Tortotubus - the oldest fossil of a land-dwelling organism. First Life on Land? Examples were discovered on the Scottish island of Kerrera. Meet the 440-million-year-old Scottish fungus which kick-started the human race
Where were you when creatures like the one above existed over 400 million years ago?
In the Hindu's Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna; "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.
An early Christian called Origen believed that souls existed before they were born.
In Jeremiah 1:4-5 we read:
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.'
According to Lisa P., in the book Coming from the Light:
"I was putting three-year-old Johnny to bed...
"Johnny said 'tell me of Grandpa Robert.' I was surprised...I had not told stories of him, and I could not imagine where he had heard his name. He had died before I had even married.
"'How do you know about Grandpa Robert?' I asked. 'Well, Momma,' he said with reverence, 'he's the one who brought me to earth.'"
Dr Bradford Skow says that the past, present and future all exist together
According to the Buddhists, it is best not to keep on being re-incarnated.
"To transcend suffering one must cease the cycle of arising and cessation. Of birth and death.
'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.'
According to Lisa P., in the book Coming from the Light:
"I was putting three-year-old Johnny to bed...
"Johnny said 'tell me of Grandpa Robert.' I was surprised...I had not told stories of him, and I could not imagine where he had heard his name. He had died before I had even married.
"'How do you know about Grandpa Robert?' I asked. 'Well, Momma,' he said with reverence, 'he's the one who brought me to earth.'"
Dr Bradford Skow says that the past, present and future all exist together
According to the Buddhists, it is best not to keep on being re-incarnated.
"To transcend suffering one must cease the cycle of arising and cessation. Of birth and death.
"You then become One with the Absolute Awareness."
The Cosmic Dance.
"Early Christians, before Constantine took over the religion, had a much different view of the soul and its relationship to God than mainstream Christianity does today.
"It viewed the soul as having a past history with God and was destined to rejoin God in the future, and that Christ came as an example of how we accomplish this task and to make make it possible in an all new way for us to achieve our union with God.
"In many ways this teaching wasn't that much different than what Buddha taught concerning the soul and its relationship with the Absolute. Christ taught we must be reborn in the spirit and Buddha taught we must transcend this world and our attachment to it."
"Early Christians, before Constantine took over the religion, had a much different view of the soul and its relationship to God than mainstream Christianity does today.
"It viewed the soul as having a past history with God and was destined to rejoin God in the future, and that Christ came as an example of how we accomplish this task and to make make it possible in an all new way for us to achieve our union with God.
"In many ways this teaching wasn't that much different than what Buddha taught concerning the soul and its relationship with the Absolute. Christ taught we must be reborn in the spirit and Buddha taught we must transcend this world and our attachment to it."
Mystic Doctrines.
Where were you over 400 million years ago?
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of philosophy Dr Bradford Skow says that the idea that time flows like a river is not correct.
Instead he claims the past, present and future all exist together
dailymail / Does time pass? | MIT News
"If we were to ‘look down’ upon the universe, we would see time spread out in all directions.
"Events exist in different parts of space-time.
"While installing central heating in the cellar of the Treasurer’s House in 1953, Harry Martindale was witness to an astounding sight.
"Roman soldiers, dressed in green tunics and wearing plumed helmets, appeared suddenly through a wall of the cellar, they then marched, dishevelled and dejected, through the cellar before disappearing."
Mysterious Universe.
....
Dr Bradford Skow says that space-time is a 'block universe'.
A 'block universe' can be compared to a movie reel, where all the parts of the movie exist at the same time.
Dr Skow says that events, such as the American Revolution or 9 11, exist in different parts of space-time.
Shawn Radcliffe has written: The Flow of Time in a Timeless Universe
He points out that according to quantum physics, "the future isn't set until we measure a quantum object - at which point its state becomes fixed.
"Viewed this way, we live on the leading edge of a growing block universe, with future possibilities coming into existence every time we take measurements.
"So each 'now' determines the future, a future that is always just beyond our reach."
