#cyclic existence

The soul is a guest in the body: here today, gone tomorrow.

THE GOSPEL OF EGYPT

" When Salome asked 'how long will death prevail?' The Lord replied 'For as long as you women bear children.'

"But He did not say this because life is evil or creation wicked; instead he was teaching the natural succession of things for everything degenerates after coming into being."

This reminds me of a joke I heard from an old hippie: 'Did you hear about the Buddhist coroner that got fired?'

'Yeah. She kept writing down birth was the cause of death.' 🤣

PATICCASAMUPPADA

"Ignorance gives rise to mental concocting;

Mental concocting gives rise to consciousness;

Consciousness gives rise to mentality/materiality;

Mentality/materiality gives rise to the sense bases;

The sense bases give rise to contact;

Contact gives rise to feeling;

Feeling gives rise to craving;

Craving gives rise to attachment;

Attachment gives rise to becoming;

Becoming gives rise to birth;

Birth gives rise to old age and death."

-Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

The philosophy is simple. By being aware of the reasons our cravings arise we can rationalize the true value of whatever it is causing us to suffer. Everyone goes through the process of life and death, by clinging we suffer. Er go it's how we perceive things that matter. Its how we respond to the ebb and flow of life that makes our time here special.

By awakening to the true nature of reality we see how ignorance is one of our greatest teachers. We see how we cause our own suffering by holding onto fleeting moments and resisting change; a change that is the only real constant. This is Samsara.

CYCLIC EXISTENCE

(18) The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us how our end will be." Jesus said, "Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death."   

-Gospel Of Thomas

THE 29TH WORD

“Life perfects a things existence, for life is the real basis and light of existence. Consciousness, in turn, is the light of life... since life (consciousness) are so important, and a perfect harmony prevails over all creation, the universe displays a firm cohesion... fire does not consume light, it makes it brighter. We observe that eternal power creates countless living beings from inert, solid substances, and transforms the densest matter into subtle living compounds with life.”

DISCLAIMER

Before I dive into the deep end of the pool I want to address something. I am not a guru claiming to be illumined with secret knowledge. I am a regular guy who had a mystical experience. I attend Church weekly and read a lot of the same books you do. While I have found common threads amongst the global religions I never want to take away their uniqueness or force people to view…

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Baba Ram Dass’s famous period piece, and start of his career as motivational and spiritual guru, was ‘Be Here Now’, of course, but these days most people concentrate on the Now-ness, and forget about the ‘Here-ness’. That was hardly his Big Idea, anyway, the idea batted around in Buddhism since time immemorial, reiterated by Hinduism, and immortalized by Christian existentialist theologian Paul…