Material World

Good evening (depending on where you live) dear members, I hope you are all very fine! Well, you are, so I hope you are well. I would like to apologise; if I am ripping anybody off with what I am about to say, please forgive me and poke me gently, so that I might know more.

I was burning a joss stick the other day. I don't know why, I just needed something that would make the air smell different without me having to put any effort in. Anyway as it was burning away I took notice of the smoke. All the scent was flowing off into the air around me.

At the same time I was writing a short story, which is- fundamentally- about death (and perversion). Anyway I had some sort of epiphany at the same time my narrator did: that we dwell on the mind, and wonder what happens to us when we die, but ultimately the simplest explanation is probably the right one. If we were to trust ourselves more often, instead of trying to discover something that isn't there, we might be able to find the answers much quicker.

When the joss stick had burned it was ash with a bit of bamboo. The thing that made it what it was was gone, dissipated forever into the beyond, whereas the physical was still there, just in a state of irreversible turmoil. Anything without its essence is dead, so when we die all we'll leave behind is our bodies, because they're the only thing that's real really. If a computer can't intake electricity, or process it accordingly, it's dead.

Now I know not everyone likes being likened to computers, but they're based on us in every way... So what is life? Is it about the mind? Or the body? I reckon I don't know, but I see dead bodies left behind when someone or something dies, but nothing else.

Although, where does the scent from a joss stick go?

Ramadwarf on death

Originally posted by Ramadwarf Philes

I was burning a joss stick the other day...where does the scent from a joss stick go?

Ramadwarf on death

What the hell is a joss stick?

It's a scented stick; you set light to it and let it burn fragrance about the place. They're Asian I think. I couldn't get past the smokey smell though. They're also pretty cheap, but not as efficient, I think, as air spray.

People call them 'Incense' now and again, though I'm not sure whether that is a name for the stick itself, or the smell. Click on the link to read about Incense on Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org...

Ah, after reading the first few lines I see that the word Incense apparently is the name of the stick.

Ramadwarf

[edit on 4-9-2010 by Ramadwarf Philes]

Theres a saying in Budhhism that equates somewhere along the lines of "Bodhisattva is not peeling potatoes and thinking about God, rather it is just peeling potatoes"

Theres no need to complicate things, most of nature and reality and existence is actually quite simple. We try to fathom, as humans, something which we do not know. It brings fear to us, it brings anxiety and worry.

Our reaction to that is to try and understand it in ways which resonate with us, be it science, or spirituality. Even the denial of it. A simple answer is not enough, we must find ways to understand it, to reach out andcontrol some aspect of it.

Sometimes the unkown is so simple its overwhelming. The goal is to realize that all things are fundamentally simple and complicated. The lessons are much easier to learn the simple way.

Joss stick isnt something ive ever heard insence called, i prefer joss stick, sounds...different

Love and Peace

Incense is great for reaching different levels in meditation. So, it'd make sense when you're in narrate mode that it would come to sync, you were already half way there just daydreaming/writing. However, the post above put it quite elequently. Simple, is often the better way to try and go, but it's never going to be not complicated...

reply to post by Ramadwarf Philes


Rudimentary physics establishes the well known fact that physical matter consists of over 99% space. An atom is over 99% space within it's radius and lots of space between atoms. That space isn't 'empty' per say because there are physical forces (some of which we are familiar with some that we can't detect) that interact ... but a force is not matter thus, we are made of mostly space between physical elements.

Now, let's use the ash left over from the stick as a metaphor for cremation upon death. The energy transferred from burning our physical bodies accounts for less that one percent of our existential self. So really, physical death only 'kills' less than one percent of what makes you a living being.

What happens at that point is by all accounts a guess, some guesses are dictated by beliefs, others by reason, but it's always a guess.

I suspect all that makes us a conscious entity remains regardless of the physical shell within which we manifest here and now, namely the remaining 99% persists in another form or on another state. But this is just a suspicion at best deduced form the little we as human know and are familiar with ... so it is probably way off.

reply to post by Ramadwarf Philes


Don't worry, there's a rational explanation to everything - you just haven't learned it yet.

As another one pointed out. Don't over-complicate. Oh heck in fact - do what you want

Best regards,

-v

reply to post by M157yD4wn


That's true, though often the obvious is the hardest to find (well, it is for me anyway) because it can be tooooo simple to be correct.

I like the Budhist saying you used very much. It makes vertain things, such as specualation, quite laughable. I remember an English lesson once, where I was studying Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. My teacher she said, 'What is it about?' I said 'Well literally it's about Shakespeare's love for this woman who's this and that blah blah, and, on a deeper level, it is about cliches in poetry.' and she said 'yeah, so what is he actually writing about?', 'His mistress?' 'no, it's a poem, what is he writing about? POEM.', 'Uh, uh, ooh, uh, quadji, uh...', 'He's writing about poetry!'. Oh dear was I red.

Anyway, could not our questing for 'the deeper meaning' be symbolic of our fear of death, the ultimate unknown? Because, really, we'll never know what happens until we're dead, and what's the use of that?

Ah that reminds me of something I forgot to mention in the opening post! In Gran Torino, where the Vietnamese lad tells Clint that he doesn't have enough money for all the tools, and Clint says that it's taken him a lifetime to get all of his tools. Ultimately what is the point? The kid needs all the tools but he can't get them, and Clint doesn't need most of them anymore because of his age, so life really amounts to nothing doesn't it? You get everything and then you die, only to find out what happens after death (if anything) and you'll probably think 'Damn, it's so obvious!'.

Thanks for the post, it was fantastically put. And it's funny, in my life everyone calls Incense 'Joss sticks'. I wonder why...

Ramadwarf on Shakespeare, a life time of acquirement, and M157yD4wn post.