My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell Dream Walker 7/14/12 11:33 AM
RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell Tommy M 7/14/12 7:10 PM
RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell Dream Walker 7/15/12 5:09 PM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell Jane Laurel Carrington 5/4/13 9:08 AM
RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell Carole Lindberg 6/10/13 7:30 PM
RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell Matthew 6/10/13 9:46 PM
RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell Carole Lindberg 6/11/13 4:30 PM
RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell Dream Walker 6/11/13 4:53 PM
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Dream Walker, modified 11 Years ago at 7/14/12 11:33 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 7/14/12 11:33 AM

My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

Posts: 1657 Join Date: 1/18/12 Recent Posts
A physicist named Thomas Campbell wrote a book called My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything).
His explanation of the simulated universe is amazing and it corresponds to Buddism well. He starts his theory from the beginning of awareness itself and works his way forward to today. He goes further than just this universe as he has explored multiple other universes, some associated to "our" rule set as well as looked into "other" types of simulations/universes as well as the non-physical realities that contain these simulations. In this simulation everything experienced is data that is being piped into your consciousnesses (his definition of awareness as buddists know it). There is absolutely no self in the simulation just data being experienced. Being a geek, Thomas Campbell's metaphors speak to me and explain what Buddha was trying to convey from a modern western perspective I appreciate.

His youtube presentation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxECb7zcQhQ

Web site
http://www.my-big-toe.com/

His model
http://wiki.my-big-toe.com/index.php/The_MBT_Model_Link_Page

I can not recommend him enough as he really got me started on my journey of understanding the framework of reality and MCTB shot me forward into understanding the experiences as they happened.
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Tommy M, modified 11 Years ago at 7/14/12 7:10 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 7/14/12 7:10 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Hey DW,

I don't think I've said it already so: Welcome to the DhO! emoticon

Thanks for posting the links to this, I'm having a look at it right now and it's an interesting read so far. I'll need to get to grips with the terminology of it, not to mention the talk of pure mathematics (my maths is poor, but I like to think in those terms sometimes), but the mention of Boolean Logic, topology and fractals is tantalizing in the geekiest of ways. emoticon

I can not recommend him enough as he really got me started on my journey of understanding the framework of reality and MCTB shot me forward into understanding the experiences as they happened.

It'd be interesting to hear how you came to find the DhO and MCTB, could you say a bit more about where you've come from in terms of practice and real-life insight? Having come from a generally non-spiritual-as-such background myself, it'd be cool to know what sort of stuff has worked for you along the way and where you're at now.

Tommy
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Dream Walker, modified 11 Years ago at 7/15/12 5:09 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 7/15/12 5:09 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Hey Tommy thanks for the welcome to DhO.
Been lurking here a while and drinking from the information firehouse. So much info to absorb. I've not scratched the surface of the material available but continue to plug away.
I've always been looking in the spiritual direction but have been frustrated most of my life at the quality of information...I have a sensitive BS sensor when I read. When I happened upon Toms Big Toe trilogy I was enthralled. My BS sensor didn't go off with his theory. I came to understand intellectually that we are in a physical reality simulator so we can evolve consciousness. Tom said to shut down the data flow of this reality to experience the other realities but is a bit vague on exactly what meditation technique is best. I've been doing mantra with each breath off and on for relaxation but never consistently and with little results besides a pleasant drift into sleep. I started a daily practice of 20 minutes at nap time and would mantra/breath till altered then just kinda hung out in the lazy boy listening to binaural beats and often would slip in and out of sleep. Then I started clicking out. (As Bruce Moen author called it) I would completely loose any semblance of consciousness but would wake fully with absolutely no transition from wherever I had been and no sense of how much time gone was gone. It was very different from waking up from sleep. I thought I was astral projecting or something and missing out on bringing back the memories of what happened while i was away. I resolved to stop clicking out and to stay "awake" during whatever happened. I never did succeed in being awake during these click outs but they sure did slow down on how often they happened since I kept saying to myself "no more click outs" before each meditation. I also found myself in various altered states briefly but I'd loose them due to fear or most often excitement. Then I got sick with the flu. I almost never get sick but when I do its a beauty and most of the time noone else gets it. I never take anything for it even though it totally is miserable. This time it was especially bad - fever, chills, body and bone aches. Somewhere along the way I got very "altered". Being sick was now secondary. My wife couldn't tell I was sick and I had to remind her I wasn't well yet. It was like watching myself suffering but it was removed somehow. I kept saying I was very very present but couldn't explain it. I used the analogy of feeling like I was the tip of some iceberg and behind me was a lot more of something. I got over the flu but the altered state stayed. I continued my meditations/naps in the lazy-boy with and without binaural beats and continued to resolve no more click outs. I continued to drink too much beer as usual. Slowly the altered state started to fade after a month. I could concentrate internally and do this push thingy and pull it back briefly but it continued to fade. I started to look online at altered states/enlightenment and somehow found MCTB.
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Dream Walker, modified 11 Years ago at 7/15/12 5:50 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 7/15/12 5:50 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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I read MCTB thru once and then read it again. I started to meditate on breath at the stomach and would try to note when I got off the breath. I'd say "note thinking" or whatever came to mind besides breath. I stopped resolving to not click out and started to resolve to definitely click out every meditation. Clicking out is still there but not every meditation, just kinda randomly. I can not trigger it on purpose and I can't notice going into it at all- just the popping out. I went on a 10 day Goenka retreat last March. I had hoped to regain the altered state permanently. It didn't happen but I did get to some nice other Jhana states while there. Hands like balloons, arms like tree trunks and torso like a huge bolder feeling. Feeling of contracting and expanding at the same time. Feeling of my head above reality in some clear and clean place where breathing was amazing. I woke up from a nap/laying meditation where I was nowhere and there was nothing including me (that was scary so it went away then I popped back again and recognized the ?feel? and was more ok with it.) I feel like I was given a grand tour but without the talent/practice to get back again(yet). My meditation got sooooo much better in 10 days. Following my breath at the tip of the nostril seemed impossible then slowly got easy. I didn't much like the body scan as I couldn't get many sensations like Goenka said I should. I did much better at the internal scanning and focus would naturally go up and down the chakras very slowly whenever I let it. Came back happy with the retreat and have been looking for a sanga that I like with little results so far. Been reading here and KFD as well links. I need to reread MCTB again as well as Tom's MBT again. I need to really step up the cushion time also. Most of the time I try to get concentrated and then switch over to noting sensations but usually I don't get to far in the concentration department. I still drink more than I should and that really seems to interfere with meditation. I do get to click out on occasion and that makes me happy but the afterglow isn't what it used to be. I'm not sure what's up next but I know I need to work more to get to whatever is next.
So there you go...me in a nutshell (or is it a nut in a me shell? ;o)
~D
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Jane Laurel Carrington, modified 10 Years ago at 5/4/13 9:08 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 5/4/13 9:08 AM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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I'm in the process of reading this book and would appreciate any further discussion. Not sure what to make of it so far!
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Carole Lindberg, modified 10 Years ago at 6/10/13 7:30 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 6/10/13 7:30 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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I have My Big Toe, and love it. I read a couple of pages at a time and let it set the tone for the rest of the day.

