I think I've now fallen in love with TM... his no-nonsense approach to the idea that if you'd transcended the self, you wouldn't be bragging about it, seems plausible to me. And I'm genuinely considering starting a petition to get funding for secular meditation centres; what an amazing idea.

@kungfooman

5 жыл бұрын

Any progress on the meditation centres? Or did you start your own church yet?

@sonicrolfo

4 жыл бұрын

I entirely agree! Except the love thing ;-)

Mr. Metzinger, you're such a class act!!!

Bob is such a lowkey funny guy. Not even making jokes or whatever, just radiating a latent old-school funniness somehow.

When I experienced my first sudden shift in perspective away from the narrated self and deeply into the experiencing self, I noticed a disinterest in many of the political and social issues that I used to be wrapped up in daily. Then I became afraid of them....that if I watched the news or took part in a political discussion I would completely lose any awareness I had gained. Then I became afraid of the disinterest and wondered if it was apathy and if it was dangerous. So now I'm just a big confused mess lol. At least now I know it's normal. :)

It'd be such an honor to sit in on Professor Metzinger's lectures. Grasping that the 'self' is an illusion can be quite a task or even impossible for some, but the way he softly conveys such complex philosophical thoughts is extremely pleasant.

@edzardpiltz6348

5 жыл бұрын

Better get out those kind of lectures while you can, because this could seriously f*ck up your personal version of the American dream. 😘

What an absolutely compelling talk.

That was great interview! Thanks,

Thanks for your conversations. Many of us think about how we can help. Whatever way we may find ourselves helping-to hear others thoughtful considerations of being humans now- well,very helpful. This would have been a lovely discussion for the long form.

Robert: There are two books by a guy named Gary Crowley which offer some very PRACTICAL methods of practice to help us meditatively release the idea of a self. You should have a look, I think you'd find them worth looking at. One is Here to Here -- Turning Toward Enlightenment, the other is Soft-Style Conscious Awakening: A Being This-Here-Now Playbook.

I love you Robert Wright, you are amazing!

awesome interview! thanks

Can't you two get a bottle of whiskey in, and sit up all night, talking this stuff and film it. This guy won't admit it but he is like a Zen master and Bob the bumbling student (representing the rest of us). Fantastic stuff

@AnotherOrangeJulius

5 жыл бұрын

Metzinger doesn't drink. He should make that one exception, though ;)

"The 'normal' state is a very specific form of controlled online hallucination ..." (25:35) 👍🙏

please invite Joscha Bach

I’ve met too many jerks who meditate to think mindfulness will save us

TM's book 'Being No One' is a life changing book.

Robert, you pronounced Mainz correctly (as in the first time you said it), haha.

Interview the rational pessimist philosopher David Banatar on his book "The Human Predicament" like to know his pessimistic thoughts on secular mindfulness meditation practices especially after that New Yorker magazine article dubbing him the worlds most rational pessimist philosopher a modern day Arthur Schopenhauer.

@chrisw7347

5 жыл бұрын

Seconded. I thought Sam Harris's podcast with him was a rare, challenging conversation for both parties. It would be refreshing to see what Robert could tease out from Benatar.

🦋

Who decides to take the rubber hand test?

@sonicrolfo

4 жыл бұрын

Doin it every year with my pupils in ethics when we discuss perception and knowledge theory :-)

Ego is illusion as long as we are stuck with our ego there is suffering and when we transcends ego through meditation its liberation from suffering.

@pk6610

5 жыл бұрын

yeah, but this works only when you realize that liberation from suffering is an illusion

@edzardpiltz6348

5 жыл бұрын

If it hits you, you will know that it was you in the first place that created all this mess to find out what it feels like to be a separate entity facing decay and death. You have created this dream and have forgotten who you really are - the dreamt and not the character in the dream! 😘

zero-person methods?

Buddha exactly never said there is no self

The Self (Consciousness ) can not die. The only thing that "dies" is the belief that Consciousness is individual and inside bodies.

