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Heaven and Hell... A Symptom?
Listening(*) kindles understanding. We're not listening when we [chref=56]speak[/chref] - including that internal dialogue we have with our self. I've noticed this vital characteristic of listening in speaking foreign languages, playing music, doing yoga, solving intractable problems, and even picking weeds.
Deeper understanding comes when we 'think outside the box', as they say. The only way to get outside our box is to cease thinking and listen - if only for moments at a time. We must leave the forest to see the whole forest. The simplest [chref=78]straightforward[/chref] reality is hardest to grasp because we over think it. 'It' is literally simpler than thoughts can hear. Only in the [chref=5]void[/chref] between thought are we able to listen; only when we listen are we able to hear the infinite and [chref=10]penetrates the four quarters[/chref]; only then are we [chref=10]capable of not knowing anything[/chref].
Yang and yin feel opposite and always will. Our senses are set up just so. Thus 'feeling' yang and yin as two edges on the same circle is understandably the most difficult part of Taoist [chref=43]understanding[/chref]. However, 'feeling' opposites as simply two edges on the same circle gives great peace of mind. So how do we get there from here? Especially if there is here! It defies logic... or does it?
Imagine hot without cold; south without north; something without nothing; up without down; or even 'the sound of one hand clapping'. The impossibility of sincerely imagining these, though we struggle long and deep, can pull us headlong into [chref=1]the gateway of the manifold secrets[/chref]. We can't help but begin to feel that these opposites are entangled, co-dependent, co-generating edges of the same circle.
Come to think of it, this is the process that brought me to the gateway forty years ago. My brother's death drove me to struggle long and deep on the essence of death and life, and how one does not come without the other. It perplexed me without end, until one day sitting on a bus I felt their [chref=56]mysterious sameness[/chref]. Of course, it has taken forty years for my emotions to 'catch up' to my 'understanding',... well, my emotions are still catching up, and will to my dying day. That's life!
I was born and raised a most independent, self reliant, free willed fellow. And, for twenty years after my brother's death (and my epiphany) I continued to be so. Then one day in the early 80's while working in the garden I realized, "I need to breath, I depend on air!" My illusions of independence began crumbling around me - I also needed food, water, sunshine,... a body to live in. I was totally dependent. Hmm,..
Realizing this, I gradually began to doubt free will and spent much of the next twenty years searching for any solid evidence of free will. Free will was my ace in the hole. It was a solution to any problems I, or anyone else, might face. But, now I needed some evidence. Well, so far I've found none to support free will, and much to disprove it. Losing free will, my 'ace in the hole', has allowed me to truly settle down into [chref=28]the role of the disgraced[/chref],... well almost. Now, ironically, I have more 'free will' than I ever had before. Of course, it's not free will, it is deepening self honesty and self understanding. With that as a foundation, I am more [chref=71]alive to difficulty[/chref], and thus fewer [chref=63]difficulties can get the better[/chref] me. Why the heck is it taking me so long? Well, I have so far to go - 'speaking' far more than listening! But, what else would you expect from a most independent, self reliant, free willed fellow, eh?
(*) Note: Listening correlates ('equals') mindfully tasting, feeling, smelling, hearing, seeing,
Deeper understanding comes when we 'think outside the box', as they say. The only way to get outside our box is to cease thinking and listen - if only for moments at a time. We must leave the forest to see the whole forest. The simplest [chref=78]straightforward[/chref] reality is hardest to grasp because we over think it. 'It' is literally simpler than thoughts can hear. Only in the [chref=5]void[/chref] between thought are we able to listen; only when we listen are we able to hear the infinite and [chref=10]penetrates the four quarters[/chref]; only then are we [chref=10]capable of not knowing anything[/chref].
Yang and yin feel opposite and always will. Our senses are set up just so. Thus 'feeling' yang and yin as two edges on the same circle is understandably the most difficult part of Taoist [chref=43]understanding[/chref]. However, 'feeling' opposites as simply two edges on the same circle gives great peace of mind. So how do we get there from here? Especially if there is here! It defies logic... or does it?
Imagine hot without cold; south without north; something without nothing; up without down; or even 'the sound of one hand clapping'. The impossibility of sincerely imagining these, though we struggle long and deep, can pull us headlong into [chref=1]the gateway of the manifold secrets[/chref]. We can't help but begin to feel that these opposites are entangled, co-dependent, co-generating edges of the same circle.
