Socratic Questions

M = Master
S = Student

Cinema with a main-character on the screen and oneself watching it.

“Dream” = content on screen I’m unaware of.

Maya as the fabricator of entertainment behind the projector.

M: Wanting to get rid of suffering keeps it going and alive. Why?

S: Because then I start looking for solutions instead of recognising the problem. I'm suffering because I'm wrong, and as long as I want to get rid of the suffering, I don't see that I'm sitting here voluntarily (for entertainment). M: Correct. And what happens if I try to fight the waves in the ocean?

S: I'm wasting all my energy, being pushed under water.

M: The opposite would be to surrender. Should I surrender and accept it?

S: Then you just changed the weapons. Same point, what can you do = confusion with the character on the screen

M: But I want to be happy.

S: Even though you're currently in the middle of the ocean, between thundering waves? Interesting priority.

M: I’m suffering right now. Isn’t the alternative to be happy?

S: Wanking or napping will definitely make you happy Alternatives, opposites are on the character level (screen). Suffering has no opposite and it is certainly not being happy. When you are happy, you are distracted from seeing why you are suffering. But yes, that is what most people think. And I am not saying that you should not try to be happy. Or that you should try to be happy. It just distracts you from seeing the cause of the suffering, the confusion with the character. In fact, it reinforces it.

M: You will NOT feel worse to put basic advice into practice in your life. You've heard them a thousand times. So why don't you do it? Exactly. The answer is in the first sentence.

S: Because I wouldn't be any worse off, but better; because my dependency of the character and Maya would end.

M: How do I know that I have destroyed the untrue content of my dreams?

S: When the content is no longer part of my dream world because I have ultimately solved the problem and when there is no inner conflict arising from the dream content and I am absolutely fine with it entertaining me.

M: Can I know all of this for sure?

S: I can't. I can only believe it.

M: The question was “how do I know”, not “how do I believe”?

S: OK, fair enough. So I cannot know when the content of dreams has been destroyed or trees burnt.

M: if I believe it, I will go no further. so which price is higher?

S: The price of believing that you have destroyed the content of your dreams and then coming to a stop is higher. By realising that I cannot know, there is no stopping and I will continue.

M: If I do not do EVERYTHING I can to solve a problem and keep complaining, it's an inner conflict on the screen. Why am I still suffering?

S: I continue to confuse myself with the character and I, as a viewer, am entertained by the conflict. One of my issues is that I quickly get annoyed by background noise. (Loud music from neighbours, motorcycles with extra loud exhaust pipes, etc.) The character is annoyed by it and I, as a spectator, am further entertained by it. In moments when I recognise it, I am less annoyed or do something (earplugs, headphones). However, I am not yet doing everything to ultimately solve the problem... like changing the location... so I continue to suffer.

M: When your eyes are closed, do you see the character?

S: With my eyes closed, I assume I’m the character. So I can't see him, because I'm in the middle of the film and annoyed by my example.

M: With your eyes closed, you also believe you are the character. But you cannot see it.

M: When is someone serious?

S: At 10,000 of 10,000. When the method is no longer an obstacle, but is applied just in time. When the pain and thus the hatred of the status quo is great enough.

M: Have you made any progress in answering this question? Does Maya have less power over you now? Is your life less full of suffering than before? Have any obstacles been removed? Have you become more alert?

S: Recognising this and thus the dissonance has increased. Recognising this sets in earlier. Thus, topics, for example, become a zero where I previously stood between 0 and 10,000. It felt like x things at the same time. Now it is becoming clearer to recognise which tree is actually in front of me.

M: I don't want an intellectual answer. I mean, personally, have you: Have YOU made progress in answering the question? Does Maya have less power over you now? Is your life less full of suffering than before? Have any ‘trees been burnt down’? Have you become more alert?

S: The more I try to describe what has changed, the more I make a story out of it / try to intellectualise it. Progress as you mean it probably not.

M: I'm referring to your first comment on the question: Have you made progress by answering the question? Does Maya have less power over you now? Is your life less full of suffering than before? Have ‘trees been burnt down’? Have you become more alert?

S: Not sure what you mean. Answering the question didn't really help me make any progress. It just reminded me of what I thought I understood.

M: So it was not serious, because seriousness means ultimate progress. If it is not serious, then what is it?

S: Believe, Entertainment, between 0 and 10,000.

M: Entertainment. 0 out of 10,000. There is nothing between 0 and 10k. Do you know what that means? Not intellectual.

S: I don't know how I could answer that in an intellectual way. Perhaps we understand the word intellectually differently.

M: Intellectual does not mean wanting to recognise, not wanting to see the truth, thinking about the fact that clouds are white instead of looking at them, thinking about how beautiful trees are instead of going into the forest, philosophising about truth and reciting it instead of seeing it, talking to others about truths instead of seeing them.

S: So you think that ‘understanding’ is my personal entertainment and that it will take me further and further away from the truth?

M: Yes.

S: Thinking about the film on the piece of paper on your lab, analysing it, taking it apart intellectually, instead of looking up and seeing it.

M: How do I recognise self-sabotage?

S: When I do things to make myself feel better?

M: Do you feel better when you eat your favourite chocolate?

S: In the short term, yes. So is it the bad conscience I have when I admit the negative long-term consequences?

M: Earlier.

S: Something about a shortcut?

M: How?

S: Obstacles. Dopamine without exhaustion.

M: I’m confused. Ok, I've been eating fast food for 6 months. I want to lose weight. I can believe studies that chocolate helps lose weight or not. Where is the self-sabotage?

S: Oh, so self-sabotage is when I base my decisions on belief.

M: It will be more if I fight it. What is it?

S1: Despair.

M: Why?

S1: When I fight, I acknowledge what I am fighting against something. Pay attention to it. And maintain it. If I stir the water all the time, the mud never has time to settle and the broth only gets dirtier. At the same time, the other one prepares itself because it does not want to be defeated/die. Logical. So it gets bigger and stronger through my fight. M: So why are you still doing it?

S1: Cause I'm a sick MF who apparently gets off on desperation. And the conditioning is given with the milk bottle. You feel bad, you're not doing well, whatever -> do something about it, is synonymous with fighting it. M: Correct. The former, the latter bores me.

S2: Suffering.

M: Why?

S2: Cause I feed the stage play.

M: Why?

S2: Because suffering is part of the movie. Nothing good or bad about it.

M: So why are you still suffering?

S2: Because the result was previously effective but is now ineffective because it cannot be recognised and there is too much shit on your mind.

M: Doesn’t sound thrilling.

S2: Who says that life/the screen is always thrilling? And thrilling//not thrilling is also an evaluation of the mind. Good/bad... Doesn't that already create the chase? Because life always has to be sparkling.

M: I personally don’t find it interesting torturing myself and not doing anything about it, but everyone has their preferences.