Spiritual Death

Discussion of the nature of Ultimate Reality and the path to Enlightenment.
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Imadrongo
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Spiritual Death

Post by Imadrongo »

Neil: We all already live in prisons (genetic, environmental, psychological, whatever). Part of maturity is accepting this is the case and no longer fantasizing about "true freedom" and romanticism.

David: Yeah, that's spiritual death.

At root, our prisons are entirely conceptual in nature and we are perfectly capable of dismantling all of them - providing our karma allows us to. Our karma here being our genes, upbringing, teachers, past decision-making, etc.
Accepting that we are not "free", that all boundaries and restrictions on us are not conceptual and illusionary, apparently makes us spiritually dead.

Is spiritual death not an important step in child development and facing reality?
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Unidian
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Unidian »

"True freedom" is acceptance of life as it is, boundaries, limitations, concepts, hopes, dreams, and all.

Zen is now. Any other "Zen" is a fiction.
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David Quinn
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by David Quinn »

Neil Melnyk wrote:
Neil: We all already live in prisons (genetic, environmental, psychological, whatever). Part of maturity is accepting this is the case and no longer fantasizing about "true freedom" and romanticism.

David: Yeah, that's spiritual death.

At root, our prisons are entirely conceptual in nature and we are perfectly capable of dismantling all of them - providing our karma allows us to. Our karma here being our genes, upbringing, teachers, past decision-making, etc.
Accepting that we are not "free", that all boundaries and restrictions on us are not conceptual and illusionary, apparently makes us spiritually dead.
Absolutely.

Is spiritual death not an important step in child development and facing reality?

It is certainly important in fitting with society's consensual realities (otherwise known as "myths"), merging in with the crowd and leading a contented life.

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Imadrongo
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Imadrongo »

Do you believe you could fly if you "dismantled" away the conceptual barriers called gravity and body mass?
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David Quinn
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by David Quinn »

I'm already flying all over the place. Look out the window, I'm up there in the trees.

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Dan Rowden
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Dan Rowden »

Hopefully not that pigeon the cat just killed and ate. Maybe that too!
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Unidian
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Unidian »

Sometimes being Nature sucks. I prefer not to think about the fact that I am a dung beetle.

Or, worse yet, Paris Hilton. The thought of it makes one want to throw all their Zen books away.
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Dan Rowden
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Dan Rowden »

Well, you're also her bank account, so it all works out in the end. Dialectic 'n all.
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Philosophaster »

Unicorns up in your butt!
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Unidian
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Unidian »

I am the man from Nantucket.
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Philosophaster »

You are David Quinn. :-P
Unicorns up in your butt!
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Unidian
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Unidian »

Yes, but this is where the other side of the dialectic comes in handy. The entire point of having a sense of self is to avoid dwelling in the knowledge that one is David Quinn. :p
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Pincho Paxton
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Pincho Paxton »

Picture the universe of Earth in your mind. Picture the universe of Earth in True-HD-Solid Holographic Quantum scale reality, DTS surround sound, are you seeing the full picture yet? The picture goes beyond even Quantum Physics, and the picture becomes invisible to science, but available to logical conceptions. Fulfilment (not freedom) is what you can achieve by fully understanding nature. Take the cake of life, and eat it all, scoff it down, and have nature in your belly. Now you are fully filled.... fulfilled..
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divine focus
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by divine focus »

Unidian wrote:Or, worse yet, Paris Hilton. The thought of it makes one want to throw all their Zen books away.
She may read Zen, too. She's definitely been interested in spritual matters after her jail stint.
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by average »

At root, our prisons are entirely conceptual in nature and we are perfectly capable of dismantling all of them - providing our karma allows us to. Our karma here being our genes, upbringing, teachers, past decision-making, etc.

If our prisons are purely conceptual then the idea that freedom from them is dependent on our "karma" our "genes" and "upbringing" is also a fabrication of concepts that becomes itself a conceptual prison.


Freedom in this case, is a false projection that feeble men aspire to and try to grasp, because they imagine there are things that bind them. And its even worse when they believe that they require "Karma's Permission" to break those imaginary bonds...
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Tomas
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by Tomas »

Neil Melnyk wrote:Do you believe you could fly if you "dismantled" away the conceptual barriers called gravity and body mass?


Now we're getting somewhere :-)

On some threads (over the years) this has come up and i'll try to explain my idea of being separate from the barriers of gravity and body mass.