To some thinkers, such as Parmenides and Julian Barbour in his book The End of Time,Time is an illusion.
The security chip on a credit card is a two-dimensional surface which allows us to see a three dimensional object.
Above we see a hologram which is flat and two dimensional, but, which can be seen as non-flat and three dimensional.
Some scientists think that we live in a hologram and that we are simply 'a projection' from that hologram.
Simulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram ....
The hologram contains all the information needed to project us and our world into three dimensional things.
Some scientists believe that all 'things', or particles, are really just one interlinked thing.
Some people believe that 'consciousness' creates everything that there is.
Some scientists believe that all 'events', past, present or future, are actually taking place at the same time.
And what about your ancestors, the single celled creatures - the earliest form of life?
"Single-celled slime moulds demonstrate the ability to memorize and anticipate repeated events, a team of Japanese researchers reported in January 2008."
Time and Torsion in a Conscious, Holographic Universe ....
We can tune into different frequencies.
The psychiatrist Stanislav Grof "had one female patient who suddenly became convinced she had assumed the identity of a female of a species of prehistoric reptile...
"Grof had patients ... with little or no education who suddenly gave detailed descriptions of Zoroastrian funerary practices and scenes from Hindu mythology...
Reality - The Holographic Universe.
Professor Kater Murch (above) has found that by knowing the future of a cat, its life in the past is altered.
Professor Kater Murch, at Washington University, has found that by knowing the future outcome of a particle, its state in the past is altered.
Things are made out of tiny 'particles'.
According to the scientists, when you come a cross a 'particle' it does not have a 'fixed state' - until your mind decides what its 'fixed state' will be.
In other words, if you come across Mr Schrödinger's cat lying very still on the grass, the cat is neither dead nor alive - until your mind decides what its 'fixed state' will be.
Let us imagine that you have a very strong feeling that the cat will be alive and well next year.
Then the cat is currently not dead.
The future has affected the present.
dailymail - Can the past change the FUTURE?
Christians believe that things go better when you tune into the Holy Spirit.
The Taoists would call the Holy Spirit the Tao.
When you are tuned in, the cat is not dead.
What are the essentials of Taoism?
(http://www.godquest.org/taoism.htm / Http://www.crystalinks.com/taoism.html)
Some Taoists and Christians and others believe that bliss can be achieved when:
1. You believe that, when tuned in, life works out for the best.
2. You are compassionate
3. You are moderate (Avoid extremes)
4. You are humble (The selfish ego is switched off)
5. Everything is in balance
6. Being tuned into the Holy Spirit or the Tao or whatever you want to call it, you go with the flow (You are not battling against the Holy Spirit or Tau)
7. You avoid the use of force; you avoid pitting your will against the universe.
Eventually the cat will die, but it will continue in the Spirit.
"Living beings resist the zero state so they can experience enjoyment out of what is essentially nothingness."
3. p3ndulum (If everything is just an illusion) refers to our possible illusions about our 'loved one'.
Laozi and Quantum Physics .
....
Dr Bradford Skow says that time does not flow like a river.
Dr Bradford Skow says that space-time is a 'block universe'.
A 'block universe' can be compared to a movie reel, where all the parts of the movie exist at the same time.
Dr Skow says that events, such as the American Revolution or 9 11, exist in different parts of space-time.
Shawn Radcliffe has written: The Flow of Time in a Timeless Universe
He points out that according to quantum physics, "the future isn't set until we measure a quantum object - at which point its state becomes fixed.
"Viewed this way, we live on the leading edge of a growing block universe, with future possibilities coming into existence every time we take measurements.
"So each 'now' determines the future, a future that is always just beyond our reach."
To some thinkers, such as Parmenides and Julian Barbour in his book The End of Time,Time is an illusion.
To the Buddhist, the world (Samsara) is full of movement and an awareness of Time.
But Nirvana is blissful and still; and has no Time.
"Buddhism and the illusion of time"
"You can picture this ... as a vast blue sky, and the world of time and change is just a little tiny cloud passing within it...
