Okay, fine, so now you and Sam Harris are atheistic transcendentalists in experience without poetry. And by your own experience, in shorthand, a “substitutor meditator” in spiritual practice, Evidently like Sam Harris. Welcome back, -Buck
Curtisdeltablues writes: Buck writes: Yes, evidently Harris is a transcending meditator even as a Buddhist! That is wonderful. -Buck in the Dome Did you see that even CurtisDeltaBlues is a transcending meditator now that way too? It's all the same Unified Field once you get going. C: Although Sam Harris practices a form of meditation that came from the Buddhist traditions he does not self identify himself as a Buddhist. Harris: "Given the degree to which religion still inspires human conflict, and impedes genuine inquiry, I believe that merely being a self-described “Buddhist” is to be complicit in the world’s violence and ignorance to an unacceptable degree". - See more at: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf Again Harris; "As students of the Buddha, we should dispense with Buddhism." - See more at: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/ http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/ As students of the Buddha, we should dispense with Buddhism. - See more at: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf As students of the Buddha, we should dispense with Buddhism. - See more at: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dp http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf Harris is an enthusiastic supporter of the kill the Buddha if you meet him on the road POV. http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf As students of the Buddha, we should dispense with Buddhism. - See more at: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf As students of the Buddha, we should dispense with Buddhism. - See more at: http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpuf http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/#sthash.Hbqbm55C.dpufI think there are some useful distinctions to be made in these experiences. Lumping them all together under a banner of physics poetry is unlikely to result in our understanding the differences between these experiences, and I believe those distinctions could be useful. And not in some triumphalist "one is better than another", but perhaps people may need different techniques depending on the results they are seeking or even some personal variables that we will never understand if we throw them all together. Plus I believe there is some brain study research that supports the idea that there really are differences between meditations types neurologically. From my limited experience it already seems that there are major differences between the goals of different techniques as well as completely different shaping of the interpretation of the experience and its meaning depending on the belief support system. This may have an as yet unknown effect on the experiences themselves. I am advocating epistemological humbleness as we try to understand ourselves through these different practices without coming to the lab with a set theory about what any of this means. That is a huge difference between our approaches to meditation practices. I am as skeptical of the Buddhist interpretation of meaning as I am the Hindus. I think we can do better with a fresh look outside these presumptions. B: I was reading a discourse recently by Guru Dev and he was urging people to just do it, meditate and it [the transcendence] will become more familiar. It is very beautiful in nature that way. -Buck C: He might have been more experimental in his personal life but in his role as the Hindu Pope he represents the exact opposite of the perspective I am seeking on this topic.But perhaps you can refer to me as a 'substituter" rather than a "quitter" from now on. I appreciate your open mindedness I really do. sharelong60 writes: Richard, sense of self vanishing and having greater well being sounds like what happens during TM! On Thursday, May 1, 2014 7:10 PM, Richard J. Williams <punditster@...> wrote: On 5/1/2014 3:26 PM, curtisdeltablues@... wrote: > Any tips or insights, especially since you have a TM history and might > know the issues TMers might have would be welcome. > According to Harris, by paying close attention to moment-to-moment conscious experience, it is possible to make our sense of "self" vanish and thereby uncover a new state of personal well-being. 'The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason' by SamHarris W.W. Norton & Company, 2004 p. 214 --
