I Am a Strange Loop.

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Individual
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I Am a Strange Loop.

Post by Individual »

Just picked up this book. A paragraph from it:
One day when I was around sixteen or seventeen, musing intensely on these swirling clouds of ideas that gripped me emotionally and intellectually, it dawned on me -- and it has ever since seemed to me -- that what we call "consciousness" was a kind of mirage. It had to be a very peculiar kind of mirage, to be sure, since it was a mirage that perceived itself, and of course it didn't believe that it was perceiving a mirage, but no matter -- it still was a mirage. It was almost as if this slippery phenomenon called "consciousness" lifted itself up by its own bootstraps, almost as if it made itself out of nothing, and then disintegrated back into nothing whenever one looked at it more closely.
Would this be the same as notself?
The best things in life aren't things.

The Diamond Sutra
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tiltbillings
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Re: I Am a Strange Loop.

Post by tiltbillings »

It is an isight.

So, what book is this from?
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
Individual
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Re: I Am a Strange Loop.

Post by Individual »

tiltbillings wrote:It is an isight.

So, what book is this from?
"I Am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, in the book there are absolutely no references at all to Buddhism or eastern thought. It seems peculiar how these ideas were unconsciously or unintentionally borrowed.
The best things in life aren't things.

The Diamond Sutra
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genkaku
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Re: I Am a Strange Loop.

Post by genkaku »

Individual wrote:
tiltbillings wrote:It is an isight.

So, what book is this from?
"I Am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, in the book there are absolutely no references at all to Buddhism or eastern thought. It seems peculiar how these ideas were unconsciously or unintentionally borrowed.
Who borrows or even steals from whom doesn't strike me as being as interesting as whether the ideas happen to be true. Common sense -- or Buddhism, if you like -- isn't constrained by East or West.
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Ceisiwr
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Re: I Am a Strange Loop.

Post by Ceisiwr »

Seems like it to me


Shows how Dhamma really can be found anywhere
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
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