RE: Back to the beginning: the cave
August 30, 2018 at 5:02 pm
(This post was last modified: August 30, 2018 at 5:02 pm by bennyboy.)
(August 30, 2018 at 8:49 am)robvalue Wrote:(August 30, 2018 at 3:03 am)bennyboy Wrote: I think the idea is that through total surrender of the self, one comes into contact with all of existence in some way.
One way I've heard it described is that all the stuff we sense is a painting-- but under it lies the canvas.
The "self" is a very nebulous concept to begin with. I don't know what it would mean to surrender it, or how it would aid the situation. It sounds like either delusion or trance-like meditation. I expect some/most animals aren't even capable of having a concept of "the self" but I doubt that helps them in this regard.
Maybe animals, for this reason, spend their entire lives outside the cave. I think, though, based on my interaction with my pets, that they DO have some concept of self, of fairness, and so on. But surely, they live lives on a more fundamental, and more truthful, way than I do.
