Considering your age, I believe you may start on a study of yourself >>> Body, blood and breath motions within > Sense of Action, and the desires in truth, prompting them > Senses of Knowledge, and where it ( prematurely ) ends, in terms of clear insight of the inner processes at work > Mind, its thinking and doubting processes > Intellect, clarity of nature, determinations, definitions, linkages and reach in terms of effects and affects > YOU, the self, its happiness and bliss, and denials.
It's a huge book ! On Jan 19, 9:32 am, Twirlip <[email protected]> wrote: > On Jan 19, 2:52 am, ornamentalmind <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Twir, you have quite an appetite! > > Not really; I find it all terribly daunting (just read a longish > section about Heidegger in a guide to philosophy, and am as baffled as > ever); but I've been feeling it's time to try to get to grips with the > subject more seriously, to see what major thinkers have said about > things which everyday life has forced me to think about in my own > potty way. > > > I too started out with almost a > > spiritual sense of awe when it came to pure math. Somewhere along the > > line it fizzled out…most likely when I spent two weeks and 28 pages of > > text learning how to literally prove that 1 + 1 = 2. . . abstract > > algebra I’d guess. . . > > It fizzled out for me when I became obsessed with trivia: encountered > set theory, formal logic, Bourbaki, category theory, general topology > (that at least made some sense), but lost sight of what the subject > was about. Frequently got carried away with finding nice ways to do > things not very different from what you just described, essentially > proving 1 + 1 = 2. That's another strand of philosophy I have to pick > up (but not just yet): I have to make sense of what mathematics is, as > well as making sense of my own absurd life (not the least absurd thing > about it being my rather Asperger-like monomania about maths). > > > As to where to stop…perhaps with one’s last breath? > > Can't wait. :-) > > > [long list of names snipped] > > Consider me even more daunted! Can't even imagine how I'll find my > way into it all. > > > There are countless sites online for such things and rather than > > burden you with some of the heavier ones, to start, Alan Wallace might > > be good. His site includes references, audio downloads and a reading > > library…again, free to use. When it comes to Tibetan Buddhism, he is > > near the top as I see it. He is fluent in both Tibetan and Sanskrit. > > >http://www.sbinstitute.com/ > > Thanks, will have a look at that site tomorrow. (It's after 4 a.m., > can't sleep, just checked in here to see if anyone was awake; am half- > asleep, may be rambling even more than usual, but it's preferable to > my own appalling company in the wee small hours.) > > > My personal view is that when it comes to things ontological as well > > as epistemological, the ‘east’ starts beyond where many in the ‘west’ > > end. > > Sounds very likely to me. My vague feeling about it is of needing to > hang on to the part of the Western tradition that makes sense to me, > and letting the Eastern ideas fill in the gaps where it doesn't. Also, > mysticism seems to connect the two traditions, seems to connect all > religions. But very vague about it all, as you can see. > > I have some strong intuitions (two, to be precise, growing since > 2006), but little idea how to formulate either of them coherently. > Need to learn from how other people have written intelligibly about > philosophy. But definitely starting from things that puzzle me about > everyday life (and mathematics), not from any desire to exhibit > mastery of an abstruse and irrelevant field of academic study. On the > other hand (and in spite of appearances!), something more > intellectually rigorous than self-help and psychobabble (which often > reads like people trying to do philosophy, but doing it very badly). > Perhaps it's all about thinking like a mathematician in relation to > real life (instead of turning to /that/ to exhibit mastery of an > abstruse and irrelevant field of academic study). > > Perhaps things will make more sense in the morning. Nothing's making > any sense at all now, but something really did click for me earlier > today, because of all that ridiculous conflict I got into, and I have > a strong sense (just not right now) that actual philosophy can result > from floods of half-crazy intuitions about rather down-to-earth things > like that.
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