Seeing through the illusion of self
Recognising the illusion of separation is a central insight in many traditions. But Bernardo reserves the word ‘awakening’ for those who appear to have lost all identification with the body and only concerned for others. His example is the Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức, who in 1963 set himself aflame in protest for the treatment of Buddhists, and sat calmly in meditation until he passed away.
Bernardo no longer seeks this state of mind. Instead, he honours the unthinkable price the universe has made to make his life possible, and the unique contribution his daimon aspires to make.
Nevertheless, he appreciates the reduced suffering that comes with maturity. His ability, like a violin, to be "played by life", to let decisions arise without the torment of personal responsibility, or having to understand everything and get everything "right".
As such, he recommends fighting the habit of physicalist thinking. Yes, there are neural correlates to conscious states. But this is only confusing if you are already hypnotised by physicalist assumptions. Physical stuff is only ever an appearance in consciousness. What it represents is an open question - and Bernardo contends the most parsimonious answer is that what it represents are yet more movements of mind. The universal mind which you are.
In this meeting we also discuss:
- What Bernardo means by ‘I’
- How to navigate the immense complexity of life
- How weird life is (on both sides of the dashboard)
- Remembering life before birth
Seeing through the dashboard
We tend to reify the images of perception as if that is all there is. Chairs, tables, mountains, molehills. But Schopenhauer says that in certain states of mind you can see through the representations to the archetypes they manifest. You still see the chairs and tables, but also what they stand for, an extra dimension of depth.
Some people might even experience pure potentiality directly. When this happens, it's hard to be certain. Has a peephole opened up to Mind-at-Large? Or is it a memory from life-before-birth?
The good news is it doesn't matter. Either way, it's likely touching on truth in ways that language can't. After all, Bernardo’s intuition is that Analytic Idealism is correct, but relevant to less than 10% of reality.
How to be in these meetings (and the world)
A small word of guidance: These meetings can go deep into topics with which few of us are deeply familiar. Physics. History. Biology. Engineering. Bernardo has a simple recommendation:
There is a psychic faculty that nature gave us to deal with the immense complexity of life. Simply notice what you resonate with, and let the rest pour over you. Check out the timestamps below for the many other themes we discussed, and let me know what you most chime with.
I look forward to sharing many future meetings together!
With appreciation,
Amir
Resources mentioned:
Fighting the habit of physicalist thinking
The sophistication of whale expression
Timestamps
With thanks to Rita Conde
00:00 – Introductions
03:40 – What is enlightenment?
19:00 – The habit of Materialist fallacies
19:34 – What do we mean when we say “I”?
32:30 – Cats, trancendence and death
34:44 – Is personhood an illusion?
39:20 – Allowing nature to play you
41:48 – Mundane life: distraction from existential questions
43:27 – When existential questions become a liability: depression and anxiety
44:00 – How Bernardo responds to the concept of awakening
52:00 – Cessation vs Awareness with no content
54:40 – Bernardo no longer stresses over individual decisions
58:15 – Why Bernardo likes Advaita Vedanta so much
1:01:00 – The influence of Christianity in Western culture and politics
1:06:30 – Relationship between analytic idealism and Advaita Vedanta
1:10:00 – In academic work, the first step is to question incumbent theories
1:11:30 – The highly advanced language of whales
1:14:00 – The notion of freedom in contemporary societies
1:20:26 – Dominance of materialist assumptions in education, philosophy, and religion
1:23:27 – Buy more shoes while you can!
1:25:00 – Life as an exploration of metaphysics and meaning
1:29:00 – Non-typical modes of perceiving reality
1:36:15 – Prenatal state of consciousness
1:40:00 – Definition of being “highly functional” in modern society
1:45:00 – No rigourous way to contact the infinite?
1:47:47 – Seeing through the illusion of separation
1:52:00 – Reification of contents on the Dashboard (conceptual fixation on representations)
1:58:00 – Poem: “Born a ripple in a boundless sea”
2:03:00 – The path to resonance, recognition, and intuition
