Post by donq on Jan 11, 2018 18:08:05 GMT
Hi Robert,
If I understand your question right, you mean something about a direct experience?
And a direct experience is always subjective (not the same with everyone), not objective (the same with everyone).
I know, I know, sorry. But please bear with me for a while.
Anyway, there are two ways to get a direct experience: deduction and induction.
In deduction, you start with a set of possibilities and reduce it until a smaller subset remains.
The best example is the detective begins with a set of possible suspects and by the end of the story, he or she has reduced this set to only one person
As for induction, you start with a limited number of observations and increase that number by generalizing.
For example, you was pulling coins from the bag. The first one was a penny. So was the second, the third and the fourth. Finally, you concluded that all the coins in the bag are pennies.
In other words, you started with a small set of examples and you increased it to include a larger set.
Okay, back to your question, a solid evidence of spiritual activity manifesting in the physical via personal (or direct) experiences (because we have no other way to get that solid evidence, right?) which are not some kind of self hypnosis, visions, etc.
I think the answer are the feelings of pain and happiness.
When a doctor tries to cure his patients, he uses his deduction (acting like a good detective) to find the cause of disease. First he suspected some potential outlaws but finally he got the culprit. Yes, this seems to has nothing to do with spiritual activity. But when we are our own doctors, physically and mentally, it would be a different story.
Suppose I got a cancer and have to die in such and such months (doctors have confirmed), but when I think about my kids, my good work that have to be finished etc. somehow I could live some longer than the doctors' verdict. Yes, there are solid evidences about these cases or the will to live. Sometimes it's even called a miracle.
But okay, it's still something that we have been told or read about it. (Note-I used to die once, was in the ICU for months. The doctors told my family that I could not make it. somehow they were wrong. So, this was not something I read or was told).
Let's take a look at how we deal with our pain and happiness. We tend to use induction to view them. A. made me feel pain/unhappiness, so did B. and C. So I concluded that all A to Z would bring pain and unhappiness to me. Another example, When I was feeling pain (or unhappiness), the first thing I thought was, it was uncontrollable by myself. Anyway, my past (direct) experiences also told me that I still could control it. For example, my severe toothache seemed to vanish when I arrived at my dentist's office. Or I completely forgot about my pain when I got a very good news. The classic examples are (yes, I read the followings somewhere lol) a mother suffering extremely severe pain and all-absorbed in her pain experience. Yet she forgets it without effort or intention when she sees her infant dangerously threatened or seriously hurt. Or we can think of men in combat seriously wounded, but who do not discover their injury until later.
So, from my direct experience I found that there are three parts in one pain: past remembered pain, present pain and anticipated pain of the future. The present/immediate pain is only 1 of 3. And I would feel more pain if I feared that it would last until tomorrow. On the contrary, when I realized this very fact (that immediate pain is only a single thing or only 1 of 3), it seemed that I would feel less and less pain that time (happy ending) and even in the future.
And when I added my spiritual practice into the experiences above, its result is incredible. I believe everyone here already knew what the benefits of spiritual practice. But I'd like to say something about Buddhism. What I like most about Buddhism is it's about finding causes. Why this happen? Because of such and such thing. Again, when I put this knowledge (yes, first I needed to read it) into practice, I've found more and more that it's true.
Don't know I replied your question or not. But it's time for me to go to bed now. Sorry for any typos and errors.
If I understand your question right, you mean something about a direct experience?
And a direct experience is always subjective (not the same with everyone), not objective (the same with everyone).
I know, I know, sorry. But please bear with me for a while.
Anyway, there are two ways to get a direct experience: deduction and induction.
In deduction, you start with a set of possibilities and reduce it until a smaller subset remains.
The best example is the detective begins with a set of possible suspects and by the end of the story, he or she has reduced this set to only one person
As for induction, you start with a limited number of observations and increase that number by generalizing.
For example, you was pulling coins from the bag. The first one was a penny. So was the second, the third and the fourth. Finally, you concluded that all the coins in the bag are pennies.
In other words, you started with a small set of examples and you increased it to include a larger set.
Okay, back to your question, a solid evidence of spiritual activity manifesting in the physical via personal (or direct) experiences (because we have no other way to get that solid evidence, right?) which are not some kind of self hypnosis, visions, etc.
I think the answer are the feelings of pain and happiness.
When a doctor tries to cure his patients, he uses his deduction (acting like a good detective) to find the cause of disease. First he suspected some potential outlaws but finally he got the culprit. Yes, this seems to has nothing to do with spiritual activity. But when we are our own doctors, physically and mentally, it would be a different story.
Suppose I got a cancer and have to die in such and such months (doctors have confirmed), but when I think about my kids, my good work that have to be finished etc. somehow I could live some longer than the doctors' verdict. Yes, there are solid evidences about these cases or the will to live. Sometimes it's even called a miracle.
But okay, it's still something that we have been told or read about it. (Note-I used to die once, was in the ICU for months. The doctors told my family that I could not make it. somehow they were wrong. So, this was not something I read or was told).
Let's take a look at how we deal with our pain and happiness. We tend to use induction to view them. A. made me feel pain/unhappiness, so did B. and C. So I concluded that all A to Z would bring pain and unhappiness to me. Another example, When I was feeling pain (or unhappiness), the first thing I thought was, it was uncontrollable by myself. Anyway, my past (direct) experiences also told me that I still could control it. For example, my severe toothache seemed to vanish when I arrived at my dentist's office. Or I completely forgot about my pain when I got a very good news. The classic examples are (yes, I read the followings somewhere lol) a mother suffering extremely severe pain and all-absorbed in her pain experience. Yet she forgets it without effort or intention when she sees her infant dangerously threatened or seriously hurt. Or we can think of men in combat seriously wounded, but who do not discover their injury until later.
So, from my direct experience I found that there are three parts in one pain: past remembered pain, present pain and anticipated pain of the future. The present/immediate pain is only 1 of 3. And I would feel more pain if I feared that it would last until tomorrow. On the contrary, when I realized this very fact (that immediate pain is only a single thing or only 1 of 3), it seemed that I would feel less and less pain that time (happy ending) and even in the future.
And when I added my spiritual practice into the experiences above, its result is incredible. I believe everyone here already knew what the benefits of spiritual practice. But I'd like to say something about Buddhism. What I like most about Buddhism is it's about finding causes. Why this happen? Because of such and such thing. Again, when I put this knowledge (yes, first I needed to read it) into practice, I've found more and more that it's true.
Don't know I replied your question or not. But it's time for me to go to bed now. Sorry for any typos and errors.
) Or how did know for sure all coins in the bag are pennies (we haven't pulled them all or didn't have a chance to do so).