You can't fully escape conditioning unless you're unconscious; you can only get better at recognizing it in real time, and loosening its grip. That's not to say you can't shed specific conditions -- but you'll always be replacing it with other conditions.
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Replying to @Failed_Buddhist @euvieivanova and
A lot of people seem to think you can reduce the amount of conditioning. Can't get rid of it entirely, of course, but it does feel like I just have less.
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Replying to @iwelsh @euvieivanova and
Any functional human mind has to be conditioned by something, because nothing is independent of conditions. I agree that when you recognize that conditions are not you, then you can reduce or change them, though a lot of conditioning is biological/evolutionary.
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Replying to @Failed_Buddhist @iwelsh and
Yep, I'm talking about social conditioning specifically. The more I remove it and expose the deeper biological / evolutionary conditioning, the happier I seem to become. Millions of years of wisdom built into that.
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Replying to @euvieivanova @iwelsh and
Agree that suffering decreases when you remove social conditioning, though you also get increasingly more lonely as you realize that everyone around you is fucking crazy.
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Replying to @Failed_Buddhist @euvieivanova and
this is a really big part of the "waking down is hard" thing.
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Replying to @danlistensto @euvieivanova and
Yeah, it's easy to turn it into some kind of superiority complex, but it's not about being better than anyone -- it's about suffering less than most people, and seeing just how terrible people are at addressing their suffering but not being able to do anything about it.
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Replying to @Failed_Buddhist @euvieivanova and
hmmm, wasn't thinking superiority complex though I guess you're right, spiritual pride is a problem for some people. was thinking more that you need to wake down and reintegrate because you still have your mundane life to deal with (unless you retreat to a monastery forever).
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Replying to @danlistensto @euvieivanova and
Oh I didn't get the sense that you were thinking about that, just wanted to clarify. A life-long retreat sounds great, though that seems a bit like escapism to me. Being awake in the world is indeed much harder than being awake in a cave.
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Replying to @Failed_Buddhist @euvieivanova and
more to the point, I don't see how permanent monasticism is AT ALL compatible with ethical living. one of the contradictions about so much of the Mahayana traditions that I can't quite reconcile. You literally take a vow to save all sentient beings. You have to be engaged.
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It's compatible if you're delusional and believe that sending others compassion with your mind has any effect whatsoever.
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Replying to @Failed_Buddhist @euvieivanova and
delusion lives in the mind. compassion lives in the hands.
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