"Buddhism and the illusion of time"
"You can picture this ... as a vast blue sky, and the world of time and change is just a little tiny cloud passing within it...
"The cloud arises, the cloud stays a bit, and the cloud goes, but the vast empty sky remains untouched by it...
"You are the vast empty sky and this whole universe is a tiny cloud within you.
"You are the vast empty sky and this whole universe is a tiny cloud within you.
"Through .... ignorance, however, you have forgotten your true nature as the motionless sky and mistakenly identified yourself as the ever-changing cloud (or a small part of the cloud)...
"Buddhism and the illusion of time"
"Buddhism and the illusion of time"
"It's the same as the old 'mirror' analogy: your mind is a perfectly clear mirror, and the world is reflected in it.
"You first must discover that you are the mirror and become free of the reflections.
"Then you must discover that the reflections are not separate from the mirror. At that point you become Free as the Absolute Unity of mirror-and-reflections together...
"Buddhism and the illusion of time"
"Everything is like a dream, is like dew, is like a bubble or a flash of lightning. Nothing stays but is always in a process of change.
"Rather than being some constant, fixed reality, this whole universe constantly appears and disappears.
"But there is a way to experience the true nature of this constantly changing universe.
"Simply do not become attached to any outside world.
"Don’t become attached to names and forms.
"If you keep that point, then your mind is not moving.
"You attain that names and forms are fundamentally empty.
"This whole universe is completely empty. You are completely empty. Nothing ever comes or goes. Nothing ever appears or disappears.
"When you keep this mind, you soon attain your true self."
-Zen Master Seung Sahn, The Compass of Zen, pp. 127-129
"Waking up from the dream means realizing that nothing ever happened. With Enlightenment there is no history. It has been burned out of existence. Time itself has been destroyed."
-Andrew Cohen
"Then you must discover that the reflections are not separate from the mirror. At that point you become Free as the Absolute Unity of mirror-and-reflections together...
"Buddhism and the illusion of time"
"Rather than being some constant, fixed reality, this whole universe constantly appears and disappears.
"But there is a way to experience the true nature of this constantly changing universe.
"Simply do not become attached to any outside world.
"Don’t become attached to names and forms.
"If you keep that point, then your mind is not moving.
"You attain that names and forms are fundamentally empty.
"This whole universe is completely empty. You are completely empty. Nothing ever comes or goes. Nothing ever appears or disappears.
"When you keep this mind, you soon attain your true self."
-Zen Master Seung Sahn, The Compass of Zen, pp. 127-129
"Waking up from the dream means realizing that nothing ever happened. With Enlightenment there is no history. It has been burned out of existence. Time itself has been destroyed."
-Andrew Cohen
The security chip on a credit card is a two-dimensional surface which allows us to see a three dimensional object.
Above we see a hologram which is flat and two dimensional, but, which can be seen as non-flat and three dimensional.
Some scientists think that we live in a hologram and that we are simply 'a projection' from that hologram.
Simulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram ....
The hologram contains all the information needed to project us and our world into three dimensional things.
Some scientists believe that all 'things', or particles, are really just one interlinked thing.
Some people believe that 'consciousness' creates everything that there is.
Some scientists believe that all 'events', past, present or future, are actually taking place at the same time.
And what about your ancestors, the single celled creatures - the earliest form of life?
"Single-celled slime moulds demonstrate the ability to memorize and anticipate repeated events, a team of Japanese researchers reported in January 2008."
Time and Torsion in a Conscious, Holographic Universe ....
We can tune into different frequencies.
The psychiatrist Stanislav Grof "had one female patient who suddenly became convinced she had assumed the identity of a female of a species of prehistoric reptile...
"Grof encountered examples of patients regressing and identifying with virtually every species on the evolutionary tree...
"Moreover, he found that such experiences frequently contained obscure zoological details which turned out to be accurate...
