I am a very practical man.For me spirituality is a very practical thing, not lovey – dovey nonsense.
I see spirituality as a way of looking and understanding reality and life.
I see spirituality as a set of tools for changing and improving life.
Other wise I would stop burning up brain cells and pick up a hobby.
So when I wrote my first post of “The Meaning of Life” I wasn't thinking of starting an academic discussion or a scientific debate.
The point I was trying to make is that reality as we see it and experience it, has two major principles at its roots.
The creative, constructive principle on one hand and the destructive principle on the other.
Out of the interaction of the two principles, out of the dance of creative and destructive forces our reality takes shape.
The destructive principle – entropy – is a quality of the material, physical world while the creative principle – life – is a quality of the spiritual world.
Out of the interaction of the two principles we, human beings come into existence.
But as some wise man before me said:
“We are spiritual beings having a material experience, not material beings having a spiritual experience”
And although a majority of people see themselves and identifies their being as spirit rather than body, a large majority of us worship the material side of reality not the spiritual.
There is a quite know saying that exemplifies that worship and philosophy:
“The guy that dies with the most toys wins”
Why do we think that a guy that dies with a billion dollars in a bank is a winer and a guy that dies with a billion dollars in debt is a looser?
To me, if material possession was a factor, I would say that the guy that dies in debt is ahead in the game. But that isn't even the point.
The point of this entropy vs life debate was that the material world is impermanent, ephemeral illusion and the only eternal existence is the spiritual one.
All the material things that we value and worship are transitory.
The great pyramids will crumble to sand, empires will rise and fall, given enough time the sun will grow cold and die and in the end even the universe will cease to exist.
Yet the simple truth of these words will live forever.
The spiritual world I am trying to make you aware, this truth I am talking about, existed long before the universe was born and it will exist eternally after the universe is gone.
Holding on to the material world is not only superfluous but it is a major part and cause of our human suffering.
Understanding that you can not hold to the “impermanent” part of reality, that holding on to material things is a formula for disaster and pain is a must step in the spiritual awakening.
But I do not want you to do it because it is “immoral” or because the bible said so.
I want you to understand why it is so, I want you to see that the spiritual things; love, truth, beauty, harmony and peace – just to name a few – are the true eternal values of our reality.
The love, the truth and for that matter the suffering and lies of your life are the only wealth you have, are the only treasure you will always poses.
Everything else is just an illusion.
Posts
12 comments:
hi Buddha,
well, chaos is what gives birth to harmony and vice versa. impermanence gives birth to permanence. thus i ask: what colour is the sun? :)
why dream of material in any way confirms or opposes dream of spiritual? i speak, thus i wake forms. a dream of maple tree beneath my window is peaceful under sun as it is peaceful under snow. your dream is challenging. how are they different? what are you?
good luck.
mickael
Yes - and no
Everything else may well be an illusion, but if you can't afford to eat then you starve, so that's a pretty powerful illusion
Sadly no where outside of Star Trek do people work purely for the pleasure, exchanging goods to help people out - so until we find some kind of eutopia on Earth there will always be materialism: people will always want something in return for their efforts
Maybe we're imaginary bodies being human.
Hey Buddha, you said in a past post that the word "suffering" wasn't a good translation of what the Maxter said. How about using the better one, then and your posts will maybe point differently?
Aha! You are just trying to turn us on, sexually, with your blatant emotionally feminin buttering us up. Here is all the proof I need:
“We are orgasmic beings having a material wealth experience, not material wealth beings having an orgasmic experience"
By the way, I'm going to start saying that to the ladies at the bars.
I like scruffy!
@ mickael - I know; It is that it is - but that is saying too little or too much.
We are neither spirit nor matter and the meaning of being neither, nor is to find that balance, that harmony between material and spiritual.
The color of the sun is meaningless without the darkness of the night and your dreams are peaceful because my nightmares are terrifying.
How are you different?
What are you?
@ Pixie - Starvation is a very powerful illusion but an illusion never the less.
There is nothing wanting something in return for your efforts.
I am not advocating working for nothing :)
Being the slave of a material world and worshiping the material world is what I am against.
@ Ted - Or maybe we are just playing with semantics :)
I'd like to translate "life is suffering" into "life is extropy"
but then how do you translate that?
@ Scruffy - The brain is the sex organ - remember that and you will do better with the ladies :)
Natbe as Life does not exist.
Your "semantic", to me, points to speech as the source for existence. As in, nothing exists without saying so.
Kinds like Morgan Freeman responding to racism. "First you have to stop referring to me as a 'Black Man'.
It's a matter of ego vs. heart. The fact that we think we need material things comes from ego so we can show and display all we have thinking that it not only defines us to others but to ourselves. When we get out in nature and spend time there we realize that the true gifts lie within us and that the gifts of nature are what truly matter. It took me a long time to understand this but now that I do, it's made all the difference.
Wanting materials, at least for a science/inventer guy like myself, has a functional purpose. I don't want materials just to have materials, but instead I want materials and wealth so that I can do things with it. Perhaps it's the "doing" aspect of materialism that you consider to be spiritual, BOH? If I invent build things with my hands, or if I use my computer and calculator to solve physical mechanical things, then perhaps that could be called "spiritual". Whatever, doing things is doing things, I don't care what you call it.
To: Dont Feed The Pixies
It is the IDEA that "someone will always want something in return for their efforts" and that "there will always be materialism" WITHIN OURSELVES that perpetuates the actualization of that reality.
The material world and its pleasures exist and will exist as long as we are here to experiance them, but it is our IDEA of the things that will change, and is changing. So someone CAN want "something" for their efforts. Imagine the "something" changing from useless "paper bills" to the smile on another human beings face.
Giving ones food to recieve the joy of another. I believe it is this idea, planted and watered, that will dominate in our life time. But it starts with the individual. Bringing about the "eutopia" of our own lives.
Post a Comment