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22 Jul 2006 @ 15:45, by shreepal. Philosophy
We intend to end the present series of articles on the history of new civilization, though for the time being and till the opportune time comes, with a few observations. What is the relevance of history with a civilization that is yet to take birth? It is this: The new civilization cannot be founded on something that is totally new in its essence. The realty - the essence of truth - has to be discovered again and again by the marching mankind. It is a discovery of something that has always been there, though we think we had not grasped its essence and meaning in our previous discoveries as we think we have grasped today with our larest discovery. But the truth is that it was discovered in the past also, albeit with a different content and meaning. We have to discover this essence once again with a content that is acceptable to us and with a meaning that is understood by us, that is, the essence of realty couched in the modern scientific language and seemingly new in substance.
This realty was discovered in the past also by many known leaders of mankind and by many more who are not known. We do not have the appetite for now to refer to them here. We want to skip to the subject that is more important in utility and relevant in guiding us onto the correct path that lays ahead for mankind. What do we understand by new civilization? How different would it be from our "current" old civilization? What would be the basic features of new civilization?
Evolutionary agenda of Mankind
Nature is on its ceaseless task of evolving an instrument better than Mind. We have pointed out elsewhere that Mind follows a thought-processing method wherein there is separation of a part from the whole and then integration of this ‘now understood’ part into the whole. It is a trial and error method. All hypotheses – that are based on reason and logic of Mind – follow this blind method of trial and error. This method is flawed on account of its inherent weakness. Therefore, all truths discovered by this method – that is, by Mind – never expound a truth fully and completely. All scientific discoveries and their underlying scientific laws – like the laws of gravity, law of conservation of energy, et al – regularly undergo periodic modification.
But what we human beings know, animals do not. And, what animals know, plants do not. Each life-species has evolved over a long period of time her instrument of knowledge, which is still under the process of evolutionary refinement. Man is no exception to this process. Man and his Mind are undergoing change. It is axiomatic to say that it has always been so since the debut of Homo-sapiens on our Earth. But, significantly, this change is rapid today. Science is playing a decisive role in this process of evolutionary change. Science does affect not only the human being’s day-today life by offering levers to him in his struggle against Nature but his Mind also. His Mind grows more complex. With the advance of science, man becomes more capable to understand nature, and that includes his own life, and more aware of the limitation and insufficiency of the instrument (of Mind) that he is equipped with. This awareness is reflected in his growing sense of hollowness somewhere within and inability of science, despite its dazzling achievements, to account for many open questions.
Man and his science have reached a place where all branches of knowledge are converging onto a single point and a single query is staring them for answer: what is the nature of universal existence?
A new instrument that is better than Mind in efficacy and higher in evolutionary stage is in the offing. With the new instrument in place, Mind would not be discarded but would be relegated to a subordinate position in one’s life. This instrument would know the truth by a method where human consciousness would identify itself with the object rather than the method wherein consciousness disintegrates and re-integrates thoughts of objects into a harmonious whole. It would be a method of heart, which would replace and dominate the method of Mind – reason and logic. Though the new method still would be a mere shadow of the eternal Presence but there would be less distortion of this light in the process of downward percolation in its case than in the case of Mind.
New civilization ought to be dedicated to this evolutionary phenomenon and must be founded on its requirements. New civilization is not the civilization of human beings who are equipped with this new instrument of truth-perception but it is a civilization of those people who are ready and preparing to welcome the new advent. New civilization is the transitional civilization: a meeting place of two civilizations.
New civilization and the efforts to make its debut as early as possible is a serious subject and the same do not merit to be played lightly at our hands. New civilization cannot be made to happen and establish itself in a short period of time. It is bound to take not decades but centuries, if not more. Also, its happening is not dependent on human efforts. Individuals’ efforts, if made, may shorten the gestation period and help in a smooth birth that may become long awaited.
