zbob

Be bad to offend lawnmowers such as those! ... Glad they're not spit at! LOL.

 

Thanks Wolf, interesting concept to take into journeying,

not sure of your words but my mind has returned to it through the day.

Puts me in mind of (again? words for it?) "center pole/life tree/spirt spear or sticks"

that are used as an anchor of sorts ?

or as a marker or a path way/door/portal during journeying at times.

 

Have worked with trees and land in such ways but this brings other images to mind?

 

Not sure I catch your meaning for sure but thanks

you gave me some to think on!

 

Stay well,

Shon

Hi Zbob!

 

Just a note on the side ?

 

Any questions you have on "Time" can be answered by sitting with a bowl of water!

 

Sit and drop a little stone into it.

 

The rings you see are just a VERY small part !

 

Have fun!

 

Shon

Think it is Rain who has a great avatar right now to show the rings

 

Try it

 

with a Quiet mind

 

and soft eyes

 

calm heart

 

Like to know what you find if anything?

 

Peace!

 

Shon

Thank you Shon for your thoughtful response. I also do a mindful "meditation" whereby I allow my perceptions of the leaves of trees blown by the wind to flow through my consciousness without actively perceiving any "time" as my mind is altered by the changes of form. Peace, joy and happiness are the products of this "meditation".

Peace to you, zbob

Hey Zbob. Please , THANK YOU. A sharp, deep mind free of paragraphs. The nutrition is in the contents and not in the wrapping. The Tao contains matter and therefor physics. It also contains spirit and therefor mysticism. It contains change and therefor alchemy. If something "IS" it is in the tao. Even illusion, therefor belief and religion. If a thing "isnt" that is in the tao also. Unless there is a brick wall out there deep in space containing the cosmos, it dosnt end. One science will not cover all. On a microcosmic parallel, we need dermatologists for part of our being but also brain surgeons, dentists, etc. None of them are wrong in comparison to the other. A hand is functional because its fingers remain apart to function as one. So too, the tao and its sciences. What thinketh thou Zbob? Regards. Wolf

Hello Sifu Wolf. Thank you very much for your response to my post. I also believe that the sciences function apart subjectively to function as parts of the One objectively. For there to be a part there must be a whole. Is it also true that for there to be god there must also be no god? And vice versa.

Clearly, modern theoretical physicists have reached the conclusion that mystics have known for millenia: for there to be time (subjective, relative), there also must be timelessness (objective, absolute). (they are contained within each other, although each is a separate part of the whole)

Peace in every moment, zbob

Hello Zbob. Anything either side of now has to be memory or assumption and both can only be thought of Now. A zillion books wont get you out of now. Out there is one tao. Itself, unmoving yet its contents cannot stop. There were once two young monks arguing over the movement of a flag on a pole. One monk argued that the flag was moving. The other argued that the wind was moving. The old master crept up behind and gave them both a good whack and said " you are both wrong. It is your minds that are moving. Wolf

Thank you for responding. I am amazed that even "materialistic" science is beginning to discover that the nature and basis of the fabric of reality is timelessness. Unfortunately, however, the materialistic super paradigm of modern science hinders its adherents from the ultimate understanding that the ground of being is consciousness. (as your monk's flag example so perfectly illustrates) But with theoretical physicists such as Amit Goswami at the leading edge of monistic idealistic thought, the super paradigm may eventually fall and be replaced by a scientific view very much in concordance with taoism.

As someone who is very interested in the amazing similarities between Taoist thought and modern theoretical physics, I wanted to comment on the subject of the illusory nature of time from the perspective of absolute spacetime:

Albert Einstein stated that "since there exists in the four dimensional structure (space-time) no longer any sections which represent "now" objectively, the concepts of happening and becoming are indeed not completely suspended but yet complicated. It appears therefore more natural to think of physical reality as a four dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of a three dimensional existence." Einstein went on to state that there is not a true division between past and future, but rather a single existence. In other words, the distinction between past, present and future is an illusion.

Since all subjective time is relative depending on the observer's speed through space relative to another observer and their relative position in the universe, there is no objective, absolute time or absolute space as Newton proposed. Instead, since there is no objective "now" due to the relative, subjective observation of space-time, the only thing that is real is the whole of space-time. As theoretical physicist David Bohm stated: "Ultimately, all moments are really one. Therefore now is eternity" Or as theoretical physicist Brian Greene says: "Just as we envision all of space as really being out there, as really existing, we should also envision all of time as really being out there, as really existing too."

And for a different view of the second law of thermodynamics and the nature of order and timelessness go to:

http://www.everythingforever.com/

Since I read the Tao of Physics a few years ago I have been attempting to integrate the essences of the various spiritual traditions and experiences with the radical new theories emerging through theoretical physics and consciousness psychology. Having accidentally discovered this site today, I look forward to increasing my experiences of life from the interesting commentary contained in these forums.