STILLNESS SHIVA
Watts said:
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”
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CHAPMAN V MONISM
In a poignant critique of monism, cognitive scientist David Chapman writes:
“If All is One, then there is no boundary, and you are really the entire universe. Typically, monists say that the universe is equivalent to God, so you are actually also God. As you realize everything is totally connected, you develop the ability to affect anything you want.
This is the ultimate fantasy of power and invulnerability. However, convincing yourself that you are All-powerful, when you aren’t, does not make your life go well.
When the fantasy collides with reality, monists retreat into a make-believe magical world. Monism produces dreamy spaciness, refusal to make any clear distinctions, refusal to judge. This leads to drifting through life, expecting other people to clean up your messes, contributing nothing except spiritual clichés mouthed at unwanted times.”
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CHAPMAN X PARTICIPATION
Chapman suggests that both monism and dualism are incorrect and proposes a “complete stance” called “participation” that combines the correct aspects of both monism and dualism. He defines “participation” as follows:
“Participation is the stance that revels in the extraordinary variability of the world, that loves and engages with specifics and individuals; and also appreciates the porous self/other boundary, works skillfully with diverse connections, and accepts responsibility for whatever you encounter.”
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5ive confused attitudes to purpose
Everything has a fixed purpose, given by some sort of fundamental ordering principle of the universe. (This might be God, or Fate, or the Cosmic Plan, or something.) Humans too have a specific role to play in the proper order of the universe.
This is the stance of eternalism. It may be comfortable. If you just follow the eternal law, everything will come out right. Unfortunately, it often seems that much of life has no purpose. At any rate, you cannot figure out what it is supposed to be. Priests or other authority figures claim to know what the cosmic purposes are, but their advice often seems wrong for particular situations.
For these reasons, even people who are explicitly committed to eternalism generally fall into other stances at times.
Nothing has any purpose. Life is meaningless. Any purposes you imagine you have are illusions, errors, or lies.
This is the stance of nihilism. It appears quite logical. It might seem to follow naturally from some scientific facts: everything is made of subatomic particles; they certainly don’t have purposes; and you can’t get purpose by glomming together a bunch of purposeless bits.
It is easy to fall into nihilism in moments of despair; but, fortunately, it is difficult to maintain, and hardly anyone holds it for long. Nevertheless, the seemingly compelling logic of nihilism needs an answer. It turns out that it is quite wrong, as a matter again of science and logic. But because that is not obvious, three other stances try (and fail) to find a middle way between eternalism and nihilism.
The supposed cosmic purposes are doubtful at best, but obviously, people do have goals. There are human purposes no one can seriously doubt: survival, health, sex, romance, fame, power, enjoyable experiences, children, beautiful things. Realistically, those are what everyone pursues anyway. You might as well drop the hypocritical pretense of “higher” purposes and go for what you really want.
This is the stance of materialism. Realistically, most people adopt this stance much of the time. However, at times everyone does recognize the value of altruistic and creative purposes, which this stance rejects. Moreover, most recognize that materialism is an endless treadmill: the enjoyment of new goodies wears off quickly, and then you are left craving the next, better thing.
You can’t take it with you. After you are dead, it is meaningless how many toys you had. What matters is how you live your life: whether you create something of beauty or value for others. You have unique capabilities to improve the world, and it’s your responsibility to find and act on your personal gift.
This is the stance of mission. The problem is that no one actually has a “unique personal gift.” God does not have plans for us. People waste a lot of time and effort trying to find “their purpose in life,” and are miserable when they fail. Besides that, rejecting material purposes causes you to overlook genuine opportunities for enjoyment and satisfaction.
Since the universe (or God) does not supply us with purposes, they are human creations. Mostly people mindlessly adopt purposes that are handed to them by society. You need to throw those off, and choose your own purposes, as an act of creative will.
This is the stance of existentialism.1 It is based on the assumption that if purposes are not objective, or externally given, they must be subjective, or internally created. Existentialism holds out hope for freedom. But it is not actually possible to create your own purposes. Choosing at random would be pointless, and impossible; and what purely personal basis could you have for choosing one purpose over another?
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dth anxty - had a coat. It was getting old and thread bare. It was looking and feeling tired. I loved my coat but eventually I had to throw it away. I think of my body as a piece of clothing. My soul is me and my body houses it temporarily. I know that there will come a time when my body will be old and tired. My soul will still be continuing but the body has had enough. Maybe my soul will have some new clothing and I will reincarnate or maybe my soul will go on to a better place, whichever, I really don’t worry about death. I hope this makes sense to you.
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yanpus - “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than your self”
EOL Experience Of Life does this for us, so perhaps you are still trying to find your own path in life..? “Every cat is a Tiger - in its own path”. (Hindu Proverb)
“if I win, I gain; if I lose, I learn…”. (Nelson Mandela)
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soma rasa
Contrary to popular belief, Pantheism is not a religion—it is a religious *attitude* toward Nature. It has nothing to do with the supernatural, but instead consists of a deeper, more poignant and personal awareness of the material world. Pantheism is a completely Naturalistic philosophy, in that we reject any and all notions of supernaturalism and instead choose to embrace this physical reality in all its wonder and glory.
Many people talk about having a “spiritual connection” with something greater than themselves that transcends physical reality. Although there is no supernatural world, communion with divinity IS a real phenomenon and something that can be achieved by everyone. Beyond psychosomatic reactions or placebo effects that stem from delusional thinking and projection, this is something that can actually be cultivated and experienced by all.
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