Here we go:
These started when i was a child of about the age of 3-4. When one are sleeping, i used to, like, dream on a magic carpet ride. Only i'd be on some sort of surface like a rug, but i could see through it!, i'd be prostrate on my back with only my head and top part of my back somewhat elevated (without the full support of elbows). The physical self was self-evident but not really there at the same time. I could "control" where i was flying with just "thought" - no outside interventions such as wind, motors, elements only through the mind-control.

Not like a bird, plane etc. i mean like i could really soar! It wasn't always bright lights, no sunshine, somewhat like a glass-darkly. However, it would almost always entail with somewhat hilly country (on a rare occasion there was man-made constructs like a section line type of road, but not even graveled) generally tho, it was most like the Couteau-du-Prairie of North Dakota and neighboring states (the geographical divide of the north/south that separates which way water flows in North America) and Canada too.

Haven't had a dream-state like that in 5-6 years now :-(


What i've studied on this is one needs to:

1.) Concentrate before one 'falls to sleep'

2.) Lose all negatives/positive thoughts = worries

3.) If have a partner, be sure all "topics" are covered so one may rest soundly, perhaps sleep separately for a few days... snoring, thrashing, talking in ones sleep etc.

In essence, put the cares of this world - on hold.



Kevin understands when he says he is "up there" in/around floating around that tree or wherever. I can relate to that. Leaving ones conscious body is doable, as i've done it several times.

The spiritual self is multi-faceted, not easily described by writing.

Thanks Kevin and Neil for your inputs, haven't gotten around to reading Pincho's response and daybrowns.


ps- pardon the dyslexic writing style, the American-English way of conversing are not my strong points, nor my native language.
Raised (spiritually influenced) by a Sammi grandmother, born 1875 in a teepee of northern Lapland, the norwegian geography side, the first six years of life, and again by her from age 9-12, when she then passed away to the eternal ethers.

A few years after she died, however, i was given her "wedding gift" from her brother-in-law Peder, Bottineau, ND walking stick (diamond willow) harvested from the woodlands of the Turtle Mountains, North Dakota.

The "walking stick" turned 100 years old, this year. Now the toughy thing is... who will i "will it" to? or do i "allow" the girlfriend to do what she will with it (like i'll have any choice on the matter).

There's a stoned-fashioned water well out there that the Native "indians" (Mandan, Arikara, Hidista tribes) used for thousands of years. The legend is that it is over 10,000 years old - predates even these groupings of nomads, the last ice age. BTW- how deep the stone-lining goes down was anybodys guess. It would be a lot like exploring (splunking) caverns where other have traversed before me... but i ain't a well-splunker, and now "too old" to be hoisted down a shaft where the modern-man have not been before me :-|

All kinds of Indian graves, teepee circles, buffalo dugouts etc. A real gathering place for the multi-tribals for their trades amongst each other.

The landscape (200 yards around) is different as is the soil, and many years, it is submerged by a small slough, about a foot deep, depending on the yearly rainfall and snowmelt and the nearby underground springs. It is still covered with a large boulder, movable by 3-4 strong men. We had some NDSU university-types poking around some 80+ years ago, but our family, in conjunction with the Natives, wouldn't reveal the location. Some local farmers (the hood) convinced my grandpa[1864-1938] & grandma (her homestead) to place a rock on the end of a fishing line... they stopped after 4-1/2 miles of line had been expended.

The other thing are the 33 meteorites (from outer space) that are kept there. The smallest being a couple feet across, and the largest about six-feet across. Who? brought them to this location nobody knows... hence, keep the university people away. Those clowns would have carted them away and had the State buy the land and declare it "off-limits" (a heritage site) to everybody but their highbrow buddies and hangers-on. The polluters.

Definitely a gathering-place for millennia


CHEESY: Ol grandma, i was her "favorite", she said a lot that i reminded her of her younger brother, Lars, who remained behind in Lapland.



Tomas (the tank)
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David Quinn
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Re: Spiritual Death

Post by David Quinn »

average wrote:
DQ: At root, our prisons are entirely conceptual in nature and we are perfectly capable of dismantling all of them - providing our karma allows us to. Our karma here being our genes, upbringing, teachers, past decision-making, etc.
If our prisons are purely conceptual then the idea that freedom from them is dependent on our "karma" our "genes" and "upbringing" is also a fabrication of concepts that becomes itself a conceptual prison.

Freedom in this case, is a false projection that feeble men aspire to and try to grasp, because they imagine there are things that bind them. And its even worse when they believe that they require "Karma's Permission" to break those imaginary bonds...
It isn't a matter of asking "karma's permission". People either realize the conceptual nature of their binds and break free of them, or they don't. Either way, they are at the mercy of their causes.

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