Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eagle!data.nas.nasa.gov!news From: hugh%chook.adelaide.edu.au@augean.ua.OZ.AU (Hugh Garsden) Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern Subject: Re: Reincarnation Message-ID: <1990Dec17.002114.13379@nas.nasa.gov> Date: 17 Dec 90 00:21:14 GMT References: <1990Dec10.030247.15986@nas.nasa.gov> <1990Dec14.033958.2045@nas.nasa.gov> Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov Reply-To: hugh%chook.adelaide.edu.au@augean.ua.OZ.AU (Hugh Garsden) Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Lines: 30 Approved: prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov Ok, I have much to understand about this topic. But I do want to understand it. Unless we believe in pantheism, at some stage (or level of consciousness) we _must_ be outside the realm of the physical universe. If you will allow me to use the term "Absolute", I believe that the physical universe is in some sense a crystallization of a grosser form of consciousness (i.e. matter) which is still the Absolute, but does not know itself as such. A Zen Buddhist says it like this: the physical universe is the lowest level of the rung of a ladder, the Absolute is the highest rung of the ladder _and_ the wood from which the ladder is made. Another thing that I have read is that the Absolute exists at every point of space and time, if it didn't then we would be reduced to pantheism, or at the other extreme, a belief that the universe is somehow created by the Absolute and exists seperately from it, in which case the Absolute wouldn't be the Absolute. Surely space/time is merely an artifact of the gross realm in which we live. At some stage then, we must transcend it. Perhaps we cannot transcend it even when we achieve enlightenment, as long as we are connected to our body. Perhaps we have to be enlightened _and_ "dead" to do this. And perhaps at that level there is no such thing as causality. No doubt I have said a lot of things here that people disagree with or think have been confused. Feel free to correct me. I am also not sure that all eastern religions agree on this topic. ----- Hugh Garsden University of Adelaide hugh@cs.adelaide.edu.au