Vinaire's Blog

Tertium Organum (old)

Ouspensky: “The most difficult thing is to know what we do know and what we do not know.”

We know things that we become aware of through direct perception. Then, based on such things, we assume things that we do not quite know. It then becomes difficult to see the difference between these two categories of things.

Ouspensky: “Therefore, if we wish to know something, we must first of all establish what we accept as data, and what we consider requires definition and proof, that is, we must determine what we know already, and what we wish to know.”

When we wish to know something, we must first establish what we know through direct perception, and which cannot be questioned. And then we establish the consistency with it of what we wish to consider.

Ouspensky: “In relation to our cognition of the world and of ourselves the conditions would be ideal if it were possible to accept nothing as data and regard everything as requiring definition and proof. In other words, it would be best to assume that we know nothing, and take this as our starting point.”

To understand the world and ourselves, it would be best to start with least bit of assumptions, and show all our considerations as arising from, and consistent with, direct perceptions.

Ouspensky: “Unfortunately, however, it is impossible to create such conditions. Something has to be laid down as a foundation, something must be accepted as known; otherwise we shall be constantly forced to define one unknown by means of another.”

We, therefore, start with direct perceptions (seeing things as they are) as the foundation for what we know. And then we establish its consistency with all that we consider.

Ouspensky: “On the other hand, we must be chary of accepting as known – as data things that, actually, are completely unknown and merely presupposed – the sought for. We have to be careful not to find ourselves in the position occupied by positivist philosophy in the nineteenth century. For a long time the basis of this philosophy was the recognition of the existence of matter (materialism); and later, of energy, i.e. force or motion (energetics), although in actual fact matter and motion always remained the unknown quantities, x and y, and were always denned by means of one another.

We must be careful not to accept the presuppositions as something that is directly perceived. Such confusion has been the case with positivist philosophy of materialism that presupposes as its basis the existence of matter.

Ouspensky: “It is perfectly clear that it is impossible to accept the thing sought for as the thing known; and that we cannot define one unknown by means of another unknown. The result is nothing but the identity of two unknowns: x = y, y = x.”

We cannot accept as known what has only been presupposed. So we cannot define a presupposition in terms of another presupposition.

Ouspensky: “It is precisely this identity of unknown quantities which represents the ultimate conclusion arrived at by positivist philosophy. Matter is that in which the changes called motion take place: and motion is those changes which take place in matter.”

In Positivist philosophy, matter is that in which the changes called motion take place: and motion is those changes which take place in matter. Matter and motion are presuppositions defined in terms of each other. So, they still remain unknown.

Ouspensky: “What then do we know? We know that, from the very first step towards cognition, a man is struck by two obvious facts: The existence of the world in which he lives, and the existence of consciousness in himself. Neither the one nor the other can he prove or disprove, but both of them are facts for him, they are reality.

Direct perception tells us that there is a world that we are conscious of. This is the foundation of reality that we can start from.

Note added April 24, 2015:

I have revised all my comments to more closely reflect my understanding of Ouspensky. I have no disagreement with what he has outlined.

Though Ouspensky does not state it, he seems to be starting with direct perception as his foundation. This is the foundation that Buddha recommends. So I have explicitly laid down ‘direct perception’ as the foundation.

There is the possibility that a presupposition may be confused with direct perception. That may not be obvious at first, but it will ultimately lead to some inconsistency. That would be a red flag demanding a closer look at what we may have mistakenly taken as direct perception.

