--- In [email protected], Bronte Baxter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Judy wrote: > Who here has been claiming the ego "doesn't exist"?? Who has suggested enlightenment involves annihilating your individual consciousness? ? I'm increasingly coming to think, Bronte, that you're defending your position against a big bunch of straw men.,___ > > Bronte writes: <snip> > Ron and the various Neo-Advaitins are extreme examples of just this philosophy you claim no one is claiming. Other Eastern teachers preach the same messages but more subtly.
Bronte, I think you've misinterpreted what they're saying. > It's couched in gentler terms than the stark nihilists, but it's the same poisonous drink. If you can't see that, I suggest it's because you're taken in by the fancy explanations they spin and their impressive dharshans. Nope, I've never been around one of them in person. But I do understand their "fancy explanations" quite differently than you do. > I'm like the boy crying "the emperor has no clothes!" Of course, you will see clothes if you buy into the mass hypnosis. I'm looking at the dogmas and assumptions a different way Yes, but my question is whether what you see is what they actually mean. > , and calling a spade a spade. If I don't see clothes on the emperor, I say so. Fine with me. But I don't think you're crying "The emperor has no clothes," I think you're seeing some outlandish clothing on the emperor when he's actually wearing something quite different. > I shouldn't have to go through and dig out quotes of gurus that illustrate my points. If you can't see the parallels, even though you're highly familiar with Eastern writings, I don't think going to that trouble would cause you see the connections any better than you do. I'm suggesting the connections you believe you're seeing don't actually exist. But there's no way to tell which of us is "seeing better" unless you cite some examples. > Basically, we all see what we want to see, what we are ready to see, based on where we stand beside "the elephant" of reality. > > We're all performing our own life experiment, side by side with other experimenters. I can only tell you the findings my own experiment is yielding. If those make no sense to you, I can only respect your right to follow your own hypotheses to your own natural conclusions. And I will continue to listen with interest and respect to whatever you may find. I'm not questioning the results of your experiments, Bronte. I'm questioning whether the teaching you think your experiments disprove is what is actually being taught. I totally agree with you that the notions that the ego doesn't exist or that enlightenment involves annihilating one's individual consciousness are outlandish. I just don't think anyone has been proposing such notions.
