2023 Arnold Classic Play by Play Thread

[Beti ona]

Yup. Russell Brand is definitely a smart dude.

The idea that we "all exist only in our own heads, and everything is created by our own heads" -- is philosophical solipsism.

The ideas packed deep within Hinduism -- basically boil down to that, in many ways. Which then morphed into Buddhism via Siddhartha Gautama ("the Buddha"). And sort of laid the foundation for the idea of "seeing everything as illusion" -- our tendency as humans to cling to things, to help avoid the suffering inherent in human life and the human condition (the fact that we age, die, lose people, all the good stuff that is inherent in all of our lives). So, learning to breathe through that, not cling, project loving kindness through it all, and basically, learn to NOT cling.


The alternative is basically nihilism and cynicism.


You live your life in your own head, and then get to choose how to react to what gets thrown at you. It all fades away eventually, no matter how you choose to react.

If one of the goals of Buddhism is detachment, how can it be achieved by saying that one must be compassionate to all living beings? Someone trully detached is someone carefree and selfless.

I am amused by the condemnation of reincarnation in Buddhist schools of thought. If one does not remember if in the past he lived as a human or an animal, how would this be a punishment? And if it is a punishment (in fact, living is a punishment according to Buddhism), doesn't that make Buddhism a religion like the rest, where those who follow the ideal behavior go to "heaven" and those who don't go to hell? ? Isn't this a kind of judgment trial when they claim to defend the ideal of compassion towards those they don't consider awake?

Although Buddhism has great teachings, it still has too much theology and a lot of beliefs that are not applicable in real life. It's great to be a meditator when you live in isolation from society and other people, but that's not real life.

Psychological suffering can be an illusion, physical pain or disease, starvation, well, that's more difficult to defend.

In any case, why would something create living beings that suffer from living in an illusion of self or ego? It's something really perverse, I can't think of a better way to torture, be it the work of a god, nature or the cosmos.

[lifepulse]

One thing are the acts of people, or in other words, how they are judged according to one morality or another. And that's what we're doing when we say that Samson is a nice guy, while Nick is a bit arrogant and immature. Although it is absurd to speak in terms of good or bad, there seem to be some behaviors that turn out to be more pleasant than others.

On the other hand, objectively, more bad things than good happen to all living beings, in the animal kingdom, the pleasure of a hunter is less than the pain suffered by the prey while it is devoured alive.

That is why humans invented religions, because the world as such was too unbearable and painful. That's why humans pursue science and technology, to escape the natural world and create a virtual fantasy, you know, that happy world of pleasure and hedonism. A life devoid of meaning, but free of pain.

All understood. My point -- I have tried to get to the point where I don't see ANY things as "good" or "bad" -- not only in terms of evaluating people and their actions, but "things that happen in the universe" -- when you say, "objectively, more bad things than good things happen to all living beings" -- I think it's already off the mark to evaluate ANY of those "things" as "good" or "bad".


Life is transient -- if you're a living thing, you will die. Rocks don't die. Their existence isn't transient. It is the nature of being a living thing, that you will die.


As such, the phenomenon of "life", also seems to create the phenomenon of "value".


Things aren't "good or bad", for a rock. But things CAN be seen as "good or bad", for a tree -- water is good for it, fire is bad for it. Water promotes that it continues living, fire ends its life.


So, without the phenomenon of life, there would be no such thing as values -- and the existence of values is what seems to bring the ideas of "good" and "bad", into existence.


But we also know that, with that -- with the phenomenon of life -- comes the inherent cessation of life -- the end, the ceasing of value -- and all of the transient "bad things" that come along with that (pain, suffering, death and decay).


So, I still think all of that is merely a human perspective on things -- evaluating something as good or bad, that's how you feel in that moment, taken out of context -- but larger picture, what was seen as "bad" five years ago, might now be seen as "good" because it allowed you to go down a different path, achieve something that you never would have otherwise achieved, etc.


Getting caught up in the emotional nature of things -- evaluating events or people as "good" or "bad" -- is already pulling one down the path of projecting their subjective feelings onto things. Which just leads to attachment, neuroticism, etc.