Michael W Taft - Deconstructing Yourself Podcast

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elizabeth, modified 6 Years ago at 5/22/17 6:33 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 5/22/17 6:30 PM

Michael W Taft - Deconstructing Yourself Podcast

Posts: 76 Join Date: 5/10/14 Recent Posts
Michael Taft has a new podcast on soundcloud.    First 3  (just posted) are conversations between Michael and Kenneth Folk.
Hal, modified 6 Years ago at 3/15/18 8:49 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/15/18 4:00 PM

RE: Michael W Taft - Deconstructing Yourself Podcast

Posts: 5 Join Date: 9/22/17 Recent Posts
I listened to the one with Daniel Ingram and Michal Taft when it was first posted and found it fascinating, as they both always are.  However, I could not follow the logic of their agreeing that it doesn't really matter whether supernatural/ESP phenomena are actually true or not, and that the only things that mattered were subjective, etc.  It seems pretty straightforward that objective reality matters.  (I like the Philip K. Dick quote, "Reality is that which, when you stop believeing in it, it doesn't go away.")

Plus, if these things (magick, etc.) are true, and your goal is to reduce the suffering of all sentient beings, then you could spread the gospel of the Dharma more effectively if you could show it to be true.  You would probably win a Nobel prize while you were at it. 
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Chris M, modified 6 Years ago at 3/15/18 5:45 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/15/18 5:44 PM

RE: Michael W Taft - Deconstructing Yourself Podcast

Posts: 5104 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
It seems pretty straightforward that objective reality matters.

Can you explain how it is that you actually have contact with "objective reality?" Is there such a thing?

I'm being quite serious and playing devil's advocate to make you think about this more deeply. If you're a practitioner of buddhist meditation one of the major objectives of the practice is to investigate the very deepest nature of your experience. In pursuing this investigation you learn that all your experience is mediated by mind. We have no real contact with phenomena not mediated by mind. That is the essence of subjectivity. That is what Ingram and Taft are referring to in their converstation. We may choose to believe in magical pehnomena or choose not to believe in them, but in either case we're making a judgment based on subjective "evidence" and a priori belief - because that's all we have to go on.



Kuru, modified 6 Years ago at 3/16/18 3:11 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/16/18 3:11 PM

RE: Michael W Taft - Deconstructing Yourself Podcast

Posts: 62 Join Date: 11/2/17 Recent Posts
Hal:
I listened to the one with Daniel Ingram and Michal Taft when it was first posted and found it fascinating, as they both always are.  However, I could not follow the logic of their agreeing that it doesn't really matter whether supernatural/ESP phenomena are actually true or not, and that the only things that mattered were subjective, etc.  It seems pretty straightforward that objective reality matters.  (I like the Philip K. Dick quote, "Reality is that which, when you stop believeing in it, it doesn't go away.")

Plus, if these things (magick, etc.) are true, and your goal is to reduce the suffering of all sentient beings, then you could spread the gospel of the Dharma more effectively if you could show it to be true.  You would probably win a Nobel prize while you were at it. 
I think they were saying that what matters is if its is causal or not. If the hallucination was strong enough to change your behaviour in some way, then thats what matters in terms of the legitimacy of putting time and energy into these type of "supernatural" practices, regardless of "objective reality". Even if you don't believe in the "objectivity" of the hallucination, its causal effects upon you don't go away.

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