We could say that there are ‘two types of people in the world’ - those who see that the game is empty, and those who do not see this. This isn’t to say that we can’t transition from one group...
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What kind of possibilities are there for the Extrinsic Self as it goes about its business in the world of Definite Appearances - which is the only world it can ever know, the only world it can have ever have...
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Reality isn't Buddhist, or Christian, or Muslim, or anything like that - reality is simply reality and it has nothing to do with whatever ideas we might have about it (and we always do have lots of ideas about it)....
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As I normally am, I can only ever see the world in terms of myself and this - of course - is something of an obstacle. Or rather it's not just ‘a bit of an obstacle’, it's an absolute one....
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The everyday self is a bias that cannot see itself as such, a bias that ‘takes itself for granted’, so to speak, and the prognosis for this peculiar situation - this situation where we identify with ‘the bias that can’t...
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Conservative Mode isn't just about overtly trying to preserve stuff (or ‘hang onto the old’), it also comes into play – although not so obviously - every time we make a plan or conceive of a goal - plans and...
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If we are to survive suffering then we have to find meaning in it, says Viktor Frankl. It’s not happiness that's going to get through life (or the search for happiness) but a sense of meaning, says Jordan Peterson. The...
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The Illusion Game maintains itself by giving us lots and lots of red herrings to follow; the rule for this game is very simple - we have to keep on chasing the red herrings! The other rule of the game...
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When someone (or some agency) 'says what you are’ then this means that they control you absolutely. There is no more perfect form of control - 'Once you label me, you negate me' says Kierkegaard. Needless to say, we don’t...
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We are orientated - by default, as it were - to the purely formal world that is created by our own mental descriptions. More than just being ‘orientated’ to this extrinsic reality, it’s the only world that we know, it’s...
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What does it mean to live in a ‘Predefined World’? What would be the implications of such a thing? Would a predefined life (which is to say, a life where everything has been scripted in advance) be any fun? There...
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The Extrinsic Self - which is to say, ‘the self which is based entirely on rules’ - and the State of Openness are completely incompatible with each other. Or rather, the Extrinsic Self is incompatible with Openness, since Openness doesn't...
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We insulate ourselves from the world by labelling everything, by judging everything and then not looking any further than our judgments. This is the key to everything - to say what things are and then not look beyond whatever it...
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Western ‘popular’ spirituality - it seems - is all about attachment - we know there's something good out there (or in there) and we imagine that we can attract it to us by doing the right kind of stuff, by...
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The Extrinsic Self is always ‘on the outside’ - it’s always ‘on the outside, looking in’. It can’t ever partake in life, even though it longs to do so; it’s always on the wrong side of an impenetrable glass wall...
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There's no sense of wonder in a game - the moment we plug into a game is also the moment we turn our backs on the wonder and mystery (cliched though this might sound) that there is in the world....
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This is the characteristic human activity - to be constantly and untiringly striving to prove our own nonsensical assertions. We can never prove them (because they are nonsensical) but that doesn't stop us trying! We can't actually stop trying, when...
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The generic is that for which there is precedence - no more needs to be said on the subject than this! What follows on from 'that which was already there' is the generic, and the generic is all most of...
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