Eternity

Posted on December 23, 2021 by amartingarcia

If we consider humans as finite beings, what evidence do we have that “eternity” actually exists?

Physical bodies are finite, corruptible, but are human beings just their bodies (and their finite minds)? There is a mysterious, undefinable, and unmeasurable entity called consciousness which appears to pervade all sentient beings and nature in general. Nature, all life, is conscious – dare we say? This entity – consciousness – is undeniable, for it is our most direct and unfalsifiable experience. Consciousness – by consensus of a majority of physicists – escapes all parameters of physics, neurophysiology, and brain studies. But not only consciousness, but the so-called matter is also in the same category of the intrinsically unknowable, even if there are methods for measuring and experimenting with such entity as matter-energy.

Again, no one knows what eternity might be, such are the limitations of our means of understanding reality, even though physics and mathematics come to our aid in this and also with the phenomenon of space (space-time). What is more, philosophy and metaphysics have a better grasp of the extra-physical dimensions of reality aided and abetted as they are by (universal) intuition. For metaphysics time does not exist outside of our minds, and, rather than eternity-(duration), timelessness – or what is the same, that only the PRESENT exists – is what, as a concept, gives a semblance of reality to reality (all that is and ever has been) – incomprehensible to the unaided mind.

Do the Vedas really mention some serious physics?

Dhananjay

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Yes. Actually you have to de code the coding language of Vedas.

If you’re good at Sanskrit Etymology then you’ll find many Mantras in Vedas which are relatable with modern science and dynamics.

Vedas consists of all kind of knowledge which a Human requires. Doesn’t matter whatever the period of time he is living in. Vedas can be applicable in every age. This is why Vedas are known as eternal wisdom, that which has no end.

Vedas are of four types.

1. Rig – Praise
2. Yaj – Worship
3. Saam – Divine Song
4. Atharv – Offerings

There are many more scientific studies going on the Mantras of the Vedas.

Even a single Mantra holds a very deep and cosmic knowledge in a coded form. You have to explore it.

I’ll give you some examples of these popular Mantras.

As scientists claimed about eternity of the universe.

According to eternal inflation, the inflationary phase of the universe’s expansion lasts forever throughout most of the universe.

This same phenomenon is being chanted in India since thousands of years.

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥

पूर्णमद That is complete,

पूर्णमिदं This is also complete,

पूर्णात पूर्णमुदच्यते From completeness comes the completeness

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय If you take completeness from complete

पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते Whatever remains is also complete.

This is cosmic science.

If we filled up a bottle from an ocean to separate ocean’s water in a 500ml bottle yet it is not separated because an ocean and a bottle still remains a part of the complete universe doesn’t matter how bad we try to separate it.

Even if we think we separated it then whatever remains is also complete because we all are the part of this entire endless complete universe.

Each one of us has universe within.

Consciousness

A L’ENTORN DE LA DIRECCIÓ ESCÈNICA A LES ÒPERES WAGNER (1): DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER A BAYREUTH — IN FERNEM LAND

Herman Uhde (Holländer) 1955, potser la interpretació més impressionant d’aquest rol. L’inquiet Club Wagner em va convidar fa unes setmanes a un diàleg sota el títol «La direcció escènica a les òperes wagnerianes», fet que em va esperonar a fer aquesta sèrie d’apunts que inicio avui, amb la relació de tots els directors escènics que […]

A L’ENTORN DE LA DIRECCIÓ ESCÈNICA A LES ÒPERES WAGNER (1): DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER A BAYREUTH — IN FERNEM LAND

Consciousness

DUALITY & NON-DUALITY

 FOREWORD

This book consists of a selection from Quora of some of the most relevant questions concerning metaphysics or spirituality that encompass Eastern and Western traditions. The approach is catholic or universal, as can be appreciated in the table of contents. I make no apology for giving comparatively more prominence or coverage to the Eastern tradition, particularly to what is called Non-duality and or Advaita Vedanta. Some examples of non-dualist Western philosophers or mystics are accounted for, in particular, the greatest (in my estimation), Plato, not forgetting Plotinus, Meister Eckhart, Ibn Arabi, etc. Plato can be compared to some extent to Shankara, the latter being perhaps the topmost philosopher and mystic the world has given birth to.

It must be advised that the reader will find some repetitions¾mostly in some of the questions or themes¾something that is inevitable given the nature of the book. The latter consists of a compilation and selection of Questions, together with my Answers, in Quora from 2014 to 2019 on crucial areas of thought and experience, again from East and West. Much thought or reflection has been dedicated to this endeavor, any considerations of recompense or expectations being entirely out of place.

Of course, appreciation and thanks to all sources of joyful inspiration are implicit and must be acknowledged, together with the persons or authors behind them. Such are too numerous to mention here. I make an exception with Sowmya Shree, who was a great help during my (impish) travel to India in 2018, being the instigator of it. I would have been lame and lost without her. My other crutch could not have been any other than my dear wife, Angeles.

Two words about the book’s title (or part thereof) ‘Duality and Non-duality’. These are two aspects of the one truth or reality, as it were in search of unity: the truths of empirical or everyday life, and the truth of what transcends and, at the same time, embraces them as a higher Truth. The latter cannot but be ineffable, not amenable to definition or description, and can only be actualized in Self-realization. As the seers of ancient India uttered, ‘Reality is one¾the sages call it by many names’. These words, which corroborate what is known as the ‘wisdom of the ages’, come out in one of the Indian Upanishads, the Mundaka Upanishad.

