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Post by withinsilence on Dec 6, 2011 21:23:46 GMT
So then what is it that separates man from animals beside his ignorant mind? Sometimes I think that when you move up in consciousness and reach realization you become a dolphin in your next incarnation as they seem to be at least ten times more intelligent than humans will ever be. Heck my cat is wise enough to lay around all day knowing I'll get up, go to work, go to the store to buy it some food while it just sits there and laughs at me! Humans are such fools. hehe
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Post by freethinker on Dec 6, 2011 22:57:13 GMT
[...] Heck my cat is wise enough to lay around all day knowing I'll get up, go to work, go to the store to buy it some food while it just sits there and laughs at me! Humans are such fools. hehe If you set the cat outside the door at your bedtime, and let it back in when you arose, you would be closer to an equal status.
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Post by tathagata on Dec 7, 2011 0:03:33 GMT
[...] Heck my cat is wise enough to lay around all day knowing I'll get up, go to work, go to the store to buy it some food while it just sits there and laughs at me! Humans are such fools. hehe If you set the cat outside the door at your bedtime, and let it back in when you arose, you would be closer to an equal status. Hehehe
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jus
New Member
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Post by jus on Jan 8, 2012 19:29:40 GMT
Guthbruins. You say Jesus has no thought to tomorrow. What do you mean?
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Post by gurthbruins on Jan 9, 2012 6:38:04 GMT
Guthbruins. You say Jesus has no thought to tomorrow. What do you mean? Hi jus, it's good to see you posting on the forum. I was referring to what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, St Matthew Ch 6 verses 28 - 34: "... therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need.... ...Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself..."
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Post by withinsilence on Jan 9, 2012 12:13:35 GMT
Guthbruins. You say Jesus has no thought to tomorrow. What do you mean? Hi jus, it's good to see you posting on the forum. I was referring to what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, St Matthew Ch 6 verses 28 - 34: "... therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need.... ...Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself..."Welcome Jus, Jesus, as all the enlightened masters, was teaching psychology, to not get caught up in your thoughts. The problem is that when we starting identifying with thoughts about tomorrow or the past we create suffering for ourselves and in truth have no control over either one of these places because they don't exist...now! Jesus was teaching presence, how to be present in the moment and not caught up in worry (future thinking i.e. what's going to happen or not) and guilt or shame (what did happen that you can't change.) Its when we get caught up in our thoughts that we create suffering for ourselves because we're not in the present moment which is the only place you can & will ever be as every other place is only a thought! This is living in total awareness or consciously. Its OK to think about the past or the future but you must know that is all it is... a thought and thoughts have no power over you as they in themselves are nothing but thoughts....not reality. He was also teaching humanity to trust in the divine source as it knows what you need because it is you and you are it. If you see yourself as an eternal conscious energy that never dies, animates the body to use as a means to an end and speaks and acts out of this consciousness and not ignorantly reacts to the unconscious thoughts in the mind, you will begin to see why Jesus said what he said.
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jus
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Post by jus on Jan 11, 2012 17:54:52 GMT
My fragile Christian faith is in conflict with the relentless logic of science. Its too terrible to contemplate that death is the end of everything. But all the evidence is just that.
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Post by withinsilence on Jan 11, 2012 18:27:37 GMT
Jus, here are a few quotes from Joesph Campbell. You may want to read some of his work i.e. "The power of myth" "The hero with a thousand faces" or others. Don't get caught in choosing either religion or science but find that which is between them, that which brings them together. In other words don't deny one to believe in the other but move past beliefs by looking within yourself and not outside yourself for truth.
As far as death is concerned, don't waste your time in thoughts of fear in things you have no control over, just ; "live your bliss" as Joseph Campbell would say.
Quotes: I don't have to have faith, I have experience.
Read myths. They teach you that you can turn inward, and you begin to get the message of the symbols. Read other people's myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts -- but if you read the other ones, you begin to get the message. Myth helps you to put your mind in touch with this experience of being alive. Myth tells you what the experience is.
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
All religions are true but none are literal.
Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. There's a wonderful formula that the Buddhists have for the Bodhisattva, the one whose being (sattva) is illumination (bodhi), who realizes his identity with eternity and at the same time his participation in time. And the attitude is not to withdraw from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but to realize that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder and to come back and participate in it. "All life is sorrowful" is the first Buddhist saying, and it is. It wouldn't be life if there were not temporality involved which is sorrow.
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Post by gurthbruins on Jan 12, 2012 7:20:36 GMT
Jus, here are a few quotes from Joesph Campbell. You may want to read some of his work i.e. "The power of myth" "The hero with a thousand faces" or others. Don't get caught in choosing either religion or science but find that which is between them, that which brings them together. In other words don't deny one to believe in the other but move past beliefs by looking within yourself and not outside yourself for truth. As far as death is concerned, don't waste your time in thoughts of fear in things you have no control over, just ; "live your bliss" as Joseph Campbell would say. Quotes: I don't have to have faith, I have experience. Read myths. They teach you that you can turn inward, and you begin to get the message of the symbols. Read other people's myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts -- but if you read the other ones, you begin to get the message. Myth helps you to put your mind in touch with this experience of being alive. Myth tells you what the experience is. The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. All religions are true but none are literal. Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. There's a wonderful formula that the Buddhists have for the Bodhisattva, the one whose being (sattva) is illumination (bodhi), who realizes his identity with eternity and at the same time his participation in time. And the attitude is not to withdraw from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but to realize that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder and to come back and participate in it. "All life is sorrowful" is the first Buddhist saying, and it is. It wouldn't be life if there were not temporality involved which is sorrow. Great post, withinsilence. I can see how you are clarifying some issues, such as the apparent conflict between science and faith. Where you say: "And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life."... I have some slight reservation. In that I don't really need to go as far as that. To reply more to jus's post: "My fragile Christian faith is in conflict with the relentless logic of science. Its too terrible to contemplate that death is the end of everything. But all the evidence is just that."Jus, I quote Jesus because he said a lot of wonderful things (allegedly...), but I am not a Christian - I reject many of their ideas totally. I too insist on logic : what is illogical is not acceptable. Death is the end for ME: there is no future life for ME, as far as I can see. No future rebirth of ME in any recognisably similar form, not even with the same username or ID number. But what I can't see is what is so terrible about that? It happens to most animals as a matter of course: what would be much worse is if we had to live for ever. The South African writer Uys Krige wrote a lovely play in Afrikaans, set in the south of Spain, about a woman who persuaded Death to give her the gift of eternal life. (" Die Goue Kring") Krige brilliantly showed how such a fate would become progressively more and more frightful and insupportable. Why worry about death? Forget about death. We are not here to concern ourselves with dying. Just get on with life. You got your ticket to life for nothing. That doesn't mean it's worthless. Or if it turns out it is, it'll soon be over anyway. You can even walk out any time you like - there is nothing to stop you. What better terms for any show could you imagine?
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