Ultimately thought reason idea and their expression in reality are a ontologically continuous....

neither dependent upon the other, all flowing into from and through one another simultaneously and continuously.

The universe is one giant "mind body connection" if you will, in my view.

I also do not believe in ontologically discontinuous divinities especially bearded old prudes in the sky taking notes on what everybody does lol

but rather in a continuum and in a stream of divinity expressed in thought emotion word idea and in "things" as we experience them.

That being said I do believe that ultimately the world of things is conditional. That attachment to things as a category results in impurity of mind / thought / being. Stress and distortion are the result of a desire to control things and outcomes that are beyond our reach.

Ultimately I do not believe so much in things, in feeling or thinking, as I believe in being. A place where we are in touch with our existential reality in a moment of clarity.

Yesterday and tommorrow, things we possess, want to possess, outcomes we hope for and dread, are all distractions.

The only reality is a stream of single moments in time. Fully Being in those single moments is the goal of my practice of pranayama, pratyahra, dharana....

I have to admit I read the subject wrong, and clicked expecting a FuzzY Phallusesque picture of an episiotomy. I was about to comment on how twisted that was.

As far as the original topic, GTM summed up my view very well. And I want many single moments with many beautiful providers, not all at once of course.

In teaching this core epistemological concept to a college ethics class; we used a thought experiment.

In this experiment, a student would be placed behind a translucent screen, sitting in a chair, back of head resting against the screen. The student would be told that he would soon be receiving a visit from a beautiful co-ed.

Unknown to the student, I would pull out my .357 magnum and shoot him in the head from the other side of the screen.

The question is: from the student's perspective, what happens? His BELIEF (the beautiful coed) or a 158 grain jacketed hollowpoint penetrating the skull?

Well, in this thought experiment; all the students grasped the concept and gave the correct answer: the student gets shot no matter WHAT his beliefs.

Notwithstanding Kant and the limitations of perception and knowledge; the simple fact is that existence EXISTS, and has a reality independent of our consciousness. If every human being suddenly dropped dead tomorrow; the laws of gravity -- as imperfectly as they may be understood -- would still function.

If it were otherwise, witchcraft would work, wishes would be horses and beggars would ride.

Therefore matter has primacy over mind.

Where MIND comes to the fore is in the application of reason to the facts of reality in order to generate values.

This concept is also expressed as: "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."

who summarized the conflict between Idealists (Plato, Berkely) and Materialists (Democritos, Marx) with the aphorism:

"No matter, never mind"?

I see the mind-body problem as a false problem. Mind is a _function_ of matter. But mind is such a powerful actor that it influences matter, Admittedly its influence is not enough to stop bullets, trucks, or, in my case, the flames of Perdition (great movie, BTW). But it is powerful enough for us to perceive or ignore significant matters before us.

Maybe I should just get a ticket for that beach in Negril

you, JohnGalt and GTM, I thought I would fall asleep before I read through all that the three of you wrote. And, since it's late here, and I misread episiotomy for epistemological, and with my wife having three kids, and listening to her and her three sister's war stories about delivery's, I didn't feel I needed to hear any more about it from you.

But, after reading your post, and really sucking at philosophy, all I can say is, all that "matters" to me is that I maintain the state of "mind" that allows me to continue in the pursuit of, and apprehend a pretty steady diet of happiness. Good-night.

do you believe that Ideas are Real, more important than the material world?

No

do you believe that Matter is Real, more important than the world of thought and emotion?

No

or do you believe that all phenomena are created equal?

Fuck No

that the distinction between mind and matter is overwrought by the overthinking?

No

what about "knowability"?

Know

philosphical responses are welcome but jokes, witty cutting edge jokes and black humor would be better

In that case, I believe I'll call my ATF.

A blind man, a lesbian, and a frog walk into a bar. The barkeep looks up at them and says, 'What is this — a joke?'

discern it's place in an uncertain world with certainty.

What's real? Is the floor real? We certainly would describe it as solid. But the floor only appears solid because we cannot discern the space between the sub-atomic particles. The floor is, in fact, mostly space.

This is true of all things of course, including time.  there is space (no time) between discreet time.

What happens when we slip between the space in time or material?