Mr. Campbell mentions doing some TM in early years but doesn't expound on it much after that. However, what I think was most impactful to him was his years working with Robert Monroe and setting up a ground breaking system of binaural waves to reach deep theta states that induced OBEs. ( I have played around with this a lot, as well as doing sleep cycle interruption in the early morning (3 a.m) and back to sleep, and it really works!)
Matthew, modified 10 Years ago at 6/10/13 9:46 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 6/10/13 9:46 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Carole Lindberg:
I have My Big Toe, and love it. I read a couple of pages at a time and let it set the tone for the rest of the day.

Mr. Campbell mentions doing some TM in early years but doesn't expound on it much after that. However, what I think was most impactful to him was his years working with Robert Monroe and setting up a ground breaking system of binaural waves to reach deep theta states that induced OBEs. ( I have played around with this a lot, as well as doing sleep cycle interruption in the early morning (3 a.m) and back to sleep, and it really works!)


Carole, can you recommend particular binaural tracks to induce OBEs? There's a lot out there, it's difficult to evaluate what's most effective, and I've been hesitant to spend a lot of time listening to potentially suboptimal (for reaching particular outcomes) binaural beats when I could be meditating instead, but I'm now at a stage in my practice where I'm more willing to experiment with these kinds of experiences. Thank you in advance for your help.
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Carole Lindberg, modified 10 Years ago at 6/11/13 4:30 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 6/11/13 4:30 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Hi Matthew,

I downloaded two binaural tracks from The Unexplainable Store. Astral 395 (my favorite) and Lucid Dream. After sleeping for about 5 or 6 hours, you awaken, (which can be 2 - 4 a.m) and put on one of these tracks with earphones. Go back to relaxation/sleep. Don't try to remain awake. I have had many OBEs and lucid dreams with this method. I also bought this program called Neuro-Programmer 3 (you make your own binaurals which is interesting and fun) which I like quite a bit and have used mostly to get into a kind of witness state (my consciousness aware of itself) while taking an afternoon nap. However, now I am beginning to get this alone from my meditation practice. But what was good was that by doing the binaurals, I was already somewhat familiar with what this felt like.

There's a lot of stuff out there with hypnotic voices talking over the waves. This never got me into the OBE - but would get me into an extremely relaxed state bordering on the witness one that I mentioned above. I find the voice dubbing too distracting so it would stop me from going where I was seeking. Also almost anything is used to accompany the binaural waves, as a base, I guess to keep the mind engaged as you are descending from alpha down to theta. Bubbling brooks, wind, babies gurgling, the white noise at a mall, some beautiful, some of it actually irritating. The Astral 395 and L. Dream ones mentioned above have some harmonious repetitive electronic music and pipe organ stuff going through it, and I like their rather somber and dark emotional tone which feels compatible to astral traveling.

Good luck!
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Dream Walker, modified 10 Years ago at 6/11/13 4:53 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 6/11/13 4:53 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Matthew Horn:

Carole, can you recommend particular binaural tracks to induce OBEs? There's a lot out there, it's difficult to evaluate what's most effective, and I've been hesitant to spend a lot of time listening to potentially suboptimal (for reaching particular outcomes) binaural beats when I could be meditating instead, but I'm now at a stage in my practice where I'm more willing to experiment with these kinds of experiences. Thank you in advance for your help.


Here is what I use....Gnaural
It lets you mess around and customize the frequencies and what not...
Tom recommends 3.8 - 4 hz. This will get you to the theta state.
Unfortunately he says that this will also "lock" you in to this frequency when you need to shift to another, making exploration hard outside this frequency realm.


Link to MyBigToe forum
Tom C:

The ramping down from 20Hz to 4 Hz, then staying at 4Hz for as time, then ramping back up to 20 Hz is a good way to start. Like training wheels on a kid’s bike. Eventually the 20 - 4 - -20 sequence becomes 10 - 4 - 10; next the time spent in transition between 10 and 4 gets shorter and shorter and then eventually it is just 4 (no transition is necessary). Finally it is nothing at all (0Hz) as the training wheels come off entirely and you are on your own ( no aids, no devices) with an ability to create a steady vibration state in 2 seconds or less any time you want to day or night under most any environmental conditions you find yourself in.
Most people who try to avoid the training wheels stages by leaping directly to the endgame end up out of the game altogether. Everyone is different -- start at a place and go at a pace that optimizes your learning rate. You may have to do some experimentation over several months to find that place and pace.

