Philosophy Now Forum

Greta, I think our discussion is travelling on roads that lead into different directions. I admit, I have been drifting off from my initial point and we now have ended up in a discussion about human history, opposing nations, the environment and neutron stars (amazing how language can take one into ...

Belinda, From the aspect of eternity all individual parts are illusions of thought. From the aspect of duality all individual parts are real and not illusory. I agree with the aspect of duality, but there is no "aspect of eternity". An aspect can only exist in duality - the aspect of etern...

it's a genuine, separate entity to be dealt with on its own terms Yes and no. It obviously makes practical sense to deal with objects in an appropriate way - when a car approaches I get out of the way - I don't walk straight into a tree and I don't jump off a building to find out if I can fly. The ...

Is "eternal" and "infinite" the same thing? Is absence of time and infinite time the same? Yes, but its not a thing... We can't objectify infinity/eternity - or... rather we actually try to do just that, but the outcome can only be illusory. Well, yes you could say that absence ...

didn't take the other means of knowing mentioned into account Knowing is always direct, unbiased and not interpreted - direct knowing/experiencing doesn't require conceptual thought. As soon as we attach attributes to knowing it turns into conceptual understanding - it is always based on relativist...

Dubious, Maybe that's because we think in parts and not in wholes Yes, we think in parts - thought creates/is duality - but our direct experience itself is actually always whole. We never experience parts - we always experience the whole (=reality) - but then thought comes along and cuts it into men...

Greta, based on my senses, logic and those of others, we humans appear to be far less dense... This observation is not based on your senses - seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling & touch - but only on thought. It is an interpretation you have acquired and now believe, but if you try to verify this...

How do you know a part has fundamentally real qualities ? Lets say a star or, to make it as simple as possible, really any object close to you - a car, a tree, the tea cup on the desk in front of you... What turns it into a real , separate object with specific properties? Seeing itself doesn't do it...

Hi Greta, thank you for your post! there seems to be connection between all parts As I see it there are no parts - all partition is mind made and purely relies on an agreed upon definitions/interpretations. An interpretation is not truth. The idea of oneness is only a mental antidote to the story of...

We have many ways of naming the eternal and infinite — God, Source, Brahman and Absolute are all equal conceptions human kind uses for pointing to something larger and more powerful than ourselves. An omnipotent being, far removed from the daily routine of our lives, who seems to ignore our good dee...

Nothingness cannot be known...Except in relation to Everything. What is Everything?.... cannot be known either, except as concept, as language is dual by nature. The paradox of duality is unavoidable, as the concept of oneness is inconceivable. Nothing and everything are the same - just like zero a...

Premise #1: Life was created from a completely random process. Premise #2: No finite being can create anything that is completely random. Therefore: Life was created by an infinite being. A "completely random process" is really no process at all - at least not a process in time as time lo...