Becoming not-I
2008-04-18 22:03:45
If the purpose of life is to become not-I, then how is it done? The I (ego) is made up of all mental functions, such as senses, feelings, thoughts and emotions, which lead to a perception of separateness as an individual self. To reach the state of not-I (union/selflessness), one must go beyond/transcend all the aspects of ego. All religions provide methods of becoming selfless, be it through practice of positive energy/love (service, charity and worship), practice of contractive energy (inward looking through meditation/prayer), or simply stepping back and practicing bare attention/awareness. Since every I is unique, every I will have its own particular method of transcending ego. Good luck!
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More on becoming not-I
2008-04-18 22:02:22
In my last post, I ended by saying "good luck," because I have been trying for 30 odd years to live in the state of not-I, and haven't had much luck. I have glimpsed and tasted not-I, enough to know it exists and is far superior to the state of I, but I seem to like being I too much to give it up. Adding to that the necessity of practicing self-discipline to achieve a state of not-I, my chances of living in that state are much diminished. So again I say, good luck!
Purpose of Life
2008-04-13 20:07:16
I was asked, “so what’s this Haiku God thing mean?” Well, I thought, in reality there is no meaning, just isness. But man needs meaning and purpose. Well, the primary purpose of all life is staying alive. After that, some life seeks security; staying alive in the future. And some life, including man, adds a third purpose, pleasure. There are two kinds of pleasure, material and spiritual. Material pleasure is directed at I, spiritual pleasure comes from outward direction (giving/not-I). From all accounts, spiritual pleasure is far superior to material pleasure. So the obvious purpose of man’s life should be to attain spiritual pleasure, which means becoming not-I. The more not-I one becomes, the greater the spiritual pleasure (the more you love, the more you get). Of cour
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More about energy
2008-04-13 10:14:05
Certainly God as electromagnetic energy is well accepted, especially in the Judeo/Christian tradition. A burning bush is definitely electromagnetic energy, as is light (a common description of God). Life itself is electromagnetic energy.What is not accepted is that the strong and nuclear forces, as well as gravity (all of which are "negative" energies), are God. This is probably due to the following reasons:First, people's natural conception of God is usually as a person, and negative energy would not seem to have any personality, though we could say that the earth, the best example we have of negative energy, has a personality of sorts (as Mother Earth).Further, God is personalized as being male. Under this limited view, electromagnetic energy can be accepted as God, because it is the
Resurrection
2008-04-07 21:23:36
Resurrection is commonly defined as becoming alive again, the best example being Christ’s return from death. The promise is that death is not the end; that we can also survive death. This must be, as energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only change forms. Thus awareness/energy as spirit or soul changes form from incarnated as matter (life) to pure spirit. Resurrection implies that this individual spirit will take on a body and become “alive” again (reincarnated?). However, being resurrected as an individual means being separate from not-I. So if the goal is to become not-I (true heaven), then being resurrected as an "I" would miss the mark.
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Reincarnation
2008-04-07 05:33:57
Reincarnation is an individual spirit taking on a new physical body. The circumstances of birth are determined by karma (how good/bad you were in the last life). In Christian jargon, it is going to purgatory, where one works off the legacy (karma) of past sins in order to qualify for heaven. (For an instructive guide to the after death state and reincarnation, read the “Tibetan Book of the Dead”)
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The Trinity
2008-04-07 04:24:58
God is all energy, but different forms of energy have different attributes (expansive, contractive and neutral). These attributes are hereinafter called Godness. Christians would see Godness as being expressed in the concept of the trinity: the father as light (radiation/spirit), the son as matter (incarnated) and the holy spirit as dark energy, the formless, transcendent ground of the other two.
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Man has divine nature
2008-04-01 21:26:01
God exists in every living being in the form of energy/awareness, which is life itself. “I” am simply one of countless individual points of view of God as awareness/energy. God is totality; every individual I is but a part, one frequency among countless. If divine nature
is awareness/energy, I must have it. To say I don’t is to say that divine nature is limited (there is someplace where it isn’t) and to escape the obligation to discover and express it.