"Grof had patients ... with little or no education who suddenly gave detailed descriptions of Zoroastrian funerary practices and scenes from Hindu mythology...
"Individuals gave persuasive accounts of out-of-body journeys, of precognitive glimpses of the future, of regressions into apparent past-life incarnations...
Choosing to be happy?
"As Grof recently noted, if the mind is actually part of a continuum, a labyrinth that is connected not only to every other mind that exists or has existed, but to every atom, organism, and region in the vastness of space and time itself, the fact that it is able to occasionally make forays into the labyrinth and have transpersonal experiences no longer seems so strange...
"As Grof recently noted, if the mind is actually part of a continuum, a labyrinth that is connected not only to every other mind that exists or has existed, but to every atom, organism, and region in the vastness of space and time itself, the fact that it is able to occasionally make forays into the labyrinth and have transpersonal experiences no longer seems so strange...
"In his book Gifts of Unknown Things, biologist Lyall Watson discribes his encounter with an Indonesian shaman woman who, by performing a ritual dance, was able to make an entire grove of trees instantly vanish into thin air.
"Watson relates that as he and another astonished onlooker continued to watch the woman, she caused the trees to reappear, then 'click' off again and on again several times in succession."
Professor Kater Murch (above) has found that by knowing the future of a cat, its life in the past is altered.
Professor Kater Murch, at Washington University, has found that by knowing the future outcome of a particle, its state in the past is altered.
Things are made out of tiny 'particles'.
According to the scientists, when you come a cross a 'particle' it does not have a 'fixed state' - until your mind decides what its 'fixed state' will be.
In other words, if you come across Mr Schrödinger's cat lying very still on the grass, the cat is neither dead nor alive - until your mind decides what its 'fixed state' will be.
Let us imagine that you have a very strong feeling that the cat will be alive and well next year.
Then the cat is currently not dead.
The future has affected the present.
dailymail - Can the past change the FUTURE?
Christians believe that things go better when you tune into the Holy Spirit.
The Taoists would call the Holy Spirit the Tao.
When you are tuned in, the cat is not dead.
What are the essentials of Taoism?
(http://www.godquest.org/taoism.htm / Http://www.crystalinks.com/taoism.html)
Some Taoists and Christians and others believe that bliss can be achieved when:
1. You believe that, when tuned in, life works out for the best.
2. You are compassionate
3. You are moderate (Avoid extremes)
4. You are humble (The selfish ego is switched off)
5. Everything is in balance
6. Being tuned into the Holy Spirit or the Tao or whatever you want to call it, you go with the flow (You are not battling against the Holy Spirit or Tau)
7. You avoid the use of force; you avoid pitting your will against the universe.
Eventually the cat will die, but it will continue in the Spirit.
Is life an illusion?
1. EmptyHub (If everything is just an illusion) refers to the parable of Jesus "about a son who leaves his father's home, squanders his wealth, returns destitute and poor, only to be loved even more...
"To put it another way, one has to pass through the false in order to know the true."
The son learns to be part of 'God' rather than an individual selfish self.
As Jesus said: "I and the father are one".
The son learns to be part of 'God' rather than an individual selfish self.
As Jesus said: "I and the father are one".
3. p3ndulum (If everything is just an illusion) refers to our possible illusions about our 'loved one'.
"We don't get to see who is truly there in front of us because we've painted them in a hue in an effort to fit them into our paradigm of what we believe a 'loving' relationship should be/look like."
4. There is a belief that if we can detach ourself from our sense of being an individual self, then we are detached from physical and emotional discomforts.
Quantum theory tells us that an unobserved small object exists only in an unpredictable state, with no defined location or motion until the moment it is observed.
10 mind-blowing theories.
In other words, the material world as it seems to us is not the real world.
4. There is a belief that if we can detach ourself from our sense of being an individual self, then we are detached from physical and emotional discomforts.
5. The philosopher George Berkeley argued that a thing only exists as an idea in someone's mind.
6. Socrates and Plato argued that beyond what we think is real there lies a world of 'perfect' forms.
"Everything that we see is just a shade, an imitation of how things truly are."