By the time you outgrow the need for binaural beats, they are becoming a trap. They put you up like a tethered blimp — stuck at the end of the rope.

You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run — only much later do you win a prize at the county fair for running superbly. Don't begrudge not being where you would like to be (an ego issue), just start from wherever you are and learn.

Tom C
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Dream Walker, modified 10 Years ago at 6/11/13 5:10 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 6/11/13 5:10 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

Posts: 1657 Join Date: 1/18/12 Recent Posts
Bruce Moen has a method that is interesting. He volunteers to do Psychopomp work (aiding the dead). He finds that the entities that use his help with stuck souls give him a lot of energy to perform the work and then after completing the journey he tags along with this boost and explores whatnot easier.
Helping the dead is one of the traditional shaman works. (role of shaman)(working with ancestral spirits, soul retrieval and transpersonal healing, or exploring the dimensional realities of the Upper Worlds) Shamanic journey work usually uses drums or rattles beat at 4 times a second to entrain the brain to 4 hz.
Have fun
~D
Ivo B, modified 10 Years ago at 6/28/13 10:45 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 6/28/13 10:45 AM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Man this book is repetitive. It's one of the most boring books I've ever come across. Came to about page 200+ and i'm reaaly wondering if i should continue. When will it get to the point and stop promising it and stop planting ideas that never evolve. A good editor would shrink down this book from 800 to a 100+ pages. I strongly recommend this one to people suffering from insomnia. At some points it almost insulting to readers inteligence. Yeah we get it. It's a new model that requres an open mind but ffs you don't have to repeat that 20 times in 200 pages. Book makes me doubt all his claims. I also visited his forum and looked at some youtube videos. A gut feeling is telling me sometings just not right here and my time as everyone elses is precious.
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Dream Walker, modified 10 Years ago at 7/1/13 10:40 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 7/1/13 10:40 AM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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I agree with the need for editing...it should not be a trilogy...one book would be enough....but Im a reader so I just plowed thru and found that the good stuff was worth it. Never found anything so big picture and comprehensive...I also assume that he wrote this way on purpose...perhaps to keep people from reading it unless there was a strong attraction...kind like mctb is mostly for geeks.
Its worth it....
Keep reading...and meditating
D
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Ward Law, modified 5 Years ago at 6/10/18 2:59 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/10/18 2:59 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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It's been a while since this was posted. I'm wondering if anyone wants to weigh in on Campbell's model. This would include evaluating it with respect to different paradigms: Buddhism, physics, materialism, nondualism,  etc. A lot of what he says agrees with the Buddhist prescription: become love, let go of fear, etc. I'm particularly interested in responses from people who understand Robert Monroe and his work.

Batgap interview
Matthew, modified 5 Years ago at 6/10/18 4:10 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/10/18 4:09 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Ward Law:
It's been a while since this was posted. I'm wondering if anyone wants to weigh in on Campbell's model. This would include evaluating it with respect to different paradigms: Buddhism, physics, materialism, nondualism,  etc. A lot of what he says agrees with the Buddhist prescription: become love, let go of fear, etc. I'm particularly interested in responses from people who understand Robert Monroe and his work.

Batgap interview

From a Buddhist perspective, Campbell is an eternalist. He believes in a continuous soul or consciousness that transmigrates from life to life. His system's goals include the development of meditative concentration and a long process of reincarnation on successively higher planes, culminating, as far as I can tell, in what Buddhism would consider the brahma world of the 1st jhana. 

To my knowledge, Campbell hasn't exhibited any sign of understanding fundamental Buddhist concepts. In response to the discussion of Buddhist ideas on his forum, he rejected the possibility of escaping rebirth. Elsewhere, he reinterpeted Zen Buddhist terminology to fit within his system. He may be unaware that Buddhism involves a unique approach to salvation via total abandonment of the illusory self. This includes total abandonment of the delusions that consciousness, mind, or cosmos could constitute a self.
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Stirling Campbell, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 11:43 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 11:43 AM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Matthew Horn:
Ward Law:
It's been a while since this was posted. I'm wondering if anyone wants to weigh in on Campbell's model. This would include evaluating it with respect to different paradigms: Buddhism, physics, materialism, nondualism,  etc. A lot of what he says agrees with the Buddhist prescription: become love, let go of fear, etc. I'm particularly interested in responses from people who understand Robert Monroe and his work.

Batgap interview

From a Buddhist perspective, Campbell is an eternalist. He believes in a continuous soul or consciousness that transmigrates from life to life. His system's goals include the development of meditative concentration and a long process of reincarnation on successively higher planes, culminating, as far as I can tell, in what Buddhism would consider the brahma world of the 1st jhana. 

To my knowledge, Campbell hasn't exhibited any sign of understanding fundamental Buddhist concepts. In response to the discussion of Buddhist ideas on his forum, he rejected the possibility of escaping rebirth. Elsewhere, he reinterpeted Zen Buddhist terminology to fit within his system. He may be unaware that Buddhism involves a unique approach to salvation via total abandonment of the illusory self. This includes total abandonment of the delusions that consciousness, mind, or cosmos could constitute a self.
Right. From the non-dual perspective, who exactly is there to explore, and what universes would be separate to be explored? Who is there to reincarnate? 
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 1:03 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 1:03 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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MEAT , I'm tellin you its all meat.  God damn it.  MEAT. 


