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fubarobfusco comments on I need a protocol for dangerous or disconcerting ideas. - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: Eitan_Zohar 12 July 2015 01:58AM

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Comment author: Eitan_Zohar 12 July 2015 05:15:57AM *  0 points [-]

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."

Comment author: fubarobfusco 12 July 2015 08:35:12PM 0 points [-]

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.