What's the third eye?

Worth noting that the 'Third Eye' is an Asiatic Tradition, unknown in the West, although it became popular when Asiatic traditions became better known, so I think it's sketchy to read 'third eye' ideas into the Abrahamics, for example.

In that context, I think the focus has always been on the heart, rather than the eye.
 
juice said:
Why Christian see it as evil to open your third eye?
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To reply directly —

At one level it's ignorance. Anything alien is evil, kinda thing.

At a deeper level, simply that the 'third eye' is not part of Abrahamic metaphysical or mystical anthropology. In Scripture the heart as the core of being, as opposed to the mind.
 
Yes/No ... I think the two terms best express it in terms of how we perceive/conceive it.

The mind is conceived in the head, the heart in the body?
 
Thomas said:
Yes/No ... I think the two terms best express it in terms of how we perceive/conceive it.

The mind is conceived in the head, the heart in the body?
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The reason I asked is that the writers of much of the Hebrew scripture believed that the heart was the site of the intellect. If I remember correctly - and I haven't thought about this in quite awhile - they believed that the emotions were centered in the kidneys.
 
Thomas said:
Worth noting that the 'Third Eye' is an Asiatic Tradition, unknown in the West, although it became popular when Asiatic traditions became better known, so I think it's sketchy to read 'third eye' ideas into the Abrahamics, for example.
In that context, I think the focus has always been on the heart, rather than the eye.
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There is quite a lot of visual metaphor in the New Testament, and in Christian mystics, such as Ekhart that I mentioned above.

(Perhaps because I live in Japan) I have sometimes thought that Jesus was trying to get Abrahmics to turn Asian!

E.g.

"Our father who art in Heaven" was written with "Heaven" as coelum which can also mean sky.

(from the Lord's Prayer wikipedia page) Rabbi Aron Mendes Chumaceiro has said may have a counterpart in...
Isaiah 63:15–16 ("Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation ... For you are our Father ...")

When I say the Lords Prayer, as I have taken to doing, I say it as "the Heavens" which means a similar thing to sky, upwards, not some intellectual place elsewhere. I used to think the notion that God is in the sky, above the clouds, or whatever, to be a childish notion but these days, I wonder if this light that I am always looking at, may be looking at me. If so then "eye" and "sky" may be more appropriate metaphors than I had thought.
 
RabbiO said:
The reason I asked is that the writers of much of the Hebrew scripture believed that the heart was the site of the intellect...
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Interesting. D'you know if the inference was intellect as in the mystical/transcendent sense, as opposed to the contemporary and common understanding?
 
Thomas said:
Worth noting that the 'Third Eye' is an Asiatic Tradition, unknown in the West, although it became popular when Asiatic traditions became better known, so I think it's sketchy to read 'third eye' ideas into the Abrahamics, for example.

In that context, I think the focus has always been on the heart, rather than the eye.
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Agree fully on the heart focus.

While the Bible does not mention the Third Eye or even allude to it very clearly (there are some passages in the Gospels about the eye illuminating the world, but they are better understood in the context of ancient Greek theory of perception), later Christian iconography has plenty of explicit clues, the most obvious being the contemplatively up-turned eyes of many saints, which align conveniently with Eastern meditation manuals' descriptions of eye movements associated with what is loosely termed "activating the third eye".
 
Cino said:
Agree fully on the heart focus.
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Mmm .. without the heart, there is no life.
..and that is the heart of the matter :)

We also say "have a heart" meaning to be compassionate.
The heart is also the seat of intention.

..ooh, I almost forgot .. it pumps blood too.
it's got to be kosher.. ahhm
 
muhammad_isa said:
Mmm .. without the heart, there is no life.
..and that is the heart of the matter :)

We also say "have a heart" meaning to be compassionate.
The heart is also the seat of intention.

..ooh, I almost forgot .. it pumps blood too.
it's got to be kosher.. ahhm
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Well, I have listened to sheikhs go on and on about the heart, about its capacities for insightful knowledge, compassion, feeling, and candor - or deceit.

The term heart-blood or life-blood has connotations of someone's (or some being's) most intimate, personal essence in many languages and cultures. Seems to run deep, not to be taken lightly. Handle with reverence for dear life. (I'm vegetarian)
 
Cino said:
(I'm vegetarian)
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Cino. It is good to be a vegetarian. But even a vegetarian will sustain on something which is living - plants. No one can be 100% non-violent. That was explained explicitly 2000 years ago in Bhagawat Purana in the episode of 'Dharma-Vyadha', the pious butcher.
The books said 'Jeevo jivasya bhojanam' (One form of life is food for another).
 
Aupmanyav said:
Cino. It is good to be a vegetarian. But even a vegetarian will sustain on something which is living - plants. No one can be 100% non-violent. That was explained explicitly 2000 years ago in Bhagawat Purana in the episode of 'Dharma-Vyadha', the pious butcher.
The books said 'Jeevo jivasya bhojanam' (One form of life is food for another).
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In Theravada scripture, roughly contemporary, there is a little counting-out style sutra, going from one to ten, as a mnemonic for summarizing doctrine. Like, "what is three? The Triple Gem" and so on. Now Buddhism has no first principle, no origin story, no highest power... so the teaching assigned to the number one is, "all beings subsist on food".

But yes, if I've got to draw a more-or-less arbitrary line, I'll draw it where beings with a nervous system, able to experience pain and fear, are affected. I'll also draw it with my own body's well-being in mind. Minimize the violence where possible. If the ideal of pious bloodshed works for someone, that's great for them. I don't see that it's widespread here in Central Europe, however, with its industrialized, dehumanized and dehumanizing (for the workers) factory farms and slaughterhouses. So I opt out of that particular ideal.
 
Aupmanyav said:
Can we do without brain? Even heart would not function.
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Actually, it does .. that's why we have "brain dead" people etc.

Aupmanyav said:
For a kosher heart, a kosher brain is a necessity.
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Hmm .. I like haggis [ a Scottish recipe ]
It consists of offal and oats. [ not brain ]

Have I eaten brains?
Yes .. but it's a bit "whacky" .. as is eating snakes, and bats and "anything going" :eek:
 
Cino said:
..The term heart-blood or life-blood has connotations of someone's (or some being's) most intimate, personal essence in many languages and cultures. Seems to run deep, not to be taken lightly. Handle with reverence for dear life. (I'm vegetarian)
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Congrats .. you eat kosher. Your 'spirit' is clean :)
 
Cino said:
Thank you. What's with the sudden interest in kashrut?
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I believe in the Torah, Psalms, Gospel and Qur'an .. in the One G-d of Abraham.
I believe that Jesus, peace be with him, did NOT eat pigs or blood poured forth.

My son is a vegan [ and a Muslim ]
I don't discourage him. It is not part of religion to eat flesh .. but it is permitted.
 
muhammad_isa said:
It is not part of religion to eat flesh .. but it is permitted.
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Islam has some rules about which animal products are permissible, right? You mentioned spiritual cleanliness. Is observance of using halal products a means for such purification of the spirit or "heart", then?
 
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