Contemplation of the Individual
 

And paradigm shifts.

Is it possible to be entirely aware and comfortable with who you are, and the decisions that you make as a sentient being through adequate contemplation?

Value in meditation?

Is it possible to challenge your own paradigms and mental patterns by yourself?

Re: Contemplation of the Individual
 

Is it possible to be entirely aware and comfortable with who you are, and the decisions that you make as a sentient being through adequate contemplation?
Short answer, no. The reason is because unexpected things happen. Things that no matter how well one knows one's self, one cannot expect nor know how they will react. I don't know whether you're in a place of peace or turmoil, but either way meditation can bring comfort in your self and your decisions. Paradigm shifts can occur simply as an individual matures, emotional events happen, or even out of the blue.

Is it possible to challenge your own paradigms and mental patterns by yourself?
I believe that challenging yourself is one of the best things you can do. To get a bit deeper I think challenging yourself is the best for bringing about "paradigm shifts" although sometimes a push in the right direction can be good.

Re: Contemplation of the Individual
 

I don't think that personal contemplation by itself is enough. I think meditation has value for calming anxiety and getting in touch with your own feelings but I think that external stimulae is important for personal growth.

I have known many 'spiritual people' who just focus on 'doing work' on themselves to the detriment of their ability to empathise and connect with other people. As with everything, a balance is important, IMO.

Re: Contemplation of the Individual
 

People just need to live to harness their spirit contrary to skepticism and weight of various and inevitable decisions they'll have to make if for nothing else, to reach a place of honesty to oneself and strive for a level of content ideal.

edit: so what I'm forwarding is yes

Re: Contemplation of the Individual
 

This is the only way to do it.

Irrelevent, we don't exist in a bubble. Even a person who lives in solitude in the woods interacts with what's in the woods, probably reads, uses tools that they got from someone, etc. But yes, I think that the woods-dweller can experience a paradigm shift.

Re: Contemplation of the Individual
 

Why is it them who is to blame for the lack of connection between you and them and not you? Why is it necessary that they empathise with you?

Re: Contemplation of the Individual
 

wrong,

it's called experiences and you learn from them, your "reason" is fairly vague and supported by a dumb explanation with no basis for facts at all. it's very possible to be consciously aware of yourself and your actions at all times (even when sleeping) based on not giving a fuck about what other people's set expectations are of you, which are also adapted from others as a result of caring what others think about others AND yourself

tl;dr

if you care about what others expect of you, you might as well not care about yourself and leave it up to others (who are also dependent on others to make them feel good/bad about themselves based on the other person's reality and ideas)

Re: Contemplation of the Individual
 

"Paradigm shifts" are wholly irrelevant to this conversation, since they describe patterns of mass behavior, not those of a single individual. Your mindset isn't a paradigm. Looking past that ---

Sometimes?

But as a matter of generality, no. A couple of analogies ----

1.) Any one logic is not provably consistent with its own axioms. Informally, this means that external intervention is required in order to validate certain claims in a given logic (think "perspective" or "mindset"). This is just an analogy, but think that there are certain concepts or ideas that you cannot simply generate on your own if you stick to a specific worldview. The generation of new ideas comes from alternative worldviews. You might be able to "empathize with another worldview", but in doing so are reaching beyond your own mind. Consider a worldview that you've never seen before that has some unreachable proposition. You would, well, never reach it until exposed to that worldview.

2.) "The limits of my language define the limits of my world" - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ultimately suggests that the ability of us to perceive the world (and ourselves) is limited by language. Similar to above, a single insular cognitive system cannot generate all possible propositions... because mind is at least partially dictated by language (and languages are finite). There are propositions that are unreachable simply because we don't have the cognitive tools to reach them, i.e. there are no ways to express it. Depending on how you read Wittgenstein you might call these "unreachable propositions" "mystical." A further extension is that the limits of thought are the same as the limits of expression.

3.) The matter of subjectivity vs. objectivity.
I'm not going to pretend that true objectivity exists in this world, but it takes an extreme amount of self-awareness (bordering on dissociation) to be the subject and the object in observations about consciousness. Which is, well, unreasonable.

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I think at a base level, humans are stubborn about their opinions and mindsets. It reduces cognitive load, but yeah, you often can get yourself stuck.

This is why keeping an open mind is so goddamn important in this world. There are those that keep out foreign populations, e.g. Mexicans, Muslims, etc. But you have to understand that the economy of ideas stagnates in an insular system. Realistically speaking, it takes dissident minds to cause changes in an otherwise internally consistent worldview.

Simply put, consider what we learn from other cultures that simply would be rejected according to one given philosophical paradigm. What words English has taken from other languages that afford us greater expressive power --- which in turn expands the limits of our minds, allowing deeper introspection. There are some things you can never reach by yourself. That's why you have to be willing to listen to others.

"No man is an island" --- John Donne

EDIT: I've come to realize that the reason for dissident opinions comes from the phenomenon of experience, otherwise everybody would think the same. So it's as simple as: "You can't possibly experience everything by yourself, so there are going to be things that are unreachable by you."

Re: Contemplation of the Individual
 

After 2.5 years my wisdom on this matter has increased some despite most of what I'd said to be spot-on.
One can transcend the bondage of the moment with willpower. Sounds cliche or crazy I know, but by really asserting yourself like 'pffffffft I will survive!' will mold one further from Icarus to Daedalus.