This Life and the Next

EdgyDolmen said:
RJM - I have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy your posts. I must take this exception however to post #38.

I am merely expressing my/an opinion. I get aggravated by the convenience of semantics. Examples: Blind = cannot see which of course is the opposite of sighted and not intended to be a medical explanation, just fact. Light is radiation illumination while dark is the lack of that very same illumination and therefore = the opposite! Cold is the (varying) absence of heat and heat is the absence of cold...come on, is that not opposite? Word games be damned... ED
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To me it's important that absolute darkness is finite, but there is no infinity of light. No end to light. The same applies to cold: absolute zero is the coldest anything can be, but there is no infinity of heat -- millions, zillions of degrees. So some dualities are not opposites. I am definitely not trying to argue. It's just an interesting observation, imo?
 
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My entry to Taoism was via I Ching, and this is the sort of meditation it leads me to. Please don't be offended. As I said, it's the sort of discussion that 'duality' engenders. There are true opposites, but they occur in the natural not the spiritual dimension, imo: fire and water are natural opposites?

Just thoughts ...
 
In the I Ching, the spiritual Ying/Yang vertical polarity, is shifted to a horizontal fire/water polarity in the natural dimension
 
Any light, and all light is opposite of no light...

Any heat, and all heat is opposite of no heat.

It can be opposite and not.equal (one seemingly absolute and the other seemingly infinite)

But why is it important to you?
 
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wil said:
Any light, and all light is opposite of no light...

Any heat, and all heat is opposite of no heat.

It can be opposite and not.equal (one seemingly absolute and the other seemingly infinite)

But why is it important to you?
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Interesting. But what is the opposite of zero?

It's important because where it starts representing good and evil, essentially evil (devil) is limited, good (God) is not. I also respect the link between heaven (spirit) and earth (nature) shown by the I Ching, with nature a removed reflection of spirit; Plato's cave, Paul's through a glass darkly -- where spirit is the reality of nature, etc. 'Light is the shadow of heaven.'
wil said:
Yin yan are neither absolute for within each is a drop of the other...more about balance than opposites eh?
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Yes

wil said:
Horizontal and vertical eh? The gif avatar if our founder....

https://giphy.com/gifs/yin-yang-and-chinese-philosophy-n5RMnumrZR02Y
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Nice
 
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You are getting some hard push-back on that Corbet! I think the symbolic idea of light/dark being opposed is so ingrained in us it's hard to see it any other way. But taking a purely physic-perspective on light I completely agree with you that it's just more or less light, to the point of no light. I would say that these are all constructions either way, ways of understanding the world.
 
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Aussie Thoughts said:
Better question. What's the opposite of on topic? Most of the posts in this thread....:rolleyes:
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We been pretty steady on this life...

You wish to talk about reincarnation, feeling things from spirit world, what? Get your thread by the reigns and take it where you please....ya gotta steer these things yourself...they don't have an autopilot.
 
RJM Corbet said:
what is the opposite of zero?
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The opposite of zero is "One".
[Though, the One can be divided into finite pieces]


It's the structure of binary-language code.


But now we've wandered into "Advaita" aka "One-ness" and or Monism.

And I am a Theist. I am not an Advaitist.
 
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Aussie Thoughts said:
I don't know. Is it possible? Could it be? All questions I keep asking myself whenever I'm near my new niece.

Thoughts?
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You already know this story and I think I may have mentioned it before of the forum some years back, but as it ties in nicely with the actual topic of the thread, I think it bears repeating here.

My wife is from the Fiji Islands and after we were married we had to make a trip to the US Embassy in Suva in order to secure her Visa. My brother-in-law went with us, but neither had ever been to that part of Suva before and I had never been to Fiji at all. So no one knew exactly where the Embassy was. Somehow though, I led us directly to it. In fact, I seemed to know where everything was there.

Now, prior to this, starting in my late teens, I use to have this reoccurring dream about being killed in WWI. There I'd be in this muddy trench with a jammed rifle just as a stalk hand grenade lands right beside me. BOOM! and I'd wake up. Oddly enough, the dreams stopped after I got married. Then, several years latter I stumbled across an article stating that a small battalion of men from the Fiji Islands composed of Europeans, Native Fijians and Indo-Fijians had taken part in one of the earliest battles of WWI. Apparently, nearly all were killed in a grenade attack. The interesting part is, that battalion was trained in Suva; on the site that was later used to house the US Embassy!

Coincidence? Maybe, but it sure does make you wonder.
 
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I accept that I don't know what occurs after this life.

I don't know if reincarnation, or rebirth, or if heaven or hell exist.

I like the wonder and contemplation...and all the millions who absolutely know.(but absolutely know absolutely different opposing doctrines)...that makes me wonder...and then wander.
 
Namaste Jesus said:
I use to have this reoccurring dream about being killed in WWI
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It brought to mind something I do NOT know much about:
"samskaras" ---impressions of a past life.

I googled: "samskara impression of last life"

and got these:
The Samskaras (impressions) are embedded in the subconscious mind or Chitta. ... You can recall thepast experiences from the storehouse of Samskaras in the ...

These impressions are termed samskaras and are the roots of causing rebirth and ... You can recall pastexperiences from the storehouse of samskaras in these ... All samskaras lie dormant in the chitta as latent activities, not only of this life but ...
 
wil said:
I don't know if reincarnation, or rebirth, or if heaven or hell exist.
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Yes we cannot know about the existence of the claims of specific books and how they describe heaven or hell.

But surely we know about Heavenly existence and Hellish existence.

We can easily describe ideal existence, and We can easily describe hellish existence.
 
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