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Fri 17 Aug, 2007 10:39 am
I'm being asked by the Philosophy Forum to introduce myself to the Forum. Who am I? Where am I going? I don't have all the answers, but I am searching. It will be a long trip, but to start off with, I see life as a puzzle waiting to be unraveled. This puzzle has a background of Energy, and as you know by the Law of Conservation of Energy, Energy can not be created nor destroyed. To me that is the definition of the Creator (God). How does the Creator enter our lives, or how do we communicate with It (Him), or how does It (He) communicate with us? I'm looking for the answer. We read in the Bible, that Moses was told by God from the Burning Bush, "I am that I am!" I'm not sure that ever happened, but if it did, I think that it was a bad translation. I think that translation should read "I am all that is!" That gives my puzzle a better background for us to create reality. Let's start our search with the background to my puzzle first.
Bill Harris, Director of Centerpointe Institute, talks about this all encompassing Energy.
[CENTER][CENTER]How can I see Reality?[/CENTER][/CENTER]
There is one energy in the universe, that the universe and everything in it is the play, the dance, the vibration, of that one energy. Underneath the seeming multiplicity, they say, everything is made of the same substance. This energy, they say, is everywhere, and "everywhen." This principle is sometimes described as Omnipresence, or God. The Hindus and Buddhists call this principle, Sat-one energy, everywhere, making up everything, always, past, present, and future.
The mystics, however, went one step further. In addition to noting that this one energy is omnipresent, they also said something else that I think is rather startling. They said that this one energy is aware of itself being everything and everywhere and everywhen: that it is conscious, that it has consciousness. The mystics called this second characteristic of reality Chit.
So, we have this one energy, this oneness, this unity, that is in and behind and over and around and through everything, and this energy of unity, this Oneness, is aware of itself being everything. Now, just for a moment, pretend that you are this one energy. If you were everything, there would be nothing outside of you to fear. That would be like fearing your own hand. If everything is you, and you're everything, there's nothing to fear.
There would also be nothing to get, nothing you would lack, because you're everything. There would also be no where to go, since you're already everywhere. So, here you are, everything, always, everywhere, with nothing to want, nothing to fear, no where to go.
If you had this awareness of who you are, you would be...happy, peaceful, and blissful. So the third characteristic of reality, according to the mystics, is called Ananda, which means bliss.
So the mystical explanation of reality is called "satchitananda", which means one energy, everywhere, out of which everything is made and everything comes, aware of itself being everything and everywhere and everywhen, and as a result it is blissful, happy, peaceful.
Why, then, if I'm this one energy of everything, do I feel so isolated, so separate- and why am I so unhappy so often?
Well, the mystics have an answer for this question, and you've heard it before, and you may not like it, but here it is: you aren't happy and peaceful and in touch with the fact that you are all and everything, everywhere, eternally peaceful and blissful, because of your mind. Your mind is in the way of your experience of who you really are.
In fact, your mind is creating an alternate reality, that is, in a sense, like dust covering a mirror and keeping you from seeing who you really are.
Seeing that the mind gets in the way and obscures your true nature from you, the mystics came up with some methods for perceiving reality directly, without the filter of the mind, and the most effective and most popular of those is meditation. Meditation is designed to still the mind, until eventually you gain enough control that you can look directly at reality, rather than filtering reality through the mind.
Those that master this ability to see reality directly report some rather startling things about it.
In my next search for putting the puzzle together, I will talk about how meditation can help, some call it Enlightenment.
@btsears38,
Hello to everyone from a new member of PhilosophyForum. My interests include the philosophy of science and the scientific method, evolution and its bearing on our current behaviour and social relationships, a secular approach to ethics, and metaphysical questions such as the nature of time and causality....I think that's enough to be going on with.
Peter:o
@btsears38,
Welcome to our little spot in the world, Peter.
I think this is the first intro that could become a topic unto itself.
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