30-year-old evicted from parents' home

[BikerDude]

Basically I reject the idea that you and whatever bunch of people with their heads in the clouds are clued in and most of humanity are living in an abstraction of some sort.  Poverty is not a myth. Neither is wealth. Simply standing there and putting a label on all this and calling it "myth" is a grand act of sticking your head in the sand. Saying that you will be happy in poverty might be something that try. But they will eventually be proven wrong when they can no longer deny it's reality.

[BikerDude]

And if the idea is that since it's a myth they should just get to live like they aren't poor and have whatever they want... well that's complicated by the reality that other people do work to get compensated with money. And they rightfully aren't going to stand by and have others call that a myth.
Somebody builds roads because people need them. People write computer programs. People go out and owe money all over town including to know pornographers, and that's cool man, but you have to feed the monkey. That is at it's most basic level the least myth that it gets.

[BikerDude]

The sun comes up everyday and the world works. Because people are all busy doing shit. And for that service they get rewarded.
I fail to see the myth.

[BikerDude]

Essentially this viewed as an  epistemological question.
I accept the roots of existentialism lying in phenomenology.
The thought as an "intentional object".
Concepts don't have any less actual meaning than concrete objects especially as manifested in action.

Theodore Herzel. "If you will it, Dude, it is so"

[BikerDude]

Coincidentally the latest SH podcast covers some of these ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbjQGooiJNs

[BikerDude]

Thread starts out "30-year-old evicted from parents' home".
It goes in a direction where the contention is that working for money is only a myth, and what is most important is standing in the forest and experiencing the silence.

Could there be a more perfect illustration of the effects of this sort of claptrap?
Now that his parents have evicted him from the basement he'll have lots of time to experience that reality.

[Masked Dude]

What bothers me is this idea that those of us who work are someone clueless and will never find any enlightenment. But somehow one person here has decided we're guilty of believing in a myth.

That is in essence very conceited. So in order to be enlightened, one must not work and instead "just live." Good luck on eating and not dying of exposure to the elements.

So why should we who work and earn our living take care of those who insist we're ignorant or unenlightened? That's like saying, "I eschew this idea we have to work and earn money, but I deserve to eat, live, and function just like those who earn their own living." Whether you want to live in a minimalist lifestyle or want lots of fancy things, it's not a myth we have to work to earn our living. Otherwise, that person is just a sponge who takes advantage of others.

[Jianblade]

Forgive the necropost, but I have some thoughts as well

Most of this "search for enlightenment" stuff that we hear about from those folks who espouse this hodgepodge of eastern thought don't realize a couple of things; first off only people who were bound to monasteries, monks, did that sort of thing. The average Joe in China or India was one thing, a peasant. Peasants aren't known for going on spirit quests. Second, in the west, the story was fairly similar. Up until the enlightnment, most folks were doing what they could to feed themselves first, before anything else. Even at the Enlightenment, when we had an explosion of philosophical and scientific thought, it was only the landed gentry that engaged in that sort of thing, folks who won the lottery of birth and were born into wealth. They had the leisure time to be able to dick around with new ideas.

When it comes to our modern world, our average joe has to work AT LEAST 8 or so hours day most days of the week in order to make enough of a living to pay for basic needs, bills, rent, food. That still leaves plenty of time to be able to read and enrich yourself. You are able to live in a place, and keep stuff and be fairly comfortable and have time to read and and enrich yourself. I don't see why folks are so afraid of work, if you get into a racket you enjoy, who cares? Yeah from an abstract view, the system we live in may be unfair and bullshit, but in order to survive, you gotta work in it. My brother used to tell me that he was a modern day peasant. He wasn't working some glorious job or living in an amazing place, but he had food in his belly, a roof over his head, and time to do the things he enjoys...all in exchange for a measly 8 hours or so of his time each day. I wouldn't complain much about this order, especially if you're like me and a bachelor with no real responsibilities beyond rent, bills, and food.

Grow up and get job. Follow opportunity first, then your passions.

[Masked Dude]

I agree with that, dude. The peasant of yore had to toil much, much more than we did. Sure, we probably enjoy it about as much but at least the chances of us getting tuberculosis and the plague are much less.

I agree that this total enlightenment was for the elite monks. We as normal everyday people can't rely on a local village to feed us, so in some cases enlightenment is useless. What good is a life where you say work is useless but sponge off others? Heck, even many modern monks and nuns work for money. I enjoy Chimay beer, and it's made by Trappist monks. There is a convent that has world renowned cookies.

To me someone whose mind isn't in the world yet his body is... well, that's just ridiculous. Maybe it's all my past religious adventures and research into non-traditional organized religions and philosophies. I've studied so many religions and philosophies and belief systems that I find that enlightenment is very subjective. I could write a book about the various types I've seen and experienced.

But one thing is true no matter what: We're in this world. Physically. Emotionally.