We should see the difference between 'vulgar lust' and 'love for the divine'.
7. According to the Taoists: "We are asked to keep our awareness in two places at once.
"There is no self, yet I exist as a self.
"Laozi says: live in the world of manifest reality... but remain aware of the formless, remain aware of the state that is beyond desire.
"Be in the world, but not of the world."
8. So, some philosophers and scientists believe that the "physical world" may be an illusion.
"Once upon a time, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting about happily enjoying himself.
"He did not know that he was Zhou.
"Suddenly he awoke, and was palpably Zhou.
"He did not know whether he was Zhou, who had dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhou.
For the Hindus, Brahman (God) is everything, and is both in the world and not in the world, at the same time.
Hinduism
Hinduism
9. Stav Strashko, the First Ever Zionist Androgynous Model is made out of tiny particles which can act as matter and anti-matter.
Everything is made out of tiny things called particles.
A particle called the Weyl fermion has no mass.
It is empty of matter.
It is a basic building block of matter, even more fundamental than the electron.
The Weyl fermion can act as matter and anti-matter simultaneously.
dailymail.
0 = +X -X
Stav Strashko can be both nothing and something at the same time.
Stav Strashko can be both male and female at the same time.
Everything has its opposite - left and right, happy and sad, love and hate, inside and outside...
In other words, the scientists have observed a particle that is its own antiparticle.
Particle observed, both matter & antimatter
Matter is a mirror image of antimatter.
There is a belief that it is our minds that create matter.
'0' can become something.
How might things come into existence?
A mathematical equation shows us how it may work.
0 = +X -X
+X is matter (particles)
-X is anti-matter (anti-particles)
gourmandelle.com
Think of the TAOIST idea of YIN and YANG.
The Buddhists say that you cannot have Nirvana without Samsara.
A good game of golf involves a LITTLE bit of 'plus' and a LITTLE bit of 'minus'?
10. Let's look at Taoism.
1. The Force
Consider Luke Skywalker and how Obi-wan Kenobi taught him about "the Force".
Luke had to avoid being distracted by things like fear and anger.
..
The Christians talk about God’s spirit.
2. The Tao and Yin and Yang:
When the Tao is in balance one can be happy. (+ X - X rather than +X - 1000X?)
There is Yin and there is Yang (just as there is black and white, up and down, male and female).
3. Wu wei is action through inaction; ‘a practice of minimal action, particularly minimal violent action’.
How should we act?
We should avoid producing unintended consequences.
"Not taking premature or unnecessary actions keeps all of one's options open, so that the most appropriate action remains available.
Everything is made out of tiny things called particles.
A particle called the Weyl fermion has no mass.
It is empty of matter.
It is a basic building block of matter, even more fundamental than the electron.
The Weyl fermion can act as matter and anti-matter simultaneously.
dailymail.
0 = +X -X
Stav Strashko can be both nothing and something at the same time.
Stav Strashko can be both male and female at the same time.
Everything has its opposite - left and right, happy and sad, love and hate, inside and outside...
Every particle (the matter that the universe is made of) has its antiparticle (the antimatter that the universe is also made of).
Physicists at Princeton University have observed a particle that behaves both like matter and antimatter.
In other words, the scientists have observed a particle that is its own antiparticle.
Particle observed, both matter & antimatter
Matter is a mirror image of antimatter.
There is a belief that it is our minds that create matter.
'0' can become something.
How might things come into existence?
A mathematical equation shows us how it may work.
0 = +X -X
+X is matter (particles)
-X is anti-matter (anti-particles)
gourmandelle.com
Think of the TAOIST idea of YIN and YANG.
The Buddhists say that you cannot have Nirvana without Samsara.
A good game of golf involves a LITTLE bit of 'plus' and a LITTLE bit of 'minus'?
10. Let's look at Taoism.
1. The Force
Consider Luke Skywalker and how Obi-wan Kenobi taught him about "the Force".