Actually, I agree with Stirling and think that this kind of eternalist perspective with a map of progress is pointing in the wrong direction.  Any model that supposes anything is happening to anything or anyone is just another narrative.   Freedom really is possible and lies in not taking yourself seriously, this kind of thing probably makes people think that their practice is somehow useful to the universe or important to God and that is a toxic misconception.   imho
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 3:16 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 3:16 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Related question: the historical Buddha became awakened and after some short time spent wondering what to do next decided to teach what he had discovered to other human beings. Why did the Buddha make that decision if nothing means anything and nothing matters? His decision implies that he did not believe this:  "... people think that their practice is somehow useful to the universe or important to God and that is a toxic misconception..."

Isn't nihilsm the belief that there is no meaning and nothing matters?

I'm not trying to be argumentative but rather pointing to something I think is critical to understanding what the value of practicing to awaken might be.
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 4:21 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 4:21 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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From a materialist perspective, the Buddha was a human with no delusions.  He knew he was meat and just let whatever happened happen.  When the human brain sees something that it is not averse to, that it thinks is absolutely perfect, the human brain produces the experience we call love.  The buddha saw that everything had the same nature as him, it was obvious to him.  His nature was absolutely perfect, that was obvious to him as all flaws are created by the human imagination (or neural network).  When he looked at the world he saw it empty of consequence, but full of things and people to love.  In his buddha mind, even this love was just an arising with out meaning or consequence.  His nervous system continued to do the best it could to love everyone until it died, while in his mind he knew it was nonsense and nothing could ever actually change. 
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 4:52 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 4:48 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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His nervous system continued to do the best it could to love everyone until it died, while in his mind he knew it was nonsense and nothing could ever actually change. 

In other words, he was just messin' with everybody. He didn't believe what he was doing would change anything or anyone. It was, even in his mind, a useless waste of time. So once again, why? Why perpetuate a lie? If he was capable of the love you attribute to him then why would he do something like that?

BTW - did you notice you've created another duality?
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 4:51 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 4:51 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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In his buddha mind, even this love was just an arising without meaning or consequence.

How is this different than nihilism?
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 4:55 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 4:55 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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There is a saying from the Heart Sutra, a major sutra in Mahayana Buddhism:

Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

What do you think that means?
shargrol, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 6:32 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 6:32 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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seth tapper:
He knew he was meat and just let whatever happened happen.  

Ooh... so completely wrong. emoticon  The buddha was about "cultivation" more than anything else, which suggests he thought there were things to cultivate.  

But, since you are into the whole meat thing, you would love this short story --- honestly, you would!
http://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html
Chris, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 7:31 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 7:31 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Chris Marti:
There is a saying from the Heart Sutra, a major sutra in Mahayana Buddhism:

Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

What do you think that means?

Don't forget dogen zenji, or someone like that, clarified that while form is emptiness and emptiness is form, it is important to remember that form is form and emptiness is emptiness. Something similar to that thingy when a monk tells his master that he realizes he doesn't exist, and the master smacks him in the face and says "then who felt that?"

Emptiness? For sure. But I think thats really just the whole self thing. Meaning and purpose may be empty of a singular separate self causing, controlling, owning, or whatevering them, but that doesn't mean they don't occur right along with pain, joy, and everything else on the people spectrum.
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 7:58 PM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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I think this conversation is worth a thread of its own.  This is pretty much the whole enchilada right here and I am kind of shocked that you and Shargol have seen that this is just vibrations or whatever metaphor you guys use and yet are hanging onto some kind of meaning or importance.  We should use the debate model of rhetoric Ingram posted and really try to reach the root issues with reason and evidence from logic and our own experience and not try to use textual evidence from old books that we likely disagree about- a lot of wars have been fought that way.

Are you game?  If so, I will post the thread! 


  
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 8:03 PM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Hey Shargol, 

Someone posted that story on DHO as a youtube video and it really set me off on the meat thing, so spot on there.  On the whole Buddha cultivates line, I have no idea what you mean.  Would you mind responding to my posts in plain english with points that might either persuade me, teach me or that I could refute?  When you post kind of cryptic responses with a knowing air, I dont get much from them.  

I hope you will join in on the new thread I proposed to Chris dealing with whether things are really empty or not and what that means? 
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/11/18 8:17 PM
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Who is it that makes meaning, interprets meaning or experiences the consequences of meaning?  Why pretend meaning is real? What benefit are you looking for from pretend meaning systems?  If they are not pretend, what is the true meaning of anything and how do you know? 
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 6:13 AM
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This is pretty much the whole enchilada right here and I am kind of shocked that you and Shargol have seen that this is just vibrations or whatever metaphor you guys use and yet are hanging onto some kind of meaning or importance.

If it's all meaningless what's the point of a debate? If you really believe this nihilistic POV then take it all the way. Stop making meaning. I dare you. Heck, I double dog dare you.

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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 6:14 AM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Emptiness? For sure. But I think thats really just the whole self thing. Meaning and purpose may be empty of a singular separate self causing, controlling, owning, or whatevering them, but that doesn't mean they don't occur right along with pain, joy, and everything else on the people spectrum.

It's the meaning of emptiness (pun intended) that makes the difference. It's not emptiness of meaning, emptiness of everything. It's emptiness of permanence and separate existence. The former is a box canyon of nihilism. The latter is awakening.
 


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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 6:25 AM
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 Would you mind responding to my posts in plain english with points that might either persu ade me, teach me or that I could refute?  When you post kind of cryptic responses with a knowing air, I dont get much from them.  

This reminds me of me.

