God Is / Not An Impossibilty.

[Dontaskme]

While acknowledging the absolute primacy of awareness, I was hinting that in order for it to be meaningful, personality (pattern) and mind, though dependent on awareness, must coexist in our awareness as three as distinct features. In the introduction to A Greater Psychology, a collection of essays by Sri Aurbindo, Arabinda Basu writes:

As the Existent-Consciousness, Reality has three self-determined aspects: Self, Soul, and God the Lord. As Self it remains in the background of the process of self-manifestation of the Reality; as Soul [Pattern] it is the Conscious Being who sanctions the creative adventure of the Consciousness-Force, and as the Lord [Mind] it controls the process of the self-manifestation of the Reality.

Although Hindu, this sounds remarkably similar to the Christian Trinity.

On the other hand, Lucy is right:

“Humans consider themselves unique, so they've rooted their whole theory of existence on their uniqueness. 'One' is their unit of measure. But it's not. All social systems we've put into place are a mere sketch. 'One plus one equals two.' That's all we've learned. But one plus one has never equaled two. There are, in fact, no numbers and no letters. We've codified our existence to bring it down to human size, to make it comprehensible. We've created a scale so we can forget its unfathomable scale.” — Lucy

The excerpt from A Greater Psychology is a codification of the unfathomable. Not everyone has the wherewithal to see past the words and access Awareness without the intervention of ideas.

Very good, and well done for bringing this comment to awareness.

And I totally am in agreement with it.

.

[Greta]

Here is another trinity:

Self, environment and their interaction.

[Reflex]

Here is another trinity:

Self, environment and their interaction.

I see this as a discussion about possible ways to codify essence, not as a debate between essentialism and existentialism. So, properly speaking, this topic belongs in the 'metaphysics' forum.

There are many trinities, but only one in which all three are personalizable as "God."

[Greta]

Here is another trinity:

Self, environment and their interaction.

I see this as a discussion about possible ways to codify essence, not as a debate between essentialism and existentialism. So, properly speaking, this topic belongs in the 'metaphysics' forum.

There are many trinities, but only one in which all three are personalizable as "God."

It still works:

Environment = Father
Self = Son
Interaction = Holy spirit

[Reflex]

Here is another trinity:

Self, environment and their interaction.

I see this as a discussion about possible ways to codify essence, not as a debate between essentialism and existentialism. So, properly speaking, this topic belongs in the 'metaphysics' forum.

There are many trinities, but only one in which all three are personalizable as "God."

It still works:

Environment = Father
Self = Son
Interaction = Holy spirit

Uh....yeah. Okay.

[Greta]

I see this as a discussion about possible ways to codify essence, not as a debate between essentialism and existentialism. So, properly speaking, this topic belongs in the 'metaphysics' forum.

There are many trinities, but only one in which all three are personalizable as "God."

It still works:

Environment = Father
Self = Son
Interaction = Holy spirit

Uh....yeah. Okay.

Yeah, hey ... cool.

[Reflex]

It still works:

Environment = Father
Self = Son
Interaction = Holy spirit

Uh....yeah. Okay.

Yeah, hey ... cool.

You do understand that I wasn’t really agreeing, don’t you? “Self” is a compound so it doesn’t qualify. As explained above, self-consciousness is in communal consciousness: awareness, personality and mind. Awareness is primal in all domains.

[Greta]

Uh....yeah. Okay.

Yeah, hey ... cool.

You do understand that I wasn’t really agreeing, don’t you? “Self” is a compound so it doesn’t qualify. As explained above, self-consciousness is in communal consciousness: awareness, personality and mind. Awareness is primal in all domains.

Sure I do, man. It was dead cool sarcasm, dude. Rock on.

Actually, the equivalence works just fine. We come from the environment - our creator etc - that's unarguable. Then are are each a being, a self. Whatever that self may be, that is our subjective existential reality. Then there is the relationship with the environment and the connections formed between them - the spirit.

[Reflex]

Yeah, hey ... cool.

