>If we are "not of this earth," what are we of? "Transcend the physical
>world"? How? Sorry, but you've really lost me here. Are you talking
>trascendentalism as in eastern religions or what?
well, we are not our bodies... if you get your hand chopped off, you are
still the same person... we are not our emotions or our thoughts... we
are aware of HAVING these things, but we are not these things.... it isn't
necessarily eastern religion, but it is very similar to it... there is
the eastern concept of 'neti, neti' which means 'not that, not that'....
you can progressively label everything you are not, until you find out what
or who you really are... we are not our minds, because we can change our
minds and we are still who we are... we are consciousness/awareness... we
are the least common denominator of all that is.... we are energy at it's
most subtle level... mater doesn't even really exist as such... there is
energy, and then there is energy that goes in circles and which seems solid
(atoms)... our true nature is inseparable from what people know as 'god'...
we don't die, we just drop our bodies... we have the capacity to merge back
into the oneness from which we origionally came... also, we have the
capacity to REALIZE this oneness while still incarnate... something which
other terrestrial life forms cannot do.... a dog or an ardvark is
fundamentally as much 'god' as we are, but they are not able to realize
this... we are one with everything, which necessarily includes everything
on this earth.... we are one with the earth itself, and all the plants,
animals and organisms on it.... so that is why it is in our own
self-interest to be stewards to everything around us... because it is
us.... and if we don't realize that now, we will someday, each and every
one of us....
now, i'm stepping down from my soap box... :) it was necessary for me to
get upon it to answer you question... to tell you what i 'know'... how i
know, or how i can prove it, i'm not really sure at this point... and, i
leave open the possibility that i may be wrong... but it is what i choose
to believe... and it is a deeply felt knowing... but for all i know, the
christians may have the inside track to the ultimate truth and i'm just
decieving myself... but i'll bet my eternity against it... :)
bryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Bissell <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, November 09, 1998 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: gentlemen?
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bryan Hyden <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Sunday, November 08, 1998 8:51 PM
>Subject: Re: gentlemen?
>
>
>>>Bryan, please define "higher nature."
>>
>>Sure Corey. We are of a higher nature because we are self-aware. Now,
the
>>language gets a little slippery here because someone could argue that
>>there's no way of knowing whether or not animals (for instance) are
>>self-aware. So I'll use different language. Human's are the only earthly
>>possesors of 'free-will'. I mean we have free-will in the sense that we
>can
>>trancend the physical world. We are not of this earth. We are not our
>>bodies.
>
>If we are "not of this earth," what are we of? "Transcend the physical
>world"? How? Sorry, but you've really lost me here. Are you talking
>trascendentalism as in eastern religions or what?
>
>Steven J. Bissell
>http://www.du.edu/~sbissell
>http://www.responsivemanagement.com
>Our human ecology is that of a rare species of mammal
>in a social, omnivorous niche. Our demography is one of
>a slow-breeding, large, intelligent primate.
>To shatter our population structure, to become abundant
>in the way of rodents, not only destroys our ecological
>relations with the rest of nature, it sets the stage
>for our mass insanity.
> Paul Shepard
>
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