All is void.

[Quan Yin]

You, don't think.

Wrong emphasis.  Now, explain how I think.  I've emphasized the key points on which you should focus.

It's an illusion. You don't.

[Quan Yin]

You know for not being, and only being a void and a mind fiction - this toothache I have is a bitch of a NOTHING... how do I experience this pain in void of nothing, and if it's all mental fiction, then how the hell do I stop having this mental fiction and make my noexistent tooth ache STOP?

By following the path of the Buddha. The middle path, which emphasizes doing the things you want to, just not indulging yourself. So go to a doctor, and get that fixed.

[hackenslash]

I realise that utter demolition of your points is not pleasant, especially when you hold them close enough to be classified as 'belief' (an entirely useless concept, IMO), but a response would be nice, not least because I spent a fair bit of time in the evisceration of your nonsense. A simple acknowledgement of having no answer would be sufficient.

[PoopShoot]

It's an illusion. You don't.

Then by what mechanism does the illusion of thinking take place?

[Quan Yin]

It's an illusion. You don't.

Then by what mechanism does the illusion of thinking take place?

It is caused by the inherent instability of nothingness. Symmetry-breaks, and casts a shadow, which we perceive as something -- and we are part of the shadows -- when it is only the shadow of a fluctuation, it is the illusion of the division of nothing, caused by its inherent instability.

[PoopShoot]

By what mechanism is the perception taking place?

[Whitney]

I realise that utter demolition of your points is not pleasant, especially when you hold them close enough to be classified as 'belief' (an entirely useless concept, IMO), but a response would be nice, not least because I spent a fair bit of time in the evisceration of your nonsense. A simple acknowledgement of having no answer would be sufficient.

Ditto on a response to my post.

I think you also still owe someone an explanation of what a void is...you were asked at least twice with no clear response.  This is a discussion forum after all, not a tell us what you believe forum.

[epepke]

Looks like we got ourselves a Buddhist heah.  An unusually intelligent one who may be able slightly to apprehend the idea that the total energy of the universe is zero to within the uncertainty principle, but still characteristically of the type, able and willing to blur these otherwise interesting ideas into the banal, vapid, and smugly stupid.  I think I'll pass on the bong-hit "enlightenment" and stick to being able not only to calculate but also perceive entangled quantum amplitudes.

[PoopShoot]

Looks like we got ourselves a Buddhist heah.  An unusually intelligent one who may be able slightly to apprehend the idea that the total energy of the universe is zero to within the uncertainty principle, but still characteristically of the type, able and willing to blur these otherwise interesting ideas into the banal, vapid, and smugly stupid.  I think I'll pass on the bong-hit "enlightenment" and stick to being able not only to calculate but also perceive entangled quantum amplitudes.

I'm with you on that.  Nothing can't perceive nothing, there isnothing by which to perceive its nothingness.  That said, this is a discussion forum, so let's discuss.

[Thumpalumpacus]

An illusion requires a perceiver.  If the perceiver is not there, then who is fooled by the illusion?

[Asmodean]

Reality is not an illusion by definition. Reality is all we by consensus define as real - it is a concept, not a mathematial formula or natural phenomenon.

Nothing and everything have their areas of definition, which you've failed to specify, as does void.

If you are claiming that, philosophically, our subjective everything is cosmic nothing, yes, I agree. However, meditating does not in any way make you see any kind of "objective truth"

[notself]

After reading this thread I would like to point out that Quan Yin is talking about Buddhism as it is practiced in the Northern schools of Chan, Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren Buddhism.  

The concepts of life as an illusion and all things being one do not appear in the oldest versions of what the Buddha taught.  He actually taught that everything is dependent, nothing is without change, and suffering caused by clinging and aversion can be eliminated.  I do not intend to get into a dispute with Quan Yin about Buddhist beliefs but if anyone is interested in reading the actual suttas, here is a link to an index of topics and the related teachings.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/index-subject.html

[Quan Yin]

[Quan Yin]

By what mechanism is the perception taking place?

"Taking place" is a mental fiction. Time, continuity, and permanence to any degree are reliant on mental fictions. No perception is taking place this is an illusion of perception itself. The mind observes itself, and not reality. The faint after images of reality give the impression of somethingness, where all is void. Because the mind is self-initiated, self-perceived, and self-contained, it is also self-contingent, and doesn't exist in reality for this reason.

All are mental fictions, including the mind itself.

[Sophus]

By what mechanism is the perception taking place?

"Taking place" is a mental fiction. Time, continuity, and permanence to any degree are reliant on mental fictions. No perception is taking place this is an illusion of perception itself. The mind observes itself, and not reality. The faint after images of reality give the impression of somethingness, where all is void. Because the mind is self-initiated, self-perceived, and self-contained, it is also self-contingent, and doesn't exist in reality for this reason.

All are mental fictions, including the mind itself.

I'm trying to figure out whether I like this quote or not.