Luke had to avoid being distracted by things like fear and anger.
He had to learn about spontaneity.
On one occasion, Luke was trying, without success, to avoid laser blasts from a 'remote'.
When Obi-wan Kenobi placed a helmet on Luke's head so he couldn't be distracted, he easily deflected the remote's laser blasts.
The idea is that when you are aware of the 'Tao' and feel 'the force', you can flow with it, and the right action appears for itself, spontaneously.
(More here: http://www.exn.ca/starwars/taoism.cfm / http://www.belief )
The economy does not work when things are out of balance.
On one occasion, Luke was trying, without success, to avoid laser blasts from a 'remote'.
When Obi-wan Kenobi placed a helmet on Luke's head so he couldn't be distracted, he easily deflected the remote's laser blasts.
The idea is that when you are aware of the 'Tao' and feel 'the force', you can flow with it, and the right action appears for itself, spontaneously.
(More here: http://www.exn.ca/starwars/taoism.cfm / http://www.belief )
The economy does not work when things are out of balance.
..
The Christians talk about God’s spirit.
God nourishes us.
The Taoists talk about the Tao being a force that flows through everything.
The Taoists talk about the Tao being a force that flows through everything.
2. The Tao and Yin and Yang:
When the Tao is in balance one can be happy. (+ X - X rather than +X - 1000X?)
There is Yin and there is Yang (just as there is black and white, up and down, male and female).
'When they are equally present, all is calm.
'When one is outweighed by the other, there is confusion and disarray.
'The Tao surrounds everyone and one must listen to find enlightenment.'
True Taoism does not get bogged down with theology. "The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao."
Taoists love their enemies. "I am good to the man who is good to me, likewise, I am also good to the bad man."
The USA's Phoenix programme (left) involved torturing and killing civilians. The USA's ISIS force is also going to extremes. www.thesleuthjournal.com
'The Tao surrounds everyone and one must listen to find enlightenment.'
True Taoism does not get bogged down with theology. "The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao."
Taoists love their enemies. "I am good to the man who is good to me, likewise, I am also good to the bad man."
The USA's Phoenix programme (left) involved torturing and killing civilians. The USA's ISIS force is also going to extremes. www.thesleuthjournal.com
3. Wu wei is action through inaction; ‘a practice of minimal action, particularly minimal violent action’.
Don’t overdo the antibiotics or the pesticides.
Don’t bomb your enemies.
Consider the lilies.
Don't force yourself or others to be compassionate. Be spontaneous.
Genuine love is spontaneous love.
The USA is out of balance. www.youtube.com
"The Master does not see evil as a force to resist, but simply as an opaqueness, a state of self-absorption that is in disharmony with the universal process, so that, as with a dirty window, the light can't shine through.
Don't force yourself or others to be compassionate. Be spontaneous.
Genuine love is spontaneous love.
The USA is out of balance. www.youtube.com
"The Master does not see evil as a force to resist, but simply as an opaqueness, a state of self-absorption that is in disharmony with the universal process, so that, as with a dirty window, the light can't shine through.
"This freedom from moral categories allows him his great compassion for the wicked and the selfish" - Stephen Mitchell
"The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe.
"The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe.
"It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)"
4. Henry C K Liu wrote in the Asia Times about Taoism.
4. Henry C K Liu wrote in the Asia Times about Taoism.
(http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EH01Ad01.html ).
Where does evil come from?
There can be no ‘good’ without ‘evil’.
"Controlled quantities of the bad can be good.
Where does evil come from?
There can be no ‘good’ without ‘evil’.
"Controlled quantities of the bad can be good.
"Excessive amounts of the good can be bad.
"Poison kills. But when handled properly, it can cure diseases.
"Without poison, there can be no medicine.
"To employ poison to attack poison is a Taoist principle."
"To employ poison to attack poison is a Taoist principle."
The secret is to avoid extremes.
Americans carrying out torture in Vietnam.
