Can only choose one path?

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ConnorLWhitehead
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Re: Can only choose one path?

Post by ConnorLWhitehead »

I guess to better explain myself.

This life could be the only one that exists, so I should just indulge in the temptations of the world. Sounds fine and dandy, but what if doing so is actually burning your possible bridge to the afterlife, whatever that may be.
Nick_A
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Re: Can only choose one path?

Post by Nick_A »

From the OP:
I've been thinking that could be the ultimate question in life. Do you distance yourself from friends, family, and morality in pursue of money and "success"? Or do you embrace the ineffable and see where spiritual rabbit hole takes you?

Both appeal to opposite sides of the spectrum of popular belief.

What matters more to you? This life? or the next.
Greta wrote:
I would like to see more widespread techniques available, means of better understanding the mind's and body's functions so as to gain more control over them. That would allow us to be more deliberate, to be more who we want to be rather than who we are compelled to be. To function more via reason and less by compulsion. With self mastery can come peace, but that particular science, be it Buddhist or secular, is either undeveloped or not readily available.
Quite true. Such techniques could allow us to be more deliberative in our ability to manipulate to get our way and even kill more efficiently. Who could argue with this aim.

Is there a path? Also, if there is a path, why one? Who said so. Simone?
Yes!

A path has the theoretical purpose of responding to objective human meaning and purpose.

Henri Nouwen wrote: “To whom do we belong? This is the core question of the spiritual life. Do we belong to the world, its worries, its people and its endless chain of urgencies and emergencies, or do we belong to God and God’s people.”

Henri Nouwen elaborates on the choices suggested in the OP. Who we belong to will be revealed by what we do. You and fooloso4 have no respect for those who don’t belong to the world. Most are like this. Is there an essential part of a path that could bring these two sides closer together. Is there something in a path, something we could verify, that would allow for the possibility? Yes, Simone did understand. Could you ever abandon your hatred long enough to recognize she is referring to a conscious part of a path which enables us to see what we are in the light of human potential and the incentive to be more human? My guess is that you and fooloso4 prefer to wallow in your negativity to the degree that it now affords great satisfaction impossible to question in the cause of normalcy.
The combination of these two facts — the longing in the depth of the heart for absolute good, and the power, though only latent, of directing attention and love to a reality beyond the world and of receiving good from it — constitutes a link which attaches every man without exception to that other reality.
Whoever recognizes that reality recognizes also that link. Because of it, he holds every human being without any exception as something sacred to which he is bound to show respect.
This is the only possible motive for universal respect towards all human beings. Whatever formulation of belief or disbelief a man may choose to make, if his heart inclines him to feel this respect, then he in fact also recognizes a reality other than this world's reality. Whoever in fact does not feel this respect is alien to that other reality also. ~ Simone Weil
Man would like to be an egoist and cannot. This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of his greatness." Simone Weil....Gravity and Grace
Fooloso4
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Re: Can only choose one path?

Post by Fooloso4 »

Greta:
Is there a path? Also, if there is a path, why one? Who said so. Simone?
The correct answer is Nick the Beast Slayer. He will slay the Beast with his collection of incantational quotations. He has created his own mythology - while dead he gained knowledge of all things and is now recollecting them. Verily, his is the Truth and the Way. Behold the new Trinity:

Proto-Jesus (Plato, only the stories, not the dialectic)
Jesus (Brand appropriate version)
Young, Slender Woman Jesus (Simone)
Nick_A
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Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:45 pm

Re: Can only choose one path?

Post by Nick_A »

Fooloso4 wrote:Greta:
Is there a path? Also, if there is a path, why one? Who said so. Simone?
The correct answer is Nick the Beast Slayer. He will slay the Beast with his collection of incantational quotations. He has created his own mythology - while dead he gained knowledge of all things and is now recollecting them. Verily, his is the Truth and the Way. Behold the new Trinity:

Proto-Jesus (Plato, only the stories, not the dialectic)
Jesus (Brand appropriate version)
Young, Slender Woman Jesus (Simone)
Your attitude puts you in danger of having an experience which will make you xenaphobic for a very long time.
Man would like to be an egoist and cannot. This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of his greatness." Simone Weil....Gravity and Grace
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Sy Borg
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Re: Can only choose one path?

