Maddie

I know I know I probably post too many selfies. I'll try to slow down LOL

I hope everyone's having a good day today! 😊🩷

I think this just highlights the importance and difficulty of communication. It did not escape my notice that all of the lgbtq+ identifying people assumed I was being trolled and those who did not assume that are not people who have identified as lgbtq+. It's my assumption that when ones existence as an lgbtq+ person gets challenged regularly it makes one more sensitive to certain keywords or triggers. Communication is not an easy thing.

I guess I owe you an apology. I really thought you were trolling me. I do get trolled a lot so I guess it makes me a bit assumptive but that would not be your fault so I hope you accept my apology.

If we want to end suffering we shouldn't cling to anything, but I anticipate you saying then why do it. Because there would need to be a self to choose to stop clinging. Since this is not the case and instead of a self there are simply conditioned processes we have to use awareness to gradually see through the clinging. This usually takes time and is a gradual process. To think of it as a conscious choice ironically assumes that there is an identity to choose to not have an identity lol. Geez I hope that makes sense.

My question would be why do you see it as something that needs defending in the first place as opposed to something that just is.

The Buddha taught that we are not the five aggregates. So basically what ever we think we are, we are not that. He was basically teaching that the ego is not really us. But to say then why identify with what the ego is telling us in the here in now? is because the Buddha realized the difficulty of liberation and taught the gradual path. The gradual path includes acceptance of where we are in the present moment. This is why there are lay people and not just monks, even though the monastic life is the ideal for one example. So in anticipation of your next question, why don't I just not identify as a woman or man or anything? It's because I'm not there yet. I might want to fly but until I get on the airplane I'm still on the ground. To tell myself and others that I'm not walking on the ground when I am indeed walking on the ground is denial and delusion, and these are the hinderances to liberation. The path to liberation is knowing the present moment as it is. In the present moment my mind identifies as a woman.

In Buddhism the idea is to not identify with anything. So trying to make ourselves identify with something such as pure awareness is a type of grasping which is the opposite of what the Buddha taught. The Buddha taught letting go. I don't identify as a woman as the culmination of a goal but simply because that's where I happen to be at the moment. I tried to reject this identity and that did not work for me because it was motivated by control which again isn't letting go.

To me personally the idea of identifying with something abstract like "pure awareness" sounds like identifying with "world peace" or "Taylor Swift's guitar". It just doesn't make sense in the real world. Not trying to be mean but it seems like its too abstract to be useful or relatable.

Do the only thing that there is to do, be in the present moment.

Look maybe you were just getting way too metaphysical for me and if you were sincere then I am sorry for suggesting you were a troll. But I don't identify as pure awareness that doesn't even make any sense to me. I identify as a woman. I tried to not identify as a woman for a long time and the longer I tried that the worse my mental health got. Maybe the concepts you are speaking about are just too out there for me to relate to. Maybe you can explain what you mean by identifying with pure awareness because I have no idea what this is? ** I live stream a lot and get bombarded by trolls asking cheeky questions if that helps to put things into context.

May I ask you what you identify as? Is there a pure awareness restroom in public I wonder? 🤔

I think that was an excellent assessment of what is probably going on.

Yes this exactly

Ok so maybe you don't mean it this way, maybe you do, but this is the point where it no longer seems like a legitimate question and more like a back door challenge to transgenderism being a legitimate thing. I literally just gave you the textbook definition of gender, and your reply is no that's not right, don't you really want to know the truth. So tell me Salvijus, what is the truth according to you, lets just get this over with and state your actual agenda.