Susan's Place Transgender Resources

General Discussions => Education => Philosophy => Topic started by: The Middle Way on July 19, 2007, 04:17:01 PM

Title: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 19, 2007, 04:17:01 PM
Re: this passage in 1 Corinthians 13:

    For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Can you know, *as you are known by the other*? face to face, on equal footing? Transparently?
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: xeno on July 20, 2007, 06:13:34 AM
Ghost in the shell?
it means basically can you see yourself as others see you? and can you see yourself as a shadow or as who you are? solidly or transparently?
am I right?
donno if I am but here's my response/answer somewhat...
I guess I am able to but not vividly since I have always been able to tell when I was doing something stupid, like a "pang" would go off and I would semi-unconsciously see my self do something, and mark that as an "avoid doing later"
but I cannot see myself as others see me vividly, unless I have a hint of sorts, otherwise I have a vague idea.
I apologize if I got it completely wrong...I haven't discussed philosophy before
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 20, 2007, 09:21:25 AM
that's it... I think, maybe in moments we see through it, illuminating moments, and the trick is to extend such moments, which is a hard one to do.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: RebeccaFog on July 20, 2007, 09:39:17 AM

I think i know how others see me.

I don't see myself as others see me.

Others say nice things to me and give me compliments.

I cannot see what they see. I believe them, though.


I'm not sure I understand the question  ???
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 20, 2007, 10:14:44 AM
Well, is 'me' being seen strictly a surface or set of surfaces? On that level, all we can see is obscured by where our eyes are set in our head... then there is the mirror, which has one less spacial dimension than what the other sees. So already we are at a disadvantage of sorts.

Is there a self that isn't usually projected in surfaces?

How much of what the other sees is to some extent self-reflecting, is what I think I mean by equal footing.

Have you ever had a shocking sort of sudden, revelatory glimpse of your own self, as if the eyeballs were kinda sorta turned inside out? I mean outside in, actually.

n
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: xeno on July 20, 2007, 04:08:53 PM
Quote from: None of the Above on July 20, 2007, 09:21:25 AM
that's it... I think, maybe in moments we see through it, illuminating moments, and the trick is to extend such moments, which is a hard one to do.

It is hard thing to do, yes but should we succeed in extending the moment then the fruits of out labor will be that much more extended. :)
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: RebeccaFog on July 20, 2007, 04:59:13 PM
Quote from: None of the Above on July 20, 2007, 10:14:44 AM

Have you ever had a shocking sort of sudden, revelatory glimpse of your own self, as if the eyeballs were kinda sorta turned inside out? I mean outside in, actually.
n

No.
and it makes me want to cry.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 20, 2007, 08:15:50 PM

well, if it did happen, and the result was that you just wanted to turn tail and run, maybe you betta off not knowing.  ^-^

I like that little inscrutable smiley, even if it doesn't follow.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: RebeccaFog on July 20, 2007, 08:17:41 PM
Crazy.

I like these guys -  >:( &  :P &  :'(

Imagine each one of them following you around everywhere looking like that no matter what is said or done.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 20, 2007, 08:31:14 PM
what size are they when they follow? As it is, I have something quite similiar buzzing in concentric circles round my head, and it's not so funny anymore.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: RebeccaFog on July 20, 2007, 08:43:17 PM
They are the size of basketballs.

The one with the tongue sometimes makes a sound of deflation.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 20, 2007, 08:55:23 PM
mine are much smaller. fat spherical bees, like

do yours stay behind you, or do they try to contend with your movements? that would get on my nerves something awful. my dudes are in some kind of orbit, which seems well-designed enough...

I'm afraid to just go and smoosh them, could be catastrophic. if I could get up the density to warp their space, maybe I could get them to crash into each other...
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: RebeccaFog on July 20, 2007, 09:01:35 PM
I treat mine as equals.  Sometimes they are beside me, or in front of me, or they are back a little bit. Oddly, they stay together.  Old cryiey  :'( and tonguey  :P kind of fear old maddy  >:(. For some time, I have suspected they may be plotting something quite dire, however, it turns out they were just kissing.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 20, 2007, 09:16:01 PM
I now suspect that I am these dudes' god or some deal, that I could just wipe 'em out any time, and no worries.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: katia on July 21, 2007, 10:22:34 AM
perception is unique to each individual, because of the experience of life stored as a memory with which we see and compare , not only ourselves, but everything around us.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 21, 2007, 10:51:20 AM
Hi Katia

see what happens when you're absent? the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket.

N
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: RebeccaFog on July 21, 2007, 10:58:24 AM
Quote from: None of the Above on July 21, 2007, 10:51:20 AM
Hi Katia

see what happens when you're absent? the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket.

N

I know.  We (NOTA & me) was trying to keep things honest here, but I suspect we're incompetent.

Posted on: July 21, 2007, 10:55:35 AM
Quote from: Katia on July 21, 2007, 10:22:34 AM
perception is unique to each individual, because of the experience of life stored as a memory with which we see and compare , not only ourselves, but everything around us.

   True.  Do you know what is crazy about that?

