Friday, November 13, 2015

The Myth of Separation - You are not alone


If my beliefs truly had any substance the world would long ago have become overpopulated with fairies, leprechauns, and regular disasters from imagined house fires, accidents, and an assortment of personal embarrassments.

That's what I know about beliefs, but I'll take a closer look at this particular inquiry!


I have a body
In looking for what has a body, or owns one, I've admitted in previous posts that there's really nothing there as owner.  The owner is an assumption that just doesn't stand up to examination.  You can read about that inquiry here.  And in one simple question to wake up, here.


I need to compete
Normally, I'd say that I'm not a competitive person, but selves are always trying to measure up against other selves.  It seems to be a very good way to solidify a self, actually, because there's a subject/object kind of dynamic going on.  I can see that without an "other" who is different, whether I'm being snarky and making comments about their being worse or better, there's really no "me" here.  They cancel each other out very nicely.


I am not good enough
This is the same as "I need to compete", but dressed in drag.  It's still a comparison born of creating an other.  Is there actually an other?  It doesn't seem so!  It's happening only in my mind because there's nothing in reality that says that "my body" belongs to something that exists here in any essential way, so how could something other over there exist separately?  Mysterious.


I have to try harder
Oh, this is a good one.  I can see that at this point, we have a cascade of beliefs which started with the very first fallacy, that there is something here that has a body.  Owns a body.  That there's a little Delma in the head steering Delma's mind and body (talk about redundant!)   So what exactly would have to try harder?  I can't find anything!

These inquiries always leave "me" mysteriously empty of self consciousness, and the heavy burden of trying to *be* something or someone special. 

Sunday, November 1, 2015

A Really Short Tale About the Internet

I've been marveling about the fact that as I read messages from my online friends, they're not there at all.  They're off hiking, golfing, washing dishes, fighting with their significant others, or maybe even at the pool.  

It's the future and the past, at once.  We are living in a virtual reality with different time zones that aren't measured by a clock, but by the lag in online communication.

Even when we're simultaneously on line, we often exist in different time zones.  So.... What time is it on the internet?

What's more, on any given day, when I engage in online conversations, what I'm reacting to are actually just squiggles made of dots on a computer screen... This is another oddity, especially when I find that there's someone on the internet who is just plain WRONG and needs to be corrected.  Perhaps you know the type?   All I've done when that happens, is to interpret the pixels, get all riled up about them, and then spend time crafting more squiggles that I post up on my screen.  I fuss with the juxtaposition of these lines and curves and set them in ways I believe make me seem smarter than they are.

Squiggle wars.

Very strange.

What exactly am I reacting to?