Today's Moment of Zen

#1
Magical Realist Offline
Found this very interesting thought on Reddit. Consider this today's "moment of Zen".

Q: "I may sound like an idiot, but what do blind people actually "see"?"

THIS answer!

A: "You aren’t an idiot, it’s actually quite difficult for us to wrap our heads around the idea of blindness so it’s understandable that you would have questions. If someone is fully 100% blind, they literally see nothing at all, not blackness, not white light, they see nothing whatsoever. Here is a thought experiment to help: what could you see a year before you were born? You didn’t see darkness because you didn’t have sight. What you saw before you existed is exactly what a fully blind person sees."
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#2
confused2 Offline
Kind of (probably) sums up the whole experience of not being there (like dead). Did it once .. I can do it again.
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#3
Magical Realist Offline
LOL That occurred to me too. That being non-existent, if that is indeed what death is, is not anything. Not even "not anything." It's like before we were born, except with a social security number. Smile
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#4
C C Offline
(Mar 11, 2025 08:02 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: Found this very interesting thought on Reddit. Consider this today's "moment of Zen".

[...] If someone is fully 100% blind, they literally see nothing at all, not blackness, not white light, they see nothing whatsoever. [...]

I can't see that being the case for those who were born sighted, but later became blind due to some problem with the eyes. They would surely still experience an expanse of blackness, as with occasions when light was blocked off for them before the visual loss. But for those who have never received optical input and experienced an image (were born blind), it might be a different matter. Even if a spatial blankness was presented to them, they would have nothing to contrast it to in memory, and thereby be able to conceptually distinguish it as something to report to others.
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#5
Magical Realist Offline
"Ride your horse along the edge of the sword
Hide yourself in the middle of the flames
Blossoms of the fruit tree will bloom in the fire
The sun rises in the evening."
– Zen Koan


[Image: dS2i1ns.jpeg]
[Image: dS2i1ns.jpeg]

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