Light
2008-04-01 21:10:53
Electromagnetic radiation (Einstein's E), including visible light, is the energy carrier for the radiant/positive energy produced by chemical reactions of matter. Light (radiating energy) consists of photons, a kind of boson, which is an elementary particle of energy identical to a fermion, but with double the spin. This double spin somehow allows photons to be indiscrete, so they can be in the same place at the same time. On the other hand, Fermions (the basis of matter) are discrete, thus cannot be in the same place at the same time. They are “solid.” The virtuality of photons, considered with their mass of 0, qualifies them as non-matter. However, it’s important to note that light, although non-matter, is still individuated (in the form of separate quanta/photons/waves).
Creation?
2008-03-31 22:16:18
Since all is energy, and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, there logically can be no creation - something out of nothing. There is only change from one form of energy to another (E to m). However, creation is sometimes thought of as the appearance of something new. Matter creation, in which bosons (energy as non-matter) change into fermions (energy as matter), is a good example. It seems that something (matter) has appeared from nothing (non-matter), but it's just a transformation of energy. From this point of view, "creation" is continually occurring (as is annihilation, as when fermions change to bosons). Thus Haiku God is continually "creating" Itself.
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Respect
2008-03-28 21:38:03
Thanks to John for the first submitted Haiku!Universe is GodEverything seen and unseenTreat with respect!Would seem to be a valid demand.
Awareness = Energy
2008-03-28 20:54:03
Awareness is energy. So energy is aware – more exact would be that energy is awareness itself – so what is it aware of? Light is simply aware of being light. The strong force is aware of itself. Not-I is aware of not-Iness (love). However, “I” is only aware of I-ness, of being a separate point of awareness. I only know what I am aware of. With a lot of empathy, I can imagine what other life forms are aware of, but can’t even guess what non-life forms such as protons are aware of. Can a human (“I”) possibly comprehend this? No. The only way to know not-I is to become not-I, in which case there is no I left to comprehend. Personal experience tells me I am both energy (life force/breath) and awareness/consciousness. Both exit the body at death, which would ind
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, Energy
Dark energy
2008-03-28 20:49:42
Dark energy is a complete mystery. It is truly supernatural, beyond anything in nature. It is formless and omnipresent, permeating the universe, present in all space. One could think of it as being a different dimension, beyond space/time. But because it permeates space/time, it becomes the only known candidate for the medium through which electromagnetic particles/waves (including light) propagate. And it is also the only bet for the medium in which matter (negative energy) exists.When considering God as energy, the two forms of God as E and matter proves God's immanence in the universe. When considering God in the form of dark energy, God is transcendent – a unity.When considering God as awareness, God as individuated awareness (I) makes up all life in the universe (and by extens
Energy as love
2008-03-28 10:00:40
Energy as love? Who are we limited beings to say that the strong force – the incredibly energetic union (coupling) of the positive/negative (male/female) quarks (the basis of protons and neutrons), which are continually exchanging virtual gluons – is not a form of love? And consider the sun, continually giving earth light and awareness with no thought of reward. How can we know what love really is?
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Man as love
2008-03-28 09:55:29
The natural state of man must be love. But because man is seemingly separate, love usually becomes self directed. The strongest instinct of an individual is self preservation; love of self/I. On the other hand, the highest form of love is considered self-sacrifice (not-I).
About energy
2008-03-25 23:51:26
So far, man has discovered 3 forms of energy which make up the universe, everything seen and unseen. One form is radiating, or positive energy, of which there are two general types: electromagnetic energy and the weak force (nuclear decay). The sun, carbon burning and the heat of our own bodies are the most familiar examples of radiant energy. Radiant energy is a result of chemical reactions of matter, and is carried by bosons, which are elementary particles. Matter is made of charged particles of energy (Fermions) and their combinations held together by contractive (negative) energy, the known different levels being the strong force, nuclear force and gravity. The third form of energy is dark energy, the all-present, neutral ground of the universe. Also known as vacuum energy, it is
Awareness
2008-03-25 23:50:55
So what is it that is aware? When searching inside, all that can ultimately be found is awareness itself. An individual (“I”) is simply a unique, very limited point of view of awareness itself, expressed as both “I” and “not-I.”Being awareness itself, God then must know all. Since God is spirit (by definition), spirit is awareness, both immanent (as I) and transcendent (as not-I).