I posted a while back on another topic that I went through a period of believing. Believing that I was awake and saw this thing fully, completely, forever, and being told by those I asked that I was full of crap. I didn't get anything from anyone I asked for the key, no knowledge, no secrets, nothing. They tried, of course, but to no avail. See, I thought they had the key to my understanding, to my awakening. I sensed that they wanted to help me but the situation was completely out of their hands. It always is. Eventually, it clicked.
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I take this as a no, you are not interested in having a detailed rational discussion of the subject?  Why ? 

The entire enterprise of teaching buddhism has a paradox at its core, that from a materialist perspective I explained in my answer about the buddha's mind.  Why are you still kicking around here if you do not believe in seperate selves? 
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Chris Marti:
 Would you mind responding to my posts in plain english with points that might either persu ade me, teach me or that I could refute?  When you post kind of cryptic responses with a knowing air, I dont get much from them.  

This reminds me of me.

I posted a while back on another topic that I went through a period of believing. Believing that I was awake and saw this thing fully, completely, forever, and being told by those I asked that I was full of crap. I didn't get anything from anyone I asked for the key, no knowledge, no secrets, nothing. They tried, of course, but to no avail. See, I thought they had the key to my understanding, to my awakening. I sensed that they wanted to help me but the situation was completely out of their hands. It always is. Eventually, it clicked.



Can you see the vaguely passive aggressive - I know stuff and you are lost in delusion, but I cannot explain it to you because you are too far gone - embeded in your answer.  If we are doing it that way, then let me tell you that I really do know.  I am trying to lead you to the next step here.  From my heart ,  you are so close to real peace, I wish I could help you see.  You think you are free, but you are hanging onto suffering, pain and meaning long past the time you should have been able to move on.  There is a Zen Koan, 

"Put down your burden and cross the river".  You have seen directly, I read your log, that existence is an unchanging, undifferentiated perfection.  You, one in billions, have seen that personally.  With the next breath you express your clinging to some obviously made up meaning system - you do not need to be a meditator to see through human self importance and the nonsense of our narratives.  
If you do ever choose to really let go, the afflicitive emotions and suffering that you argue are permanent features of the human mind will no longer arise.   It doesnt matter what framework or non framework you use, dropping false meaning and beliefs reveals that this is the Godhead and always has been and always will be.  

As the great Buddha  - the piece of meat you seem to deify - argued, everything else is maya or illusion or our imagination or meat or mental object or whatever.  It is empty at its very core.  Turtles all the way down.   This seems a terrifying thing to confront - the void - but it feels like home.  It feels like me as I really am.   Why fight it? 

Have you read the last 10 chapters or so of burbea's Seeing That Frees?  It has great exercises to begin to bring the realizations that vipassana has shown you into the rational mind.   

I know that you think i am just a deluded nut and I appreciate you even interacting with me.  Consider, for a few minutes, that I am exactly what I claim to be.  That I am a rational and pretty intelligent man who has spent 10,000+ hours watching my mind and has seen that it is all bullshit.  If that were true, could you use anything I have written to help yourself be happier?  
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 10:56 AM
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Seth, I'm doing my level-headed best to explain to you what you're not seeing. I'm trying to be careful about this because I don't want to offend you. I'm not interested in a debate about this because this will get resolved, not by me or anything I can say, but by you and how you view experience. There's nothing I can tell you that I haven't already expressed in this and in other topics recently. I'll try again and re-state something from this morning but in different terms:

You seem to have the view that emptiness means that nothing exists at all and thus there is no meaning. And because nothing actually exist nothing makes any difference to anything else. That's not Buddhism's version of emptiness that's not how I see it, either. Nor do any of the people I know and have talked about this with and who are awakened. The difference is in what we see emptiness to be. I see it as emptiness of permanent existence and emptiness of separate existence. There is no permanent object anywhere, and there is no object that exists on its own, distinct from other objects. But I don't see that there is no meaning at all and I don't see that there is complete and utter non-existence of objects.

Call this what you will but I used to see things as you do. I fought over it with other people, too, like you are. Then that changed.

FWIW

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seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 11:01 AM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Chris,  

I again agree with everything you write, but not your conclusion.  Give me an example of some meaning? 

If you have some basis to discover meaning and to understand what the importance of that meaning is, please share it.  I will say that if you let go of the idea that there is meaning, then the human mind enters nirvana and is beyond suffering, self identification and thus death.  If that is the result of ignoring some meaning that you have discovered, im ok with that. 
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By the way, fighting like this is really helping my brain to cultivate conviction in its materialist view and connecting my everyday mind with the one that sees emptiness more firmly, so thanks.  I am not sure why you seem to still have suffering and yet are so convinced that you are at the end of practice.  If you do not think you are at the end of practice, what are you cultivating and why? 
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 11:10 AM
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All the words we are exchanging have meaning. Without meaning there would be no conversation. I just looked at my watch. For now, in this instant, it says the time is 10:08 CDT. That's meaning. I'm going to leave my hotel room and speak to a class of about 30 executives in an executive education program. While I do that I will, with any lucidity, convey meaning.
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 11:12 AM
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Who's fighting? I don't agree with that meaning as it applies to this conversation   emoticon
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 11:19 AM
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Is the meaning that you perceive more important than the meaning that a squirrel perceives?
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Chris M, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 11:27 AM
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The point of your question is? Relative importance of meaning? All meaning is equal?

I have to go teach now.
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 11:36 AM
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The question is designed to see whether you think the meaning that you perceive is important to someone or something in someway.  So while I agree that the mind seems to perceive meaning, what it is actually perceiving is a pattern that it has applied a label to.  

