Everyone,

thank you for your replies. you have given me much to think about.

i'm leaving it implicit that spiritual teachings have a purpose because i really can't try to argue anything about spiritual paths or goals, because of widespread disagreement.

...............................

CF,

thank you for your lengthy reply. I'm going to mull it over a bit and get back to you.

in the meantime, if you're interested, please consider out these three things:
1. Pavlovian Conditioning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP5lC...yer_embedded#!
2. Punishment/Rewards based systems are well defined in cartoon media, especially games. http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/fa...-2009/05CA.pdf
3. Building the game layer on top of the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn9fTc_WMbo

.......................

Korpo,
Quote Originally Posted by Korpo
I do no longer believe enlightenment derives from an energy practice, and if it does in some cases then because it was a practice that helped unravel, understand and release old psychological structures and not so much one of running energy from A to F through related point B-E.
Oliver
Would you mind extrapolating on what you think enlightenment, what leads to it, and what you mean when you say psychological structures?

Ouroboros,

I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag too early but i'm actually not opposed to video games (strangely). My experiences have made it abundantly clear that the elements of gaming are actually quite useful in many ways and are completely absent from every other aspect of our society. for instance, imagine how much progress one could make in say, AP, if progress was broken down into infinitesimally small portions, there was a constant assessment of progress, quest givers (and reward givers, for that matter), constantly new challenges that could be overcome, and aspiring AP'ers would commit 3-6 hours per day (or more) to practice (as do many gamers). One of my current projects is the collection and consolidation of the Principles of Gaming into useful life guiding principles - there are many more of these than i listed above and i do declare that they are not likely to be discovered or utilized by any non-gamer.

........................................

Quote Originally Posted by Ouroboros
Personally, it is my view that cartoon media is neither a hindrance nor a help to spiritual progress.
Please elaborate --> what do you consider to be hindrances to spiritual progress? what do you consider to be helpful? what do you consider spiritual progress to be, actually?

Quote Originally Posted by Ouroboros
(ADD like a mofo, yo)
do you mind if i ask what your healing protocols are for handling your ADD?

I'm glad you brought up escapism because that is tangential to my concerns in an important yet strange way. If i may be candid without being taken the wrong way; i simply mean this literally:
we live in amazing times where we actually have the luxury of being escapists and i'm not actually opposed to it per se. my focus is on the future and i predict that in short order, our lives will become much more difficult and riddled with strife, and we will be forced to prioritize quite severely: i mean that we won't have time to do whatever we want so what little time we will have will be very precious to us and we will be selective about what we choose to do with it. that being the (predicted) case, i think that many of us will reminisce about the times that we enjoy now.

............

ciao