Philosophical Speculations

Eugene adds the caveat that presence-awareness isn't sufficient and we should also add in the higher cognitive practice, but I can't imagine this concretely means anything. Why? Because he also wrote this to you - " If the "direct method" alone works for you without any reinforcement...

Well, what you are describing is the span of attention, but not the presence-awareness in a sense that Rupert is referring to. Usually in our mundane state of consciousness, be it in children or adults, we completely disregard the presence-awareness. PS: Well, to be more precise, in our mundane mod...

Let me put it this way. If we are walking around the house, thinking about a million things, and stub our toe on some object, you would say this reflects a lack of presence-awareness, right? When navigating the sensory world, we often have an instinctive presence-awareness that keeps us from bumpin...

Correct, my post above wasn't regarding method(s), but more of the simplicity of what is required. Rupert Spira has his 'direct method', and there are techniques of meditation. My work offered a day of Mindfulness Meditation training - I asked the instructor what one should do if left with a sense ...

I think it's dangerous to conceive of philosophy as a tool - you are again conceiving your thinking activity as a tool, operated from outside the tool, but never mind. Philosophy is a specific way of thinking activity, and there are other ways. When we become skillful in exercising our thinking abi...

Do you think that Buddha or Allah are all different names for the same being or 'thing' ? Yes, except for that it's not a "thing" :D. Not if you listen to Islamic or Buddhist fundamentalists of course, but if you study and practice esoteric versions of Buddhism and Islam such as Dzogchen ...

Naturally there's not much of a concrete, actual *way* in recommending to "experientially realize the reality of the spiritual activity of the egoless Aware-Thinking-Feeling (ATF) as the source behind the world of our thoughts, feelings and perceptions". So how do you go from this stateme...

Seems also true when we divide into "ego" and "not ego." In spiritual work we must guard against developing an anti-ego ego. I try to focus on the fulcrum rather than the swings. I like the notion of Francis of Assisi that the perfect joy is to have a peaceful heart no matter ho...

Have you considered things from this angle? It's easy to imagine being stared at from another vantage point since this is how things feel in the physical world. But can you conceive that there are higher order Intelligences which stare in your soul not from the other side of the dissociative membra...

The fact of experience is that we feel responsible for thinking, it is our intention which we manifest in the form of thought pictures. In pure thinking we feel maybe the stressfulness of the process we willed to understand something. In thinking (active thinking) we feel as the causing force behin...