Post by Sy Borg »

My guess is that you and fooloso4 prefer to wallow in your negativity to the degree that it now affords great satisfaction impossible to question in the cause of normalcy.
Nick, that's an odd claim. I find you to be terribly negative, always complaining bitterly about "fallen man". We're rooned! The world has gone to the dogs! Uh huh.

By contrast, I love progress and its more rational morality, much preferring it to the theistic practice of picking out targets to devalue and pressure. Yes, there are backwards steps and missteps throughout history, but it would be bizarre if that was not the case. As I always say, we're not burning witches or nailing people to planks of wood any more.

Nor do I think of you as embracing something so much larger than ourselves. Rather, your deity strikes me as an immaterial extrapolation of humanity, similar enough to harbour distinctly human concerns. The anthropocentric worldview is a small paradigm that assumes humanity to be the ultimate endpoint and coup de grace of evolution (if it is believed in). Theism either ignores the cosmic perspective or fails to give it due importance and focus, which is not surprising since the religions' founders were unaware of solar systems and galaxies and the processes that made out existence possible.

I feel positive and excited about the long term future, including what I think are likely longer term changes to human morality, as well as trepidation regarding the short and medium terms with the Trump-ets of war sounding and the growing breakdowns of order through environmental, economic and political pressures. Let's hear about your positivity now - this time in your own words as opposed to being Simone's sock puppet :P
Nick_A
Posts: 3364
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:45 pm

Re: Can only choose one path?

Post by Nick_A »

Greta wrote:
My guess is that you and fooloso4 prefer to wallow in your negativity to the degree that it now affords great satisfaction impossible to question in the cause of normalcy.
Nick, that's an odd claim. I find you to be terribly negative, always complaining bitterly about "fallen man". We're rooned! The world has gone to the dogs! Uh huh.

By contrast, I love progress and its more rational morality, much preferring it to the theistic practice of picking out targets to devalue and pressure. Yes, there are backwards steps and missteps throughout history, but it would be bizarre if that was not the case. As I always say, we're not burning witches or nailing people to planks of wood any more.

Nor do I think of you as embracing something so much larger than ourselves. Rather, your deity strikes me as an immaterial extrapolation of humanity, similar enough to harbour distinctly human concerns. The anthropocentric worldview is a small paradigm that assumes humanity to be the ultimate endpoint and coup de grace of evolution (if it is believed in). Theism either ignores the cosmic perspective or fails to give it due importance and focus, which is not surprising since the religions' founders were unaware of solar systems and galaxies and the processes that made out existence possible.

I feel positive and excited about the long term future, including what I think are likely longer term changes to human morality, as well as trepidation regarding the short and medium terms with the Trump-ets of war sounding and the growing breakdowns of order through environmental, economic and political pressures. Let's hear about your positivity now - this time in your own words as opposed to being Simone's sock puppet :P
Greta:
Nor do I think of you as embracing something so much larger than ourselves. Rather, your deity strikes me as an immaterial extrapolation of humanity, similar enough to harbour distinctly human concerns. The anthropocentric worldview is a small paradigm that assumes humanity to be the ultimate endpoint and coup de grace of evolution (if it is believed in).
You are describing the Great Beast and it is your God. The fact that you consider seeing it for what it is as negative just proves your allegiance to your god. You worship the Great Beast and I am attracted to the source of universal existence outside of the confines of time and space. You have your god and I have my inner direction.
Man would like to be an egoist and cannot. This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of his greatness." Simone Weil....Gravity and Grace
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Atreyu
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Favorite Philosopher: P.D. Ouspensky
Location: Orlando, FL

Re: Can only choose one path?

Post by Atreyu »

ConnorLWhitehead wrote:What matters more to you? This life? or the next.
This life matters most to me because I don't know if there is a "next" one....
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