Corresponding with Will 2

And here's the next installment - corresponding with Will 2 :-)

 

Dear Will,

Thank-you for your interesting reply.

I like your point about the "heat death of the universe" As things decay into energy, I suppose it ends up as heat and eventually the heat cools down to a stop. It reminds me of that research Stephen Hawkings did to
demonstrate that black holes have a temperature. Apparently, on the event
horizon in a black hole when the light is trapped by gravity, some
mysterious particles jump back and forth across the boundary giving some
kind of heat radiance or something, quite curious really.

In the Vedic literature, the universe is sometimes described as the breath of a transcendental entity who is emanating entire multiple universes, into time and space, from the pores in its transcendental skin. Amazing huh? Apparently, the universes expand outward with the outward breath and collapses inward with the inward breath. At the end of each breathing cycle, the entire universe is reabsorbed into the transcendental entity. Kind of fits with the Big Bang theory too when the singularity explodes, its like the initial breath of Maha-Visnu entering into the world of space and time.

I like your point about the "do" and the "michi" very nice. That is indeed an important point. It's such a wonderful thing. It's like Jesus said "Salvation lies within" The fact is basically, people want to be happy and experience pleasure. However, the problem is where to find that pleasure and happiness. I feel if one looks for pleasure only in the relationship between the senses and the sense objects, then pleasure will always be transient. If however, one looks for pleasure within oneself and ones relationship to the eternal and infinite universe then one is undoubtably on the right path to happiness.

This is not to say temporary pleasure has no value. I believe it does have a value. Temporary pleasure is still pleasure, it's just temporary, that's all.

That question about the absolute nature of relative subjective experience is fascinating. I guess the problem is determining what the self actually is. This was partly my mission in studying psychology at Uni. Unfortunately psychologists have a hopelessly inadequate conception of consciousness, constrained largely but an imperfect materialistic methodology. We can't observe the consciousness via the senses.

I now believe there is certainly much more to the self than meets the minds-eye. My general conception is of an entity distinct from the body. It is intrinsically connected to the infinite and eternal universe. To illustrate the nature of eternity, consider the abitrary nature of one second - a man made invention. As the clock ticks by, the seconds pass. Yet how many moments are there in that second? and indeed, how many moments are there in a day? To me it's more like there is just one single, eternal Now moment.

With so many people simultaneously experiencing life, each with their own subjective world-view, it is inconceivable to determine how many moments of experience there are in a single day. So many relative subjective worlds.Indeed for a single individual, as consciousness flows from one moment to the next, it is interesting the ponder what is the relationship between that consciousness and the universe? Most of the time, the consiousness is engaged in sense activity and relating to the external material world. The senses, I believe, constrain what is in fact infinite information, into discrete manageable chunks. And the senses are fascinating, they provide an ever-changing tapestry of stimulation. If however, the self focusses it's energy within then it becomes apparent that there is a perfect connectedness between every moment and eternity and the changing world of the senses is in fact illusion - real, but temporary. In this state, it can be seen that the temporary things have no real existence - It becomes apparent there is no difference between anything and that we simply are.

Well that's one conclusion anyway :-)

I guess at that point we have to have love for God.

I knew you were a thinker! so nice to have met you and practicing yoga too!
that's just great. inspiring really. Yoga is such a good way to get the body in shape, balancing all the muscle groups and allowing the chi/prana to flow evenly. nice stuff.

hey, I'll go now, but cheers for the interesting thoughts,

kind regards,

David.

P.S Disclaimer : the opinions expressed herein are entirely subjective and the author makes no claim to there absolute applicablity. The author acknowledges the intrinsic value of individual subjective world-views and is maintaining a completely open mind.






----- Original Message -----
From: "William Yong" <will_yong@yahoo.co.uk>
To: "David Thomas" <davidwhthomas2008@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: in reply...


Hello again David,
 You've obviously taken this one deeper than I've ever
 gone but I think I get what you're saying. It reminds
 me of those two tremendously evocative symbols - the
 yin yang and the manji (swastika). The opposition of
 the arms / black and white is the impetus for the
 motion of life or perhaps the very nature of life
 itself.
     I can't help but relate this to Big Bang theory
 and the Laws of thermodynamics in my hopelessly
 underinformed way... A bursting out of the opposites,
 the dualities, the arms of the manji, the yin and the
 yang, this is the energy that sends out existence from
 the centre, the  source. All things will eventually
 return to the one,  the "mu" state, the non-state, the
 heat death of the universe(?).

 You know, when I meet new people, what I want to find
 out first of all is whether or not they are on the
 path. In Japanese it would be "michi" or "do" - the
 "do" of "sado", "aikido" etc. I don't necessarily mean
 whether or not they are followign some kind of
 esoteric teaching but whether or not they are
 fundamentally aware that the purpose of life is not
 trudging through the swamp of multifaceted sense
 experience and worldly aims but turning to face the
 self. Anyway... the more I turn my attention inwards
 in this way the more it seems that every experience,
 every realisation is an answer to the same question -
 what tends towards the centre and what throws us
 centrifugally out from it. It's wonderfully
 simplifying when you can conceive of life in this way
 don't you think?

 As far as the absolute relativity of subjective
 experience goes... hmmm. Tibetan Buddhists would say
 that the lines that we draw between consciousnesses
 are arbitrary. The ability to appear in the dreams of
 other would be a case in point. Sometimes I find
 myself erring towards idealism when I think about
 this. The self somehow gets in the way doesnt it? The
 ego asserts that it is "I" who is experiencing and
 therefore we require the concept of relativity to

 square everyone's separate assertion of this. I am
 nowhere near sorting my thoughts out on that one. But
 I'm willing to give it a go! Your help would be
 appreciated... I like the way this dialogue is going!

 catch you again soon.

 W i l l