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Even more on becoming not-I
2008-04-20 19:20:48
Thanks for the comment and advice, hotdzit. I believe everyone has experienced not-I. As someone said, it was our face before we were born. We just can't remember it because it wasn't an experience of our I. And maybe I'm not so lucky to have tasted it, because I don't believe that someone can be truly happy when one knows there is greater happiness to be had; when one knows there's something more which is attainable in this life. I and not-I form a continuum ranging from complete separateness/self-centeredness (devil) to complete unity (love/goodness), Christ being the best known example of the latter in the West. As I/ego is lessened, selflessness (not-I) grows (and vice versa). This usually happens naturally over a lifetime or more, but some people often experience temporary li
Earth Day
2008-04-22 09:16:55
Imagine, 1 billion people doing something on Earth
Day! I can’t. But I thought I’d join the crowd. So I walked to school this morning (though I rode my motorbike in the afternoon – it was too hot (a poor excuse, but don’t come to Saigon in April!)). And then we discussed it in my class (I learned that by 2040, over half of the Mekong Delta will be unsuitable for agriculture because of the rising sea level!). And then I was talking with Mary Jane, and she suggested we write something about it, like how it relates to Haiku God. Well, basically, the Earth IS Haiku God, in the form of matter (contractive energy). “Mother” Earth as contractive energy is one side of the equation (E=mc2). The other side is E, electromagnetic energy (spirit). Unfortunately, most westerners onl
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No title
2008-04-25 23:27:09
Rouse, my first grandchild, is due in July. I was trying to imagine what kind of Earth Day he will have if he survives til 2070, when he would be about my age. The worst case scenario I could come up with was if there was runaway methane melting, such as described in: Poor Rouse! The best case I could think of would be if humans somehow learned or were forced to control their desires (especially for energy), and were living in a new economic paradigm in harmony with all existence. Then Earth Day would be a celebration rather than a wake. Unfortunately, I am pessimistic about human nature. I think we will continue our profligate life-style, thus dooming the Earth to the first scenario. Good luck little Rouse!
Science and Religion redux
2008-04-27 22:13:13
Since the beginning of thought, there’s been a disconnect between science and religion. Science
has always been about the observable, namely energy. Religion
has been about the unobservable, namely spirit (awareness). It’s as if they were two different things. It could be useful to look at them as different sides of the same thing. Einstein gave us the concept of E = m, the two sides of energy. E, electromagnetic energy, is the non-material (spiritual) aspect of energy. Mass is matter, the material aspect of energy. Both consist of exactly the same particles of energy. So what’s the difference? As Harry, an un-notable physicist once told me, “It’s the spin, baby; it’s all in the SPIN!” As it turned out, particles of E (the spiritual, non-material aspect of energy
Back in the USA
2008-05-06 17:44:08
I apologize for the lack of posts, but I just moved from Saigon to Denver for summer vacation and I am trying to make the transition to life in America. People sure have a lot here! But strangely, they don’t seem to be any happier than the Saigonese. Anyway, it’s nice to be with my family again. My wife is an anti-haiku god person. In fact, she is anti-anything named “God.” She strongly disbelieves that there is a separate supreme “He” who does all those things that “He” supposedly does; like plan, create, help, know, act, give, feel, whatever. She asks me why I don’t name reality “Energy” or something else besides “God,” which reminds her of the personal “God” most people seem to believe in. Well, I answer that “God” is the name usually give
Motherhood
2008-05-12 08:56:57
A little haiku in honor (?) of mothers:Mother is matterWhen imbued with E (spirit)Transforms into lifeNot the most emotional way to look at motherhood, but Haiku God is that way, except when manifested as human.
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Deism, Theism...
2008-05-15 22:41:06
In the Christian tradition, there is an unfortunate tendency to view God as an individual, personal “He.” Unfortunate for at least two reasons: 1. It limits God (as not-she and not-neuter). What good is a limited God? God must be an It to be truly unlimited. 2. It separates God from Man. One result of this is that Man isn’t considered to have divine nature. So he has no respons
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