The Nonexistence of Nothing | On De'anism, Madrianism, Isianism, and other Thealogies

The Nonexistence of Nothing Aug 26, 2020 16:50:23 GMT

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Post by david on Aug 26, 2020 16:50:23 GMT

Dear friends,

Buddhists insist that Nirvana is not a state of undifferentiated wholeness, but a state to which no concept can be attached. If this is true, then it can have no form. Since the material world is a manifestation of absolute existence, any form in absolute existence will be within us, because we come from absolute existence, and will therefore have a concept. If it contains no form, it contains nothing that will impinge on the senses, and therefore be a state of oblivion.

The Buddhists argue that the world is all illusion created by the discriminating mind which divided between subject and object. They see no reality beyond the illusion. Now, if there is no reality in this illusion, what enables us to imagine them? Where do I get the ideas of all the things that I see in the world?

All perception must have some source, even illusion. It is frequently said that a coat over a chair in a dark room will make you think there is a man in the room. The man is an illusion, but you have seen something. You have not seen it as it really is. If you had seen nothing, you would not think you had seen a man.

It is hard to understand how existence could have come into being, but we know that there is an existence. There must be some consciousness, some form of perception, and some stimulus to perception. There must be some reality, and something that gives a reality to everything we see.

If there is an absolute reality, it must be a state of pure consciousness, otherwise it would not be absolute. Does intelligence come from there? Some people say that intelligence is a material faculty, but matter does not create. It is inert and cannot produce thought. In pure consciousness we have perfect understanding.

Pure consciousness requires a perfect harmony of mind, which suggests a primordial mind of infinite intellect and consciousness. It is God.

If there is a God, why not two, or many? Suppose there are two. They would have perfect consciousness of each other's minds, so that they would be, in effect, one mind. There is only one God.

So what is the cause of our separate existence? It would seem logically that we should be part of the Divine Mind, but we know we have a separate existence. Some people say that analysing caused our minds to separate, but this does not seem an adequate explanation. To start analysing, there must have been something to analyse, and we must have already had the ability to analyse. People are trying to explain a cause by its consequence.

That answer is that we are Divine Sparks, reflections of the Centre. We are created beings, created in a perfect harmony which we have lost.

How did we lose it? The reason is that we fell into matter, and, since matter is inert, we fell into it because of inertia.

May She be with you,

David.

The Nonexistence of Nothing Aug 30, 2020 16:41:36 GMT

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Post by david on Aug 30, 2020 16:41:36 GMT

Dear friends,

Buddhism can explain why we are separate from Nirvana, but does not explain the diversity of the world and its logical consistency. The Tibetan Buddhists say that there is no difference between dream consciousness and waking consciousness, but there is. There is a lack of logical consistency in dream consciousness. What I experience in my waking consciousness tomorrow will be a logical development of my waking consciousness of today. What I dream about tonight will have nothing to do with what I dreamt about last night. Impossible things occur in dreams. I can dream I am in one place, and then dream I am in another, without any transition from the first place to the second. Things can happen which are not the culmination of an unbroken logical sequence of events. I wake up each morning in the same flat, and, when I go out of it, I go into the same neighbourhood. There is no consistency of place in my dreams. My waking life is dependant on the satisfaction of certain needs: food, clothes, a place to live, etc. My dreaming life isn't. If I have a problem in my waking life which I don't solve today, it will have to be solved on some future occasion. All problems have to be solved by the right solution for that problem. I have frequently woken out of dreams with problems unsolved, but they never recur in future dreams. I've even dreamt I've been killed with no ill effects.

The Tibetans may argue that we are more subject to logic in our waking life, but not in our dreams because we are more relaxed. This is not an adequate explanation. If there was no objective reality behind my waking consciousness, it would surely give way at some time. An unendurable situation dragging on would give way to a sheer effort of will. It does not. All problems have to be solved. There are some times when logic in waking life is weakened, such as tiredness. I have suffered from prolonged lack of sleep, and became very illogical as a consequence. It does not cause problems to go away. Some people are incapable of using logic, but this does not give them power to overcome problems. It is logical people who do work which involves solving problems.

If all the things of the world are really phantasmagoria, how is it that we have common experiences. Two and two makes four for me. It also makes four for everybody else. There's a coincidence for you. The reason is that it's true.

Some people may say that magic enables a problem to be solved without direct application, but this does not involve a weakening of logic. Magic is logical.

We have to conclude that, while the material world is illusion, there is an object reality beyond it which is the cause of all logic.

May She be with you,

David.