Loki wrote:According to my own evaluation, I have attained a clear understanding of how Reality has an Infinite nature. A month ago I was very confused, but now I am seeing clearly.
Thanks goes out to those forum members who have given me their time and patience since my inception. You know who you are.
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So what's the point of this thread? In part, I wanted to give thanks, but mostly I just wanted to share my new understanding. Now that I've explored the territory, I have a map, so why not share the map so others can make the journey easier than I have made it? There are lots of maps to enlightenment out there, and each map is unique and appeals to specific personalities, and perhaps my unique take on enlightenment will appeal to a certain type of person. Perhaps you may find what I'm about to say uniquely useful. Also, criticism of my "map" is very much encouraged, because I'm not under the illusion that I have nothing else to learn and improve upon, but I do feel I've made significant progress.
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Realizing the Infinite
To realize the infinite nature of all things, you must first acknowledge a few basic things, or, in other words, you must accept a few basic premises, and understand why these premises must be accepted.
For starters, things, as we are able to know them, are appearances. Appearances, by definition, require mind. Appearances comprise our reality, they are what we wonder about, and they provide a means to know. Reality is a myriad of appearances, and Reality is also the logical implications that make these appearances possible.
Reality, Existence, Appearance, Thing, Manifestation, these are all tied together. That which appears is a thing, and that which is a thing exists, and that which exists manifests, and the logical implications of manifestation is our Reality. Reality isn't just perception of things themselves, but reality is also the entirety of logical implications that make manifestation, existence, thingness, and appearance possible.
The basic premises I just outlined above comprise the first step, and I personally found it a rather tricky first step. If you walk away from this first step I outlined without seeing the significance and absoluteness of A=A, then you have not really understood the first step. It's deceptively, deceptively simple. It's extreme simplicity is perhaps what makes it so difficult to clearly see.
The second step, I found, to be quite a bit easier, and in fact, I clearly understood it even before I really understood the first step.
The second step is to understand the dualistic nature of any manifestation. A manifestation, such as a white dot, exists in contrast to what it is not (the surrounding otherness). A white dot cannot exist without contrasting itself with otherness, and this "surrounding otherness" is just as much a manifestation or thing as the white dot. A white dot also can't exist without having dimension (one side in contrast to another) or one curve connecting to a contrasting curve. So appearances, by nature, are dual. Also, since a thing is dependent on otherness, then the dualness is a oneness. Things cannot exist without other things, and therefore they are one. And since the two are actually a oneness, then a specific thing doesn't have real boundaries, because a thing's counterpart is a part of what that thing is. The two things are a unity, and the boundary is there for convenience. (Note: Although I had no problem realizing how things are dual and a unity, I did struggle with accepting the lack of boundaries).
Trickiness ensues in the third step, which I found even harder than the first step. The third step is to understand how the dual (thingness) has an infinite essence. I'll say it again: that which is dual (thing v thing) has an infinite essence.
How can a person really know this?
Well, as David Quinn recently stressed to me, you first have to get it out of your head that the “Infinite nature of things” has anything to do with space expanding outwardly in all directions. You also have to realize that it doesn't matter if the universe does or doesn't expand infinitely in all directions. This doesn't matter simply because it's not something we can really know, and the goal here is to stick with what we can know.
What is it that we can know about the reality right in front of us?
Like I said, things are dual, and the dual has an infinite nature. So how do we know the dual has an infinite nature? Well, you just have to ask yourself where the cause of a thing resides.
Bring your mind back to the white dot (in the foreground) in contrast to the black background.
What causes the white dot in the foreground? We could say that the surrounding black background causes the white foreground dot, but then we would have to ask what causes the black background. We could say that the white dot in the foreground causes the black background, but then we're back to where we started: what causes the white dot in the foreground?
Where does the cause of the black background (or of anything) truly reside?
The causes of things reside everywhere and nowhere.
I'll tell you why. If you pinpoint a location where a thing's cause resides, then you have to ask where that cause resides, and then you move to another spot, but then that spot needs a cause, and this must go on infinitely. A thing's cause resides everywhere and nowhere. It is ineffable and unseen. The essence of a thing cannot manifest, it is not finite - and thus it is INFINITE.
You should notice that my analysis sticks with understanding the nature of appearances, in other words, the nature of that which appears to the mind. This is because we aren’t able to know that which exists beyond the mind, because the moment we do, it becomes a part of the mind. So my analysis sticks with the nature of knowing, the nature of manifestation, appearance, and existence, because this is my Reality.
Questions? Criticisms?
I utterly disagree. In the consciousness/awareness, these are just the basic thoughts that people attained through getting to know ones own nature/self. I think that a generation that has come to or begged awareness is just a thing of the past. I think that nature at it's best is consciousness/awareness. That may seem a bit out of the stream of things. Our thoughts are places in this pattern where it attains certainty. That is judgement. When we know how to understand the surroundings. Just picture a swallow in the ocean.