You do understand that I wasn’t really agreeing, don’t you? “Self” is a compound so it doesn’t qualify. As explained above, self-consciousness is in communal consciousness: awareness, personality and mind. Awareness is primal in all domains.

Sure I do, man. It was dead cool sarcasm, dude. Rock on.

Actually, the equivalence works just fine. We come from the environment - our creator etc - that's unarguable. Then are are each a being, a self. Whatever that self may be, that is our subjective existential reality. Then there is the relationship with the environment and the connections formed between them - the spirit.

Remember: the attempt is to codify existence in order to make it comprehensible. Now, if that’s the best you can do in ascribing reality to an unfathomable essence that’s fine, but to me, that sounds more like nominalism (the theory that there are no universal essences in reality) than essentialism.

Who/what created the environment? Each being is a compound rather than a stand-alone essence and the relationship you call “spirit” is merely the accidental manifestation of tension between potency and act. But one thing undergirds it all: awareness.

If you read the excerpt from the introduction to A Greater Psychology, it should be clear by now that awareness is not passive receptiveness, but pure Act.

[Dontaskme]

Sure I do, man. It was dead cool sarcasm, dude. Rock on.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.

Always aim to be your highest self, to wit...the real fictional character.

Know the difference between nothing and no-thing.
Knowing the difference is everything.

.

[Dontaskme]

Here is another trinity:

Self, environment and their interaction.

Here is 3 in one.

When Awareness (Father) knows sensation (Mother) Conciousness is born .. a(Son)

.

[Reflex]

It gets confusing because "consciousness," "awareness," "Self" and "self" are often used interchangeably.

[Dontaskme]

It gets confusing because "consciousness," "awareness," "Self" and "self" are often used interchangeably.

That's the problem of two opposing selves trying to occupy the same one self.

.

[Reflex]

From Essays Divine and Human by Sri Aurobindo:

Moksha

The pessimists have made moksha synonymous with annihilation or dissolution, but its true meaning is freedom. He who is free from bondage, is free, is mukta. But the last bondage is the passion for liberation itself which must be renounced before the soul can be perfectly free, and the last knowledge is the realisation that there is none bound, none desirous of freedom, but the soul is for ever and perfectly free, that bondage is an illusion and the liberation from bondage is an illusion. Not only are we bound but in play, the mimic knots are of such a nature that we ourselves can at our pleasure undo them.

Nevertheless the bonds are many and intricate. The most difficult of all their knots is egoism, the delusion that we have an individual existence sufficient in itself, separate from the universal and only being, ekamevadwitiyam, who is one not only beyond Time, Space and Causality. Not only are we all Brahman in our nature and being, waves of one sea, but we are each of us Brahman in His entirety, for that which differentiates and limits us, nama [name] and rupa [form], exists only in play and for the sake of the world-drama.

Whence then comes this delusion of egoism, if there is no separate existence and only Brahman is? We answer that there is separate existence but only in manifestation not in reality. It is as if one actor could play different parts not in succession but at one and the same moment; each part is He Himself, one and indivisible, but each part is different from the other. Brahman extends Himself in Time, Space & Causality which do not condition Him but exist in Him and can at any time be changed or abolished, and in Time, Space & Causality He attaches Himself to many namarupas which are merely existences in His universal being. They are real in manifestation, unreal outside manifestation.

Note: the complete works of Sri Aurobindo are available free online.

[Greta]

Well, if souls are supposed to go through a passage/journey to become free, no doubt they will find a way. Is there any special rush? A deadline? A dead line??

After all, if we are all not actually selves as such but part of greater wholes, when saving myself while others are straggling doesn't mean anything, except someone else is doing the suffering.

Who cares whether the person at the leading edge is me (this part of the greater whole) or someone else (another part of the greater whole)? Someone has to be ahead of the pack and someone has to be a straggler, and whether it is me or someone else doesn't matter.

As regards any larger systems of which we are part, we are meat puppets pulled around by our pain and suffering as surely as a dog is pulled on a leash. Humanity is in its current situation because it never had any choice in the first place but to reach this situation - lead to this place by our pleasure and pain.