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Tuesday, October 9
View Article  What does Buddhism reinforce about the significance of existence, life? Part I of I
by Daniel J. Shepard on Tue 09 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

What does Buddhism reinforce about the significance of existence, life?

 

 

Part I of I

 

Buddhism gives us the understanding that the significance of life and the impact it generates is so important that we must focus upon reducing suffering, the negative aspects of life.

 

•

 

The idea of all humans having a soul is tied to eternity and provides a whole new way of looking at the individual.

 

Now the individual is not important because they are alive, but rather the individual is important because the individual is tied to eternity.

 

This idea of being connected to eternity changed the direction of our behavior.

 

A tie to eternity meant we needed to consider our action because our actions now might affect our state of existence later.

 

Why this was so was not totally understood, but Buddhists sensed this to be true.

 

As such, Buddhists further opened up the idea that life was significant and allowing suffering in life would have a major impact upon existence in eternity.

 

In short, Buddhism further advanced the concept that life had value, significance.

 

•

 

As we increase the idea regarding how big our universe is and in turn how big our Creator is, we enlarge what we view as the potential of existence.

 

The Buddhist ideas were very significant, therefore, in terms of reinforcing the significance of life.

 

Now suffering, a part of life itself, was no longer to be taken lightly or just ignored for its existence impacted upon eternity.

 

Life under Buddhism took on a greater significance and one aspect of life, suffering, became a focal point.

 

End

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Friday, October 5
View Article  What does Homo- have to offer us as individuals? Part II of II
by Daniel J. Shepard on Fri 05 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

What does Homo- have to offer us as individuals?

 

Part II of II

...This is ‘thinking out of the box.’ We appear to be the only life form on earth capable of performing such a task.

 

Leaving our abstractness floating still further away from the circle filled with dots, we see something surrounding the circle, surrounding the universe.

 

We see abstraction bathing the sphere of the universe.

 

Total awareness, omniscience, seems to be the substance within which the universe is floating.

 

Upon closer examination, it appears that bits and pieces of abstraction are confined within the container, the universe.

 

The ability of man, the genus Homo, provides us with the potential to literally ‘think out of the box’ and see the significance of the individual lying outside the universe and in eternity.

 

•

 

This opens up the concept of the first of three forms of existence.

 

This opens up the concept of the individual.

 

We, the genus Homo, can see the individual as a separate entity, separate even from the Causative Force.

 

Separate not only because it is within the universe while the Causative Force is outside the universe, but separate also because it has its own identity, awareness, uniqueness, and individuality.

 

You exist.

 

You exist as an individual while at the same time being a part of something greater than yourself.

 

The whole is equal to the sum of its parts and you are a part of the whole.

 

While in the universe, you may be temporarily separated from what it is you are a part of, you are a part of it nonetheless and nobody has the power to take that away from you.

 

End

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Thursday, October 4
View Article  What does Homo- have to offer us as individuals? Part I of II
by Daniel J. Shepard on Thu 04 Oct 2007 12:13 AM EDT

What does Homo- have to offer us as individuals?

 

 

Part I of II

 

The genus Homo, man, has a unique ability to think originally.

 

To doso requires one to ‘think out of the box.’

 

•

 

Take this literally and a simple picture comes into focus.

 

First the dot representing individual awareness becomes visible as one floats backward away from the earth.

 

Floating much further away, a circle, the universe, becomes visible.

 

Many dots, awarenesses, inside the circle become the focal points.

 

An interesting perception becomes evident.

 

The abstract points of individual awareness appear to be confined within a physical container.

 

This physicality, this container, must be suspended within something.

 

To gain a better perspective, float even further away.

 

Still nothing.

 

Keep going, float even further away, still nothing.

 

Your abstraction cannot seem to float outside what the universe is suspended in.

 

We are going to have to apply a slightly different twist to our thinking by stepping out of our awareness and floating above it.

 

To be continued: Part II of II: This is...
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Tuesday, October 2
View Article  Response to the Logician: 070903: Part VI of VI
by Daniel J. Shepard on Tue 02 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

Response to the Logician: 070903:

 

Part VI of VI

Logician: … Don’t worry it’s normal used by millions from the “shamans” of old to the “Pharisees” of the new, and the “charlatans” of the modern, all in a bid to impose their personal understanding of the world forward before others. If you can’t explain it, it is therefore divine or has a bit of the divine in it, that understanding has lead to more deaths then all the bombs ever dropped in history. Logically there is a part of every living thing that cannot be defined in a neat little sentence or phrase or word, and just what that is, is not for one individual to EVER define, thus taking away the mystery that is life and love and therefore (maybe) a combination of the two may possibly be. There can be a billion wonderful expressions attached to the question of life and love, so why the Hell should they be reduced to a few, let’s call them, popular phrases, which over time change no matter what.

 

 

Djs: Truth is truth and does not ‘change’ over time. Our perception of truth may change as we grow to understand reality but that does not change truth, what it changes is simply our perception.

 

Logician: …Because I can believe in your teachings, …

 

Djs: I would take this as a compliment if I didn’t know you ‘believe’ in everyone’s ‘beliefs’, ‘rational dialectics’, statements, arguments, conclusions, morals, ethics, fundamental premises, … As you say: Everyone is ‘right’.

 

Logician: … basically because I can understand all the aspects of it, I can also choose not to believe in it, as I have found, as I have, in all other teachings, huge holes in their theories of the reasons for everything and they clouded it in religious dogma and the ever present “divine” card played at every table when the “chips are down”. …

 

Djs: I hope this exchange helps to clear up some of your perceptions.

