As Halloween approaches, the leaves are crunchy on the ground, the smell of hearth fires wafts through the night air...and spirits of the dead shall soon be celebrated! I luuvv Halloween 
Here is some philosophical mubo jumbe re. life after death, I hope you might enjoy it...
Here is some philosophical mubo jumbe re. life after death, I hope you might enjoy it...
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Because as far as I can see it, there is nothing in the history of recorded human thought that concludes that there is anything after death.
But enlighten us if you think otherwise.
[Edited on Oct 18, 2004 by gramsci]
Evidence:
1) Countless millions died prior to your existence. Therefore YOU are life after death.
2) I myself have survived a near death experience. Therfore I too am life after death.
Although the awakened concious mind falls victim to its own ego, the universe is much more vast than anyone can immediatley realize. Your mind filters its awareness in order to cope with material reality in an immediate sense, a broader scope of awareness is available to those who wish to understand more. It is not something that can be understood in a mere philosophical argument; rather it has to be experienced for one's own. It is one of the most difficult paths to take in life, but deep within us all, this question remains. What is the afterlife? IS there anything more? I elaborate...
Energy does not dissapear; life energy, and specifically conciousness is capable of creating anything. (Nanotechnolgy, Nuclear Physics, these things seemed impossible at one point in history) The power to create any reality is limited only by your mind. We are all part of a vast interconnected web of conciousness, at once immediate, and always eternal. Hence, the concept of God has developed. More recently the concept of afterlife has developed, and at one point has helped to deaden peoples realization of the power of their own conciousness, in a sense, binding them to a constricting outline of a material reality where they must live in accordance to a prescribed mode of behaviour, and if they do so, they may, if they are lucky, enter the afterlife (the Kingdom of Heaven, so to speak). The western mind has been inundated with this conciousness for thousands of years, and the oppression and supression of this system has resulted in a backlash, both individually and as a collective whole. Half of our society is vehement in its dissmissal of this belief.
Individually the mind rebels against this formula, initially formulating the opposing view: there is no afterlife! this is all we got ! live it up! This unfortunatley is only partly true. As a society, groups emerge with the incessant power to control, manipulate and even kill those that think otherwise; one of the reasons for war, and the acceptance of it. This has been humanity's legacy for countless thousands of years. And the individual carries this memory with him or her. You are the result of milions of years of people and all thier experiences have taken root in your mind. If not you would not have the ability to achieve what you are capable of doing. This is why it is each individuals responsibiity to trancend the boundaries of materialism and narcissistic individulaity, which runs rampant in our society, and to think collectively, moreso as in what will benefit the greater good of the entire human race. This is the struggle that we all face; shall we continue to evolve as a species, ultimately living more in harmony with the environment, or shall we, like parasites, continue to overpopulate and destroy mother earth, the goddess that she is? If we each take steps, perhaps there is hope? I myself am not so sure, but I have faith , I hope, and endure.
Enough mumbo jumbo, if you would like to read more check out Sri Aurobindo , and some of the excerpts therein, especially "The Human Aspiration" and "The Philosophy of Rebirth," or other Vedanta, and expand your mind a little bit. I also recommend the Dhammapada
and the works of George Feuerstein.
But enlighten us if you think otherwise.
[Edited on Oct 18, 2004 by gramsci]
Evidence:
1) Countless millions died prior to your existence. Therefore YOU are life after death.
2) I myself have survived a near death experience. Therfore I too am life after death.
Although the awakened concious mind falls victim to its own ego, the universe is much more vast than anyone can immediatley realize. Your mind filters its awareness in order to cope with material reality in an immediate sense, a broader scope of awareness is available to those who wish to understand more. It is not something that can be understood in a mere philosophical argument; rather it has to be experienced for one's own. It is one of the most difficult paths to take in life, but deep within us all, this question remains. What is the afterlife? IS there anything more? I elaborate...
Energy does not dissapear; life energy, and specifically conciousness is capable of creating anything. (Nanotechnolgy, Nuclear Physics, these things seemed impossible at one point in history) The power to create any reality is limited only by your mind. We are all part of a vast interconnected web of conciousness, at once immediate, and always eternal. Hence, the concept of God has developed. More recently the concept of afterlife has developed, and at one point has helped to deaden peoples realization of the power of their own conciousness, in a sense, binding them to a constricting outline of a material reality where they must live in accordance to a prescribed mode of behaviour, and if they do so, they may, if they are lucky, enter the afterlife (the Kingdom of Heaven, so to speak). The western mind has been inundated with this conciousness for thousands of years, and the oppression and supression of this system has resulted in a backlash, both individually and as a collective whole. Half of our society is vehement in its dissmissal of this belief.
Individually the mind rebels against this formula, initially formulating the opposing view: there is no afterlife! this is all we got ! live it up! This unfortunatley is only partly true. As a society, groups emerge with the incessant power to control, manipulate and even kill those that think otherwise; one of the reasons for war, and the acceptance of it. This has been humanity's legacy for countless thousands of years. And the individual carries this memory with him or her. You are the result of milions of years of people and all thier experiences have taken root in your mind. If not you would not have the ability to achieve what you are capable of doing. This is why it is each individuals responsibiity to trancend the boundaries of materialism and narcissistic individulaity, which runs rampant in our society, and to think collectively, moreso as in what will benefit the greater good of the entire human race. This is the struggle that we all face; shall we continue to evolve as a species, ultimately living more in harmony with the environment, or shall we, like parasites, continue to overpopulate and destroy mother earth, the goddess that she is? If we each take steps, perhaps there is hope? I myself am not so sure, but I have faith , I hope, and endure.
Enough mumbo jumbo, if you would like to read more check out Sri Aurobindo , and some of the excerpts therein, especially "The Human Aspiration" and "The Philosophy of Rebirth," or other Vedanta, and expand your mind a little bit. I also recommend the Dhammapada
and the works of George Feuerstein.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
My religion is controlled by lots of rich men in the Vatican, which is incredibly powerful and where there is power, there is corruption. Even if there was no deliberate manipulation, the fact that it is controlled by people makes it highly fallible. Human beings make many, many mistakes. The Bible should never be taken literally. In Islam, the Quor'an is believed to be the revelations that came directly from God, but the Bible is a series of books all written by men, sometimes hundreds of years after the event they describe. For example, it was actually a Catholic priest who told me that the story of the universe's creation, and Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis should never be taken literally, as it could not have happened that way - It was just Abraham's way of explaining that which he could not understand.
So because I never had such flimsy illusions shattered by common-sense, I was never disallusioned with my faith which, all human-influence and ignorance aside, simply means that one should not live one's life at the expense or to the detriment of another person. I think that's fair enough. I believe that if pure evil exists, then, by the same logic, pure good must also exist; they are simply two extreme points on the same scale.
I am also incredibly fascinated by the human consciousness; we use less than a third of our brains and we access only 1% of our DNA. What other abilities are latent within us? The human mind is boundless if we can remember not to focus solely on our everyday social constraints. Society and academia are not the be-all and end-all. Besides, not all theories on life after death are borne from purely religious theology: There is scientific evidence to suggest that there could be life after death. As your journal states,
"Energy does not disappear."
It simply converts in to a different form of energy. I find this thought reassuring, although we never really know if there is life after death until we have made that inevitable journey.
Edited to amend a typo.
[Edited on Oct 25, 2005 1:01PM]