We can never truly share our perceptions with others.   :P

We can never bring everyone around to a truly common ground.   :'(

Signed,

>:(
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: Ell on July 21, 2007, 11:11:38 AM
Quote from: None of the Above on July 19, 2007, 04:17:01 PM
Re: this passage in 1 Corinthians 13:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

i love how this is worded. but, like many of the things written in that book, which speaks so much of things beyond the scope of normal consciousness, it may or may not be true, empirically, but still may be very effective on a suggestive level.

how could it be true? there is often at least one aspect of a person's personality that they do not even have a clue about, but others see it and know it.

one can never know oneself completely, in every respect. which, i believe, is a good thing. such a deep knowledge might be...difficult. i never ask people to tell me something about myself that they know but i don't. what if they said, "did you know you always have a sadness in your face, even when you're smiling?"
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 21, 2007, 12:02:18 PM
Quote from: Ell on July 21, 2007, 11:11:38 AM
Quote from: None of the Above on July 19, 2007, 04:17:01 PM
Re: this passage in 1 Corinthians 13:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
one can never know oneself completely, in every respect. which, i believe, is a good thing. such a deep knowledge might be...difficult. i never ask people to tell me something about myself that they know but i don't. what if they said, "did you know you always have a sadness in your face, even when you're smiling?"

They do say that, and it comes as no suprise to me.

I believe, from experience (that you may not like to characterize as empirical, but that opens a can of worms that indicates another topic) that in a flash, at least, total self-knowledge is available.




My thought is that total self-knowledge means a form of death [see: bardo thodol; 2) The chikhai bardo features the experience of the "clear light of reality", or at least the nearest approximation to it of which one is spiritually capable.]...
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: Ell on July 21, 2007, 05:20:00 PM
Quote from: None of the Above on July 21, 2007, 12:02:18 PM
in a flash, at least, total self-knowledge is available.

by in a flash do you mean the knowledge suddenly ignites, and continues, like a star, or that it startles the consciousness for one brief moment and then is gone?

and, can you please describe what the total self-knowledge is mostly about?

my difficulty with this is that there are probably millions of things that define you as an individual, from unique genetic code, to unique brain structure, unique experiences, etc., etc., etc.  i couldn't even tell you with certainty, one aspect of what my dreams mean.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: Ell on July 21, 2007, 06:39:41 PM
Quote from: None of the Above on July 21, 2007, 05:54:47 PM
By 'self', I think we refer to two different things. I don't mean the details of a physical self, which is just a shell that has no real reality, is just a lot of *stuff*. I mean that part of the whole that will transcend this shell, some call it spirit. [I usually frame this type of thing in terms of 'MIGHT transcend the shell' for purposes of argument, but this is experiential, so I'm going for WILL.]

he so-called near death experience, Buddhists call it one of the intermediate states between life and death, "bardo of the experiencing of reality".

Let's consider the flash/instant frame of time for purpose of discussion. EVERY MOMENT you experience exists between two moments, after a certain convention. We can actually draw the inference that each moment in consciousness is *like* the intermediate or near-death experience, in that it exists SO WE CAN EXPERIENCE REALITY. Only, we experience very little, because we, in order to cope with all this *stuff*, which is confusing to us, tend to not be able to get out of our own way.

You know how all colors are present (I don't mean in pigment, but in light spectra) in the 'color' white?
Well that's a lot of information in one place, isn't it? Now this is why this experience tends to be beyond description.

It happened to me exactly one time, I don't actually know how much time I was 'in light', but it was long enough for the other people in the house to see it emanating from the crack under the door of the darkened bathroom where I was. I felt that I had no body; I don't mean that I floated above my body, I mean that it was not there. I'm sure it was, but the *self* - that particularization of, for lack of a more convenient word, God - had momentarily transmigrated. Had phoned home, as it were.

Which is about all I can say confidently.

Nota

i don't exactly agree with what you're saying here. but this is a really great post, somehow. thanks.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: RebeccaFog on July 21, 2007, 06:40:52 PM
Quote from: Ell on July 21, 2007, 06:39:41 PM
i don't exactly agree with what you're saying here. but this is a really great post, somehow. thanks.

You have been blinded by her light  8)
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: Ell on July 21, 2007, 07:01:42 PM
Quote from: Rebis on July 21, 2007, 06:40:52 PM
Quote from: Ell on July 21, 2007, 06:39:41 PM
i don't exactly agree with what you're saying here. but this is a really great post, somehow. thanks.

You have been blinded by her light  8)
thanks, Manfred. and it just had to be from under a bathroom door.
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: RebeccaFog on July 21, 2007, 07:04:30 PM
Quote from: Ell on July 21, 2007, 07:01:42 PM
Quote from: Rebis on July 21, 2007, 06:40:52 PM
Quote from: Ell on July 21, 2007, 06:39:41 PM
i don't exactly agree with what you're saying here. but this is a really great post, somehow. thanks.

You have been blinded by her light  8)
thanks, Manfred. and it just had to be from under a bathroom door.

That's the brutality of it all.

I have the urge to refer to myself as Manfred now
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 22, 2007, 01:09:12 PM
Good example of a non-sequitur, IE: that doesn't follow.

Either way, leave me.   

I'm taking the milk and the water.

n-ot-a >swan ^-^
Title: Re: as through a glass, darkly
Post by: The Middle Way on July 22, 2007, 04:49:33 PM
I may be totally wrong but I'm a

Dancin Fool

Posted on: July 22, 2007, 02:45:25 PM
I think if it's a swan, an *actual* swan, it might be more-or-less similar to you or I (ostensibly humans), in that it is largely made up OF water.