Arjen wrote: ↑October 14th, 2020, 6:56 am
I do agree with you, but imagine those buddhist monks in Tibet, changing their perspective. Yet their expercience doesn't seem to get them out of those concentration camps...
You are right, but the bitter irony is that those guys are surely able to endure the experience better based on their training. If they have no control over their situation, they retain control over their reaction to or opinion about the situation, and this is a huge factor in happiness or state of mind.
In contrast, there are many people here in the states who have freedom, opportunity and luxury unknown to most men who have ever lived, yet lament not having what they don't have. Many of them are miserable because the create perfect forms in their mind of what they should or could have, or 'deserve', and these are something of a fantasy, but seem real enough to cause an impression of suffering.
The bottom line is that your happiness or perceived suffering are only loosely connected to the real world. Some things in the real world will cause you real pain or suffering. But, you can be more of a burden to yourself than the entire world if your expectations are unrealistic, or you are unwilling to reset them as conditions change, as is the case with many people.
Arjen wrote: ↑October 14th, 2020, 6:56 am
I do agree with you, but imagine those buddhist monks in Tibet, changing their perspective. Yet their expercience doesn't seem to get them out of those concentration camps...
I do have a skill in logic. Do you have specific questions that I migjt be able to help with?
I'm not really that interested in pursuing logic further, but in looking behind or beyond it. I'm curious in what situations and on what basis you might see that logic fails or has no standing. I want to know what precedes logic and what rises above it. I was married to logic for a long time, as I think many people are. It is very easy to think that you are fair-minded when you stack logic upon all sorts of preconceptions and prejudices. I've concluded that focusing on the logic and being proud of my devotion to logic led me to a very bad place. Setting it aside and seeing that my perspective was not necessarily correct led me to feel better (a lot better!) and to be better (a little bit, at least).
So, I am not against logic, and I don't embrace illogical thinking. But, I think we lean too hard on logic and suffer greatly and needlessly as a result. I think many of us would benefit by 'unlocking' our brains a bit.
"If determinism holds, then past events have conspired to cause me to hold this view--it is out of my control. Either I am right about free will, or it is not my fault that I am wrong."