Morality is a game which only makes sense when played by the rules of free will and for high stakes.
The playing field may be as small as a four foot square prison cell, or as large as the surface of the earth or even as geometrically infinitesimal as one's point of view.
Freedom has rules. There is a law of liberty. Even chaos and anarchy have structure and consequences.
This idea has come to me on December 29, 2003, as I awoke from sleep. From where and how does such an idea come to us?
Ideas seem to arise and take shape from the ever-changing and fleeting patterns of thoughts and feelings and moods in the kaleidoscope of consciousness, caught by the snapshot photographer, language, posing for us only once in prose, and never to reappear again if we do not pause to write them down.
That prose is pose and pause gives us pause for thought.
Who or what has set this kaleidoscope in motion?
It is the movie "Cube" which served for me as a metaphor for the genesis of ideas from thoughts.
The cube was a prison and a puzzle of thousands of rooms constantly changing in position. We do not know how we got there, in a room in that cube. We do not know why we are there. The cube has no purpose, but our decisions and choices weave the fabric of meaning and purpose which becomes the tapestry of our character.
There was only one exit, bridge, escape, which was freedom, liberation, salvation, heaven, for it is called by many names.
One exit, one solution, but countless paths which lead to that solution.
The inside of the cube seems at times like hell but at other times simply like life itself.
We are constantly faced with decisions great and small. Even inaction is a course of action. Even silence is a statement, a reply to the invisible master of the Koan of Existence.
Even our decision to get out of bed and cross the street can be monumental, resulting in death or resulting in a new and different life, a rebirth.
Had I stayed in bed and fallen back to sleep, this idea might be gone, lost, never to reappear in the ever-changing patterns of that kaleidoscope.
I made a choice to find pen and paper and search for words.
Such thoughts are fragile as a gossamer moment strung between frail reeds, bejewelled with morning dew, yet once captured, written down, having taken shape and final form, they are cast forever as a juggernaut in monumental bronze, lumbering about the earth like a behemoth Godzilla, toppling citadels and empires.
It is our illusion that we create and author such ideas. We are a conduit, a focal point, a lense. We do not cause but rather, simply, we allow to happen. We become quiet enough for the silence to be heard.
We may give birth to the smallest mustard seed of a notion which in turn may grow to something either majestic or monstrous, something which overshadows us and empowers us, or leaves us powerless, imprisons and enslaves us or frees us. And our only weapon against its greatness is mute silence and abstinence, denying the seed its thimble of soil and drop of dew.
Sutras always begin "I have heard it said." Oral traditions always give birth to religions with laws etched in tables of stone which guide empires of giants with feet of clay.
I often think about the inevitability of death for each of us. How fortunate some people are to die quickly, in ones sleep lets say. And how unfortunate it is to have a slow, agonizing death which is financially burdensome to ones family or society. I also thinh of the misfortune which can accompany having an extremely long life, when one can no longer work or care for themselves and becomes a burden to themselves, and family and society.
Suicide as we understand it, is not a good solution. Suicide is very difficult and degrading, and has sin or bad karma associated with it.
One of Ramana Maharshi's disciples asked him, "Why cant I fix my mind firmly upon Brahman and then cast myself in front of a train, while holding firmly to that thought, and thus achieve Mosha (Liberation)?" Ramana Maharshi replied, "In the last moment you would undoubtedly experience doubt, fear and pain and your thoughts would turn away from Brahman, and you would once again be caste into the cycle of birth and death."
One day, I begain thinking about the Jain religion (which vies with Saivism as the most ancient continuously practiced living Faith). In Jain practice, when a Monk grows too old to carefully observe all the Jain practices (which avoid bad karma), it is possible for that monk to perform Sallekhana. In Sallekhana, the monk vows each day to abstain from all food, and take only water. The vow is renewed each day. The monk is free at the end of any day to break his fast. But the ultimate goal is to perserver until the fasting is ended by death, and the body is shed. From what I have seen of people dying of starvation from medical problems, it is a gradual fading away, which may possibly be accompanied by an ecstatic, dream-like, or visionary state.