Americans carrying out torture in Vietnam.
How should we act?
We should avoid producing unintended consequences.
"Not taking premature or unnecessary actions keeps all of one's options open, so that the most appropriate action remains available.
"Actions always elicit reactions.
"Each action taken provokes reactions from all quarters that, taken together, are always more powerful than the precipitous action itself. It is the ultimate definition of the inescapable law of unintended consequences."
"To follow the dao (path) of life is to go with the natural flow of life and to avoid going against it.
"The ethical theories of Taoism lean toward passive resistance, believing that evil, by definition, will ultimately destroy even itself without undue interference.
"Yet it would be a mistake to regard Taoism as fatalistic and pessimistic, instead of the ultimate sophistication in optimism that it is.
"Only by not applying effort can one achieve that state in which nothing is not attainable effortlessly.
"A little ambition is a good thing. Total elimination, even of undesirables, is an extreme solution, and it is therefore self-defeating.
"Life is a prison from which one can escape only if one does not try to escape. It is the desire to escape that makes a place a prison, and the desire to return that makes it a home. Home is not where one is, it is where one wants to return."
"To follow the dao (path) of life is to go with the natural flow of life and to avoid going against it.
"The ethical theories of Taoism lean toward passive resistance, believing that evil, by definition, will ultimately destroy even itself without undue interference.
"Yet it would be a mistake to regard Taoism as fatalistic and pessimistic, instead of the ultimate sophistication in optimism that it is.
"Only by not applying effort can one achieve that state in which nothing is not attainable effortlessly.
"A little ambition is a good thing. Total elimination, even of undesirables, is an extreme solution, and it is therefore self-defeating.
"Life is a prison from which one can escape only if one does not try to escape. It is the desire to escape that makes a place a prison, and the desire to return that makes it a home. Home is not where one is, it is where one wants to return."
Photograph: Seyllou
5. Taoism and other religions.
The following comes from: http://www.jadedragon.com/archives/tao_heal/teach01.html
From Taoism: happiness comes from helping others; wealth comes from giving to others.
5. Taoism and other religions.
The following comes from: http://www.jadedragon.com/archives/tao_heal/teach01.html
From Taoism: happiness comes from helping others; wealth comes from giving to others.
"Love the world as yourself; then you can care for all things."
From Buddhism: "Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy."
From Buddhism: "Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy."
Buddha: "See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?"
From Islam: "There is a reward for your treatment of every living thing." Muhammad also said: "None of you is a believer until you like for others what you like for yourself."
From Christianity: "Do unto others as you would have them do to you."
Veritopian refers to Yin & Yang Mathematics. http://everythingforever.com/st_math.htm
From Islam: "There is a reward for your treatment of every living thing." Muhammad also said: "None of you is a believer until you like for others what you like for yourself."
From Christianity: "Do unto others as you would have them do to you."
Veritopian refers to Yin & Yang Mathematics. http://everythingforever.com/st_math.htm
Unknown commented -
There was substantial belief in reincarnation in the ancient Western world as well as the East; this percolated through to the Christian era, as with Origen from around 185-254 CE whom Aangirfan notes above.
Although in some ways, the Western reincarnation ideas can seem a faded echo, of more richly-developed reincarnation notions coming out of ancient Asia particularly India.
Yet there are some distinctive twists in the West.
The famed pre-Socratic early teacher of ancient Greek wisdom, Pythagoras of Samos - around 570-495 BCE - is widely held to have affirmed reincarnation, well before Plato of 427-347 BCE spoke of it.
In between them, there is a unique picture of reincarnation given by the great Greek poet Pindar of Thebes, who lived around 518-438 BCE.
In distinction to the Hindu or Buddhist type of view, that you only get free of the cycle of rebirths, when you truly transcend all the web of narrow limitations in your consciousness - Pindar put it more simply: Pindar said that once a person, even of humble station, lived three lives in succession, which fully embodied righteousness and good behaviour toward other beings Then that person entered forever, the most blissful paradise.
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