Body, Mind, Spirit: Pitfalls on the Path to Enlightenment | Scott Carney | TEDxBoulder
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- Is the idea of becoming closer to God always positive? Scott Carney, author of A Death on Diamond Mountain and The Red Market discusses just what can go wrong on the quest for enlightenment.
Scott Carney is an award-winning investigative journalist and anthropologist whose stories blend narrative non-fiction with ethnography. He is the author of three books including The Red Market and A Death on Diamond Mountain and is a former contributing editor at Wired. He has also published in Mother Jones, Foreign Policy, Playboy, Details, Discover, Outside and Fast Company. He is a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and the founder of WordRates.com which a website that helps writers understand the business of journalism. He currently lives in Denver, CO. Find out more at scottcarney.com
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
I'm speaking from an experience I had a few years ago when I say this. I am not claiming to be all knowing and I am not telling anyone what to believe, believe what you feel is right. That said "enlightenment" is not an escape. "Enlightenment" is a realization which allows you to see there is no place to "go." If hypothetically we were to find alternate realities where gods manifested or even ones so different from our own that the laws that governed them were completely different than our own it would not change anything. "Here" is HERE no matter if you are on Earth, the moon, light years away in outer space, whether you have a physical body or do not, "here" is HERE. It's all the same. No matter where you go you are always here and you are everything, you are the universe.
Enlightenment is the end of suffering for the rest of their life. If it takes a realization it takes a realization.
If a dog banged its head against a wall and got brain damage in such a way it could never feel stress again, is it enlightened?
💜
This guy cosmos’s.
Dance of the oneness. Beautifully written, thank you
I agree. We have to balance ourselves out. We can't be 100% human and we can't be 100% spirit. We have to honor both.. all of ourselves. We have to love our bodies minds hearts spirits and each other. I don't know what your friend was going through but I pray that you and her family receives closure and are able to gain a better sense of self and the importance of togetherness from this experience. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
One of the things Israel Regardie used to hammer on in his books is that anyone really getting into esotericism - whether it's Golden Dawn style occultism or esoteric Hinduism or Buddhism - they really need to have or have had at least a year of psychotherapy with a psychologist versed in the kinds of things that happen to people's minds as part of the normal process of engaging such disciplines and counseling through it so they don't blow their cork or start forgetting every self-preservation behavior that was critically important in pre-enlightenment stage (a world which really doesn't go away or change just because you're on a spiritual high). If you tend to be an inherently skeptical and grounded person already you might not need to follow that to the T but what Scott brings up showcases the danger - ie. a lot of people really haven't been challenged by their own subconscious minds nor stories seductive enough to have them act as impulsively as Emily did. This is also why I'm sure a lot of psychologists are iffy about prescribing positive psychology, especially where it starts playing with or even crossing the boarder into mysticism and magic - for as much good as it can potentially do it's also a huge liability; people can destabilize quickly. A girl in her late teens running off to India to meditate for seven days on end? That probably wasn't a good recipe unless she was already a pretty experienced meditator and harbored too much experience to be persuaded that seven days could make her a deity.
St. Francis of Assissi said, "what you are looking for is what is looking. "
We say that the world is an illusion but the true illusion is our search for enlightenment. I used kundalini yoga, zen and eventually, psychedelics to reach enlightenment, and it messed me up. I got depersonalization and derealization.
What's wrong with our life right now? Do we really lack something? Is life really a suffering that we need to get freed from?
As the Bible said, the Kingdom of God is within us and we no longer have to go anywhere to find it. The purpose of the search is to end the searching.
A teacher with whom I studied was confronted by a student who adamantly wanted to be enlightened and to be so now! The teacher responded, saying, "Sir, if you want to be enlightened, then stop being so heavy." The student, not catching the drift, continued with, "I want to know the technique," to which the teacher throwing his arms into the air replied, "Technique, what technique?" At that very moment a small one year old began crawling across the floor. "OK", said the teacher, "if you want to know the technique, then, there, that little one will teach it to you. Let your minds become pure and innocent like that child's!"
Great speech indeed.
I was practicing meditation on daily basis and earned severe head pressure that remains in my head for almost a year. I have seen so many doctors but none was able to provide relief.
I find many people on internet that share same symptoms from meditation and it can last for years or even never to stop , my life is destroyed by this. Who knows what have I done to my brain. I warn all potential mediators to be cautions with practice or even better not to start at all.
svarogthegreat Hello sorry about your head. Have you tried NSR meditation? Hopefully it may assist to shift things back. Hopefully it was not NSR that caused it in the first place. Take Care Be Well Gordon
Thanks for sharing your insight !