Come to think of it, this is the process that brought me to the gateway forty years ago. My brother's death drove me to struggle long and deep on the essence of death and life, and how one does not come without the other. It perplexed me without end, until one day sitting on a bus I felt their [chref=56]mysterious sameness[/chref]. Of course, it has taken forty years for my emotions to 'catch up' to my 'understanding',... well, my emotions are still catching up, and will to my dying day. That's life!
I was born and raised a most independent, self reliant, free willed fellow. And, for twenty years after my brother's death (and my epiphany) I continued to be so. Then one day in the early 80's while working in the garden I realized, "I need to breath, I depend on air!" My illusions of independence began crumbling around me - I also needed food, water, sunshine,... a body to live in. I was totally dependent. Hmm,..
Realizing this, I gradually began to doubt free will and spent much of the next twenty years searching for any solid evidence of free will. Free will was my ace in the hole. It was a solution to any problems I, or anyone else, might face. But, now I needed some evidence. Well, so far I've found none to support free will, and much to disprove it. Losing free will, my 'ace in the hole', has allowed me to truly settle down into [chref=28]the role of the disgraced[/chref],... well almost. Now, ironically, I have more 'free will' than I ever had before. Of course, it's not free will, it is deepening self honesty and self understanding. With that as a foundation, I am more [chref=71]alive to difficulty[/chref], and thus fewer [chref=63]difficulties can get the better[/chref] me. Why the heck is it taking me so long? Well, I have so far to go - 'speaking' far more than listening! But, what else would you expect from a most independent, self reliant, free willed fellow, eh?
(*) Note: Listening correlates ('equals') mindfully tasting, feeling, smelling, hearing, seeing,
Comments
Is it not because emotions themselves are an 'on' or 'off' (Yang or Yin) biochemical phenomenon. The 'firing' neurons, through which our thoughts arise, are also either 'on' or 'off'. No wonder life can feel so 'yin yangee'. Simply put, our perception of difference, like 'heaven' (pleasure) and 'hell' (pain), is biological. It follows that [chref=56]sameness is mysterious[/chref] only because 'it' points to a truth we have great [chref=71]difficulty[/chref] feeling emotionally. Oh well, such is life... and death. :?
The next question is what is this life force that drives all living things to keep living? I remember wondering as a little girl why I was "alive" but a rock was not. I still don't know what makes something be alive. Do you?
What a marvelous(*) question! Let's consider it,... "why you are alive and the rock is not?". First, why do we assume a rock is not alive? Because we [chref=71]think[/chref] our definition of 'alive' is true. This is essentially no different, for example, than when people believe their arbitrary definitions of human vs. subhuman (or animal). The whites did this vis-a-vis the slaves, Chinese vis-a-vis Europeans (red devils), 'the religious' vis-a-vis us heathens, etc. Moreover, many assume, through this same self serving point of view, that humans are conscious while the other animals are not. Why? Perhaps because animals [chref=56]do not speak[/chref]? They are dumb.
You got it just right: "Perceiving difference has to do with survival". The more threatened we feel, the more insecure (fear) a person feels, the more narrowly he will draw the line between what is alive and not, or beautiful and not, or good and not, or justice and not, or well, ( you name it ). The definition is in the 'eye of the beholder'.
In the eye of this beholder everything, and nothing, is alive - depending on my mood of course! To paraphrase one of my favorite Tao Te Ching tid bits: [chref=2]The whole world recognizes alive as alive, yet this is only dead[/chref]. By letting go of what we recognize as true opens our eyes to seeing how [chref=1]these two are the same, but diverge in name as they issue forth.[/chref] I'm afraid [chref=23]words[/chref] are insidiously misleading, except mine of course!
(*) I take your question to refer to issues beyond the scope of science, and biology in particular. Biology has its own criteria for what is alive. The actual life process is fairly easy to understand what with all the factual understanding we have today of DNA and cellular processes. Naturally, there is something [chref=14]dimly visible[/chref] behind these, and all of Nature. I suppose that is the realm I'm toying with here.
Yes. I didn't mean what's the difference between alive and not alive. I was asking what makes some matter alive and some not. A living cell is just a bunch of molecules, and so is a rock, but one is classified as alive (it moves, it reproduces). So what's the spark that makes it live? (Dr. Frankenstein used electricity but I'm pretty sure that's not it or our power cords would all start eating!)
It seems to me that the life force is sacred. (To me "sacred means anything I can't understand.)
