Kenneth's notes

Listening for something that can't be heard.

Converging on the unborn.

Today's reading material: The Latin Vulgate Bible. Not good at Latin yet, just using these juicy bible stories to improve my reading ability. I'm up to the part where smooth-skinned Jacob deceives his father, Isaac, by impersonating Jacob's hairy twin Esau, who is moments older than Jacob, and therefore Isaac's first born (primogenitus) and natural heir. Jacob's mother, Rebekah, puts Jacob up to it. Not sure why Rebekah likes Jacob better than Esau, except maybe that he isn't as hairy. In any case, Esau seems like a nice guy, but totally gets the short end of the stick, since father Isaac falls for the ruse and gives Jacob his blessing and makes him heir to all his goats and stuff.

Today's practice question:

What doesn't hurt?

Undun
by Randy Bachman (The Guess Who)

She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
It was too late

She's come undone
She found a mountain that was far too high
And when she found out she couldn't fly
It was too late

It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost the sun

She's come undone
She wanted truth, but all she got was lies
Came the time to realize
And it was too late

She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
Mama, it was too late

It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost the sun
She's come undone
No-na-na, no-na-na, no-na-na

Too many mountains and not enough stairs to climb
Too many churches and not enough truth
Too many people and not enough eyes to see
Too many lives to lead and not enough time

It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost the sun
She's come undone

Doe-doe-doe-doe-doe, doe, un-doe-doe-doe, un-doe-doe-doe
Doe doe-doe-doe-doe, un-doe-doe-doe, doe-doe-doe
Doe doe-doe-doe, doe, doe-doe-doe, doe, doe

It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost the sun

She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
It was too late

She's come undone
She found a mountain that was far too high
And when she found out she couldn't fly
Mama, it was too late

It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost the sun
She's come undone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_gxQt-bhik

What would it feel like to be intelligent and self-aware inside the black box? You could sense the inputs. You could, to some extent, be aware of the outputs, but only as more inputs. Any understanding you might have of the process would only come to you as more intputs. The sense that you exist as the knower of the experience would also come to you in the form of inputs.

What would it feel like to be intelligent and self-aware inside the black box?

It would feel like this! This experience, this human life... we are self-aware intelligence inside the black box.

Suzanne Cook-Greuter's tour de force paper on ego development:

A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF NINE ACTION
LOGICS IN THE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK:
ADAPTED FROM EGO DEVELOPMENT THEORY

www.cook-greuter.com/Detailed%20descrip%...logics%20updated.pdf

An interesting quote from the paper above. Not sure of the original source, but...

"As a Buddhist percept says: Understanding is the ultimate illusion."

If I were king, I would decree Global Non-nonduality Week. Nobody would get to say "nonduality" for a whole seven days.

If people wanted to talk about their ideas or experience, they would have no choice but to say something coherent.

Today's practice phrase:

I don't need you to be other than you are.

Today's practice phrase:

This is happening.

Today's practice phrase:

Fundamental attribution error.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error

Today's reading material: L'Île mystérieuse de Jules Verne

Today's practice question:

What if I'm not in this picture?

Today's reading material:

Napoleão: Uma Biografia por Emanual Sousa (A biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, written in Portuguese.)

What if I'm not in this picture?

Can there be suffering if there is no sufferer?

Eric wrote:

What if I'm not in this picture?

Can there be suffering if there is no sufferer?

Yes.

Edited to add:

It's such a deep question, it seems to go on forever. "Can there be suffering without a sufferer?"

Nevertheless, it can be answered in a straightforward way, at least from a Buddhist perspective:

There never was a sufferer. There isn't one now. But suffering is so ubiquitous that it made the number one spot on the Buddha's Noble Truth list.

While it is a complex rabit-hole of a subject, I can't help but be fascinated by it. Allow me to pick your brain...

There never was a sufferer. There isn't one now. But suffering is so ubiquitous that it made the number one spot on the Buddha's Noble Truth list.

But the illusion of a sufferer is alive in well in most people, yes? Debunking this illusion must at least provide some measure of relief.

Put another way: does an arahat suffer if they stub their toe?

The toe is stubbed.

Eric wrote: While it is a complex rabit-hole of a subject, I can't help but be fascinated by it. Allow me to pick your brain...

There never was a sufferer. There isn't one now. But suffering is so ubiquitous that it made the number one spot on the Buddha's Noble Truth list.

But the illusion of a sufferer is alive in well in most people, yes? Debunking this illusion must at least provide some measure of relief.

Put another way: does an arahat suffer if they stub their toe?

There can be pain without suffering. There can even be emotional pain and yet no suffering. If, for example, a person is in pain, yet simply sees this as what is happening right now, and does not resist it, there is awareness, openness, and yet no dukkha. This doesn't mean that, all things being equal, one might not say "I'd rather not see X happen." But X happening is the way things are. So you can acknowledge a preference, and see through it.

What do you call acceptance of suffering? I think that's what people are pointing to when they say there is no suffering but there is pain.