I began to realize that this practice of Sallekhana is like an offering or sacrifice of one's Self. It is also like a martyrdom. Of course, the act of Sallekhana can presumably be successfully performed to completion by someone of great spiritual fortitude and determination. It really seems like a sacred act, rather than the negative stigma attached to other methods of taking one's own life. In fact, Sallekhana is perhaps the only conceivable form of suicide which DOES NOT suffer from the dangers which Ramana Maharshi points out with regard to casting oneself infront of a train (i.e. a violent death). Since the self-imposed fasting can be stopped at anytime, and it is only by virtue of an on-going act of concentration and sheer will that one perserveres, THEREFORE THE THOUGHTS OF GOD AND LIBERATION are the sole source of EMPOWEREMENT for such a TAPAS (ascetical struggle). GOD becomes THE SOLE FOCUS.
In a very odd sense, Jesus might be accused of commiting suicide in the sense that He foresaw what was coming, had an opportunity to escape and spare His own life, and yet chose not to.
Few people outside of Greek Orthodox Old Calendarist Christians realize that, for centuries, many people practiced a unique form of "suicide" to achieve sainthood. This practice is recorded numerous times in the Greek "Lives of the Saints" during the period of the 18th and 19th century. If someone had commited some grievous sin and wanted to be totally certain of their salvation, they would approach their spiritual Father (priest) and ask permission to present themselves to the Muslims for martyrdom. Then, they would travel to a Muslim city and publically deny Islam and the Prophet (perhaps shouting "Mohammad is a Camel thief!"). Then, the angry Muslims would demand that they deny Christianity and convert to Islam under pain of death. Often, some of the martyrs friends wouuld be waiting near-by. When the Muslims drew their swords, and hacked the martyr to pieces, his friends would run up to dip hankerchiefs in the blood, to have a "holy relic".
It is a fact that a Greek Orthodox Litugry (Eucharistic Mass) cannot be celebrated without a relic from a martyr who has died a violent death. The liturgy is performed upon the alter on a cloth called the "antemensa" (which means "in place of a table"). The cloth is an iconographic depiction of Christ in the Tomb. In the hem of the cloth is sewn a relic (usually a bone) of a martyr who has died a violent death. Even though their are saints such as Basil the Great, who were great theologians, their relics are unsuitable for this purpose, since they did not die a martyrs death, and the Eucharist and the Church is build upon the blood of martyrs.
A form of suicide has also been deemed acceptable in Jewish Talmudic tradition. Once, some young Jewish boys and girls were seized and sold into slavery, and place on a trip for transport to their destination. The young girls jumped overboard and drowned rather than suffer the defilement of slavery. The young boys saw the courage of the girls and said, "If they have the courage to take their lives, to avoid the rape of concubines, and being mounted is not unnatural for women, then we boys should have similar courage, to escape the defilement of being sexually violated." So the boys also jumped in the ocean and drowned, to avoid the evils of slavery. The rabinnical tradition ruled that their actions were justified, and not sinful
A Greek Orthodox convent of nuns, situated on a mountain, was under Muslim attack. The nuns elected to jump to their deaths rather than be defiled by the rape and torture of their Muslim conquerers. The Church counted their deaths as the deaths of martyrs.
It is awesome to think of the tremendous energy and power embodied in the life of someone like Ramana Maharshi, or Ramakrishna, or Sidhartha Gautama the Buddha, or Mahavira the Jain Tirthankara. Perhaps, when one of great Self-realized souls passes on, never to be reborn, perhaps it is the seed of another entire universe; a big bang tucked inside a black hole. Perhaps when such a soul escapes Samsara, it is another "Let there be Light", another Genesis and creation. Perhaps such a Soul gives birth to an entire Universe of souls. It is a SUPER-NOVA of the Soul.
I suppose it does bear some distant resemblence to something in the Mormon beliefs, about each soul evolving to be in charge of a planet (or universe).
Of course, it is obviouse from the writings in my website, that I have become quite intrigued by the notion of an infinity of universes, tucked one inside the other, in the form of black holes with big bangs inside (expanding Riemann time-space continuums).... and those black holes (the infinity of universes) being the "pearls", in the Gita where Lord Krishna says, This Universe is strung upon Me like pearls on a string."
But, if Atman becomes (or IS) Brahman; if jiva becomes Shiva, and if "God, like a spider, casts the phenomenal samsara of universe from Himself, and, like a spider, draws it back within Himself again" , well, then it is not unreasonable to envision the fully realized soul, becoming one with Brahman, ITSELF casting forth a UNIVERSE OF SOULS.
Laughing_Buddha: Many are not very educated, creative and motivated.
Sitaram: It is sad, the state of the majority of humanity. But perhaps there is some purpose, some necessity for the way things are.
