Does anyone know what they really are? Seriously.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by yourmaker

 

I think i said it already - we stand atop an eternal cosmic evolutionary process, intrinsic to the very heart of it all, so there's no distinction, no separation from the whole, the center, and the source. We are enveloped by the alpha and omega, the first/last cause. It's quite extraordinary.

The only question which then arises is this - is there a ghost in the machine?

Are we a "thing", nothing but a meaning making machine, or are we something more than that or something other than that "thing"?

if that were the case, I should feel infinitely stupid for trying to disprove such a thing..
why would god/ it/eternal energy, give me the ability to question it?
to be myself, even if it means being by myself, in something eternal? with no seperation?
to find my way back to it? cause it's certainly seeming to happen that way.

For the purpose of this thread I make no distinction between perfect awareness and "God" as spirit and truth or spirit of infinite intelligence, who's highest expression in felt experience, and who's reason (why), is love.

Originally posted by yourmaker

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by yourmaker

 

I think i said it already - we stand atop an eternal cosmic evolutionary process, intrinsic to the very heart of it all, so there's no distinction, no separation from the whole, the center, and the source. We are enveloped by the alpha and omega, the first/last cause. It's quite extraordinary.

The only question which then arises is this - is there a ghost in the machine?

Are we a "thing", nothing but a meaning making machine, or are we something more than that or something other than that "thing"?

if that were the case, I should feel infinitely stupid for trying to disprove such a thing..
why would god/ it/eternal energy, give me the ability to question it?
to be myself, even if it means being by myself, in something eternal? with no seperation?
to find my way back to it? cause it's certainly seeming to happen that way.

We are made by consciousness for consciousness and are in consciousness, already, so it would only make sense that eventually we would rediscover our true nature in eternity, provided we do not suffer from an extreme contemptuous bias prior to investigation ie: act as gatekeeper, to prevent our increasing understanding and realization. Such a God would give you the abililty to question it, so that you might find it/HIM, and in so doing, become fully self expressed as you are, which is to express God and to become transparent to God. It's our reason and purpose to seek and to find God in eternity.

Experience then means everything, and it means everything that it means everything.

NOT - life is absurd and meaningless and it's absurd and meaningless that it's absurd and meaningless, and we are just meaning making machines or "things" (no ghost in the machine, no spirit of truth and life).

Edit: Personally I like to maintain what I call an "indespensible I-Thou relationship" with God as the Absolute, to avoid the pitfalls of the solipsism of isolate consciousness and maintain the appropriate framework of loving kindness within the brotherhood of man ie: it's no less vital to love neighbor as it is to love God above all since we all share the same ground of being (God-consciousness).

It's simple, but not always easy.

lol @ ugly bags of mostly water

reply to post by smithjustinb

We are termites chipping away at a huge rock that is hurtling through space?

Guess that is pretty basic, if not true.

Originally posted by smithjustinb
I know we're humans.
I know what we do.
I know our basic function.
I know our needs.
I know where I came from (sort of).
I know what I like and what I don't like.

But even as I know all of that, I still have no idea what I am. I know what others have told me I am, but I've found that that is a misidentification.

I believe that we can't identify ourselves as something and it be what we really are. I believe that at the moment of conceptualizing, the truth fades. I believe we think we can come close to proper identification, but we inevitably always miss the mark. So therefore, any conceptualization about anything only serves to demean the truth of what it is. So what do you say you are? Is this even knowable?

I think it is knowable, but only in the moment. Only when you are where you are in full mind can you see the truth. You won't know what to call it, and calling it anything will distort it, but you will at least see it.

Well about conceptualization, I guess you are right.... It's like a saying that state 'If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, it will be true' that's just how the truth got distorted... and how reality is defined.... But somehow the truth will uncover itself sooner or later.... every things is changing...

by the way smithjustinb, no worry it's not only you that were misidentified in this world... Me myself too was misidentified.... But by the time the truth has been uncovered.... some refuse to acknowledge and keep forcing their concept into play... I am in the edge of getting flogged here..., either you confirm with your new identity or we give you no choice of your basic needs.... harsh.... in the first place people kept digging for the truth, when they know it, it still doesn't matter...... what's matter is that you must confirm to you new identity...