Nature is full of paradoxes. Yet it is the inability of our Mind that makes things look paradoxical. One such paradox of Nature is that it is cyclic in its operation and yet the things are not repeated again in exactly the same manner. It looks like a spiral evolution where things and events appear again and again, which are basically the same but in new forms to meet the new situations. History is no exception to this cyclic process.
We find in history seeds of human culture that sprout again and again in new forms but with the same qualitative contents to meet new situations brought into existence by the passage of time. We foresee that these seeds are once again ready to sprout in the fertile soil of our times. Our times are fully ripe for the germination of the old seeds. Our times are fret with problems that are unparalleled and unheard of in human history. These problems are so grave in their consequences and so encompassing in their scale that they put the mankind’s existence in peril. These are ideally fertile times for germination of the old seeds – that had saved mankind many a times in the past – once again in new forms. Mankind embattled with these problems is once again ready to listen – as in the past – to the teachings that have been taught in ages past in different contexts and different forms.
A new civilization that offers this old seeds in new form to bail out mankind is the need of the hour.
There are three signs of new civilization. Firstly, it would be based on the new understanding by human beings of the prime realty that has always existed there. Secondly, this understanding of the prime realty would be uniform for human beings and would not be divisive in nature as it had been in the past. The evolution of Mind would not only remove the geographic distance among different sections of mankind but it would also remove the difference of perceptions of the prime realty among these sections. And, thirdly, this prime realty, though still mystic to Mind, would be supported by its reason. New Civilization has not yet dawned on our Earth, where people have already gone global. Whenever it makes its debut, it would be compulsive in its utility and global in its reach. But this utility would not be its chief strength. Its strength would rather lie in the realization by our race that it has re-discovered the realty in a manner – so called scientific manner – that is the only one acceptable to reason and that this realty though always existed there but remained mystic to Mind. This realization would profoundly change mankind’s priorities and its institutions of collective living would accordingly undergo a revolutionary change. All these institutions – economics, culture and politics – could then no longer be allowed by the enlightened collective societal life to further the egoistic agenda of individual or collective living.
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 9 Jul 2006 @ 14:44, by jhs. Philosophy
As we not only have the technology to undo the illusions of the matrix piece by piece, we also understand more of 'technological/scientific' foundations, beginning with its geometry and the classifications of its basic components every day.
One mantra should not miss in all what we are doing:
Vigilance is the price of freedom!
(I don't like using 'absolutes' and therefore skipped the proverbial 'eternal')
Every tool can be used or abused.
Maybe we should discard the notion of 'learning' and regard it is as 'implanting':
as Beings we already know everything that is true: we just need to remember more and more of it.
In contrast, 'learning' adds new (artificial!) data on top of all the (still) existing illusions.
Not only that... More >
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 4 Jun 2006 @ 14:12, by jhs. Philosophy
An Intellectual Sunday Brunch for June 4th, 2006:
mx sez:
All is fine analyzing the game patterns of individual humans, major and minor Gods and Goddesses, of groups and their wars, nature, all the 42-stuff...
Objectives, purposes, rules, all cool... goals, subgoals, supergoals, stop!!! so what's the ultimate supergoal of playing all these games?
Here is a principle to shed light on the structure of the games, and all of them, ahem...
The Meme-Amplifier-Theorem (Sandor, 2006)
========================================
The top-level supergoal of any observable process in this Universe consists of obtaining a maximum resonance to one, and only one, super-energy.
Notes:
- a local process ends exactly when a local resonance is found
- a local process will a this point compete with other local games to dominate the next higher level of processes
- if the resonance obtained is sufficiently close to the original super-energy, the process will auto-destruct (duplication theorem)
- auto-destruction occurs via the phenomenon of the 'resonance catastrophy'
- the auto-destruction can be an implosion or an explosion
- implosions do not leave ANY trace
- explosions, even though destroying the structure of the original meme-transporter, will infect parallel systems via its exploded fragments
- a process that ultimately will end in an implosion is called a 'destructive game'... More >
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4 Jun 2006 @ 13:55, by beto. Philosophy
In this beggining of a new millenium, the scientific community faces a deep and painful CLASH OF PARADIGMS - in the epistemological renewal of thought under process. To know what's happening is crucial to understand what's going on. More >
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 20 Mar 2006 @ 01:56, by uncleremus. Philosophy
In an essay titled, Thinking Outside the Box: Considering Transparency, Anonymity, and Pseudonymity as Overall Solutions to the Problems of Information Privacy in the Internet Society [pdf file], Tal Z. Zarsky* analyzes various aspects of transparency, anonymity, and pseudonymity and envisions societies where our personal information is, respectively, out in the open, hidden in its entirety, or somewhat blurred due to the use of multiple identities. More >
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 5 Feb 2006 @ 19:59, by ming. Philosophy
Once in a while I wake up and notice something I haven't noticed for a long time. Some small thing. Like the contents of the stack of paper I have lying next to me on my desk. When I actually looked at it last month, I realized that it was mostly just some old papers I hadn't decided exactly where to file, some unopened letters that weren't important, and some notes on stuff I had to do on some particular day, last year. Nothing important, really. But, for several years, that stack has been lying there next to me, symbolizing that I had a lot of stuff to do, and that I was busy, and fairly disorganized.
And then, when one actually is present, things become very simple and obvious. That stack of paper disappeared in a half hour, and it becomes abundantly obvious that the right thing to do is deal with things when they happen, and not letting old unprocessed stuff lie around, cluttering things up. And, ok in this case, my desk has remained clear and organized since then. But that's usually not what happens. It is easy to stop noticing that which one noticed before. It is easy to forget being present.
I might suddenly remember something or someone or somewhere. Like, my home when I grew up, somebody I went to school with, or some particular thing I took great joy in earlier in my life. And I suddenly remember, and I also notice that I haven't thought of it for maybe 10 years. And I marvel at that. I rediscover something that has great meaning for me, and I really GET it, and I feel awake and alive. And at the same time I feel like a robot who's asleep most of the time. Because, it seems, there are certain things I will notice only once every 10 years. Things that are wonderful and important and meaningful to who I am. But I forget them again. Every 10 years, that would mean I'd think it another 3 or 4 times before I die. That's sort of depressing.
What I'm saying is that I'm doing most things on automatic. Some things I'm good at, some things I'm not, and I still keep doing them. And only once in a rare while do I actually pay attention. Meaning, I become present and conscious of what I'm doing. And I'm actually in a position to change it. You know, to change something, you have to at least be conscious of what is there. Once you see what is here, you might actually decide what else you'd like to be there, or where else you'd like to go.
It is something one is likely to do piecemeal. I.e. I might be quite present and aware of certain aspects of my life, and quite able to make good decisions about it, while other aspects are thoroughly forgotten. And at other times it changes, or various things pop up once in a while and suddenly, wow, I get it, why didn't I look at that before.
But the sum of that awareness, that presence, that consciousness, that clarity of mind, it doesn't really add up to a whole hell of a lot. Sort of like I might add it up over my life, and it is like I've only really been present for a few hours, or a few days. Seems like a waste, to go to all that trouble, and then not really pay attention.
Oh, it is not black and white. Of course I've been conscious enough to do many things, and of course I have to be partially present to write this here. But, truthfully, I can write inspiring philosophical essays while half asleep. I'm talking about something more.
What if you actually could be fully present here and now, fully conscious, keenly perceptive, and you could do that all the time?
OK, some people will wonder what the hell I'm talking about. Sounds like nonsense if you haven't particularly noticed any difference between being aware of BEING or not being aware of being. Sounds like just some new age mumbo jumbo if you haven't actually ever noticed that you exist. And, it is fascinating, but many people haven't really realized that they exist. Probably a majority of humanity is people who haven't ever been conscious of their own existence, of if they have, they've thoroughly forgotten.
The culprit is the mind. Both our strongest asset and our prison. We can think abstractly, which allows us to do amazing things. And it allows us to trap ourselves in stuff that isn't really there. It allows us to make abstract ideas as real or more real than what is really there.
The mind stores and processes incoming perceptions, and it stores and processes abstract representations of what things mean, and extrapolatons of what those abstract representations mean.
That allows you to learn about and influence circumstances way outside your local area of what you can directly perceive. For example, it allows you to be able to vote. That's a terribly abstract thing. You most likely haven't actually met any of the people involved, and you don't have any direct experience with any of the issues that are considered important. Your vote won't directly do anything either, but you can feel that you're part of something meaningful, and it does make a difference. Now, you could only do that because you have some fairly complex abstract models of cause and effect and connections and probabilities in your mind. Most likely they're ridiculously over-simplified, but you do have some structure there that tells you something.
But this abstract mental stuff easily gets to mean that you spend all your time doing stuff your mind tells you to do, and zero time actually looking for yourself.
Yes, I know, if you think that you ARE a mind, such a statement makes no sense. Even worse, if you think you're a brain, you've already locked yourself away and thrown away the key.
There's a certain circular reasoning thing which makes minds get out of hand. You prove abstract ideas only with other abstract ideas. That works some of the time. But if one has gotten so used to taking certain abstract ideas as The Truth, one forgets at some point that they're just ideas, and one no longer checks in with reality.
I'm saying we pretty much all do that, but you can see it most dramatically at the extremes, with people who're very religious or who're very scientifically, materialistically oriented. In the fundamentalist way. I.e. people who wouldn't recognize reality if it bit them in the nose, but who live inside a mental structure, and who deny the existence of anything that isn't situated and labeled within that structure.
But most people in the "civilized" world go around spending most of their energy on keeping up with abstract ideas. All your "shoulds". You should get up in the morning, get the kids to school, go to work, have meetings, file reports, do shopping, pay your bills, etc. Most of which you aren't doing because it is what is in front of you, but because of some mental structure you have in your mind. A structure that will predict the consequences of not doing some of those things, so you do the logical thing, and you do them.
But, back to my point. You're so busy being busy that you aren't even there most of the time. OK, maybe you are, so I'll speak for myself. I will frequently catch myself in not having been present for an extended period of time.
You know, how you find yourself in your driveway, having driven home, maybe from work, maybe something you do every day. And you notice that you weren't present the whole way, and you don't remember the trip at all. Maybe you were busy thinking about something, and that's where your awareness was. But you still drove the car perfectly fine, for a half hour, through rush hour traffic.
I'm talking about that in your life. Despite going through the motions somewhat successfully, you suddenly wake up and realize, where was I?
And, to get to the point, the ability of actually being fully present here and now is what we could call "enlightenment". Oh, I'm sure one could define it different ways, but I find that the most useful. You have somehow transcended your identification with the mind, plugged into a fundamental source of peace of mind, and you can comfortably be present here and now, without having to have anywhere else to go.
That's not necessarily any hocus pocus spiritual thing that you will attain after 33 years of chanting. Probably is a terribly simple and pragmatic thing. Just being present and not giving in to mental delusions. Noticing what is really going on, what is really there in front of you, and what is really there inside of you, and not obsessively overlaying a lot of opinions and filters and 'shoulds' on top of it.
Anyway, this is just a note to myself, to BE more of the time, and to not put up with being absent. To pursue enlightenment, although I strongly suspect it can't really be pursued. There's nowhere else to go to. It is right here, right now. No fancy technique or secret knowledge to learn. And that's a hard one. Would be so much easier if one could just go and take a class. No, one actually has to pay attention, really pay attention, be quiet and notice the obvious. More >
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21 Jan 2006 @ 04:24, by shreepal. Philosophy
Nature has three fundamental properties, viz., the conservation of energy, opposite and dual nature of matter or energy and the singularity of universal force and they originate from a single universal reality. This universal reality may be visualised as a partial projection of itself into dimensions of space and time that look like mirror images and produce the effect of undestruction of energy, counterbalancing symmetry in nature and singularity of prime force.
Dimension is a "projection". It is the projection of "reality" (and, not necessarily of matter). This projection of reality is not necessarily into space (and time). This projection may be conceived of as a process whereby a portion of reality is raised (by consuming energy) above its neutral state of existence and as result thereof an amount of additional energy is stored as potential energy in the new elevated (or projected) state. This process may be given a suitable name. It may be called a projection. It may also be called "acquiring of a colour" since colour is dependent on frequency (of electromagnetic radiation) and the amount of energy stored therein is directly proportional to the number of frequency. In its essence dimension is an instrument of storing reality. Properties (of reality) are associated with dimension as its integral part.
Reality can exist without being projected into dimensions and then it has no property. The moment reality is projected into dimensions, it acquires specific properties depending upon the dimensions it is projected into. One well-known example of this process is the projection of reality into spatiai dimensions whereupon reality gets the properties of mass, charge, spin and parity. Another example of the same is the projection of reality into time's dimension whereupon it gets the property of flow from past to future. Reality, without its projection into spatial dimensions, has no property of mass etc. And likewise, reality without its projection into time's dimension has no property of past, present and future (and this state may be conceived as eternal reality existing without mass and time).
Reality and its dimensions
Do dimensions exist without primary reality projected into them? Are dimensions co-existing with primary reaiity and therefore equivalent primary reality themselves? No. Dimensions are specific states or measures of the projection of primary reality and in that sense they exist independent of any projection into them of primary reality. However, these states are beyond detection by any means without primary reality being projected into them. Does time exist? Can we measure it? We choose a succession of events as the reference standard and then taking a part out of this succession label it as time. But the rate (of succession of events) can neither be measured in absolute terms with reference to a stationary frame (due to the wave-particle's dual nature of matter of which events are made) nor is it always the same with reference to a moving frame (due to the relativistic principle). In measuring time by this process the extent of our ability to do the same is not limited by this problem only. By this method we only count events and do not deal with the time at all. By counting events we tag them as time and by going backward or forward in the succession we refer it as past or future.
There is no way to directly deal with time. And, yet the time does exist as a certain measure of projection of primary reality to a certain height that stores specific amount of potential energy (of primary reality) creating the dimension known as time.
What is space? Can we measure it? We measure matter, and treating this measure as a reference, compare with it the spreadth of space. Again, the amount of matter (that is, its spatial properties) can neither be measured with reference to a stationary frame (on account of its wave-particle dual nature in accordance with quantum mechanics' principle) nor it is a singular amount with reference to a moving frame (in accordance with relativistic principle). Here, again, we are dealing with matter and not space. By any means, we can not directly deal with the space.
However, the space does exist as a measure of projection of prime reality to a certain potential height that takes the shape of spatial dimensions.
Cubes of space, time and consciousness
Spatial dimension has a cubic form; that is, it has three sides' projection of reality into length, width and height. Time's dimension also has the cubic form. The single dimensional time would simply exist but would not move forward or backward, that is, into the future or the past. With two dimensions, it would move in either of the directions but still it would not cover events (of matter that has not two but three projections). With two projections, a man would be able (if it were technologically possible) to go in the past or future but still would not see events associated with that past or future. To make it possible, one more, the third one, is needed. It is like depth of time. If one moves along this dimension, he would not move into past or future but would see all the events of universe at a single given moment.
Our inability to directly deal with time and space is not associated with the inherent properties of these dimensions. This inability demarcates the limits of human mind in understanding, rather knowing, the truth lying behind the appearance.
Reality existing without its projection into any dimensions whatsoever is "primary" reality. The "primary" reality is the "only" reality that exists and it may be conceptualised as a great ocean of unified field of energy and this ocean must include all that we know as existing as well as all that we do not know yet but (must) exist.
The primary reality observes the law of conservation of energy, that is, it can neither be created (and so, is eternal) nor destroyed (that is, unperishable). To meet the requirements of a unified field's mathematical equation, it is assumed that this ocean of primary reality, that is, unified field energy in modern scientific terminology, possesses the capacity of "self-excitation". The projection of unified field energy into dimensions is the work of manifestation and it requires "self-excitation", that is, an amount of force or "work". A certain quantified volume of (given) dimensions contain in them a certain quantified amount of unified field energy.
There are many planes of projected reality in the universe and an individual plane's specific dimensions determine its structure. All these planes are independently existing but interconnected with each other by a bridge-like formation that connects two sharply different planes with gradually receding-shades. In a plane, the very existence of projected, that is, dimensional, reality makes the plane a deformed structure and in this structure all movements of projected reality follow a path along the edges of the plane's dimensions. This strangely moving presence of projected reality makes the universe a string-like structure at every plane. Original dimensionless position occupied by the primary reality and dimensional position occupied by the projected reality may be viewed as a 'distance' and this distance, or ‘creation' needs a force that would make this creation not only possible but would also sustain this creation. And, this force would have to act and be present constantly.
Since we endow the Primary Realty with the attribute of consciousness, we may conceive the force that creates and sustains the creation as its 'will' and the creation as 'purposeful design of this will' of Primary Reality, or of 'Supreme Being.' Also we may conceive the creation as displacement of a part of this Primary Realty from its original groove, or as a distance of a part of this Realty from its original station. This distance (or potential force stored in stretched distance) not only needs a constant will to sustain it but also forms an elastic band between the primary reality and created things that is 'tauter when it is pulled'.
This potential force stored in stretched distance, or energy stored in the work of creation, has the tendency to compel created things to return back to their original position.
The quantum relativity concept is an efficient mental tool that enables mind (that is, human being) to understand (to the extent it is possible for mind to understand) the interrelations of different frames of reference moving in various planes of projected reality.
Projection of reality into space-time dimensions forms the material world. Projection of reality into dimensions of consciousness forms the worlds of mind, of desire-impulse and of physical (body) senses. There are many more dimensions into which reality is projected (bringing into existence their associated properties) that are not known to human being (being possessing mind). Moreover, human being with the aid of his best instrument – mind - cannot know reality existing in its neutral state without its projection into dimensions.
With this article we end the series of articles on Enlightenment. More >
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10 Jan 2006 @ 15:46, by shreepal. Philosophy
Instincts, impulses, desires and all sorts of cravings are the motive-force of creation. These are full of life-energy. Without them there is no reason for life to manifest in varied forms. Though the universe as a whole is an ordered apparatus, without these forces there was no scope for this ordered apparatus to come into being. All beauty, love, passion and urge to go ahead in life emanate from desires, and also all ugliness, hate and dark impulses have their origin in desires.
The raison d'être of the creation ranging from this universe to life in its highest form is desire. If there is no desire there is no reason for life to exist. In human beings, if all traces of desire are eradicated by persistant efforts, as various spiritual disciplines for gaining self-control and mastery over one-self prescribe, the man would not only die like a dry leaf comes off a branch of tree but he would not be born again.
But we find there is this universal creation and therefore there is a wish, a desire that made this creation possible. We associate desire with human being but this force of creation, the force of an urge, is not dependent on any human agency. Though this universal force of creation is received and identified in human beings as desire. This whole universe in its present ordered state is a creation (it is not the creation out of nothing but merely a transformation from one state to another in a cyclic manifestation) and therefore it is driven by desires. The whole Creation is a grand desire. Within this whole there are infinite numbers of self-sustaining and independent constituent parts of desires that are beautifully integrated into this whole. And, not only the grand desire but also these constituent desires that are integrated with this grand urge exist as a hard realty. These have their own world and own rules. These cravings are formed and transformed, and received and transmitted by living creatures, though the creatures themselves merely feel them a part of their own consciousness. Is it true to state that desires exist in universe independent of human beings who feel them? Also, as we have said earlier, is it true to state that thoughts exist in universe independent of human beings who are conscious of them? Let us give an analogy to understand the truth of the matter in this respect. We human beings perceive colours, beautiful and of various hues. Do these colours exist in universe independent of human beings? Yes, they exist. But they do not exist in the form of ‘colours’ as we perceive them. The colours are the corresponding sensations in the bain of human beings of particular frequencies of electromeganetic radiation. Colours exist in nature, though not as colours but a corresponding reality. Our universe is an apparatus that is full of order and logic, if there is a human being to search and sense these harmonious structure. Even if there is no human being there to sense and ‘certify’ this orderliness of universe, it still exists there as a hard reality. Our universe is a beautiful creation that is still continuing to grow. Our desires are its reflection in our consciousness and even if we are not there to feel them, they exist there.
The Desire body of human being is an independent formation and remains interwoven with the physical body during the life-time of human being. After his death, this body is released into a world of Desire-World. After this release, this Desire body remains emotionally attached to the dear ones of the dead person and does not wish to leave the company of these realatives. However, it is not always possible for this Desire body to get connected with the people living in the physical world. Under certain conditions, like receptivity and open willingness of the living dear ones, this body some times gets connected with them. Then, these persons are said to talk with the dead soul (but it is not soul, depending on the definition of soul). This body remains intact in its Desire World for a certain length of time, like we live for certain period in this physical world. Also, some time, this intact body is assimilated completely by a new born baby and then the child ‘remembers’ his past birth.
It is rebirth of desire body, that remained intact under suitable conditions, like strong desires, demands, revenge, love and innumerable other circumstances. The Desire bodies in the Desire-World, spend their appointed lives. Some times, they happen to come into contact with the physical world of human beings, under suitable conditions and they are perceived as ‘strange beings’ by human beings. These beings have real existence. Within ourselves, we all have our such beings. After death, our desire bodies are released into the world of these beings. On completion of its appointed period, the Desire body also gets disintegrated into its constituent elements. These disintegrated elements of desires are again absorbed by growing children in our physical world. Thus the cycle of transformation of desires goes on in nature.
In fact, we ‘receive’ desires, though we feel as if we are desiring. We human beings are meeting place of various forces, desires, thoughts etc. We not only receive desires from other sources, but also we generate and transmit them to others. It is a subject of complexity much more than the the problem of Grand Unifification of Fundamental forces of physical Nature. So far as it is relevant for human beings to understand and utilise their conclusions in day to day life, this subject has been beautifully dealt with by Lord Buddha and Lord Jesus Christ in their prescriptions.
Under certain conditions and in certain places, we sometimes get chocked with certain kind of desire, say desire of hate, or love, as we are simply receiving them as receivers.
As we possess desire body, the great persons (like Jesus Christ, Gautam Buddha etc.), have taught human beings to channelise desires in a particular direction to gain mastery over them and ultimately eradicate them (by dedicating them to certain ideal or other suitable means).
Like physical body, Desire Body also is an instrument of Eternal Element and exists only because there is this Eternal Element. The Desire body is never destroyed, it is simply disintegrated, recycled, absorbed, assimilated and transformed in cyclic manner. More >
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31 Dec 2005 @ 16:26, by shreepal. Philosophy
Does consciousness (of the kinds of mind, desires and bodily senses) exist? How do we know of the "apparent existence" of, say, mind (that is, reason)? What is reason? We human beings (like our inferior cousins, plants, microbes and animals) observe "objective" world around us. We act, being propelled by life (so-called instincts), and "go ahead" by preserving, dealing to dominating, adapting and procreating. This is evolving ourselves in relation to the objective world around us. This is life. But this is not enough to "reason". To be able to "reason" we have to rise a bit higher in the ladder of life. To "reason", we take a portion of the "objective" world around us and isolate this portion from the "unified whole" (of this world). This is separation.
We study the properties of this isolated part and then refit into the whole again. It is like breaking the whole into pieces creating jigsaw puzzle and solving the same by putting them back in different relations. This is unification. The reasoning follows the process of movement from unity to separation to unity again. Or, it may be put this way; we take a setof material objects (with their associated properties that may be likened to floating points of computer technology) and isolate this set from the remainder of the whole universe. It is an incongruous heap or, say, a jumbled world. The incongruity in their interrelation is a "problem" or, say, disorder. We reposition them again and again in their interrelation till congruity is established. Then, the incongruous heap turns into a congruous order of their interrelations. We call it a reason.
The reason is thought. And, this thought, when found to be in congruity with another neighbouring "assembled" thought, is elevated to the dignity of a principle, or even, law.
Here, we do not deal directly with material objects. It is not possible by any means. We deal "concepts" of material objects. Again, here also, neither these concepts contain in them all the (known and unknown) properties of material objects they represent nor they can be isolated from the remainder of the whole universe in their interrelation. Also, as in measuring time we count events and in measuring space we measure the spreadth of matter, in establishing congruity among material objects of nature we establish congruity within our mind. And, yet this congruity among objects of nature has an existence independent of our mind. This congruity, a thought, is a measure of projection of prime reality into a dimension we call consciousness of mind. But, even the thought is not a co-existing equivalent of prime reality. It is merely a projection of prime reality and, therefore, is secondary. Consciousness also has the cubic form of its dimension. Life, desires and mind form these three-pronged projections of reality. All the three remain dormant, like in a frozen state, in the matter, and emerge and manifest under appropriate evolutionary conditions. Being different (specific) measures of projection (of prime reality), time, space and consciousness are "qualitatively" different dimensions from each other. More >
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26 Dec 2005 @ 03:38, by shreepal. Philosophy
Man is exploring the universe. He is able to get out of earth and travel extraterrestrial places. He has touched moon with his hands and peeped into the interiors of universe. Everywhere man has found compounds made of atoms and atoms made of atomic particles. Basically, it is search of physical world and this physical world, so far as he has been able to know, is infinite.
However, he is not going beyond material world in his search. He has no tools to go beyond material world. He is not capable with his mind to go beyond matter. Nature has set a limit to the capacity of human mind, as his mind is not the supreme tool produced by her.
And, Nature has not yet finished her task of producing still better tools of knowledge and she is still at her work of evolution.
Beyond physical world, there are other worlds also and man knows the existence of some of these extraphysical worlds and makes attempts to study them. Behind atomic particles, there is a world of subatomic particles or waves and this world must be having its own shape, rules and place in the scheme of things. Also there is a gravitational world behind all material particles that must be having its own symmetrical structure and place in the universal scheme.
We know that water is a compound of Hydrogen and Oxygen but it is basically different from these two gases. You look at the snowy mountains and compare them with Hydrogen and Oxygen, and you find that they are qualitatively different from each other, though ice is made of these two gases. There is a barrier of quality between the two. One can never experience the reality of ice, by simply having these two gases. Though we know that ice is but a compound of these two gases, these two gases are in themselves nothing but a certain atomic structure of atomic particles. And though these atomic particles are likewise a definite structure of subatomic particles or waves, yet ice, gases, atoms and subatomic particles or waves exist with their separate individual identities.
One can go deep down into the microworld and find independent structures in hierarchy ad infinitum. There is a barrier of quality difference between any two of levels of this hierarchy. Likewise, one can go out in the macroworld and find similar independent structural hierarchy ad infinitum.
Once some scientists thought that with the discovery of atomic particles, the physics will see its end and there will be left nothing in the material science for scientists to discover. But Nature is not that simple. The beauty of Nature is its mystery. It is endless, in structure, in quality and in operation.
It is not only the material plane but also the planes that are beyond it that can be descended into by man, and they are ad infintum. Though none of them is primary, all have their independent identities.
There is a world of desires and impulses that is real with its individual shape, quality and rules.
Also there is a world of thoughts with similar attributes.
And, then there are many more worlds in the scheme of creation. Eastern wisdom accepts the existence of these subtle worlds and its leading lights, like Lord Buddha, Lord Jesus Christ, Milarepa, Nizammuddin, Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo and many countless others, vouschafe the truth of these worlds on the basis of their personal experiences.
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