If "everything is energy" then what does this mean?

[Runewolf1973]

If you understand that they all point to the same Reality, there should be no problem for you. Focus on the Reality first, and not the various labels which they are about.

That is really my main focus. I realize that "interaction" is also a label, but I suppose I just find the term more useful on a more mundane level. Interaction is no Ultimate Reality by any means. It is simply my way of explaining the see-able and the knowable.

 

[Runewolf1973]

That's going a bit far....without concepts there is no verbal communication between humans.... The important thing to be aware of though is that the real is on the other side of the concept... Actually the concept 'concept' also has a reality behind it...that of being a symbolic representation of something...like the finger pointing to the moon..

That's part of the problem with humans right there...we talk too much and worry too much about nothing.

 

[Ben Dhyan]

That's part of the problem with humans right there...we talk too much and worry too much about nothing.

Much of the argument that goes on and on is semantics, and the purposely misinterpreting of the intended explanation to score cheap points... Btw, I don't have a problem with your idea of absolute interaction....the eternal cosmic dance' of ying and yang. In fact science acknowledges that positive and negative electric, differential energy pressure, etc., is the cause of all movement...from the macro to the micro... So for me, that signifies the Cosmos...the Tao...the Absolute....the One Mind...Brahman..the million names of God... And I don't have a problem using absolute as an adjective where appropriate...such as absolute universe..to make the distinction with the limited physical manifested universe studied by science..

 

[Rick O'Shez]

All phenomena are empty. Nirvana is the ultimate phenomena, and is ultimately empty, that is to say, absolutely empty. Absolute emptiness is Nothingness, The Absolute.

Nirvana is empty and therefore cannot be an absolute, or "nothingness". Sunyata is also empty. You really are clueless about Buddhist teachings, and you are just confusing yourself further with all the random PPNs. ( Pretentious Proper Nouns ).

 

[Rick O'Shez]

Sho' 'nuff, just as soon as you show me how the quote I posted from the Buddha is a dodgy translation, and how the meaning is changed to synch with your view.

I HAVE shown you. You haven't been able to make a coherent argument against the points I made, further demonstration of your shallow corn-flake packet understanding of Buddhist teachings.

I am still waiting for you to respond to the previous points:

You claimed the "five egotistical states of apparent love" are from the world of psychology, so let's see a referenced explanation FROM the world of psychology.

You introduced yet another bit of jargon which you haven't bothered to explain, ie "authentic self". What exactly does this mean? It it the same as your "cosmic consciousness" or "universal consciousness"? Something else again? Do explain.

 

[atanu]

I think we must first define what we mean by the term 'Absolute'.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

The other important thing to remember, which is a big problem for most people, is that the concept is not that which it stands for, but only a symbolic representation for it. It sounds so simple, but it is quite surprising how prevalent this error actually is.

And this coming from somebody with a head stuffed FULL of PPNs. My irony meter just broke again, along with my BS meter.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

Anyway, the point is that, contrary to what you stated, there is The Absolute.

No there isn't. It's a fiction, meaningless twaddle, just another metaphysical straw to clutch at. There is just the universe.

 

[Runewolf1973]

Much of the argument that goes on and on is semantics, and the purposely misinterpreting of the intended explanation to score cheap points... Btw, I don't have a problem with your idea of absolute interaction....the eternal cosmic dance' of ying and yang. In fact science acknowledges that positive and negative electric, differential energy pressure, etc., is the cause of all movement...from the macro to the micro... So for me, that signifies the Cosmos...the Tao...the Absolute....the One Mind...Brahman..the million names of God... And I don't have a problem using absolute as an adjective where appropriate...such as absolute universe..to make the distinction with the limited physical manifested universe studied by science..

Very nice post Ben. I have no problem with your views either.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

There are just too many unnecessary labels. Absolute, Pure Consciousness, Brahman, Ultimate Reality, Cosmic Consciousness, Absolute Truth, Source....etc...the list goes on.

It's all ridiculous tautology, and these PPNs are just metaphysical straws which people clutch at.

 

[godnotgod]

That is really my main focus. I realize that "interaction" is also a label, but I suppose I just find the term more useful on a more mundane level. Interaction is no Ultimate Reality by any means. It is simply my way of explaining the see-able and the knowable.

It is your way of reporting what you observe, via perception, of the phenomenal world. That is reality for you on that level of conscious awareness, just as the events in a dream are real when in the dream-world. However, on the next higher and subsequent levels of conscious awareness, what you now see as real, may not appear to be the case, just as when the dreamer awakens to find that his dream was completely illusory.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

Therefore, being Everything, the Universe is not only an absolute, it is The Absolute, as there is no relative 'other' to which it can be compared.

More meaningless twaddle and pointless tautology.

 

[Ben Dhyan]

Nirvana is empty and therefore cannot be an absolute, or "nothingness".

You are welcome to that school of thought...but fwiw, I understand the 'emptiness' as being one with the absolute.... When the mind is empty....silent, and thus having no preferences wrt the cosmic interactions, then one is unaffected as they pass right through the mind....offer the slightest resistance by way of preference to some interactions as apposed to others....then we become like flotsam buffeted by the cosmic interactive ocean.....

 

[atanu]

I think we must first define what we mean by the term 'Absolute'.

Also the meaning of 'Shunyata' in the context of Heart Sutra.

...

 

[godnotgod]

Nirvana is empty and therefore cannot be an absolute, or "nothingness". Sunyata is also empty.

If they are empty of limiting self-nature, then they have are limitless. That is The Absolute. In fact, that is precisely what the Buddha himself did say, you see:

"O bhikkhus, what is the Absolute (Asaṃkhata, Unconditioned)? It is, O bhikkhus, the extinction of desire (rāgakkhayo) the extinction of hatred (dosakkhayo), the extinction of illusion (mohakkhayo). This, O bhikkhus, is called the Absolute."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(Buddhism)

See how easy it is to understand Buddhist teachings? Why, it's so simple, that even a wanna-be Buddhish can do it!

 

[godnotgod]

No there isn't. It's a fiction, meaningless twaddle, just another metaphysical straw to clutch at. There is just the universe.

...which is singular and limitless, and therefore, absolute, since there is no relative 'other' universe to compare it to, 'universe' meaning all that exists.

 

[godnotgod]

And this coming from somebody with a head stuffed FULL of PPNs. My irony meter just broke again, along with my BS meter.

Well, DUH! That's because your irony meter is none other than BS!

 

[Rick O'Shez]

...the dreamer awakens to find that his dream was completely illusory.

Time for you to wake up then, Alice, stop drinking hallucinogenic tea with the Mad Hatter and come up out your rabbit-hole. It will take you some time to adjust to the glare of reality though.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

.which is singular and limitless, and therefore, absolute, since there is no relative 'other' universe to compare it to, 'universe' meaning all that exists.

Random emission of meaningless rhetoric. I think you have been wading in your own BS for too long.

 

[godnotgod]

More meaningless twaddle and pointless tautology.

You see, it's quite simple, Fosdick.

Unless, of course, the Universe is NOT Everything, and there is some relative 'other' to which it can be compared. So let us look at your premise. You are saying that there is some relative 'other', rendering the universe a relative phenomena? Hmmmm? Can you demonstrate, via your prized tools of Reason and Logic, what this relative 'other' is, exactly?