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by yourboycal2

 

I don't think that Misanthropy is the answer to the question, or even helpful, because once we come into a full awareness of our true self and identity, not as "things" or as animals or even as meaning making machines (nothing more), but as an outermost and perhaps uppermost expression of an eternal cosmic evolutionary process and spirit of infinite intelligence, will we have the capacity to recognize all life as sacred. Out of that realization, things will begin to transform, with everything included as intended, topped off by man as God's own observer, self aware.

edit on 22-11-2011 by NewAgeMan because: typo

Exactly... I agree because God is the observer and he is the one who weight the scale for good.... I believe that everything happened for a reason... Even conflicts, war, hunger, hatred, love, dislike, contempt, etc....

Originally posted by smithjustinb
For me, there is nothing more satisfying than truth. I have been on ATS nearly everyday for probably over a year, looking for the truth, because the truth is my utmost pleasure. But, now its becoming clearer and clearer that the truth is not on ATS. The truth is within.

Although it is in fact a pleasure to find out the truth... But it might not be a pleasure to others... and because we are interconnected with each other, if those who dislike it outnumber those who like it... It wouldn't be any pleasure at all, maybe the opposite... in fact it doesn't matter at all, external forces does play their roles here...

reply to post by smithjustinb


Whooaaa dude! that was a trip!

I know what you mean though! very well put sir!

We are everything, and everything is us. I dont believe there is a way to end this conversation, it could go on for an eternity.

reply to post by smithjustinb


the original post sounds like something from zen

Originally posted by smithjustinb
I know we're humans.
I know what we do.
I know our basic function.
I know our needs.
I know where I came from (sort of).
I know what I like and what I don't like.

But even as I know all of that, I still have no idea what I am. I know what others have told me I am, but I've found that that is a misidentification.

I believe that we can't identify ourselves as something and it be what we really are. I believe that at the moment of conceptualizing, the truth fades. I believe we think we can come close to proper identification, but we inevitably always miss the mark. So therefore, any conceptualization about anything only serves to demean the truth of what it is. So what do you say you are? Is this even knowable?

I think it is knowable, but only in the moment. Only when you are where you are in full mind can you see the truth. You won't know what to call it, and calling it anything will distort it, but you will at least see it.

I am happy for you, that you think of yourself as those descriptions you posted. I am not Human, but I do live in a Human body. I am Spirit, Divine Spirit, actually, just as we all are. Life on Earth is a school, you are here to learn, and to love everyone. If you have lived enough life times, and learned all of the lessons you yourself programmed yourself to learn, perhaps you may get to take some time off.

reply to post by indigothefish

I know that it was originally inspired, at least in part, by a synthesis of Zen Buddhism and a healthy dose of evolutionary Christian mysticism..

reply to post by autowrench

You sound much better. I hope you've been able to forgive your mother as she was rather tormented over the whole affair and was in dire need of your forgiveness.

P.S. I don't say stuff like that often, but I was struck by this one posters' familial predicament, being the son of a preacher.

Originally posted by yourboycal2
reply to post by NewAgeMan

 

I don't have to hate my fellow man to call him as a cancer of earth do i ? Can i not make the philosophical observaton and say we don't know our true paths ? but as for what i see now man is doing alot of damage to earth , and its pure cancerous .


Or does the new age book paint me black and white ? either with us or against us ?


Sorry , Untill i know the true merit of man. I will not draw conclusions , but will make observations , But please leave the word hate out of it . Its such a negative word , and takes alot to truly hate. How about not in favor? Dislike? but hate... no.

I am believer here... I will agree that we do not know our path, but our present decision does affect the future outcome....Whatever you see or happened it is true, but there are those too who are trying to mitigate the damage...