Sitaram: Here is a favorite old Chinese taoist saying of mine: "When the wrong person employs the right means, then the right means yield the wrong result."
Laughing_Buddha: Oh that is good , it takes both.
Sitaram: Did you hear the Taoist story about the farmer, who left his barn door open, and his one horse escaped, so he was very sad, but his neighbor said "be neither sad nor happy for we cannot see to the ultimate end of an event?"
A few weeks later, the horse return, and brought with him a herd of wild horses that he had befriended in the mountains, so now the farmer rejoiced, wealthy in horses, but again the neighbor warned "be neither sad nor happy, for we cannot see the end of a matter"
The farmer's son chose a wild horse for his own, and proceeded to break and tame the horse.... but was thrown, and his leg was broken, so now the farmer was sad,.. but again the neighbor advised "be neither sad nor happy..."
Laughing_Buddha: Is this from your book?
A few days later, the king marched by the farm looking for young soldiers for his army , to go off to battle in a distant land... but when he saw the son with his broken leg, he said "this one is useless to us" and left. Now the farmer rejoiced, that his son was spared... but once again the neighbor cautioned "be neither sad nor happy"
Sitaram: It is actually an old tale....
Sitaram: But I shall put it in my book... and why not
Laughing_Buddha: Sounds like it is in the public domain.
Laughing_Buddha: Well I seem to get the point.
Laughing_Buddha: I was very ill for a long time but came out much more independent, confident and caring
Laughing_Buddha: Is the election coming out to your liking?
Sitaram: The Buddha said that we are unhappy for the simple reason that we desire things which we do not possess, and we possess things which we do not desire...
Sitaram: I have an unusual political point of view...
Laughing_Buddha: I dont think the Buddah understands about active caring.
Sitaram: I see Islam as the ideological enemy of all democracy, free speech, human rights, and enemy for the past 1500 years..... and I believe their victory is inevitable UNLESS the other countries are willing to make a pre-emptive strike of genocidal proportions and annihilate this enemy....
Laughing_Buddha: Turn the landscape to glass
Sitaram: I dislike bush, for he seems like a stupid man,... but he does seem more murderous than Kerry,.... yet he does not seem murderous enough to do what needs to be done efficiently.
Sitaram: I feel that defeat of democracy is inevitable in the next coming century.
Laughing_Buddha: But is the election coming out to your liking?
Sitaram: If tweedle dum or tweedle dee wins,....what will this mean in the long run, since they are both tweedle.
Laughing_Buddha: you seem like a very intellectual person
Sitaram: The world will only begin to be safe if the non islamic nations nuke the Kaaba in Mecca, during the Hajj, and thus destroy once and for all the 5th pillar of Islam. That is my notion.
Sitaram: I would not have brought this up, but you asked an honest question, which deserves an honest answer.
Laughing_Buddha: Wow you have a lot of anger!
Sitaram: Oh no, not anger, anger has nothing to do with it....
Laughing_Buddha: Not in touch with your feelings eh?
Sitaram: If I see a dog running through the streets with rabies, I feel no anger, but I shoot the dog,... partly from compassion for the dog, and also for my own survival
Laughing_Buddha: People are not dogs
Sitaram: Look, if the Islamic forces that be possessed an environmentally safe weapon of mass destruction, they would deploy it in a moment to annihilate us, and they would do it to the glory of Allah.
Laughing_Buddha: that is not true Islam
Sitaram: A follower of islam sees an unbeliever as a dog,... it says so in the Qu'ran, in so many words
Laughing_Buddha: Well you cant believe everything written in a book Sitaram: in fact, Islam hates real dogs (canines), they are forbidden except as work animals
Laughing_Buddha: There are many wild dogs and pets in middle eastern countries, some prized for their ancient genes
Sitaram: Read Islamic Invasion by Christopher Morey, paperback, $8.50,....
Sitaram: or even do a google.com search on Christopher Morey...
Laughing_Buddha: Wow, you are on a tyrade! Mellow out fellow
Sitaram: If you had not brought up politics, i would not have brought it up either, but you did... so... i must attempt to answer
Laughing_Buddha: But you never did answer.
Sitaram: Surely you see that, based on my views, it does not matter much whether kerry or bush wins
Laughing_Buddha: So did you not vote?
Sitaram: No, I do not vote.
Laughing_Buddha: Well you are anti democracy
Sitaram: No. I am not anti-democracy. I just do not vote. Obviously, I am pro democracy if I am willing to risk my life to destroy the enemy of democracy.
