Skepticism—Look it up! Nihilism—Look it up! Doubting the world is a non-issue. Skepticism toward claims is a good idea. The only reality for us is our experience. The world is the context for ordinary being. Skepticism toward the world is unprovable. You can doubt anything! Skepticism is logically self-defeating. The skeptical attitude finds sufficient evidence to nourish it.

1. Being in the World 3: Study Guide
— The Esoteric Teaching —
dharmasar@gmail.com

2. SLIDE 1
• Skepticism—Look it up!
• Nihilism—Look it up!
• Doubting the world is a non-issue.
• Skepticism toward claims is a good idea.

3. SLIDE 2
• The only reality for us is our experience.
• The world is the context for ordinary being.
• Skepticism toward the world is unprovable.

4. SLIDE 3
• You can doubt anything!
• Skepticism is logically self-defeating.
• The skeptical attitude finds sufficient evidence to
nourish it.

5. SLIDE 4
• We welcome
skeptical questions of our views.
• Triple structure of skepticism: anxiety, claims and doubt.
• Skepticism reveals us as beings with a possibility for self-
reflection.

6. SLIDE 5
• Uncanniness—Look it up!
• We feel not at home because we can't choose.
• We usually project our anxiety on some object.
• ‘The Scream’ Munch painting & Norwegian poem
express anxiety.

7. SLIDE 6
• Disconnect = alienation
• Void discloses that we are a space.
• Anxiety causes us to doubt the Other.
• Maybe the claims of the Other are not really authentic...

8. SLIDE 7
• Falsification—Look it up!
• Contingency—Look it up!
• Skeptic does us a service by falsification.
• Reveals that being in the world is not all that we
can be.
• If that is so, maybe there's another possibility...

9. SLIDE 8
• Skepticism is a particular
type of projected anxiety.
• Skepticism undermines its own logical foundation.
• Skeptic finds a reason not to care about the world.
• Reveals that we don't have to care about idle talk!
• Passionate doubt leads to passionate rejection of the
Other.

10. SLIDE 9
• We internalize and identify
with the worldliness of the world.
• Structurally, the meaning of our life is internal;
not imposed by the world.
• We internalize claims of the Other without
verifying them by evidence or self-reflection.

11. SLIDE 10
• Meaning is internal,
even if derived from the world.
• Skepticism goes too far in claiming that all meaning is
false.
• Real meaning must be rooted in internal phenomena.

12. SLIDE 11
• ‘Oneness’ is also
a form of nihilism.
• Ontological truth is found in trinity.
• No external source of meaning can mitigate
existential anxiety.
• Even though the meanings of the Other are false, they
still affect us.

13. SLIDE 12
• External structure of meaning cannot
reflect or explain actual experience.
• External source of meaning cannot completely engage our energy.
• Transcendental model offers a false alternative to worldly
meaning.
• For meaning to affect us, it must be part of our internal
ontological structure.

14. SLIDE 13
• Real meaning must
be rooted in experience.
• Nihilism and impersonalism are inherently identical.
• We need a transcendental source of meaning, but it is
not nihilism.
• Real transcendental source will come out in the
analysis of death. (Parts 4 & 5)

15. SLIDE 14
• Skepticism goes too far
in doubting everything.
• But skepticism can reveal the objectless nature of anxiety.
• Skepticism finds its place in the phenomenological
method because it reveals what really matters.

16. SLIDE 15
• If reality is unknowable,
then there is nothing to doubt!
• Skepticism conceals itself as rational argument but it is not.
• Skepticism is a good way to falsify claims, not an ontological
system.

17. EXERCISES AND QUESTIONS
• Locate a source of anxiety. Is it really the source?
• Get clear that your anxiety is actually without an object, and you are
projecting your anxiety on that object.
• Diagram the Triple structure of skepticism: anxiety, claims and doubt.Which is
the subject, object and relation?
• Get clear that you cannot experience ‘the world’ in its totality, but only the
objects in the world.
• Find something you are doubtful about, and see how that doubt is a product
of your anxiety. Now how does it look to you?

18. EXERCISES AND QUESTIONS
• Get in touch with your feeling of not being at home in the world. How does it feel?
• Get in touch with your feelings of space between yourself, other people and the
world. Be that space and see what shows up in it.
• Try not caring about something in the world that you think you are supposed to
care about, but really don't.What opens up for you?
• Identify some external sources of meaning in your life.Are they part of some '-ism'?
• Take courage and confront (look into) a source or object of strong anxiety for you.
What happens?