April 19, 2015 – 4:21 PM Categories: Philosophy | Comments (10)

Self-Help Processes

Self-Help Process #0: Mindfulness 0: See Things as They are

Self-Help Process #1: Mindfulness 1: Observe without Desires

Self-Help Process #2: Mindfulness 2: Observe without Assuming

Self-Help Process #3: Mindfulness 3: Observe what is Missing

Self-Help Process #4: Mindfulness 4: Observe the Incomprehensible

Self-Help Process #5: Mindfulness 5: Observe all Senses

Self-Help Process #6: Mindfulness 6: Let the Mind Un-stack

Self-Help Process #7: Mindfulness 7: Experience Fully

Self-Help Process #8: Mindfulness 8: Do not suppress

Self-Help Process #9: Mindfulness 9: Associate Data freely

Self-Help Process #10: Mindfulness 10: Observe beyond Name and Form

Self-Help Process #11: Mindfulness 11: Contemplate thoughtfully

Self-Help Process #12: Mindfulness 12: Let it be effortless

April 14, 2015 – 9:07 AM Categories: Mindfulness | Comments (7)

Self-Help

NOTE (08/19/2025): Before any self-help will work, the person must be given hope that he or she can improve, and that there is a better future ahead.

If the individual difficulties of billions of people on this planet are to be cleared, as Scientology aspires to do, then the only formula that would work is self-help. We can only create an environment in which self-help can occur. Ultimately, it is the person who really helps himself.

Nobody can really help another. Only the person can help himself.

Self-help is solo help. It is something that a person can do by himself or herself. It doesn’t require dependence on some psychoanalyst, auditor, or practitioner. If you want to help a person, then encourage him to use his own mind.

Nobody should monkey with the mind of another person with the idea of “helping” him.

Psychology built itself up on talk therapy. The psychoanalyst listens to a person’s problems and helps him to sort them out. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. With such spotty results talk therapy has not gained much ground.

The “science” of the talk therapy has not been fully worked out.

The good results in talk therapy have never come from the therapist giving advice to the person. The results have always come from the person realizing his problem while talking to the therapist. Therefore, the role of the therapist has been to guide the person to look at his problem more thoroughly.

The therapist listens to the person and guides him where to look.

It was not the therapist who was sorting the person’s problem out. It was the person who was sorting his problems by looking at them more closely. The therapist was there to help the person look at his condition.

It is looking that helps resolve the problem, and not talking.

Talking is there only for someone to listen and guide the person where to look. If there is a technology that guides the person to look for himself then talking becomes unnecessary. The person then becomes his own silent therapist.

The person can be a silent therapist to himself or herself.

Meditation has long been a form of self-help. But it is made ineffective to the degree it moves away from “looking” and get mixed with weird practices, like focusing on a burning candle. The key technology of meditation is looking and seeing things as they are. This is called mindfulness.

Mindfulness is the framework within which meditation works.

The recent advancement has been the training drill “TR0” of Scientology. In TR0, two people sit down and look at each other silently. It is an advancement only because it generates an interest in looking. But it works within the context of mindfulness. TR0 is also rendered ineffective when it moves away from looking and gets involved with mumbo-jumbo like “blink less TR0” and confrontation.

TR0 of Scientology works only within the framework of mindfulness.

If we have to create a self-help environment for billions of people on this planet, then any self-help technology must be made freely available, as was done by Buddha 2,600 years ago. Buddha made his technology of mindfulness freely available and then worked all his life to make sure that all people benefited from it. The social benefit greatly outweighs any personal benefit of making money.

Any self-help technology must be made freely available.

The self-help technology is the technology to create a healthy environment in which proper growth can occur. It is a cooperative effort like the effort in science. Science makes knowledge freely available so others can make advances upon it. It is only the narrow self-interest of some that discourages such advances in technology by calling them “squirreling.” Unfortunately, that is the case with Scientology.

Scientology discourages the advancement of self-help technology with its idea of “squirreling.”

All effective self-help technology is built upon mindfulness. Mindfulness is the technology that was freely provided by Buddha.

To look, contemplate, and come up with answers is the inherent right of any person. It is the application of this right, which improves the conditions in life. This right should never be suppressed, or discouraged through narrow-minded attempts to monopolize knowledge and technology.

