When it comes to very serious issues I don’t think it’s acceptable at all, no matter how much I suffer.
People who work on drugs to cure horrible diseases don’t spend 24⁄7 in an airtight suit in the lab, dropping samples on the floor because their hands are shaking. They go home and watch football and play card games and go to the kids’ school play and stuff. And maybe they dream about bacteria once in a while, and maybe some of that is upsetting and some of it is informative. But being unable to disengage from the Big Problems and live your little ordinary life is not heroism, and it actively gets in the way of solving any of those Big Problems.
Buddhism just seems like nihilism to me. Not that I know much about it. Anything you could recommend?
Find a meditation teacher and spend some time doing that. Practice > theory.
People who work on drugs to cure horrible diseases don’t spend 24⁄7 in an airtight suit in the lab, dropping samples on the floor because their hands are shaking. They go home and watch football and play card games and go to the kids’ school play and stuff.
If they or their kids have the horrible disease? I think they’d react differently.
But being unable to disengage from the Big Problems and live your little ordinary life is not heroism, and it actively gets in the way of solving any of those Big Problems.
Not my Big Problems; they get solved from doing just that.
Find a meditation teacher and spend some time doing that. Practice > theory.
I’m going to have to disagree. I thought you were talking about philosophy when you mentioned “notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion.”
But being unable to disengage from the Big Problems and live your little ordinary life is not heroism, and it actively gets in the way of solving any of those Big Problems.
Not my Big Problems; they get solved from doing just that.
How do you know? The question isn’t whether obsessing fixes the problem; it’s whether taking breaks speeds up the overall process. You don’t need tons of hours to fix the problem; as you said earlier, a few minutes to explain the right insight is quite sufficient. What you actually need is the right few minutes of work, spent finding the right key insights.
Thinking longer about a problem is only helpful to the degree it produces new insights. As you’ve found, this can be very inefficient. If taking a break and not worrying about an unsolved problem increases the efficiency of future problem-solving even a little bit, it could well be worth it.
Find a meditation teacher and spend some time doing that. Practice > theory.
I’m going to have to disagree. I thought you were talking about philosophy when you mentioned “notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion.”
Yes, there are various Buddhist writings about it.
No, I’m not sure that any of them make much sense without actually doing the meditation. There are certain things which are stupidly obvious and okay from a meditative point of view — like “the self is an illusion” — that are either obviously false or incredibly scary from the kind of point of view you’re expressing.
I am not an expert in Buddhist practice, though,, and not qualified to provide much advice. I would note that serious current Buddhist writers such as Daniel Ingram make it very clear that people should deal with big psychological and emotional problems before engaging in heavy meditation.
People who work on drugs to cure horrible diseases don’t spend 24⁄7 in an airtight suit in the lab, dropping samples on the floor because their hands are shaking. They go home and watch football and play card games and go to the kids’ school play and stuff. And maybe they dream about bacteria once in a while, and maybe some of that is upsetting and some of it is informative. But being unable to disengage from the Big Problems and live your little ordinary life is not heroism, and it actively gets in the way of solving any of those Big Problems.
Find a meditation teacher and spend some time doing that. Practice > theory.
If they or their kids have the horrible disease? I think they’d react differently.
Not my Big Problems; they get solved from doing just that.
I’m going to have to disagree. I thought you were talking about philosophy when you mentioned “notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion.”
How do you know? The question isn’t whether obsessing fixes the problem; it’s whether taking breaks speeds up the overall process. You don’t need tons of hours to fix the problem; as you said earlier, a few minutes to explain the right insight is quite sufficient. What you actually need is the right few minutes of work, spent finding the right key insights.
Thinking longer about a problem is only helpful to the degree it produces new insights. As you’ve found, this can be very inefficient. If taking a break and not worrying about an unsolved problem increases the efficiency of future problem-solving even a little bit, it could well be worth it.
Yes, there are various Buddhist writings about it.
No, I’m not sure that any of them make much sense without actually doing the meditation. There are certain things which are stupidly obvious and okay from a meditative point of view — like “the self is an illusion” — that are either obviously false or incredibly scary from the kind of point of view you’re expressing.
I am not an expert in Buddhist practice, though,, and not qualified to provide much advice. I would note that serious current Buddhist writers such as Daniel Ingram make it very clear that people should deal with big psychological and emotional problems before engaging in heavy meditation.