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Post by Padowan on Mar 19, 2015 20:18:50 GMT -6
This thought crossed my mind today as I pondered the new things I'm learning here and compare it other beliefs. I wanted to initiate a discussion not often considered.
How to discover the experience of life and consciousness in a new manner without allowing the feeling of superiority to ruin your development.
If you have ever taught children, you would have experienced once the moment when you have enlightened their mind to a new idea. The richness of the experience fills their mind and a newfound power is felt in their being. It won't be long before someone, less 'enlightened' happens upon their path and becomes the recipient of their superiority. They chuckle at the other's ignorance. A child learns the a flamingo is pink because of its diet, and laughs at the child that believes it is pink because of gender. The older child learns a distorted version of creation to mock evolution and laughs at the 'fool' who believes in evolutionary Darwinism.
Smugness is a belief in right belief. As a new member and a new learner I see the potential for smugness in any environment. Being a smug student makes teaching impossible, and finding truth even more difficult. Nihilists, atheists, gnostics, etc. are not immune.
Smugness is the beginning of a closed mind, yet it is very difficult for the one who is smug to see it within himself.
Some thoughts:
From here: meaningness.com/comment/120#comment-120
"Yes, all sub-cultures and systems seek certainty, security, and self-validation through belief, and probably no one is any worse than others. My hope is that the different emotional textures of smugness point toward the reasons people adopt particular stances.
The air of superiority that comes with scientific materialism is connected with nihilist intellectualization, which I wrote about recently. It is characterized by spurious rationalism, hostility, and pessimism.
I understand nihilist smugness much better than monist smugness, because I'm much more prone to it. I adopt monism only rarely, whereas nihilism is my habitual disposition. (Even while I'm committed to avoiding it; this is a matter of temperament, at least partly.)
I do think that it is more important to show a better alternative than to critique wrong ideas. Both have value, though. And perhaps the better alternative can only come into focus once you see exactly what is wrong with monism and dualism."
Some creative thoughts on Nihilism for those so inclined: meaningness.com/emotional-dynamics-of-nihilism
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Post by shawnhartnell on Mar 20, 2015 9:57:28 GMT -6
Welcome to the Left Hand Path.  |
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Post by Padowan on Mar 20, 2015 11:33:53 GMT -6
If this is the Left Hand Path then I've been walking this line of thought for decades. Now I realize why conversations were always so futile. The most common complaint against debating me is that I always twist people's words against them. I only thought I was pointing out the obvious. I guess it was only obvious to me. That is what objective observation gets you; discord.
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Post by shawnhartnell on Mar 20, 2015 16:16:56 GMT -6
I was being sarcastic, as most people who claim to be on the LHP tend to be smug and a bit close-minded. But, alas, you have a point. It happens often with me, too. |
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Post by Padowan on Mar 20, 2015 20:16:34 GMT -6
Actually, I was not referring to anyone directly or to the LHP.
It was an observation of learning and belief.
Once we cross that threshold of awareness clarity we immediately fall into the trap of a closed mind. We progress from ignorance to knowing, and then acceptance. It's the process of developing a belief.
Unfortunately it blinds us. And is inescapable. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2015 10:25:55 GMT -6
Inescapable ?
No I don't think so. For sure it is an obstacle, you are right to point it, but struggling to be Awake makes you aware, and if you are, then also aware of your limitations.
It is very possible to be dreaming that you are awake, so confront yourself to the reality if you want to know if you are Awake. Sleeping, you obey to the laws of the universe. Awake, the universe obey to you.
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Post by Padowan on Mar 23, 2015 14:07:04 GMT -6
Do you believe you are awake? Do you accept the Coc beliefs?
Even nonbelief is a belief. Inescapable. |
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Post by shawnhartnell on Mar 23, 2015 14:38:19 GMT -6
Do you believe you are awake? Do you accept the Coc beliefs?
Even nonbelief is a belief. Inescapable. On the [nonbelief <---> belief] scale where's "meh"? The Cult has no beliefs. |
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Post by shawnhartnell on Mar 24, 2015 6:13:38 GMT -6
The Cult doesn't have dogmas.
Yes, like I accept a wrench.
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Post by Padowan on Mar 24, 2015 7:04:09 GMT -6
@ Shawn Beliefs are tools.  So accept them when they are useful. I'll try to remember that. |
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Post by Padowan on Apr 4, 2015 9:11:04 GMT -6
Unrelated Cult specific Case in Point:
I have a working knowledge of hundreds of plants, both wild and cultivated, that I have accumulated over 20 years time. I have spent most of my life outdoors, and that is not an exaggeration. I only worked in an office 2 years of my life. I'm half plant myself at this point, as I would wither away and die without sun and rain on my skin and fresh air in my lungs. But some people grow a few things and think they have accumulated the knowledge of gods. It's actually a very common behavior. I run into smugness regularly in the gardens of my clients. I was at one job site when I noticed the client had planted chickweed, a common spring wild weed in her porch planters. I thought she had mistakenly planted the weeds that had grown alongside the plants in the nursery pots she had purchased, so I casually informed her that she could pull out the weeds. She said, "No!" in surprise, she had transplanted those from her house. "They are one of the few plants I can grow." In disbelief it took me a second to gather my next phrase and I calmly educated her on the plant name, growing habits and its commonality as a weed, in my politest voice of course.
Come a few days later, she and her husband are talking to my coworker while I am not there. They laughed out loud at my 'ignorance' in thinking she had planted a weed. Thankfully my fellow worker knew just as much as I did and corrected their 'misunderstanding.' I would have liked to have seen their faces.
Those people exemplify why I started this thread. I once said, "Knowledge is not a ladder it's a merry go round, the more I learn the less I know."
Stay open-minded and humble. If you find yourself laughing at another person's ignorance, make sure the joke is not on you.
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