♡ He said a 'state' of transcendence but transcendence is a journey.
♡ No one is truly enlightened until every person is enlightened.
♡ We can reach a 'state' of enlightenment just as we can reach a state of awakening.
🙏🙏🙏
The body and mind through them I am observing are observable but I who is observing am not observable.
I am consciousness.
After watching this I am wondering if most 'seekers' are seeking due to depression or other dissatisfaction with life. They might be more prone to self harm to begin with.
Jim1701X I see that in myself
Realmente ignoras demasiado sobre el tema
I am sorry for the loss. She is back to where she came from. The problem is people think enlightenment is an experience, and people can capitalize on that. Actually, it is when you realize that experiences don't matter, and you are just there and don't need to be labeled as enlightened or not, and even if you, it doesn't matter. The shortest path to experiences is to take chemicals, which I do not recommend. See, if our achievements in life are a circle, enlightenment is the center, like an observer outside the judgement. When you say we have to live life to its fullest, sure, but fullest doesn't have to be the western way of life.
I am surprised that you bundle Ryan Chambers in the enlightenment seeker path. It seems Ryan was fearful and running away from something. Certainly his phone call the evening before he disappeared indicated that. Meditation was merely an aside to sightseeing and music interests for Ryan and his mate John. Ryan had only just purchased a Sitar in Varanasi and planned to learn how to play it. We as a family believe that the side effects of Lariam anti-malarial plus anti gastro medication combined to affect Ryan's actions. These side effects are clearly stated with this medication but as with any drugs affect only some in an adverse way. However, without evidence we may never know. Thanks for your interest anyway. Ryan's father.
Hi Jock, I believe we spoke several years ago. I agree that without additional evidence we can never know for sure about Ryan's case. I do understand what you are saying about lariam, as I used it for a few months and it absolutely had low-level psychoactive properties. That said, the lariam hypothesis would not be mutually exclusive to India syndrome, indeed it only enhances the case. All psychedelics studies mention how important set and setting are in addition o the chemical properties of the drug. As a setting, India is confusing, challenging and destabilizing for many foreigners, add to that a huge array of spiritual pre-conceptions and messages that are pushed on foreigners, and it's not a big jump to think that a hallucinogenic drug could amplify the culture shock and push someone over the edge.
Instablaster
Really, really, really insightful.
Thank you, Scott! Keep breathing!
)
He is right, you can go crazy from the realisation (again).
Your ego will tell you new storys what you would allegedly know, to win control back.
But the mind can not keep it. You have to let "it" go.
You could only go crazy by trying to understand.
But at the same time you can not forget what you have realized.
So it is difficult, you need a good master.
Like Sokrates said: I know that I know nothing.
Know that and keep it for yourself.
That is a very Zen way to go about things.
The Theravada way, in comparison is to identify fact from fiction through first hand experience to verify all stories. It is a middle ground between skeptic (blind disbelief) and blindly believing the stories you have benn told regardless if the story comes from you ego, a teacher, a friend, or the news. Always validate everything until it becomes an unconscious habit.
He's just trying to help, people. It's no surprise that there are mentally ill or delusional that think they are enlightened, and wouldn't think twice about taking their own lives or lives of innocent people. Let's face it: It's just going to get more prevalent, in this day and age.
Tibetans monks do meditation only after studying and grounding themselves 20+ plus years of Buddhist philosophy and still do not claim to be a bodhisattva or have magical power while many Western gurus and student do meditation on day one without any basic grounding and understanding.
These Westerners Gurus have twisted the Buddhism to feed their ego and false claims of instant bliss.
@@petagonkyi So true, but sadly it seems to be an artifact of the human condition. In the east gurus make up all sorts of stories. The most dangerous kind of teacher is one who studies and trains, does not get enlightened, and then chooses to go be a meditation teacher. Eventually you end up with a lineage of tradition and no wisdom, all meditation and no enlightenment. If someone was to somehow get enlightened under these conditions their teacher would not even be able to recognize it. Historically there are so many stories of leaders masters and gurus who travel around to multiple schools just so they can find one enlightened teacher to teach them the final lessons.
thx...how can there be thumbs down? crazy.
The number of people commiting suicide this way is, firstly, very small compared with huge number of people "looking for enlightenment", and second, most of them would likely commit suicide any way (without any/proper treatment).
A research should be done to see how many suicides have ben PREVENTED by such "looking for nirvana" activities before judging the way this guy does.
