XPost: alt.philosophy.zen, alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.philosophy.taoism   
   From: pi65478@gmail.com   
      
   On 2016-08-25 01:42, brian mitchell wrote:   
   > Tang Huyen wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >> To me, mental culture is to break through the   
   >> cocoon that one grows to envelop and protect   
   >> oneself. It often is called the defence wall, and   
   >> the best known parts of it are the Freudian   
   >> defence mechanisms. If one is open to oneself   
   >> and honest to oneself, one is already half-way   
   >> to the ending of suffering. On top of that, if one   
   >> keeps opening up oneself to oneself all the   
   >> way, one gets awakened. But there is no way   
   >> to know a priori what that state is like, because   
   >> all a priori knowledge is intimately associated   
   >> with defence, and here all defence is dropped.   
   >> It is pure openness, rather than any content.   
   >   
   > If it is pure openness, then one needn't specify openness to oneself.   
   > Openness to the other would be as equally valid and necessary. The   
   > difficulty with the notion of openness to oneself in closed circle is   
   > that it is oneself that has closed oneself to oneself, so there is an   
   > inbuilt contradiction and resistance. I think the apparently external   
   > is a surer mirror than any degree of introspection.   
      
   Think of "self-consciousness" simply as a negative feedback loop.   
      
   And all will be well.   
      
   pi   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)