Essam Munir > Recent Status Updates

نتمسك ببعضنا البعض، ونحاول ان نقنع انفسنا ان ما نشعر به هو الحب ولكننا نخاف ان نأخذ خطوة تجاه هذا الشخص خوفاً من ان نفقد الخيارات الاخرى، نحن غير مطمئنين، لكوننا لا نخطو تجاه الاخرين أيضاً.
هنا يسقط الشخص وينطوي على ذاته ويصبح مهووساً بمشكلة الهوية، "حتى لو عرفت كياني، فلا اهمية لي، فلست مؤثراً بالاخرين". بعد ذلك يبدأ عدم الاكتراث، ويتبعه العنف اذ لا يمكن لأي انسان ان يمنع الشعور بالخدر تجاه انعدام قدرته على التأثير

الحب والرغبة هما طريقتان للتأثير بالاخر، لتشكيله، لخلق وعيه ولكن ذلك لا يحدث، الا بعد ان تفتح ذاتك للاخر، ليقوم بالمثل.
الرغبة بدون الحب هي تلاعب، والحب بدون رغبة هو تجربة...

"Floating" of the body can be explained by disturbances in the vestibular system, but the question is "how can we explain what people see even if it is not in their sight?"

The brain receives the information as Picasso's Dora Maar (fragmented) but presents it as Da Vinci's Mona Lisa...

"Perhaps spiritual experiences use the same brain mechanisms that bring us consciousness, but use them in a different way"

"By their fruits ye shall judge them, not by their roots" !
Spiritual experiences leave a lasting effect on the person even after the recovery of the damaged brain, and thus what is important is the profundity of the experience not what causes it.

The brain activity during spiritual experience may not be important, what is important is the meaning to the person who is experiencing it...
(So the same brain activity may have different meaning from person to another...)

We are preoccupied with the past, which has already happened, and we are pre-occupied about the future, which does not yet exist. While we are so preoccupied, our awareness of the here-and-now slips by and we hardly notice its passing. We eat without tasting, we look without seeing and live without ever perceiving what is real.

We create goals towards which we are travelling. We hope to
achieve ultimate everlasting security and this keeps us continually
preoccupied. We are constantly swimming towards what we think is the
shore, what we think will be the answer to the problem, whether it be a
new love affair, the cure for an illness, a way to stay young or the reward
of heaven.we think this is the answer, but it is the cause of our suffering

We suffer from the anxiety of losing, not deserving happiness...

The knowledge is passed down, like a recipe... Buddha's teachings are not thought of as "ancient wisdom" but as experiences.

I guess the best thing till now is The Universability Test of Kant.
With this test we can figure out (some) of the right things to do.
For example, why stealing is not a good thing to do? by using this test we can say why it is wrong. If everyone stole, then the society will collapse.
For lying: If everybody lied all the time, then truth and meaning would both disappear. So, lying is irrational and not allowed.

Hobbes describes the human nature where there is no law (same in our society).
He argues that the human nature is nasty "psychological egoism". And the solution is a social contract in which the wicked people avoid conflict. Usually there is a third party (government) which maintain this contract among people.
I'm asking, what happen when you don't have government ? when everyone steals from the other?

There is a wide variety of moral beliefs among different cultures and this is what's called "Moral Relativism". If we accept this notion, then everything will live happily.
But there are the "Absolutists", " Realists", and " Unversalists" who say that there are a set of moral beliefs which should be applied on all the people.
I can see why there would be conflict between two cultures...

We take morality from sources other than ourselves, from supernatural sources, but if we deny the existence of these sources, then from where does it come ?

Twenty-four centuries ago Chuang Tzu dreamt he was a butterfly.
“I dreamt I was a butterfly flying through the air and knowing nothing of
Chuang Tzu.” When he awoke he said he did not know if he was a man
who had dreamt he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man.

Amazing illustrations !

A sunrise is not beautiful because it offers warmth nor is a woman in a painting beautiful because we desire to have amorous relations with her. Aesthetic responses are made in an entirely disinterested manner.

"I find that all my thoughts circle
around God like the planets around the sun, and are as irresistibly
attracted by Him. I would feel it to be the grossest sin if I were to oppose any resistance to this force"

Within the mind, you find the noblest achievements and thoughts of humanity. But you will also find monsters from the ID.

Without the binding force of
memory, experience would be splintered into as many fragments as there are moments in life. Without
the mental time travel provided by memory, we would have no awareness of our personal history, no
way of remembering the joys that serve as the luminous milestones of our life. We are who we are
because of what we learn and what we remember.

Humans may seek pleasure instinctually. But they will actually spend
more effort on avoiding pain.

What cannot be remembered cannot be left behind.

لن ينفع الجنون ...

انت تخاف اذا نزعت ذلك القناع الا تجد شيئاً حقيقياً خلفه !

عندما تستجيب ذاتياً، لمريض ما، فإنك تجازف بأكتشاف مشاكلك انت لا هو !

يوجد أفراد كثيرون يرتكبون جرائم وهم يفهمون تمامًا ما يقومون به وعدم قانونيته،
ولكنهم غير مصابين بأية مشكلات عقلية واضحة. إنهم عقلانيون ومنطقيون، ولا تبدو
عليهم أية علامات لأي إعاقة تُعلَم أو أعراضذهانية. ويمكن لبعضهم أن يكونوا جذابين
في الظاهر، ويتمتعون بقدر كافٍ من الذكاء يجعلهم جديرين بالتصديق عند معرفتهم
لأول مرة. إنهم لا يسمعون أصواتًا في رءوسهم، ولا يظنون أن هناك قوى خارج نطاق
سيطرتهم تأمرهم بارتكاب جرائم.

-Never rule out the simplest possibilities.

finally !
the subjects that i dreamt about ...