrote : On 10/24/2014 8:44 AM, steve.sundur@... mailto:steve.sundur@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: This sounds like a pretzeling "moment" > It seems dirt simple to me. We are all bound by karma, which means actions, past and present. If a person does good deeds, he or she will be reborn in a better life. On the other hand, if a person does bad things, in the past or present, he or she will get reborn in hell, or a less than satisfactory situation. It's not complicated. In some rare cases, if a person follows a spiritual path, does the work and realizes enlightenment, that person, if he or she has really good karma, may not have to be reborn again, unless they choose to do so, to help the rest of the world get free. But, you are only going to get as much enlightenment as you are going to get. So, based on my experience, what I've been told and what I have figured out - I believe in Life; what it does to you and what you do back. > ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <punditster@...> mailto:punditster@... wrote : Xeno didn't even recognize the dissonance in Barry's preference for Bruce Cockburn songs. Everyone knows Cockburn is a born-again Christian. What about Barry's claim that a "belief in God is a form of mental illness." > On 10/24/2014 12:03 AM, blue_bungalow_2@... mailto:blue_bungalow_2@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: > This could explain how Winthrop and Albert worked on the non-weapon part, of an exclusively weapons project, in which one of them was denied security clearance. > This is an example of cognitive dissonance - the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time. What I'm trying to do is alert Barry that he is exhibiting some roughness by posting contradictory messages to the group. Everyone already knows that Barry believes in Buddhas, karma, and reincarnation and that he bought and read Sam Harris' new book. Everyone already knows that (except apparently Xeno). The thing that doesn't make any sense is, why Barry didn't understand what Harris wrote. It seems pretty simple to me. Harris makes a clear case for the value of spirituality, which he bases on his experiences in Buddhist meditation. Go figure.