 

Logician: Don’t take what I’ve written personally, …

 

Djs: The dialogue is interesting and no personal affront is taken.

 

Logician: … if you do then you are not ready for what you thought you could achieve. Hey, you could be right after all and everything I have just written is false. It doesn’t mean I’m wrong though, and you still could be seriously wrong and on the verge of starting yet another “belief-krig” …

 

Djs: I do not know how a ‘belief-krig’ could start from this site since the concept of ‘belief’ is not the foundation of this site.  

 

 

Logician: … that could quite easily result in an early exit of the human species from this planet, but who am I to tell you anything?

 

Djs: The point of this site is to bring us as individuals and a species to a new level of understanding regarding reality and our role within reality. This site does not act as a catalyst for our demise.

 

The point is to prepare us to respect the uniqueness of the individual as opposed to verbalizing the individual being unique but taking actions to force the individual to conform.

 

The point is to prepare us for an interaction with life forms outside our planet.

 

We have a choice. We can either attempt to understand reality and understand our role within reality or we can, out of fear of offending anyone, simply say ‘everyone is right’.

 

 

           

Logician: So, Mr. Shepard, may I thank you yet again for your reply.

 

Peace, Love and Respect

 With Respect comes Love, with Love and Respect comes Peace

   Remember : Religion guides you, it doesn’t rule you.

 

 

J °C

 

Logician.

 

Djs: As always your insights have been interesting. Again thanks for your interest.

End

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Monday, October 1
View Article  Response to the Logician: 070903: Part V of VI
by Daniel J. Shepard on Mon 01 Oct 2007 12:00 AM EDT

Response to the Logician: 070903:

 

Part V of VI

Logician: … Just what that is, is up to me to find out in my own way and not to be told by someone who thinks they know more about life than I do or anyone else does for that matter. …

 

Djs: I am not ‘telling’ you to ‘believe’ anything. I am just proposing a model of reality based upon reason and rationality.

 

You have the ‘right’ to believe’ whatever it is you wish to ‘believe’.

 

I am here to participate in dialectics based upon ‘reason’ not simply what it is one ‘believes’.

 

 

Logician: …When I find out what I want to call it, i.e. a soul, it will be something that I choose. …

 

Djs: Because you ‘call it’ this or that does not make it so, rather it simply is a statement of what you believe.

 

For instance: If a blind man feels the leg of an elephant, he may ‘believe’ it is a tree but does not make the elephant a tree.

 

 

Logician: …It also allows me to be totally incorrect and in conflict with what others believe happen to them when they die, and it doesn’t matter one iota. …

 

Djs: You are correct. There is life after death or there isn’t. Life after death is not dependent upon what ‘you believe’, it either is or it isn’t.

 

Logician: … My belief is an all encompassing belief, call it omni-religious, if you will (it’s just a hyphenated word, not a rule), I represent humans and human behaviour without being a human saviour, remember when I asked you about the responsibility given to those of us who tread paths that were not meant for us? You stood and said you knew the inherent danger and were willing to put your name to it, well, it also gives you as an individual absolute “power” (within those who choose to embrace your teachings), I on the other hand disperse the “power” available to all humans and change it from “power” to responsibility of the individual and the respect of the individual to encompass all life, in other words all peoples for the first time have a reason for living, based upon the respect if the individual, the local, the national, the cultural and thus the global definition of the human species, we all become ambassadors of our species in each others eyes thus removing the inherent danger usually associated with these types of methods, by giving it freely to them all. Without changing on iota of whom they are. All become responsible for everything all do. (Scary eh!?) No one left to blame, except ourselves. No excuses for what happens after the implementation of the solution, and no going back either. (Even more scary!) A true test of all religious beliefs ever written, can humans take the reins and reign themselves? They haven’t been able to up until now, but I am one who believes that we can if we want to, we just have to want to.

 

Djs: I applaud your efforts and hopes for both humanity as a whole and the individual itself.

 

 

Logician: …Your works within the spiritual “sphere” of a human’s personal philosophy, are your interpretation only and “should” not to be impressed upon people who have no idea of what or who a divine entity is. As stated before you have reduced god into a pigeon hole with a label on it. God if you let God be what God is,  is indefinable, just ask any true believer and they will tell you the same, therefore you have no right to tell them otherwise. …

 

Djs: Again, I am not dealing with ‘beliefs’ but rather I am proposing rational arguments.

 

I state the following and then provide the rationale dialectics for such statements:

 

  1. You exist
  2. I exist
  3. The physical universe exists
  4. The Whole exists
  5. You and I are ‘within’ the physical universe
  6. The physical universe lies ‘within’ the Whole/God

These six statements describe panentheism.

 

  1. All that exists impacts all else that exists (including the existence of non-existence) – symbiosis

 

Thus symbiotic panentheism.

 

Symbiotic panentheism is a form of panentheism.

 

Symbiotic panentheism is literally a model of reality, nothing more.

 

Symbiotic panentheism is not based upon ‘beliefs’ but rather based upon ‘reason’.

 

That’s all, nothing more, nothing less.

 

 

Logician: … You state that there is a divine part of a human, what you mean is there is a part of a human that even you cannot explain fully and so you associate this trait with being divine. …

 

Djs: … but I do explain it. I have not avoided explicitly addressing any issues regarding human divinity.

 

To be continued: Part VI: Logician: … Don’t worry it’s normal...
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