Laughing_Buddha: a lot of people have died so that you could vote
Sitaram: Voting does not preserve democracy. Killing preserves democracy. Look at the history of the world. The red on the american flag represents blood
Laughing_Buddha: Well loving preserves the human race
Sitaram: But, you see, my book is precisely about the apathy and lack of love in the human race, for the human race will not make a sincere and genuine long range effort to preserve human culture.
Laughing_Buddha: Oh I dont know about that, what are you doing to see that it does?
Sitaram: If you tell most people that the human race will disappear in 5 billion years or less, they laugh and shrug, because they are basically selfish. They see it as not effecting them, because they see a million years even as plenty of time.
Sitaram: This is the same reason why the city of Venice will not lift a finger to prevent the destruction which the water is causing.
Laughing_Buddha: You never answer anything directly do you? Even in small talk?
Sitaram: I answered you very directly I think.
Sitaram: Engineers have developed reasonable techniques to stop the destruction of Venice, but it would take 25 years to implement such technology, to control tides. But no government lasts in power for more than two years, so no government official is interested in making a commitment to a 25 year project, since it would not benefit him personally in the short range.
Sitaram: Nope. There was a long pbs documentary (educational television = pbs) which discussed this problem of Venice
Sitaram: So where is all this love and caring which you mention which is saving the world?
Laughing_Buddha: In my heart.
Laughing_Buddha: Have a nice day.
Sitaram: Your love is in your heart where no one can see it, whereas my love is in my writings where it can be read and possibly make a difference.
Sitaram: So my writing is more effective than my voting (if it shall be effective at all).
My words are my votes.
I have been accused of "advertising" in chat and being "pretentious."
"Hello" and "howdy" are ads (stop and think about it). We are all selling our "self" in some fashion. A book is my way of communicating something I have to say, which can't be said with smileys and roflmao. For better or worse, thats how things are, and I am no better or worse than anyone else, just perhaps, slightly different.
Islam is (and has been) an ideological enemy for 1500 years. A reading of Qu'ran and Hadith and a consideration of history makes that plain. The attacks and aggression will never end as long as the Arabic language is spoken. Their victory and conquest is slow but certain, if only by no other weapon than gaining demographic majority over the next century, and voting in Sharia law by constitutional due process.
You object, saying, "You may equally well say 'as long as the English language is spoken.'
But of course, the two sides are sworn ideological enemies. Each feels the duty to annihilate the other. This is what Salman Rushdie so beautifully illustrates in "Satanic Verses" with his motif "what kind of idea are you?"
He who is master of himself is also slave to himself.
We should hate the ideology, but love the idiot.
So, how is it that a book evolves anyway? I once heard a rumor that Plato had rewritten the first page of the Republic fifty times. Virginia Wolf had the idea to examine a famous authors original manuscript to study which words had been crossed out. Some people suspected that Samuel Clemens was the real author of Grant's Memoirs, but the original manuscript still exists, in Grant's own handwriting. Wordprocessing has done away with such interesting audit trails, unless an author saves all his files and uses a lawyer's strike-out.
Evolution is an established fact. Why with my very own eyes, I witnessed an amphibian crawl out of a marsh, onto dry land, and evolve into a political candidate who just missed nomination at a primary.
Isaac Asimove wrote a short story called "The Final Question," which he considered his finest short story in the science fiction genre. It deals with the development of Multivac and its relationship with humanity through the course of seven historic epochs.
The Last Question, namely as to how the threat to worthwhile continued human existence posed by heat death can be averted, is presented to the Multivac computer.
As is recognised by the characters in the story, the question is equivalent to: "Can the second law of thermodynamics be reversed?"
In the seventh scene, the god-like descendants of humanity watch the universe finally approach the state of heat death, and the last one asks Multivac's distant successor AC the question one last time. AC is still unable to answer, but continues to ponder the question; it exists in a hyperspace outside of normal space and time, so the death of the universe doesn't affect it.
Eventually AC discovers the answer, but has nobody to report it to. It therefore decides to implement the answer and reverse entropy, creating the universe anew so that humanity will once again evolve; the story ends with AC's pronouncement "let there be light."
Sitaram: What I really wanted to do, in writing this book, was find a vehicle to pull lots of things together; some of it is religious in nature, some is philosophical, and some is social commentary.
Fandango: What do you mean when you say "find a vehicle?"
