Accepting that I am just guessing and don’t have any empirical evidence, I do see a worthwhile overlap between Buddhist techniques and rationalist aspirations.
My apologia for my faith also suggests a large overlap.
For this comment I’ll try to give a conrete example. I’ve noticed that when I ask for advice I have a tendency to accept it if it agrees with what I want to do anyway, and to reject if it warns against what I want ot do. That is pretty useless. Why ask for advice if one is going to reject any that is contrary to ones original plan?
I’m trying to discipline myself to decide in advance whether I really trust the opinion of the person I’m asking, and if I do ask for advice, taking it without demur. This is hard. I think it is hard because my main motivation for asking for advice is so that I can feel good about plans that I have devised that may be foolish. That uncomfortable feeling, that I want to feel better about my planned course of action, is a pretty strong hint that I should abandon the plan if my chosen advisor is reluctant to endorse it.
Well, that is all very good in theory, but how do I follow through? What I hope to gain from meditation techniques such as the Metta-Bhavana is a degree of unconditional happiness. Strangely it is not the happiness that I’m after. What I really what is to sate the gnawing emotional need for happiness that I blame for biasing my judgement.
If I were happy I could straightforwardly ask a friend for advice and take it. I would be free of the nonsense of rejecting advice to meet subconscious emotional needs. How is this working out? I had a handful of successes; it is not a complete failure. Also it fits with having a sense that more is possible and striving for it.
Accepting that I am just guessing and don’t have any empirical evidence, I do see a worthwhile overlap between Buddhist techniques and rationalist aspirations.
On Hulver’s scoop site I offer a definition of enlightenment.
My apologia for my faith also suggests a large overlap.
For this comment I’ll try to give a conrete example. I’ve noticed that when I ask for advice I have a tendency to accept it if it agrees with what I want to do anyway, and to reject if it warns against what I want ot do. That is pretty useless. Why ask for advice if one is going to reject any that is contrary to ones original plan?
I’m trying to discipline myself to decide in advance whether I really trust the opinion of the person I’m asking, and if I do ask for advice, taking it without demur. This is hard. I think it is hard because my main motivation for asking for advice is so that I can feel good about plans that I have devised that may be foolish. That uncomfortable feeling, that I want to feel better about my planned course of action, is a pretty strong hint that I should abandon the plan if my chosen advisor is reluctant to endorse it.
Well, that is all very good in theory, but how do I follow through? What I hope to gain from meditation techniques such as the Metta-Bhavana is a degree of unconditional happiness. Strangely it is not the happiness that I’m after. What I really what is to sate the gnawing emotional need for happiness that I blame for biasing my judgement.
If I were happy I could straightforwardly ask a friend for advice and take it. I would be free of the nonsense of rejecting advice to meet subconscious emotional needs. How is this working out? I had a handful of successes; it is not a complete failure. Also it fits with having a sense that more is possible and striving for it.