Some people see meaning in the movment of the stars and the lines on the hand.  Some see meaning in hate and nationalism.  In Dungeons and Dragons you can get lost for days in a whole universe of meaning.  I am saying that, as far as I can tell, it is all nonsense we made up.  It is all the same as the meaning a squrrel perceives and an earthworm perceives.  Even a one celled animal finds meaning in the gradient of salinity in water and will move away from it.  In my view, the whole drama of the human mind and all the meaning in it is just a very complex version of a salinity gradient. 
Chris, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 11:41 AM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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seth tapper:
Who is it that makes meaning, interprets meaning or experiences the consequences of meaning?


Well, using the three trainings I would say that question is quite valid and applicable to training in wisdom/insight. The rest doesn't seem too useful to practice in that realm and may be more suitable to philosophical inquiry within the realm of morality training
shargrol, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 12:53 PM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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shargrol:
seth tapper:
He knew he was meat and just let whatever happened happen.  

Ooh... so completely wrong. emoticon  The buddha was about "cultivation" more than anything else, which suggests he thought there were things to cultivate.  

But, since you are into the whole meat thing, you would love this short story --- honestly, you would!
http://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html



Hey Shargol,

Someone posted that story on DHO as a youtube video and it really set me off on the meat thing, so spot on there. On the whole Buddha cultivates line, I have no idea what you mean. Would you mind responding to my posts in plain english with points that might either persuade me, teach me or that I could refute? When you post kind of cryptic responses with a knowing air, I dont get much from them.



The reason I gave such a short response is because the statement (seemed?) so far off base from the most simple understanding of what buddhism is. I don't claim to be a buddhist or be completely knowledgable, but here would be a presentation of the basics:

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/theravada.html


THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS
Shortly after his Awakening, the Buddha delivered his first sermon, in which he laid out the essential framework upon which all his later teachings were based. This framework consists of the Four Noble Truths, four fundamental principles of nature (Dhamma) that emerged from the Buddha's radically honest and penetrating assessment of the human condition. He taught these truths not as metaphysical theories or as articles of faith, but as categories by which we should frame our direct experience in a way that conduces to Awakening:

Dukkha: suffering, unsatisfactoriness, discontent, stress;
The cause of dukkha: the cause of this dissatisfaction is craving (tanha) for sensuality, for states of becoming, and states of no becoming;
The cessation of dukkha: the relinquishment of that craving;
The path of practice leading to the cessation of dukkha: the Noble Eightfold Path of right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
Because of our ignorance (avijja) of these Noble Truths, because of our inexperience in framing the world in their terms, we remain bound to samsara, the wearisome cycle of birth, aging, illness, death, and rebirth. Craving propels this process onward, from one moment to the next and over the course of countless lifetimes, in accordance with kamma (Skt. karma), the universal law of cause and effect. According to this immutable law, every action that one performs in the present moment — whether by body, speech, or mind itself — eventually bears fruit according to its skillfulness: act in unskillful and harmful ways and unhappiness is bound to follow; act skillfully and happiness will ultimately ensue.[13] As long as one remains ignorant of this principle, one is doomed to an aimless existence: happy one moment, in despair the next; enjoying one lifetime in heaven, the next in hell.

The Buddha discovered that gaining release from samsara requires assigning to each of the Noble Truths a specific task: the first Noble Truth is to be comprehended; the second, abandoned; the third, realized; the fourth, developed. The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves the way for Awakening: the end of ignorance, craving, suffering, and kamma itself; the direct penetration to the transcendent freedom and supreme happiness that stands as the final goal of all the Buddha's teachings; the Unconditioned, the Deathless, Unbinding — Nibbana (Skt. Nirvana).


So it really is about cultivation ...and also note how the passage above also says that buddhism is not about "states of no becoming" either, which is something a lot of people miss.
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 2:22 PM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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S.:
I still don't think I particularly see a connection between materialism and everyday life, or everyday mind. 


The fundamental insight, as I see it, is emptiness and selflessness.  So I found myself experiencing really free states of mind in meditation in which that insight was manifest, but then kept finding the mind fabricating a self and suffering in response to triggers in everyday life.  The goal of a framework that stayed constant is so that when lost in a narrative, the mind could find its way free.  The obvious framework is just mind. It is easy to accept that everything that is happening is just a mental fabrication.  The problem I found is that if I held onto that framework in daily life feelings of depersonalization and seperation from family and community arose.  Its all mind whooo whoo as I floated around in bliss.  Not wanting that experience, the mind kept dropping the framework and returning to a soul in a body with a mission framework and that sucks.  Grounding things in materiality has given me the same freedom from concern that grounding things in mind used to give me, but it is much more readily available than all mind.  I feel connected and grounded and rational and normal and free from concern.  So it is a more skillful metaphor for dependent origination or emptiness than the others I have experimented with. 
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 2:27 PM
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the thing about putting up texts from authoritative sources is everyone reads them differently.  I read that and it seems be exactly what I am saying and have seen.  You read it and think I am out to lunch.   What have you seen?  What is it about my view of emptiness that you have seen evidence is wrong and what was the evidence and what are its ramifications? 
lotb, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 2:56 PM
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Quick question for you Seth, how does all of this relate to your sense of being a parent? Would it be meaningless for you to abandon your child/ren, or in the most dramatic instance, to murder them?  How would those relate to your level of suffering? 

The Buddha (as asserted) considered not expounding the dharma fearing that no one would understand, but did anyway. That's what I was alluding to in the other chat of ours; what makes him a Buddha is not just the complete cessation of suffering in his bodymind (arahant), but that he was driven to alleviate the suffering of others by way of compassion. Since you mentioned Seeing That Frees, Burbea talks about compassion at length in the first several chapters and that the Dharma is not about Nihilism.