Sitaram: Well, when I came up with the title "Too Small For Supernova" as a good book title, and the idea of the end of the world as the end of culture, that gave me some unifying framework to tie together some of my writings over the past six years. Also, I discuss the idea of our personal immortality as the process of "giving birth" to some idea which lives on after us in the culture of future generations.
Fandango: Aren't you worried about people copying your idea? Do you have any form of copyright protection?
Sitaram: I dont really worry if people steal it. I do not want money. I am age 55 and I shall not live so many more years.
Sitaram: I want something of mine to live on after me, even if it is stolen. I want to know that my living a life in this world changed it in some small way.
Sitaram: I did put a copy right notice at the bottom through the encouragement of an internet friend of mine who is a programmer.
Sitaram: 20 years by goes quickly. I could die tomorrow. Nothing is guaranteed.
Sitaram: I have been writing and posting for 6 years on the Internet, so even if I should die tomorrow, surely some of my ideas and words will survive.
Fandango: Unless we scrap the internet and come up with a better system.
Sitaram: Well, you see, Heisenberg wrote a book in the 1950's about Quantum, but in that book he made an interesting observation: namely, that once certain technologies come into use, just like those things which escaped Pandoras box, they cannot be "put back in the box" again. Nuclear energy was what he had in mind. But stop and think, you cannot tell the world "oh , sorry, but this Internet thing was a bad idea," or "sorry, but we must no longer use cell phones." Certain things, once the start, wont go away. Democracy is like that , I suspect. Freedom is like that, free speech, human rights, inalienable rights. It starts with a "shot heard round the world", but... where does it end?
Fandango: Look at the joy of reading
Fandango: thats fading away
Sitaram: true.... people read and write far less than 100 years ago
Fandango: book are mostly reading for things other than joy these days
Fandango: you never know what could happen
Fandango: perhaps we will have chips in our heads
Fandango: and that will serve as the internet
Fandango: no more computer
Sitaram: quite true.... moving from chips on our shoulders to chips in our heads
Sitaram: might be an alternative to "Goodbye Mr. Chips"
Fandango: and everything will be accesed from our minds
Fandango: like watching TV
Sitaram: faster than a speeding thought
Fandango: MOVIES
Fandango: Radio
Sitaram: the mind of God
Fandango: u never know
Sitaram: Indra's Net... at every intersection there is an eye, which sees every other eye... a very ancient concept
Sitaram: but now, Indra's Net is a reality as the Internet
Fandango: where did you hear about that
Fandango: perhaps we will be part machine
Sitaram: i have spent several years now on line.... talking to many, reading many sites, using search engines
Fandango: and wont have need for a sun
Sitaram: i collect these interesting ideas, and try to weave them together
Fandango: COLLECT my ideas
Sitaram: i already am
Fandango: im a creative guy
Sitaram: you are helping me right now, to write new pages
Sitaram: you see, the product of a corporate effort of many is greater that what any one alone might do
Fandango: i know i know
Fandango: so what is your purpose
Fandango: you are a collector of ideas
Sitaram: i have no purpose..... the bee has no purpose but makes honey, the cow has no purpose, but makes milk, the viper has no purpose but makes venom
Sitaram: all three thirst, and come to the same pond to drink the same water...
Fandango: lol are you a collector of ideas?
Sitaram: but each makes the water into something different
Sitaram: this is my nature.... this is what i do...
Sitaram: a child plays.... what is the child's purpose
Fandango: so that is part of your purpose
Sitaram: purpose is moving from A to B
Fandango: thats what you do
Fandango: yes
Sitaram: yes, this is what i do
Sitaram: it is a compulsion....
Sitaram: i do not feel at peace, unless i am engaged in this particular activity
Sitaram: better to do ones own duty, though imperfectly, than to do the duty of another to perfection
Sitaram: duty is not the best word for it
Sitaram: dharma is a better word
Fandango: purpose or function
Fandango: try those
Sitaram: it is my karma to perform my dharma
Fandango: whats dharma?
Sitaram: that is why i first used the word duty, for I knew that dharma would be unfamiliar to you
Sitaram: did you watch Spielberg's movie A.I., the scene with "Doctor Know"
Fandango: no i didn't see that
Sitaram: you would like it.... it is very good... try to see it...
Sitaram: the message of that movie has much to do with what I am writing about
Fandango: just think
Fandango: in 5 BILLION years
Fandango: well we have died off
Sitaram: several years ago, perhaps around 2000, when I only had one website with 300 browser pages....