Hint: let go of your 'self' and become a rock. Seriously! Try first painting a particually 'cool' rock you see around there. Then, go on from there, and enjoy the journey...
How's that? Any better? Of course many folks would think I'm nuts...
Yeah, as I was reading about becoming a rock I was thinking "This guy should live in Berkley." Then I realized Santa Cruz is the next best thing; surfer dudes and wackos. :twisted:
I actually would tend to agree with you but I would never say it aloud.
The thing I disagree with is the people who then get all uptight about using the rock to build a house; some mumbo jumbo about exploiting the rock and all that crap.
Same goes for the tastey critters. If a bear thinks I would make a good meal, I don't hold it against him. I try to get away, or stay away altogether, but hell, I think I would make a good meal for a bear and there isn't anything wrong with him thinking so, too.
Why should I get all moralistic about what I eat or wear? A bear makes a great meal and a bear skin makes a damn fine coat, too.
The only thing I would contend with is the circumstances under which we raise domestic animals for food and clothes. I don't think it is healthy for the animals, in some cases, and consequently, not as healthy for us. And it is cruel, in some cases, too. I think cruel people are spiritually sick but that is only a view point. I've got no proof.
I also think there is an acceptable way to hunt, too. I try to be as skillfull and humane as possible when I hunt. I don't think a bear would give me that much thought. I don't think he cares how much I suffer as he gobbles me up. Some how, I care how much suffering I inflict on animals I hunt.
I remember as a kid I liked to find toads and frogs and salamanders and such critters. I would play with them and observe them a while and then let them go. (I grew up in a rural area of Wisconsin.)
One day a neighbor kid was there and for some reason he had a small hatchet. He sat beside me while I was observing this toad and suddenly he raised the hatchet and buried it in the toad. I was miffed and he thought it was funny. I would have thought nothing of killing the toad and eating it (if I ate toads) but the senseless act of killing it annoyed me greatly.
Just my $0.02
2) When we're healthy (physically and emotionally) we feel happy. When we're "sick" we feel pained; when we're in pain we feel "sick". Inner pain manifests itself in various behaviors, one of which is "cruelty". Drug abuse would be another. "Cruelty" is just a symptom of pain.
I reckon Christ was driving at this with, "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit... ...for the tree is known by his fruit."
3) Because in your mind, you are the animal. When it suffers, you suffer. A smaller brained animal can't 'become you' in its mind, so it will not 'feel' it when you suffer. Now, the question is, do you suffer when you swat the fly, or kill the ant? A mind that can 'become the fly' will. I guess it really has less to do with the size of the brain, than what that brain's mind feels connected to.
4) My brother would burn grasshoppers. Other kids would shoot birds for 'fun'. These actions are symptoms, re: #2 and #3 above.
But what causes the disconnection and the pain? I think our big brain's capacity for thought has much to do with our sense of disconnection. Genesis puts it about right: "....then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked;
Of course you have to read this between the line, from a non-religious point of view. When we began seeing creation as a battleground of opposite (50,000 years ago perhaps), it left us feeling fundamentally disconnected - out of the loop, 'Eden lost'. Religions are humankind's attempt to get us re-connected. Personally, I find if very helpful to see how my mind behaves. That helps me take its thoughts less seriously, and that allows me to [chref=28] return to being a babe[/chref] more easily.
This brings up a profound question - what does "understand" mean? Does "understand" mean [chref=71]to think that one knows, [or] to think that one does not know[/chref]? It can be very helpful to review what we think we know. Upon close inspection it all becomes extremely [chref=15]tentative [and] murky[/chref]. Hallelujah! By your definition, everything becomes "sacred".
Our 'problem' is not that we can't understand, it is that we think we understand. When we cut [chref=32]the uncarved block[/chref], we move those pieces from the "sacred" side of consciousness to the 'secular', and the [chref=23]words[/chref] keep them there. There's nothing wrong with that; I'm mean look at me! Blah blah blah. Although, just knowing we do this helps us [chref=28]return to being the uncarved block[/chref].
And this allow us to become the rock I was talking about before. Naturally, it is our mind that allows us to become a rock. It is also our mind that prevents us from remaining a rock. And, of course, it is our mind that prevent us from becoming a rock in the first place. As Buddha said, "mind only".
Finally, there is a practical bonus tied to becoming a rock, if only for a few moments at a time. Death loses much of its punch! The time we spend being a rock helps us avoid [chref=50]setting to much store by life[/chref].