My understanding of the Buddhist concept of dependent origination or dependent arising is that everything arises from conditions required or conducive to its arising. Things are the way they are for reasons. Those reasons or causalities may be unfathomably complex, but everything that is, is, and is the way it...
This makes me think. I think I'm realizing a bit late in life that I'm ASD, and all I ever wanted in work was to make cool stuff and do a good job. For the most part, I think my supervisors have just let me do my thing, with minimal oversight, overlooking as much as possible my quirkiness and occasional meltdowns.
But now I'm starting to be able to turn my autistic focus on developing models for what I'm beginning to see, a bit like you're describing, a whole world of status seeking, an invisible world I've only vaguely been aware of, not interested in participating in. But now that I'm experiencing some... (read more)
I think we're all familiar with mental models (although I think they are far more than "mental") and the natural, ongoing processes and loops by which they are refined and updated.
We have many, many models - I could say we carry around a world of models within us - a model for each thing that is a "thing" to us, an agent, a force, a person, an object, a system, a self, an organization, a relationship, etc. The human navigates using maps for all things. We have no access to the territory, but this does not mean there is no territory, just that we have no direct access to it. If we... (read 405 more words →)
Thank you for your thoughts.
I often reflect that, in my attempts to model life on this planet from all that I have observed, experienced, read, and reflected on, it seems like there is a persistent "force" that is supporting life at ever greater levels of organization and complexity. The fields, circumstances, and conditions of this planet seem to give chances to any strategy for organizing on top of what has already been organized. Trillions of chances over billions of years, with almost as many failures. Almost.
I'm not the most science-y, but it seems that conditions for this planet, its moon, its carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, it's temperature ranges, putting together single-celled organisms,... (read more)
Thanks for sharing your perspective. After years of anger, nihilism, midlife crises, etc., I suppose I've reached some equanimity, not all by choice. There's only so much of that shit an individual soul or mind can harbor, perhaps.
To expand on my original comment, my exploration into the dharma, specifically it's teaching on anatta or "no self," has exploded fractally for me, making so much of my spiritual or inner landscape crystallize into something deeply powerful and meaningful to me, even to the point of finding a fair degree of peace with and forgiveness for the Mormon Church and its ways.
For now I'll just say: I have a deep inner conviction that I... (read more)
Full disclosure: I'm not here to ask questions. I came here to look for rationalists who have deep Mormon backgrounds or heritage. I am looking for "post-post-Mormons."
I doubted and stepped away from the Church almost 8 years ago. I was reading Moroni Chapter 7 and was exasperated at trying to fit everything in my expanding world into either a "all good things come of Christ" or a "that which persuadeth men to do evil and believe not in Christ is of the devil" box.
Access to the internet has provided me with enough takes, views, and tools to completely dismantle self, reality, sanity, and world. But thank Buddha for the dharma and for... (read more)
There are a lot of antibodies and subtle cultural pressures that can prevent me from thinking about certain ideas and can atrophy my ability to take directed action in the world.
This hit me like a breath of fresh air. "Antibodies" yes. Makes me feel less alone in my world-space
My understanding of the Buddhist concept of dependent origination or dependent arising is that everything arises from conditions required or conducive to its arising.
Things are the way they are for reasons. Those reasons or causalities may be unfathomably complex, but everything that is, is, and is the way it is because of conditions and reasons.
How close it this to the definition of rationalism itself? Or what are the more common LW concepts and terms for observing a thing, a pattern, a phenomenon, an object, or a system long enough to understand what it really is - to allow it to unfold and reveal itself - to the point of starting to gain insight into why it is: the causalities and conditions for its arising?
Over the past few years, I have come to the personal conclusion that we humans, fundamentally, are not individuals. The egoic self is an evolved structure of mind that allows an individual human organism to pursue what we think is our own will, our own thoughts, our own self-interest, but deep down, we are connected in mind and meaningful language, concept, relationship, and organization in ways that feel profound, spiritual, oceanic, and religious. Whatever strength or power we attain, we generally share with our in-group as each of us knows in our bones that, individually, we are weak, need the care of others, and will eventually die, or could die at any... (read more)
Beg to differ. Rich people congregate, populate, and settle in areas, and form orgs and egregore that push away and hide the poor and the problems that make them uncomfortable, and this happens largely unconsciously - phenomenologically - yet there is organizational agency in it. And this kind of wealth phenomena has certainly steered world-historical equilibria over centuries. My point is: it's not a "conspiracy" of rich people, it's a phenomenon of rich people, and I think you should include the phenomenology of wealthy populations in your modeling.