Random

@Srinath Your words and way of expression is a joy to read. It’s not a one-off occurrence. It happens almost every time you post something. I read them again just for the pleasure of it.
I get that you would have read loads of books as a part of your profession. Apart from that, what is your secret sauce?

No idea @Kiman. Not sure I’m all that eloquent really :roll_eyes:


Antti Vanhanen

I know that I am, but I don’t know what I am.Sep 19


Is the mind self aware?

The mind lives in a building with no windows, and it spends all its days rearranging the furniture.

In other words, the mind cannot see the world as it is.

Everything the mind sees it interprets in terms of what it has experienced or thought before.

To use another metaphor, the mind is like a library.

It’s the accumulation of all our thoughts and beliefs, and whenever something new comes up, its default approach is to go to the library to find some concept or idea that might work.

As such, the mind is forever backwards looking. It is unable to see anything without the contamination of the past.

In this way, the mind is a mechanical way to approach and live life.

So if the mind can’t see out of windows, what can?

Awareness.

Only awareness can see things fresh and anew.

When the mind doesn’t contaminate the experience, we are able to perceive it more deeply and intimately - without the division of life into me and the world, good and bad, or known and unknown.

Only awareness can ever be aware.

The mind exists in awareness, but it itself is not aware and often works to obscure the very awareness it’s made of.

With this schema in mind, what is actualism?

He’s using different terms than we use but our differences are probably more than semantics. He doesn’t differentiate between intelligence and feelings. Just mind and awareness. His use of awareness sounds like apperception or unmediated perception but he never says the mind is aware of itself or that awareness is aware of being aware. Nor is he attempting to explain how awareness comes from mind or vice versa. To the contrary, he says the mind is never aware. So for him there’s like two different organs. I think it’s a nice effort, because, he is on to the fact that we obfuscate reality, but he doesn’t seem to be aware of the role of feelings in that process. If he is a sincere individual rather than someone trying to profit off of confusion than he would be interested in hearing Richard’s experiences on the matter.

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Yes, that is likely. But perhaps he will want to have a conversation. I guess we’ll see.

I think the deadest giveaway is his lack of descriptions of the world he sees when he is aware.

Hi Frank - how can the mind see or experience, let alone interpret, anything since it is not aware of anything? Remember, the mind is not aware. Only awareness is aware: