avocationist
Posts: 173
Joined: Feb. 2006
|
Jay Ray,
| Quote | | I remember Newton and some of those wacky taoists became sidetracked down the red herring called alchemy. This should come as no surprise in modern times. Anytime we've tried to combine mysticism with science, its failed. Gee, I wonder why that could be.... |
Why must people think Newton was the only alchemist? He failed, as did most. Alchemy isn't the queen of science and philosophy for nothing. What do you think mysticism is? Your very sentence contains the supposition that it isn't true. Mysticism is the experience or intuition about things which are very subtle, hard to prove, hard to control, hard to repeat at will. So the question is, have they any truth or not? But if they do have some truth, then they are absolutely within the realm of science. All phenomena are within the realm of science. Alchemy may deal with what you consider mystical phenomena, but it is a matter of scientific experiment, nothing else. Alchemy involves ideas about how nature works.
The idea that science is a separate realm from mysticism or God is a false idea. And luckily, it won't be around much longer.
| Quote |
I'm familiar and comfortable with the idea that this thing called "me" is an illusion. |
Yeah, but all such descriptions are only approximations. Looked at another way, the thing called 'me' is the one and only endurable phenomenon. That is, "I Am."
| Quote | | What I am really is just a wave in the ocean we know as the universe. Every wave eventually crashes against the shore, whereupon it takes another form. I'm cool with that. |
This means that the form is not the true essence. The illusion of me or self is mistaking the external compilation for the true essence.
| Quote |
I do. How cool would it be to be a wave that rolls up onto the shore and manages to keep on going, maneuvering at will? It won't happen, but it would be preferable. |
Why won't it happen?
| Quote |
I'd be one of those that wants evidence beyond what can be provided by anecdote. Channeling doesn't count. Regression hypnosis doesn't count. Near death experiences don't count. In the end, no matter how many of these stories accumulate, they are still all just stories. |
When one of them happens to you, it will count. I haven't paid much attention to channeling or hypnosis, but I am impressed with near death experiences.
| Quote | | Every moment is interesting, don't you think? |
Well, yeah, but dam* these are interesting times!
| Quote | | We withhold judgement until the facts are in. Many of us would welcome these things if they were demonstrated. |
Well, there's nothing wrong with that. I suspect it's a developmental stage. It's a way of cleansing out the bullsh*t.
| Quote | | But so far, the the so-called evidence is anecdotal, vague, contradictory and entirely unpersuasive. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." |
What can you expect but anecdotal stories from people who have experienced the invisible (to our senses)? There is a tremendous amount of consistency in near death experiences.
| Quote | | Deep down, I tend to think that god doesn't exist, in just the same way that I don't believe in the invisible Sock Gnome who lives in my laundry room and steals my socks from time to time. |
No, that's the Borrowers!
| Quote | | Nope. Yet I'm glad I have the opportunity to experience it for at least a little while. |
It's a terrible thing to have one's consciousness snatched away, to be part of this incredible universe and have it fade forever before your eyes. What a cruel, cruel reality we live in. But it is a bit better than the classic Christian one, where most beings are to be tormented horribly forever.
| Quote | | However, I see no benefit to myself or to any other life on this dazzling planet if I continually strive for that which is always out of reach of the living. |
Does anyone reach enlightenment without striving? There is great benefit to others if you strive with the right attitude. Despair and a sense of lack don't benefit, but increasing one's level of consciousness does, since all consciousness is one, and all beings partake of the collective unconscious.
The right attitude is to enjoy the ride and not be impatient about the unfolding of understanding - which I think is pretty much what you said.
| Quote | | for that which is always out of reach of the living. |
Identify with that which lives, not that which dies. This is the sole doctrine of no-self, or the illusion of self.
| Quote | | I find it quite comforting, and have done ever since I was a child and used to sit in the garden: imagining bits of myself pushing up through the grass as trees and crawling around as insects. The fact that people seek more still puzzles me, and seems to be one of the main reasons in my experience that people are religious other than tradition. |
Comforting and beautiful it is, since this whole big shebang - the universe - is one big writhing process, but loss of consciousness, awareness, being part of it all: this doesn't bother you? I don't doubt your sincerity yet when people say this I cannot quite believe them.
|
