@Olivier5,
Quote:What you are struggling with is quite simple: a person adopting a radical non-dualist perspective is bound to dissolve his sense of self, as a distinct entity from the rest of the universe. He or she may gradually lose interest in the world, and in self.
i am not struggling. yes i adopted a radical nondualist perspective, that is naturally how my intellect went. i don't see anything wrong with all the consequent results you describe. you do not necessarily lose INTEREST in world and self just because you see them as united. you just don't believe in an ultimate reality behind them which simply LIMITS the apparent experience.
you say that a non dualist might "dissolve his sense of self, as a distinct entity from the rest of the universe." this is precisely the EXACT POINT of non dualism.
Quote:Some philosophies can be harmful to your mental health.
mental health is a weakness of mind, and a RESULT of being steeped in duality too much. when one really believes that the external universe is separate, and they believe their own mind doesn't measure up, they label themselves mentally ill. then they take CNS depressants for the rest of their life and dull their entire experience to almost nothing.
a philosophy which unites you with all of life is certainly not bad for mental health. philosophies based on non duality are the millions of spiritual groups in india who are curing millions of mentally ill people every day.
Quote:The way I see it, our mind functions based on a series of innate axioms which, when they work together, create a healthy (or not too unhealthy) mental space.
mental space need not be considered healthy or unhealthy, it only has to be that way with IDENTITY behind it. no identity, no health.
Quote:For instance, one subset of axioms underwrites our innate 3D euclidian geometric system of space representation. Others are: a sense of self, of time, trust in our senses, and in a sense of agency, and in the existence of an objective world, a sense empathy for other humans, a very useful and complex sense of logic(s), a sense of beauty, etc. The funny thing is: we can contest and deny the validity of any of these 'innate senses' or 'common senses' in doing philosophy, but WE CANNOT REALLY THINK OUTSIDE of this innate mental axiomatic. Not in a healthy, productive way anyway. We can only become mad if we try hard enough to imagine a space in 4 dimensions.
i do not deny at all the entire experience of consciousness, and the multitude of beliefs and assumptions that go with it.
i agree that we can never 'think outside' the innate mental axiom. however, something in us is AWARE of the thinking process, as opposed to the actual thoughts themselves. the part of us that is aware of thoughts as they happen, is obviously a higher level of consciousness. if we identify with that part, then something else becomes aware of that part. infinitely, we can keep trying to be aware of the most primary aspect of our consciousness, but we can never succeed in that attempt. therefore, it becomes natural and intuitive to eventually accept the truth that consciousness itself is an eternal, neverending process. the reality of any content in consciousness is always questionable.
Quote:Deny dualism at your own peril.
what is peril?? what are you so afraid of? death? the very idea of death only exists as opposed to life. people separate life and death, but why? nobody is in control of either. nobody knows what happens after death.
what about suffering in life? they are both improved by non-duality. physical suffering is not dwelt upon, and the quickest solution to fix it is found. mental suffering ceases to occur, because no identity exists behind the thinker.
the identity still appears to exist though, and therefore, life continues in a very open way. nothing matters or definitely exists, but it still appears to exist and you can still 'enjoy life', whatever is happening. good times are enjoyed, bad times are not cared about and don't last long. death is looked forward to as a new event for consciousness. life is equally looked forward to as every moment is a new event for consciousness.
there is no distinction between anything, and yet every moment of awareness is infinitely distinct in all possible ways. how is that paradox?
For a non-entity, you seem a bit too eager to share your opinions with other 'non-entities'. That's where nihilists always flunk it. In the end they either wallow in self-contradiction, or they lose faith in nihilism.
