09-17-2010, 12:00 AM
I am using it in the negative sense of the word.
2 exploiting the workers: take advantage of, abuse, impose on, treat unfairly, misuse, ill-treat; informal walk (all) over, take for a ride, rip off.
We are fond of saying that this waking life is but a dream, that it is not really any different from a sleeping dream. So lets just go with that notion for a minute.
If asked the question “where do you come from or how did you get here?”, like the mark in the bar room, the question itself is so loaded and full of assumptions that if we try to answer it without taking into account the assumptions the question is based on then our answer is open to manipulation by the one asking it, especially if the one asking the question claims special knowledge in regards to your ignorance.
So lets examine some of the assumptions.
It assumes there is an ‘local’ of origin.
It assumes that you originated from there.
Which assumes you existed before being physically born here.
It assumes a “you” however you interpret that you.
It assumes this “you” is an independent entity.
Now religion never having got beyond cause and effect assumes the local to be a “heaven” of some sort. A place where a divine being abides. This entity is considered the creator, we the creation. We issue from this creator. This creator is the cause of our being. This notion holds out the possibility of returning to heaven from whence we came.
Sorcerers like Castaneda prefer the Eagle as the source of emanations of awareness. Such awareness being merely borrowed from the Eagle and upon death the awareness will be reclaimed by the Eagle unless a warrior has been fortunate enough to have lived an impeccable life in which case the warrior gets to keep the awareness. Some sorcerers prefer formless eternity to the Eagle.
Reincarnation is believed to occur when the soul or spirit (the “you”) after death of the body is reborn as another being also known as transmigration.
There are many other notions swirling around trying to account for why we are here.
For our friend in the bar the question, “where were you before you were in this bar?” only has an impact because it never occurred to him to question this and try as he may he is unable to sufficiently answer the question because he does not know. Because he does not know for sure he is susceptible to the influence of a plausible explanation whether true or false just as long as it makes sense and pacifies the existential anxiety.
Now if like we are fond of saying this waking life is but a dream why should there be any existential anxiety about this? We don’t know where we are from precisely because this is a dream and my notion of myself only began when the dream began and will evaporate when the dream ends. This notion of myself as perceived in this dream is just part of the dream. It has no existence other than as an image of the dream. But we are attached to the perception of ourselves in the dream and do not realize that it is just part of the dream and we become energetically, intellectually and emotionally invested in the perception as if it were independently real. Of course such attachment wishes to prolong the perception of this “dream” self beyond physical death so we start creatively inventing plausible scenarios that would facilitate such a desire.
It is our conscious ideas and unconscious beliefs about cause and effect that are at the bottom of all this. Without getting beyond cause and effect there is no possibility of waking up! That is why someone like Nagarjuna is so impactful when it comes to this. He is able through use of the intellect to bring the intellect to its own limit! He is able to expose all the contradictory teachings of cause and effect. He is able to take the intellect by the hand and walk it to the very edge of its domain and say, “See. This is as far as you can go!” He is able to do this because he has seen beyond the teachings of cause and effect.
2 exploiting the workers: take advantage of, abuse, impose on, treat unfairly, misuse, ill-treat; informal walk (all) over, take for a ride, rip off.
We are fond of saying that this waking life is but a dream, that it is not really any different from a sleeping dream. So lets just go with that notion for a minute.
If asked the question “where do you come from or how did you get here?”, like the mark in the bar room, the question itself is so loaded and full of assumptions that if we try to answer it without taking into account the assumptions the question is based on then our answer is open to manipulation by the one asking it, especially if the one asking the question claims special knowledge in regards to your ignorance.
So lets examine some of the assumptions.
It assumes there is an ‘local’ of origin.
It assumes that you originated from there.
Which assumes you existed before being physically born here.
It assumes a “you” however you interpret that you.
It assumes this “you” is an independent entity.
Now religion never having got beyond cause and effect assumes the local to be a “heaven” of some sort. A place where a divine being abides. This entity is considered the creator, we the creation. We issue from this creator. This creator is the cause of our being. This notion holds out the possibility of returning to heaven from whence we came.
Sorcerers like Castaneda prefer the Eagle as the source of emanations of awareness. Such awareness being merely borrowed from the Eagle and upon death the awareness will be reclaimed by the Eagle unless a warrior has been fortunate enough to have lived an impeccable life in which case the warrior gets to keep the awareness. Some sorcerers prefer formless eternity to the Eagle.
Reincarnation is believed to occur when the soul or spirit (the “you”) after death of the body is reborn as another being also known as transmigration.
There are many other notions swirling around trying to account for why we are here.
For our friend in the bar the question, “where were you before you were in this bar?” only has an impact because it never occurred to him to question this and try as he may he is unable to sufficiently answer the question because he does not know. Because he does not know for sure he is susceptible to the influence of a plausible explanation whether true or false just as long as it makes sense and pacifies the existential anxiety.
Now if like we are fond of saying this waking life is but a dream why should there be any existential anxiety about this? We don’t know where we are from precisely because this is a dream and my notion of myself only began when the dream began and will evaporate when the dream ends. This notion of myself as perceived in this dream is just part of the dream. It has no existence other than as an image of the dream. But we are attached to the perception of ourselves in the dream and do not realize that it is just part of the dream and we become energetically, intellectually and emotionally invested in the perception as if it were independently real. Of course such attachment wishes to prolong the perception of this “dream” self beyond physical death so we start creatively inventing plausible scenarios that would facilitate such a desire.
It is our conscious ideas and unconscious beliefs about cause and effect that are at the bottom of all this. Without getting beyond cause and effect there is no possibility of waking up! That is why someone like Nagarjuna is so impactful when it comes to this. He is able through use of the intellect to bring the intellect to its own limit! He is able to expose all the contradictory teachings of cause and effect. He is able to take the intellect by the hand and walk it to the very edge of its domain and say, “See. This is as far as you can go!” He is able to do this because he has seen beyond the teachings of cause and effect.