RE: Questionnaire about life (for academic purposes)
July 22, 2020 at 12:34 pm
(July 21, 2020 at 10:28 pm)halos Wrote: How would you define happiness?
Experience that feels no urge to resist itself.
Quote:What qualities make a person successful in life?
Not having a need for success.
Quote:What qualities make a person a good person?
Above all: having virtues that tend to cause less harm than their absence. Secondarily: having virtues that actually decrease harm.
Quote:Are there any absolute or objective standards of right and wrong? If so, what are they?
Yes. The intrinsic nature of wrongness is harm and the intrinsic nature of goodness is the absence of harm. Duties and virtues are good only insofar as they tend to lead to the minimization of such a wrongness and the maximization of such a goodness. And virtues and duties can thusly be very individual things: because a virtue is just whatever works for the individual and what works for the individual is whatever tends to reduce harm. And a vice is also individual because it is whatever doesn't work for the individual which is just whatever tends to cause harm.
The subjective part is how such vices, virtues and duties and shall nots and shalls differ from person to person. The objective part is that the intrinsic nature of wrongnes is harm and the intrinsic nature of goodness is the absence of harm.
Quote:At this point, what is the highest priority of your life?
Utter acceptance and non-struggle. Both within and without.
Quote:If someone asked you to explain to them your philosophy of life (what you live by), what would you say? What reasons would you give to justify your answer?
I can't give the justifications because it would require more than one book. One of the key things is that it doesn't matter where you start .... the important thing is that it all fits together like a tapestry. If your philosophy is not unified then you should suspect that there is something wrong with it.
Here are some things I believe but I lack the mental energy to go into detail about justifying them right now:
Free will doesn't exist. Not even as an illusion.
The ego is not free. The self is not free. The ego, the self and the will are all one and the same thing.
We are not separate from the world.
Existence itself is consciousness.
The more we accept that we are not in control of our lives the less frustrated and out of control we will feel.
Your happiness and unhappiness are just as much 'out there' in 'the world' as in here. And vice versa. There is no 'out there' or 'in here'. It's all out and all in. There is no real duality to it. The inner world is the outer world and the outer world is the inner world. When we recognize this we will stop chasing happiness as if it's out there in the world or in here in our thinking heads. This will set us free from frustration once we not only recognize it conceptually but also practice it perceptually. We will have the answer once we realize that there was no question to begin with. Our not realizing that we had it was the only thing stopping us from having it. It's like looking at a painting of two faces and not seeing it as a vase or vice versa. When we can see it both ways we are free. There is no way to do things wrong. The belief that there is creates the wrongness (I don't mean morally).
We need to not only stop holding ourselves and others responsible as if they are separate entities ....... we need to stop holding ourselves or others responsible for holding ourselves or others responsible and we need to stop holding ourselves or others responsible for holding ourselves or others responsible for holding ourselves or others responsible. It goes on for infinity and we can't force ourselves to stop doing it. So what do we do? Recognize and realize and FEEL fully that we not only don't and can't have such a force but we never did. It's all illusory. Step 1. Understand it. Step 2. See it. Step 3. Feel it. Step 4. Practice feeling it.
Quote:What is your view concerning the existence of God or the nature of ultimate reality? What reasons would you give to justify your answer?
I'm, again, not in the mood for justifying. I never get a satisfactory counter-argument back and I'm tired and lacking mental energy right now. I'm not here to preach but I AM here to answer at least some of your questions. And I may explain such things when I don't lack the energy.
To me ... the word 'God' is probably unhelpful but I certainly don't believe in a personified literal God. And the ultimate nature of reality is consciousness. And that consciousness is either one consciousness and our minds are part of it .... or that consciousness is infinite minds. It depends how you look at it.
Quote:In your view, what is the most basic or fundamental human problem?
Suffering.
Quote:Is there a solution to the most basic human problem? If so, what is it?
A lifetime of reflection and non-reflection ... and the ability to do both without struggle whenever one wishes. The ability to turn anxiety both on and off. To function as a human but to also function as something more than human.
The path to that solution may be different for everybody and some may never reach it. My own path was via secular philosophy.
Quote:10. What question do you most wish you could answer in your life?
"Have I already experienced the worst moment of my life?"
"Zen … does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes." - Alan Watts