April 13, 2015 – 2:14 PM Categories: Mindfulness | Comments (7)

Hubbard, Scientology and Total Freedom

When we look at Hubbard we find that he was in a pretty bad condition. He was unable to handle himself, yet he didn’t want to listen to anybody and insisted on handling himself. He always resisted going to doctors and pretty much self-medicated himself.

Hubbard was very afraid of death. He was consumed by a fear of pain. His attention revolved around his body and himself. That is a condition of self, which has acquired a lot of inertia. Inertia is a resistance to change in motion. Inertia wants to maintain the status quo in terms of motion.

A self, which has acquired inertia, is fixated on itself.

A change relative to others is not really a change because others may be changing and not you. If something is really changing then it is changing relative to itself.

A real change is always relative to oneself.

However, a change relative to oneself can occur only as long as there is some resistance to overcome. When there is no resistance or inertia, no further change is possible.

An inertialess state has gone through all possible changes and no further change is possible. A self in this state is then completely free.

It may be said that beingness with no resistance or inertia is completely free.

Scientology is very secretive. It reacts very sharply to any criticism and takes heavy handed actions to suppress it. It does not openly discuss its policies and activities. It heavily resists being examined. Since Scientology is heavily resisting any change, it has high inertia.

It may be said that the beingness of Scientology has a high level of inertia, and it is not free.

Therefore, Scientology is trapped within its own framework. Hubbard formulated his view of life, and made it unalterable within Scientology. He even decried any change in it outside Scientology as squirreling. This dampened any sense of freedom in relation to Scientology as one could not speak freely.

In Scientology one cannot speak freely. Scientology also makes it difficult to speak about it freely anywhere.

One must define ultimate freedom to understand what “being trapped” means. This article defines unltimate freedom as no inertia or resistance to change. But Scientology defines ultimate freedom as the ability to control matter, energy, space and time.

In Scientology, “total freedom” is the freedom to exercise one’s will completely.

But, this thing called “will” in Scientology is an intention, which is fixated on overcoming any and all opposition expressed in terms of matter, energy, space and time. This is the fixation on achieving the state of an OT. Any fixation produces inertia. An OT is Scientology is a beingness with a high level of inertia. We may call this inertia ego.

The trap in Scientology is a pumped up ego.

April 3, 2015 – 9:38 AM Categories: Scientology | Comments (2)

Life and Death

Reference: What is Awareness, Scientifically?

Life is made up of motion and awareness. Inherent consciousness arises when there is a change in motion and awareness. Such consciousness cannot be separated from changes in motion and the manifestation of inertia.

Atoms consist of configurations of changing motion and awareness, which is accompanied by inertia and consciousness. The periodic table expresses these configurations in a series of properties. Simple configurations express themselves as simple properties. Complex configurations, as in biological make up, express themselves as complex properties identified as life.

Human consciousness, or animation, is not the benchmark for life.

The benchmark for life is “a configuration of changing motion and awareness that is accompanied by inertia and consciousness.”

As atoms combine into complex macro molecules, the complexity of motion becomes capable of programmable instructions, such as, in DNA. This becomes the basis of life.

It is an error to think in terms of “life produces matter,” or “matter produces life.” A more accurate statement is,

Motion and awareness accompany each other and as they form into complex configurations, life and matter are generated.

Death is the disintegration of such configurations. Therefore both the body and the soul disintegrate at death. Neither the body nor the soul can exist independent of each other because their configurations go together.

As body disintegrates, the soul disintegrates too. The soul cannot survive the death of the body.

At birth, complex configuration of motion and awareness come together to produce a new body and a new soul. Certain configurations repeat. Thus we have continuation of forms and characteristics as species. There can even be continuation of certain personality traits and memory.

There may be the illusion of an identity moving from one body to another, but there is no permanent soul.

If there is any life after death, it is the motion and awareness of very fundamental kind as expressed in the properties of electromagnetism, atoms and molecules, which are yet to be known fully.

April 2, 2015 – 4:35 PM Categories: KHTK | Comments (8)