I don't know about new age book... but it is stated in bible that :
Ecclesiastes 7

15 My life has been useless, but in it I have seen everything. Some good people may die while others live on, even though they are evil.16 So don't be too good or too wise—why kill yourself 17 But don't be too wicked or too foolish, either—why die before you have to?18 Avoid both extremes. If you have reverence for God, you will be successful anyway.

Words are really2x powerful... if you present it differently it may have different meaning and can bring negativity as well as positive atmosphere....

Originally posted by smithjustinb

I believe that we can't identify ourselves as something and it be what we really are. I believe that at the moment of conceptualizing, the truth fades. I believe we think we can come close to proper identification, but we inevitably always miss the mark. So therefore, any conceptualization about anything only serves to demean the truth of what it is. So what do you say you are? Is this even knowable?

I think it is knowable, but only in the moment. Only when you are where you are in full mind can you see the truth. You won't know what to call it, and calling it anything will distort it, but you will at least see it.

Given the box you've built for yourself, you are absolutely incapable of ever learning anything at all about what you are. No big deal. Your ignorance won't prevent you from being what you are anyway. Good thing, that. In fact, fully embraced ignorance can allow you to perceive yourself, and whatever you've decided to include as also existent, in any manner that makes you feel secure and enlightened.

So, have a ball. None of it matters in yours or anyone else's case. At least, not to me. Yay you!!!

The only thing we truly know are our passions and desires. Everything else is up for constant speculation.

reply to post by NorEaster

I'm not sure he's the box-builder here NorEaster but may be seen, to the contrary, climbing out of it.

Project much?

reply to post by smithjustinb


Well said. Id like to think we are, earth and all its inhabitants, an infinite great work in progress... and leave it at that.

reply to post by smithjustinb


I don't think there will ever be a question that we as humans will not be able to answer. This one included. Perhaps the reason no one has been able to fully answer it yet is because we're looking at the possibilities from the wrong angle. Maybe we shouldn't be asking "Who am I?", but rather "Who are we?" Every human on the planet has the same DNA structure that makes us, literally, what we are. In that regard we are all the same. What makes you or I so special that we think we are going to get this answer without incuding everyone else of every other race and creed?

True, we all have individual paths and traits that we follow that make us "special" and unique from each other, but at the end of the day you will realize that all those different personality traits are really not that much different from each other. And they certainly are not traits that this world has never seen before. I think it was Shakespeare that once wrote "There is nothing new under the sun".

We also know that every religion on the planet is essentially the same in regards to the message that it's trying to convey. The only difference comes from the various regions of the world where the religions are. This dictates that there will be be different customs and interpretations of the same message. Religion. The universal divider. Politics sits under the shade of that tree as well. Maybe we should be looking at things like this, things that divide us as humans, if we really want the answer to questions such as "Who are you?" or "Who am I?"

Maybe who you are,op, is one of billions of essentially the same organism that is divided from the rest yet has the capability of being joined together on the same level to make a "better" and whole organism. And maybe that capability comes from you and everyone else like you, but cannot be realized while we still have all the division mechanisms in place that keep it from happening. Maybe our lot in life is not to be divided as humans but to be as one.

I believe that this is how it once was on this planet. Before we became, as one poster here put it, a cancer upon it. Back then, humans were more in tune with nature. They respected it. They had to. They didn't try to control it. They may not have been as technologically advanced as we are now, but does that mean they were worse off? I doubt it. I think they were better off actually. Maybe we are here simply to make this planet, this one living organism, more complete. If not wholly complete.

We all know at this point that if you kill off or radically alter certain parts of this planet, it has a negative effect on the rest. This tells me that this planet is indeed one large living organism comprised of billions of smaller parts that, when working in tandem, make the sum of the parts work. We as a human race are one of those billions of smaller parts. The problem I think lies in the fact that we are a small organism that has branched away from itself. This is both unnatural and counterproductive. As long as we continue down this path, IMO, we are never going to fully realize, by living it, our true purpose in this life. How can you know your true purpose when you are continually moving away from it?