My book

DUALITY & NON-DUALITY
( My answers in Quora)

“Can we still hold that modern science is far from realizing the unreality of the world, the basic teaching of Advaita?”

It’s clear to me that philosophical statements such as “the world is unreal”, or “reality is spiritual” express not empirical but a priori propositions. As such, they are independent of sense experience in that their truth or falsity is not determined by the facts of sense experience. Such statements can neither be confirmed nor confuted by sense experience. Observation and experiment are simply irrelevant to their truth or falsity. Thus, they fall outside the realm of the empirical sciences, whatever be the speculations of individual scientists when assuming the role of members of the laity. Further, in the contexts in which they most often occur, such statements are not regarded as provisional truths subject to refutation or revision as in the sciences, but as absolute and irrefutable truths vouchsafed by unimpeachable authority. (From another thread – forgot author).

Consciousness is prior to the universe

What is the scriptural basis for Advaita consciousness being an awareness preceding the universe?

That’s an ‘easy’ one. 1) Consciousness and awareness are the same for Advaita Vedanta. 2) Atman-brahman, or Consciousness, is the sole reality – the universe is in essence not other than Atman (Consciousness or ‘Spirit’). 3) Consequently, there is no creation – no causation, including space and time which, as everything else, are phenomena, appearances.

Mundaka Upanishad 2.1.10: ‘the world is brahman alone’.

K 3.18. In this karika Gaudapada demonstrates that creation is only apparent, because reality cannot undergo change (and it is taught that the effect is not other than the cause).

Katha Up. 2.1.10: ‘Who ever sees difference between what is here (individual Atman/’soul’) and what is there (brahman) goes from death to death’.

Brihadaranyaka Up. 2.5.19: ‘The supreme being is perceived as manifold on account of Maya’ (magic).

Taittiriya Up. 2.6: ‘Brahman, which is the absolute reality, became reality (satya) and unreality/appearance (asatya)’. That is, the cause itself appears as various effects due to superimposition, which is itself the core, or definition, of ignorance (avidya). Cf. Tai. 2.6, Chandogya Up. 2.8.4, and Bhavagad Gita 4.13 and 13.2.

Ramanuja & Shankara

Who would win in an argument between Ramanujacharya and Shankaracharya?

As non-duality can be said to go beyond, and at the same time enclose duality within itself, we can also say that Shankara, being a non-dualist philosopher, goes beyond and ‘incorporates’ Ramanuja, that is, the latter’s philosophy (it has been said: a jñani understands a bhakta, not vice versa).

Ramanuja took the ego (psychological self) as being the Self, an error for an Advaitin. For the former, destruction of the ego (“me”) will thus entail the destruction of the Self. For an Advaitin, the ego or subtle body (mind, senses, and vital breath) dissolves when the body dies – not so awareness or pure consciousness.

From the viewpoint of Advaita Vedanta, ‘consciousness’ is another name for reality/being/existence: all there is or that can be (all possibilities of existence). Neither ‘subject’ nor ‘object’, it annihilates this (mental) division, as well as sublating all concepts.

Or, as Francis Lucille, a well-known teacher wrote: ‘Simply put, non-dualism is the hypothesis that reality is non-dual, that there is only one single reality which is the substance of all things, of all phenomena, of both mind and matter. If that is true, it follows that the reality of our ordinary consciousness, meaning whatever is really perceiving these words at this moment, must be this non-dual, single, and universal reality.’

Shankara said:

‘An enlightened person, after his death, does not undergo a change of condition – something different than when he was living. But he is said to be “merged in Brahman” just due to his not being connected to another body.’ Quoted from ‘The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta’, Michael Comans.

Freewill vs. determinism

Is every action predetermined or is there free will?

The notion of ‘free will’ is of Jewish-Christian origin, and is the other side of the coin which consists in that other nostrum, ‘(the problem of) evil’, and which complicates things even more. God, being the summum bonum, is not responsible for evil; therefore that responsibility falls entirely on (fallen) man.

There is no notion in Plato (and generally among the ancient Greeks) of the concept of ‘free will’, in the sense of a faculty of the soul which determines a particular course of action – choice, in other words. Rather, it is an inclination or appetite (desire) which motivates action and which is either for the highest and noblest aspiration in man or for his lower preferences (they correspond to Being and Becoming respectively). When the inclination is towards the Good Plato calls it Eros. This account of ‘good will’ was preserved in St. Augustine (dilectio or caritas).

A similar view can be found in Br.Upanishad 4.4.5: “Man is fashioned by desire; according to his desire is his discernment; according to his discernment he does his work.” Also: “For just as men here below pursue the aim after which each aspires, as it were done at command, whether it be a kingdom, or an estate, and live only for that, (so in their aspiration for heavenly rewards they are the slaves of their desires”) – Chand.Upanishad 8.1.5). Paul Deussen, in ‘The Philosophy of the Upanishads’, from which I just quoted, concludes: “The standpoint of the Upanishads, therefore, is a rigid determinism”.

That judgment, however, should be applied only to the empirical viewpoint of the everyday world, not to the higher one, where Atma (-Brahman), the only reality, reigns with absolute freedom. ‘That Thou art’.

http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/the-paradox-of-free-will/