Now here you have a posible answer for some of thumbs down :-)
Now a days spirituality has turned into a huge business... Its just like any other courses, they just give u tools & techniques without bothering about the outcomes of it....
There are dangers to incomplete understanding...partial knowledge leads to incorrect conclusions and assumptions. But, enlightenment is not escapism...it is not escaping life or the world. Being in the world and not of it is a good pointer, but Scott does not understand it.
Gavin Mc Innes sent me here and wow... Just wow
As long as there is a perceived need to free oneself of ones physical body enlightenment is still far off as the sense of a personal self still prevails. Poor Emily has become a victim of her own deception and materialistic world view dominated by personal desires, dream, delusions, a.s.o. True enlightenment does away with any sense of personal self leaving nothing to be destroyed or removed. Enlightenment can never be a final goal but only a means to an end.
Life is based on earth’s frequency atmosphere an peoples different perceptions of life, an there own human vibe too ,IMO 🤨
One of the biggest mistake that Westerner make is their false perception that they can gain supernatural power and also become GURU/LAMA (spiritual master) by doing a few week of meditation and couple of months of Buddhist studies.
99% of Tibetans practicing Tibetan Buddhism have not meditated in their lifetime. Only some monks do meditate that too after studying Buddhist philosophy for 20+ years and after having good grounding and understanding then they do meditation.
While Westerners do straight meditation without understanding and grounding in Buddhism and as such weird claim of being a Boddhisattva after one week of meditation. Some Buddhist centers run by Michael Roach etc are making weird and magical claims of enlightenment.
I can choose my physionnomy means my organes and can talk to my cells for them to make a synthese of any molecule with only the visual formula ....
This presentation is absurd. I despise this. Disasterously arrogant. Challenging the Buddha while completely misinterpreting his quote? Without any referential experience?
He has missed so many points, made so many brash assumptions, and is completely oversimplifying. Do not find inspiration from this.
agreed
Delusion is as delusion does. He can believe whatever craziness he wants, but I agree. It is not fun to see fiction thrown around as if it is reality.
What you're telling about is the reason why people who want to take a bodhisattva-vow get taught how and why harming yourself or others is a tremendously selfish act that pushes one far back on the path.
“Things like this” happen every day around the world. So in summary... you realise that the world us messed up.. and that ppl can believe nonsense and can be mad. Yes... we know that.
Enlightenment means acknowledging our accountability for our own actions. Karma is experiencing the effect of our actions.
So let me give you the answer. People are shorn of feeling loved. Unconditional true real love. And that explains all the behaviour you reference. Eg trying to feel that you’re a boddhisatva.... to make you feel important.. in compensation for the hole inside. To compensate for the constant pain. The constant pain which is so normal no one even knows they are in the constant pain. Ok .. that’s it.
Someone once said: "If the rich could go to heaven, then the camels could go through the eye of a needle". ..or something like that.
kamma and rebirth wasn't buddha's teachings and buddha didn't come to teach kamma rebirth. the bodhisattva vow was never taught by the buddha, such nonsense was added by the mahayana buddhist. how so many just follows and does not investigate, we need to start asking questions and not blindly following.
You can probabilistically tell it’s going to be nonsense from the intensity of the opening phrases.
lolwut as soon as this guy directly compared meditation to killing kaffirs by ISIS I knew he was exaggerating for dramatic effect and to take everything he says with a mound of salt
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your talk has too much affectation. you are performing not communicating. rethink your presentation.
Primacy of Consciousness just because someone is a talented speaker or presentation giver does not mean their message isn’t genuine.
This guy is delusional. Ironic given that enlightenment is the shedding of delusion and gaining wisdom. I would be cautious of blindly believing any of the "facts" this guy says about Buddhism in the beginning of the video.
eg, "How does the Buddha be in the world and not of it?" is delusion. The question assumes a faulty belief, which is what delusion means in Buddhism -- a faulty belief. A Buddha (not the Buddha) is both in the world and of it.
bollocks
it is something about the connection aspect of enlightenment. I spend a lot of time outside which is probably what this guy is doing and I can not get enough of being outside it is the most beautiful thing there is. Also, my awareness has been cranked up higher than usual so I see more information within the frame of what I am seeing which I guess is why being outside is so awesome for me. It's real. I don't think it's extraordinary but extra ordinary.
Open jacket, shirt out of pants, baggy jeans. You'd better worn a sweatshirt. Also the speaking tone matches telling a fairytale, not a presentation.