@MidiwaveProductions

6 жыл бұрын

Since objects made of "matter" --- an ontologically real substance outside Consciousness --- do not exist --- death is an illusion. And what is life and death if not appearance and disappearance. Right? If we realize that "matter" can not be experienced or known, then we will realize that there is only Consciousness and mental objects (thoughts, sensations, perceptions). Mental objects appear and disappear, but can that which is conscious of these objects --- Consciousness --- appear and disappear..? No. Why? Because Consciousness is non-dimensional. In other words: Consciousness has no objective (phenomenal) qualities/properties and no extent in any spatial dimension --- and only objects with dimensions can appear and disappear. P1. Only one ontologically real substance can exist --- Due to the interaction problem dualism is false, and non-dualism, aka monism, is true. Hence the fundamental nature of things is reducible to and derived from one substance; one basic element P2. Consciousness exists --- Gross perceptual appearances (aka matter) and subtle perceptual appearances (aka mind) exist in Consciousness and hence can not be ontologically different substances C1. Only Consciousness exists --- The fundamental nature of things is reducible to and derived from one substance; one basic element: Consciousness C2. Consciousness can not disappear --- Only that which is derived from Consciousness: Gross perceptual appearances (aka matter) and subtle perceptual appearances (aka mind) can disappear. Consciousness Itself is not a perceptual appearance and hence can not disappear (aka is immortal)

@spsmith1965

6 жыл бұрын

I prefer a uncomfortable truth to a comfortable lie. I would like to believe that I persist after death, but that is simply not true. Life is an accidental byproduct of the laws of physics. Nothing more.

@MidiwaveProductions

6 жыл бұрын

Scott. You say: I prefer a uncomfortable truth to a comfortable lie. I would like to believe that I persist after death, but that is simply not true. Life is an accidental byproduct of the laws of physics. Nothing more. Response: So you believe a substance called "matter" --- which can not be experienced or known --- is producing Consciousness..? Why do you choose to believe this..?

@spsmith1965

6 жыл бұрын

Midiwave: Truth does not depend on being experienced in order to be true. If there were no life in the universe, the universe would still exist. My opinions are based on observation and common sense. I would not place too much emphasis on what I "believe". I am just stating what I observe to be true. There are truths I do not know, but I see no need to invent an imaginary afterlife. I am really stating a lack of belief, rather than a belief.

@MidiwaveProductions

6 жыл бұрын

Scott. You say: Truth does not depend on being experienced in order to be true. If there were no life in the universe, the universe would still exist. Response: You believe that an ontologically real substance called "matter" exist outside and independent of Consciousness. But since "matter" (aka perceptual appearances) exist in Consciousness this belief is non-true. In other words: "Life" is in Consciousness. No Consciousness -- no "Life". You say: My opinions are based on observation and common sense. I would not place too much emphasis on what I "believe". I am just stating what I observe to be true. Response: You believe that you observe "matter". Right..? This is not correct according to both materialism and idealism. On materialism you observe the brains simulation/representation of "matter". On idealism you observe perceptual appearances in Consciousness. You say: There are truths I do not know, but I see no need to invent an imaginary afterlife. Response: If you realize that only Consciousness exists you will realize that "death" logically has to be an appearance in Consciousness. You say: I am really stating a lack of belief, rather than a belief. Response: Your claim: "I am really stating a lack of belief, rather than a belief." is not correct. Why? Because obviously you believe that "matter" exists. Right..? And obviously you believe that you experience "matter". Right..? And obviously you believe that "matter" produces Consciousness. Right..?

NOT an actual quote-"we have looked everywhere for the self, we cannot find it using our super science tools and my grand intellect so I must put forth it is not real, oh did I mention I meditate, have done so for like a long time"

@davesmith3289

5 жыл бұрын

Your point is less than salient

Meditation is addiction and self abuse.. snap out of it ! U.G. Krishnamurti ;)

Instead of spreading mediation in the West why wouldn't you rather develop the economy in Buddhist majority country (Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam). If those countries are becoming very rich then meditation will be more easily spread.

If you really grok all the suffering in reality your world turns to shit until you work up the courage to off yourself or you die of decrepitude and a broken heart. And that's all there is to that. I work with dogs because I can't bear humanity but I just want out. ( "All my life I have had the utmost admiration for suicides. I have always considered them superior to me in every way"- Thomas Bernhard.) I have no respect for any Creator if there is one or evolution if that's all there is. It's all evil as far as I can see. Evil in the way Schopenhauer would have meant it. I dig TM and really dug The Ego Tunnel. If I got to do life over I would have only focused on the practice of Lucid Dreaming, meditation, and forgot about everything else, especially romance. It's romance that kept me from keeping up my meditation practice and dream work when I was young and had the energy and time for it. I blew it. But the trip is really that meditation is a bandaid for the vast majority. Twenty seconds of silence here and there is not a lifetimes relief. Antinatalism as Schopenhauer discovered is the true solution to the problem of human suffering. Thank you for putting up this video. Greatly appreciated.

@davidr7619

8 ай бұрын

I mean this in the nicest way... don't confuse psychological states with philosophical insights

Thomas Metzinger seems like a righteous cat. Interviewer is a typical gee-whizz American. Doesn't make him all bad.