--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter <drpetersutphen@> wrote: > > > > --- jyouells2000 <jyouells@> wrote: > > > > > My experience is that the 'bound' self is built upon > > > the unwillingness > > > to be nothing, the fear of > > > that... Sort of a continuous looking away. > > > > Brilliant(IMHO)!! The continuous looking away is also > > a continuous looking for a subjective "feeling" of > > self that affirms (falsely) that "I exist." The mind > > does this every few seconds in waking state. It's a > > very subtle egoic habit. You can see this habit in CC > > because the mind turns to find something to affirm > > itself and nothing, literally, is found instead. There > > is no longer a felt-sense of "I" to affirm > > individuality. There is, again, literally, nothing > > there to find but pure consciousness and pure > > consciousness is something that the mind can not > > comprehend. > > I know this was a couple of days ago, but today > I found myself wondering whether the same "looking > away" could help to explain those with an Internet > addiction. They intuit that they're close to the > experience of nothingness, and that scares them, > so they post a lot and/or post stuff calculated > to get a response (positive or negative doesn't > matter, just as long as it's a response), all so > that the self can preserve the illusion of itself. > As long as the self is busy dealing with one-on- > one interactions, the "looking away" succeeds, the > illusion of self's existence is preserved, and > the person never has to deal with the nothingness > they can feel just over the horizon.
For that matter, could *all* forms of addiction be a way to preserve the illusion of self, and keep selflessness at bay? It's certainly been fascinating for me to see the number of *former* seekers and practitioners of meditation who, soon after abandoning their path, get into some form of heavy addiction, whether it be smoking ciga- rettes or smoking dope or drinking. Some of it is a "I denied myself all these things for years and so now I have the right to indulge" thang, but on another level it might be related to a subconscious desire to keep enlightenment away. Another form of addiciton that lends itself to this interpretation is the anti-cult cult. In my experience, *most* of the leaders of this anti- movement movement, when they tell their personal stories, come to a pivotal moment for them that goes something like this: "In meditation I got to a point where I lost all sense of who I was. This scared me so much that I never wanted that to happen again, so I quit meditating, and now I work to warn others that they might get to a similar place." What if the "work" they do as an "anti-cult counselor" is their way of not only avoiding full transcendence/loss of self, but a way to prevent others from going further than they dared to go? Just thoughts on a rainy afternoon. Not trying to sell them to anyone... To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
