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"Being Present"

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Axiomatic

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In a recent debate with a mystic I have struck upon another important fallacy that sets up another impossible standard. After pointing out the contradictions inherent in a mystics 'floating abstractions' and means of acquiring knowledge, the last refuge that they think that have in regard to epistemology is the notion that 'being present' allows on to be more aware of the mind and the world and as such have better quality of life as a result.

It took me a while afterwards to think the mystics argument and what it implies is fallacious in the context of the whole mystic's philosophy.

Be Present they say, but don't think, blanking out the fact that it requires one to be actively think about the world and form conceptual knowledge based upon observations order for one to understand the present moment and what is taking place within it. What the mystic is trying to do is sneak some semi-rational sounding cliché whilst setting up an impossible method for one to try and attempt to achieve it. Also it assumes that awareness and knowledge is automatic and comes in fits of revelation from some 'innate' awareness that human beings possess.

It should have been more obvious to me at first why this argument was wrong and how, but it was only until afterwards when the mystic thought that he had won the argument with the phrase did I think through and realize all that was implied.

Edited by Axiomatic
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I'm interested in what you could have said that could possibly make them feel that "Be present" was a finishing move. Sounds like cliche-guru nonsense to me. As humans, we are predisposed to interpretation, and have a deeply rooted need to comprehend our surroundings. It is impossible to flip a switch and suddenly stop considering the things we are confronted with. I'm convinced that anyone who says otherwise is just trying to be 'cool' or trying to game some kind of intellectual power over you.

Edited by Alexandros
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"Be present but don't think" is the central premise of - if one can call such irrationality that - of "The Power of Now" by Canadian writer Eckardt Tolle.

The ideal state according to him is 'no mind'. We all are, according to him, at the mercy of our thoughts, which have to be stilled. Self-revealingly, 'thinking', he says, is that background noise of random babble in our minds.

To which one wants to say "Speak for yourself, mister".

Oprah did an incalcuable amount of harm by pushing his book sales, and spreading this nasty little man to the world.

"Acceptance frees you from your mind dominance, and thus reconnects you with Being". His book plumbs the depths of subjectivism i.m.o.

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