Meat is not neutral or meaningless. It wants to exist and procreate.  
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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Ward Law:
It's been a while since this was posted. I'm wondering if anyone wants to weigh in on Campbell's model. This would include evaluating it with respect to different paradigms: Buddhism, physics, materialism, nondualism,  etc. A lot of what he says agrees with the Buddhist prescription: become love, let go of fear, etc. I'm particularly interested in responses from people who understand Robert Monroe and his work.

Hi Ward,
I have been following  Campbells work for a while. I also did the introductory Voyager course at the Monroe Institute back in the mid 90's after reading Monroe's books. Cool stuff.

Not sure if it has been mentioned here but Campbell has made his entire book available at Google Books. He also recently raised over $200k on kickstarter to conduct several physics experiments - generally modified versions of the double slit experiment - to test his theory.

I don't see any conflict with his theory with regards to Buddhism, Nondualism, and Physics. After all, he is presenting a Theory of Everything - and such a theory is going to have to account for the full range of human experience. Materialism is by definition inconsistant with his theory.

With regard to Buddhism, the Theravadins will tend to reject his theory. But the suttas themselves don't contradict it in my view - rather, it is how the Theravadins interpret the teachings that lead to the incompatibility. Mahayana - much less a problem.
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 6:09 PM
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I kind of feel like I have thread jacked this thread enough already!  You are really asking two very different questions. 
The first is about the particularized relationship and love between me and my kids and the second is about compassion with out boundaries or limits.  The experience is more like starting to love everyone the same way you love your kids rather than losing love for your kids. How can love exist in a meaningless universe?  Well, I answered above about the mind of the buddha.  It just does cause we are humans and thats what we do.  When I am really rational, love and meat are the same thing and there is no seperateness.  I am free of not loving.  free of aversion. 
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Not two, not one, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 7:35 PM
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Hey Seth, I'll give it a go, as you seem to have caught my disease of reobservation and rationalist analysis. Really appreciate everything you have said to help me, so here is an offering in return  (as I don't think the thread can be unhijacked at this point emoticon).  You know all this already, but ...

There is no self.  But there is still a being. This psycho-physical being that is the convoluted interaction of body sensations, sense consciosunesses, perceptions of form, ingrained reactions, and roving attention. This being dies every instant, and is reborn the next instant, like the dappled pattern of a squall on water.  Or like the wave that races in at an angle, pushing a moment of crashing foam steadily up the beach. 

Each moment of rebirth arises from the conditions that surround it, and carries forward the memories and habits conditioned by the last moment of being.  But this is not me, or you.  It is just a process.  A combination of the roving attention, experiences, intention, and memories and habits that influence the next moment.  

This process of being creates and carries with it all the meaning that it can perceive.  There may be other menaings, but it cannot perceive them.  If the being carries meanings of permanence, self, separateness, and clinging, then suffering continues.  If it becomes less deluded, stops clinging, and recognises that it is just the flame that burns for a while, or the surfer that shoots the tube, then it suffers less.  You are just a process.  Love is just a process.  Suffering is just a process.  If you stop clinging to self, you can enjoy love for what it is.

But mainly, just keep shooting that tube until the Final Wipeout.  Live in your sense consciousness, not in your narratives.  Be joyful.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

After all, who cares?
seth tapper, modified 5 Years ago at 6/12/18 11:48 PM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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[quote=]

There is no self.  But there is still a being. This psycho-physical being that is the convoluted interaction of body sensations, sense consciosunesses, perceptions of form, ingrained reactions, and roving attention. This being dies every instant, and is reborn the next instant, like the dappled pattern of a squall on water.  Or like the wave that races in at an angle, pushing a moment of crashing foam steadily up the beach. 


Right here you have a logical falacy that is the very essence of the argument I am having with Chris.   "There is no self, but there is still a being."  I spent a very long time in this state of letting go alot - but not all the way.   There really is no self or being or nothing.  It is really completely empty.  The idea of some " psycho-physical being that is the convoluted interaction of body sensations, sense consciosunesses, perceptions of form, ingrained reactions, and roving attention." is actually just a concept.  It seems real because our experience seems to reiify this concept, but it isnt.  The actual stream of experience in the mind is just a stream of meaningless sensations and we read meaning into it - the same as reading meaning into the stars or into tea leaves.  It is pretty hard thing to wrap the mind around.  Nothing is actually happening.  Nothing at all.  There is no actual such thing as suffering.  No one has ever suffered or ever will.  It sure seems like it when you experience it, but the experience of suffering is just a pattern of sensations that we label "suffering".  I have spent 4 years and thousands of hours watching my mind use my body to fabricate experience and can now always find the particular nerve firing in my body that the mind is reading as suffering or fear.  The metaphor of nerves and body is in the end a metaphor, but it works as is very easy to accept with the rational mind.  You believe you have a body and nerves, right?  So in what I call a Type II mind state, the nerves are firing in the body, but the mind reads the sensation as a feeling or intuition and not as a nerve.  If you know to check, you can find the feeling in the mind space that you are averse to and then map that feeling on the body and localize the nerves causing the sensation.   The mind will then go through a phase change into a Type I mind state.  Instead of feeling and intuitions, the sensations become sensations and most of nerves that the mind reads as aversion are relaxed.  It goes on from there as the mind accepts that the field of experience is void of importance, the brain relaxes more muscles and the field of experience has less of the sensations it has been conditioned to be averse to.   With less aversion, it can let attention rest on the field of experience for longer periods and build confidence that it is void of mean - relaxing further, etc.  

