Joan Tollifson was an early reader of The Ten Thousand Things and Depending On No-Thing. In her recommendation, she cut to the chase: What I see as the heart of Robert’s message resonates deeply with me: the questioning of beliefs, escapes, false comforts and magical thinking; the willingness to live in freefall without authorities, final answers or certainties; the recognition of being this ever-changing flow of present experiencing; and the uncompromising insistence that until the search “out there” for some future fantasy ends, until we are willing to stand alone without reaching for a lifeline or an escape, the freedom we are seeking cannot happen. There are some other ideas, assertions and assumptions in his books with which I disagree or which I would question, but the heart of his message is spot-on in my opinion.
Thank you for posting this, Robert. When I first stumbled upon 4T and devoured it, it was like a grenade went off in my heart / head. Boom! Shit started falling apart and flying everywhere! Other, more entrenched stuff, started coming loose. It was staggering! Then, DONT came along, and everything went nuclear! Kaboom! Your no-holds-barred, total assault approach has been a life saver, my friend! Keep up the good work...
Having spent years as a friend of U.G. Krishnamurti, I feel quite at home with Robert; and also kind of related. No masks, no veils. Thank you again and again.
" fools and wiseacres who claim to know things that no one could possibly be certain of."
It's impossible to be entirely sure what others can or can't be certain of. If millennia of philosophy has taught us anything, it's that a priori arguments diverge forever ..
I wonder when I read some of Nisargadatta's more florid statements (about being the Supreme, etc). There's a note of authenticity in his plain certainty which has a different smell to me than that of the fundamentalist or fanatic (or most people who quote him). I am not aware of any perspective from which I could 'know' myself to be any such thing, but I can't really be certain either that he didn't occupy a stance not available to me.
I'd be inclined to hold off on statements of impossibility (of certain types of knowledge) just as much as on too much certainty. "I don't know" is the best answer to most things. It may well be a cop out, but if copping out is all I'm capable of, then why not admit it?
Thank you for posting this, Robert. When I first stumbled upon 4T and devoured it, it was like a grenade went off in my heart / head. Boom! Shit started falling apart and flying everywhere! Other, more entrenched stuff, started coming loose. It was staggering! Then, DONT came along, and everything went nuclear! Kaboom! Your no-holds-barred, total assault approach has been a life saver, my friend! Keep up the good work...
Having spent years as a friend of U.G. Krishnamurti, I feel quite at home with Robert; and also kind of related. No masks, no veils. Thank you again and again.
The backlash that some of your posts elicit when shared in no-self non-dual groups is just amazing LOL LOL LOL
Will continue to share nonetheless and laugh at being called out on my unawakeness and all the rest LOL
" fools and wiseacres who claim to know things that no one could possibly be certain of."
It's impossible to be entirely sure what others can or can't be certain of. If millennia of philosophy has taught us anything, it's that a priori arguments diverge forever ..
I wonder when I read some of Nisargadatta's more florid statements (about being the Supreme, etc). There's a note of authenticity in his plain certainty which has a different smell to me than that of the fundamentalist or fanatic (or most people who quote him). I am not aware of any perspective from which I could 'know' myself to be any such thing, but I can't really be certain either that he didn't occupy a stance not available to me.
I'd be inclined to hold off on statements of impossibility (of certain types of knowledge) just as much as on too much certainty. "I don't know" is the best answer to most things. It may well be a cop out, but if copping out is all I'm capable of, then why not admit it?
sleep
I hope that's a very long time. Hell, look at Bob Adamson, he's 94, and still keeps going. Of course, Kat keeps shoveling health food into him too...