comparing insight to pixel screens

I was just wondering about this on the way home, do you guys think drawing analogy between insight, attainments, and video display screens with increasing definition and more pixels?

Would love to hear what you guy think

I want to hear what you think, too. No backing out this time!

I tend to think of moving from 2-d to 3-d to "immersion". Insight tends to move you from looking "at" the world, to looking "into" the world, to being "in" the world. Space starts opening up, more and more. You walk outside and you feel the entire sky above you. You are in a heated argument in an office conference room and you don't just feel the argument, you notice all the unaffected space too. You talk to someone and you are inside of the conversation, not sitting back and judging what happened or fearing what will come next.

So more along the lines of video display moving toward oculus rift.

Femtosecond wrote: do you guys think drawing analogy between insight, attainments, and video display screens with increasing definition and more pixels?

My analogy is this - You already have the best screen available, but you also have a bunch of selfing processes running that take up the resources of the computer such that what can be rendered is less. So you have a selfing process that is entangled with the 5 senses. It makes you think that sensations are "you"; you possess them and own them. That selfing process gets deleted at first path and sensations of the 5 senses are no longer yours. With the deletion of that process the ability of the computer to render finer detail to the screen gets better. This allows you to see more clearly the next level of sensations that are operating. Second path has a selfing process entangled with thoughts and the mental echo of the 5 senses. When these sensations are investigated and the process deleted, resources are again made available to render reality information more clearly to the screen. Third path repeats with investigation of the proprioceptive sensation of self in space. These can be seen clearly without all the other processes running. Fourth path.....Currently I am investigating sensations of spaciousness that was not clear before...
Every analogy breaks down when pushed too far but this has been my experience so far. I have gotten little feedback of this framework from others so take it with a grain of salt.
~D

Chris Marti wrote: Processes have not stopped and have not been deleted.

Yes. Nothing has been deleted, as far as I can tell. Using the pixel/resolution metaphor, the resolution has been increased. Pixels that were on the very edge of the screen before, that had that weird greenish red distortion you sometimes get on old CRT monitors so you can't make them out clearly... the resolution is higher so they're not in the periphery anymore. Note that the resolution isn't fixed: it adjusts here and there by its own accord, not only by the user's settings.

Vipassana increases the pixel density as well, so that when you zoom in to any part of the screen it remains clear and detailed rather than appearing pixelated.



*EDIT*: But wait, who/what is watching the screen?

Of who's or what's imagination?

In my opinion you get nothing from awakening....it is fundamentally a deletion process. Clarity is something you get by deletion of that which obscures.
Delusion about the self is deleted
Are you your sensations? No? Deletion of that confusion
Are you your Thoughts? No? Deletion of that confusion
Are you your sense of self in space? No? Deletion of that confusion

The term I use - Selfing process is another way of pointing to the same thing as the transformation to all things are equal....what is being transformed? point to it and give it a label...We believe are talking about the same thing.
I am merely detailing the exact stage and process that occurred in my experience.
To get back to the original post - Was there any specific stage based clarity that happened? Or were you able to see all the details of he entire path from the beginning?
~D

I like the expression "confusion" -- aspects of self and world are thought to be fused together, but actually they never were. Nothing really gets destroyed by that realization... except the "confusion" and it is really hard to say what that "is". Unfortunately, this kind of confusion doesn't appear as a thing. That's what makes it so impossible to consciously remove and needs some bizzare technique like meditation. Things appear as things, but how does confusion appear? Obviously the sensations of being conventionally confused appear as that recognizable state, but what about the confusion of so-called Buddhist ignorance? It doesn't show up as a thing. In a way, that's the bizzare thing we're chasing, that thing that if it is seen will result in the end of confusion... but the chasing itself is rarely made an object of investigation.

Anyway, maybe there can be "more" pixels in the sense that they become unconfused, or you could say the pixels never changed... kinda the same thing.

Okay fematosecond, time for you to chime in with your thoughts!

I think I agree, if applied to "the self", but I don't think all conventional confusion is buddhist ignorance. Confusion is fine, normal, part of the mundane learning process, etc.

Best post ever!

(But you still need to answer your own question from post #1, no backing out this time! )

<sits down with bowl of popcorn, slowly putting individual pieces into mouth, also anticipating F's post>

I was through Chicago for a few hours this week, Chris-- I can't imagine ANY cold drink appealing!

Mulled wine or cider, though...

I'm interested in this metaphor b/c it seems like a more inspiring or appealing metaphor seeing how pixel screens are often associated with entertainment. "hd" and stuff like that.

Also right now, this is reminding me of something from the book Infinite Jest and how that has buddhist parallels. Aside from the more buddhist stuff in the book itself, I'm reminded of something akin to something Gary Weber expressed about his contemplative practice before his big shift happened, that he was afraid that not having thoughts/ego would mean he wouldn't be able to survive/lose all semblance of a normal life and just sit in a room doing nothing, and in Infinite Jest, a lot of it revolves around a piece of entertainment that, if people view it, they never leave their chair and enter some type of permanent trance.

Anyway, I think its an interesting thought to compare insights to the ultimate entertainment, not in terms of what they talk about in Infinite Jest, but just in terms of being sensorily compelled by something. Maybe a different type of entertainment.

Or entertainment has a similar attentional effect to insight.

First of all, thanks for posting!

Second of all, yes yes yes. Many people talk about how much richer experience becomes with insight. We get out of our own way and... wow! Just washing dishes becomes a wonderful experience and is exactly what is meant to be happening. Like entertainment. That really does become more and more true.

shargrol wrote: First of all, thanks for posting!

Second of all, yes yes yes. Many people talk about how much richer experience becomes with insight. We get out of our own way and... wow! Just washing dishes becomes a wonderful experience and is exactly what is meant to be happening. Like entertainment. That really does become more and more true.

It's good to read your post right now when I have dirty dishes to attend to . . .