I’m at the moment wondering a bit whether I have what you are pointing at. What you are saying doesn’t feel strange to me at all.
I can conceptually relate to most what you wrote. I have no problem holding space in the way you describe where I don’t suffer. On the other hand, I’m filled with various unresolved stuff that drains energy. I remember commenting in the post you wrote about grief on LW about the day I processed the fact my father died. When I’m faced with strong emotions and there’s no other way to deal with them, I’m forced to go to that mental state ;) but on a daily basis I frequently distract myself in various forms.
As far as interpreting the reaction of most people to your post happens to be, I don’t see it as showing that the post isn’t effectful. If it’s effectful than my general model of how things in this nature are learned suggests that it will take months or years for readers to understand.
It’s plausible that in 6 months someone who read this post now goes: “Ah, I think that’s what Val meant back then”. That’s just the time frame this takes. People being confused at first is a good sign and the fact that rationalists don’t like that state of mind and comment accordingly is no sign that anything went wrong.
…with the very slight caveat that there are lots of different things one can Look at, once one knows how to Look at all. And that one can get better at Looking, and thus better at coming to understand things that were falling outside of one’s ontology before.
So I don’t know whether you and I see all the same things as a result of Looking.
But it sounds to me like you know something about Looking at all… which fixes the hardest part of the communication gap. :-)
The fact that you recognize you have unresolved stuff that drains energy is actually evidence in favor of you having what Val is pointing at. It’s much better than being completely unaware of it or believing that it’s just how the world is.
I’m not trained in a Buddhist tradition but have gathered my experiences about elsewhere. I have a lot of mental model for various related phenomena.
I have had a meditation experience after which I thought: “I think I have experienced the phenomenological basis on which karma is build.” but I never had a proper Buddhistic teacher. Getting your mind “clean” is an essential part of the Buddhist way and my mind is at the moment anything but “clean”.
Take the mental state of presence that Buddhist monks who have meditated very long have where they don’t have the startle response (besides the Buddhist monks psychopaths also often don’t have the startle response). You need a certain level of mental cleanness for that, that I don’t have. Given what I knew about Val before his development before his enlightment experience, I think it’s plausible that Val has this.
From my perspective it’s plausible that this is part of what Val means with Kenshō.
While we are talking about this. There’s a concept of the “distinction of completion” that I think comes from the Landmark Forum. If anybody here was at the Landmark Forum and can talk in their language I would be very interested in talking.
I’m at the moment wondering a bit whether I have what you are pointing at. What you are saying doesn’t feel strange to me at all.
I can conceptually relate to most what you wrote. I have no problem holding space in the way you describe where I don’t suffer. On the other hand, I’m filled with various unresolved stuff that drains energy. I remember commenting in the post you wrote about grief on LW about the day I processed the fact my father died. When I’m faced with strong emotions and there’s no other way to deal with them, I’m forced to go to that mental state ;) but on a daily basis I frequently distract myself in various forms.
As far as interpreting the reaction of most people to your post happens to be, I don’t see it as showing that the post isn’t effectful. If it’s effectful than my general model of how things in this nature are learned suggests that it will take months or years for readers to understand.
It’s plausible that in 6 months someone who read this post now goes: “Ah, I think that’s what Val meant back then”. That’s just the time frame this takes. People being confused at first is a good sign and the fact that rationalists don’t like that state of mind and comment accordingly is no sign that anything went wrong.
Sounds to me like you have “it”.
…with the very slight caveat that there are lots of different things one can Look at, once one knows how to Look at all. And that one can get better at Looking, and thus better at coming to understand things that were falling outside of one’s ontology before.
So I don’t know whether you and I see all the same things as a result of Looking.
But it sounds to me like you know something about Looking at all… which fixes the hardest part of the communication gap. :-)
The fact that you recognize you have unresolved stuff that drains energy is actually evidence in favor of you having what Val is pointing at. It’s much better than being completely unaware of it or believing that it’s just how the world is.
I’m not trained in a Buddhist tradition but have gathered my experiences about elsewhere. I have a lot of mental model for various related phenomena.
I have had a meditation experience after which I thought: “I think I have experienced the phenomenological basis on which karma is build.” but I never had a proper Buddhistic teacher. Getting your mind “clean” is an essential part of the Buddhist way and my mind is at the moment anything but “clean”.
Take the mental state of presence that Buddhist monks who have meditated very long have where they don’t have the startle response (besides the Buddhist monks psychopaths also often don’t have the startle response). You need a certain level of mental cleanness for that, that I don’t have. Given what I knew about Val before his development before his enlightment experience, I think it’s plausible that Val has this.
From my perspective it’s plausible that this is part of what Val means with Kenshō.
While we are talking about this. There’s a concept of the “distinction of completion” that I think comes from the Landmark Forum. If anybody here was at the Landmark Forum and can talk in their language I would be very interested in talking.