All of this is happening meaninglessly because of the laws of physics, god's will, dependent origination or who the heck knows - depending on your choice of frameworks. 
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Not two, not one, modified 5 Years ago at 6/13/18 12:44 AM
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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" It seems real because our experience seems to reiify this concept, but it isnt.  The actual stream of experience in the mind is just a stream of meaningless sensations and we read meaning into it - the same as reading meaning into the stars or into tea leaves."

Sure, more or less. I might have a tiny quibble, saying that it is real, or exists, within the frame of reference within which is considered. But I agree that still doesn't provide any rock solid foundations.  To bastardise St Augustine, reality and existence are properties of the universe we create for ourselves. 

"All of this is happening meaninglessly because of the laws of physics, god's will, dependent origination or who the heck knows - depending on your choice of frameworks"

I think this is the key.  Why does it matter whether something has meaning, or doesn't have meaning?  The Buddha didn't teach meaning, he taught suffering and the end of suffering - no matter your framework.  And the root of suffering is clinging.  I might be reading this wrong, but your comments read as if you are still clinging to something, or some concept.  But you are almost over the river ... keep going!  I need you to clear the bank so that I can clamber up too!

metta
Malcolm
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RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

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[quote=]

"All of this is happening meaninglessly because of the laws of physics, god's will, dependent origination or who the heck knows - depending on your choice of frameworks"

I think this is the key.  Why does it matter whether something has meaning, or doesn't have meaning?  The Buddha didn't teach meaning, he taught suffering and the end of suffering - no matter your framework.  And the root of suffering is clinging. 


The thing about clinging is that it requires something to cling to.  For the mind to have things in it, it has to apply meaning to a meaningless void.  This is what fabrication of reality is.  From a materialist perspective, the neural network is finding pathways that are rewarded with less negative feedback - this feels like less aversion and less aversion feels like more love.  When I began this process, my mind was in the habit of always trying to understand what was really happening and what it needed to do.  It assumed that there was true meaning and its job was to figure out what that meaning is.    It seemed impossible to live if there was no meaning, so that thought never crossed the mind and if it did it seemed like the boogey man of nihilism and shrank from it.   Dropping the delusion of true or intrinsic meaning allows the mind to stop applying meaning to the meaningless experience stream.  This is what Nirvana or the Godhead is.  This right here, right now with out any delusional meaning structure applied to it.  From a materialist perspective, even that is nonsense.  Really understanding or seeing that is what being a buddha is. 
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Not two, not one, modified 5 Years ago at 6/13/18 2:55 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/13/18 2:55 AM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

Posts: 1038 Join Date: 7/13/17 Recent Posts
Cool !  emoticon  
Jennifer Shin, modified 5 Years ago at 6/13/18 7:08 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/13/18 7:08 AM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

Post: 1 Join Date: 6/13/18 Recent Posts
His kickstarter closes in two hours if anyone is interested in backing physics experiments to prove his simulation theory of reality! Exciting stuff! 

Also, ive been lurking on this forum for awhile wonderinng if anyone has made a connection between buddhism and mbt. Super cool that it has been done.
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Ward Law, modified 5 Years ago at 6/16/18 11:28 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/16/18 11:28 AM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

Posts: 123 Join Date: 9/7/15 Recent Posts
Just watched his youtube explaining the experiments. Very cool, but I fear that the science establishment, not to mention professional "skeptics" such as Michael Schermer, will find a way to sweep his results under the rug and "debunk" him. Campbrell's achilles heel is his OOB experiments, which the skeptics will denounce as Woo Woo (as if that somehow invalidates his theory).
al pesto, modified 1 Year ago at 8/3/22 4:55 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/3/22 4:55 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

Post: 1 Join Date: 8/3/22 Recent Posts
Step1: Take a multi-millenary philosophy, in this case Vedanta, and replace all its terminology with modern 20th-century definitions. Then pretend that you were the one who discovered it all.

Step 2: Convince everyone that you alone, out of 7.753 billion inhabitants on this planet, have figured-out all the secrets of life, then go-on to warn critics about the pitfalls of succumbing to "ego".

Step 3: Base everything you say on completely unverifiable and totally unprovable claims regarding your alleged ability to "go out of body," "travel in time" and "communicate with superior beings".  Then go-on to warn critics about the pitfalls of believing things that are not "based on your own personal experience".

Step 4: Make sure to only allow yourself to be interviewed by obsequious, fawning devotees who are guaranteed to not ask any truly hardball questions. To further ensure your control over the narrative, gather as many of your interviews as possible under just one YT channel (your own), whose comment section you can completely control. Then go-on to warn critics about the pitfalls of succumbing to "fear."

Step 5: Ban anyone, especially critical-thinkers, from publicly commenting on the discrepancy of how you're trying to use the mind in order to go beyond the capabilities of the mind. Then go-on to warn critics about the pitfalls of not maintaining an attitude of "open-minded skepticism".
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Step 6: Brush aside any doubts and/or criticism regarding your so-called 'teachings' by accusing your detractors of being rooted in your infamously favorite catch-all trademark accusation of "Fear and Ego!!!" ..then go back and immediately implement Step 5.

Step 7: Rinse, lather & repeat the same treatment for 14 years ....& counting.
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J W, modified 1 Year ago at 8/3/22 7:16 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/3/22 7:16 PM

RE: My Big Toe(Theory Of Everything) by Thomas Campbell

Posts: 671 Join Date: 2/11/20 Recent Posts
Hey DW, thanks for sharing this (however long ago)... looks really cool and definitely up my alley.  I look forward to reading more of Campbell's TOE, looks from what I've read already like it would be pretty complimentary with MCTB and Buddhism.

- btw, I wonder which toe came first - Campbell's or Wilbur's?  And surely the Campbells Tom and Joe were influenced by one another emoticon

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