Fandango: would we have destroyed our selves
Sitaram: A young man in college found it and began reading.... and he emailed me to say...
Fandango: OR would something happen
Sitaram: that he was staying up every night reading, and in danger of failing his classes
Fandango: As I believe
Fandango: GOD will intervene
Fandango: and put a end to the injustice in the world
Sitaram: good point...
Fandango: and peace will rein
Sitaram: Though perhaps we are a failed experiment....
Sitaram: Perhaps our own extinction will be part of that divine justice
Fandango: yep
Sitaram: Perhaps there are other beings in the universe far more worthy the we
Fandango: or perhaps we are alone
Sitaram: We once made the error of assuming that our planet was the center of the universe
Fandango: yes
Sitaram: We still assume that our existence and survival is of central importance to some divine will
Fandango: yes
Fandango: Well were you around when I think it was CUBA was going to use nukes to blow up the world?
Sitaram: I am age 55, yes... I was around...
Fandango: I dont know if im getting that story right
Sitaram: the Cuban missile crisis
Sitaram: Bay of Pigs
Fandango: Did something like that really happen? damn!
Sitaram: I guess we came very close to nuclear war... I am not certain...
Sitaram: A good google search would reveal much
Sitaram: It is a good question you pose
Fandango: How many years ago did that happen
Sitaram: during Kennedy administration
Sitaram: he was inaugurated in 1960
Fandango: WOA
Fandango: 1960 eh?
Sitaram: Ii was in 6th grade i think, or 7th
Sitaram: I remember the poet laureate Robert Frost reading a poem, at the inauguration...
Fandango: I see
Fandango: you have a good memory
Sitaram: but the sun was too bright for his old eyes, and he could not read what he had written especially for the occasion
Sitaram: so, he put down his paper, and recited a different poem from memory
Sitaram: It was a very cold day. Kennedy wore no hat... up until that time, all business men wore hats
Sitaram: But in imitation of Kennedy, they stopped wearing hats...
Sitaram: In the 1950s, my dad would come home every night from work wearing his felt hat
Sitaram: He used to sit in a chair, put his hat on the floor at a distance of 10 feet, and try to sail playing cards into the hat
Sitaram: something they did in the army... when they had time on their hands...
Fandango: Well my point is anyways
Fandango: we believe that GOD protected Earth from being destroyed
Sitaram: yes... possibly God preserves the earth
Fandango: Perhaps GOD has in his will something to stop the supernova
Fandango: Or perhaps we will evolve and won't need the sun
Fandango: you never know
Sitaram: or... perhaps we really shall build a sci-fi version of Noah's ark.... piloted by immortal cyborgs
Fandango: I see
Sitaram: Noah's ark does not make so much sense, until genetic engineering comes along, and Jurassic Park
Fandango: Do you watch jeoprady?
Sitaram: I did in the 1960's I think, or some program like it
Fandango: LOL so you dont watch it now?
Sitaram: no... now ... if I watch... it is educational pbs television...
Fandango: DAMN! So you dont know who Ken Jennings IS?
Sitaram: or dvd movies, like "wings of desire" , a German movie with English subtitles...
Sitaram: Never heard the name Ken Jennings
Sitaram: or, I suppose many other names very familiar to you
Sitaram: wow
Fandango: lol! He won over 40 times
Fandango: he's the champ
Fandango: and he made over 2 million
Fandango: im serious you should check this guy out
Fandango: he makes at least 30 thousand a show
Sitaram: you see... that is his "dharma".... his mind is optimized to do what he does
Sitaram: Just like that chess master Bobby Fisher!
Sitaram: yes... he is optimized for what he does....
Fandango: Well I must go watch him. In a while I will be back
Fandango: cyah in 30 mins I hope
Sitaram: You should look at my webpage entitled "Parsing reality for God and manhole covers"
Fandango: Will you be here?
Sitaram: I am always here, whenever you look for me. I am never far away.
Fandango: so friend what do u believe in
Fandango: you are buddist no?
Sitaram: i believe in many things.... like a cowboys cigarettes, I "roll my own"
Sitaram: I "roll my own" beliefs
Sitaram: I was raise as nothing, and so I had no choice but to become a little of everything
Fandango: i see
Fandango: so your buddist?
Sitaram: i am a member of no organized religion. i attend no meetings of others. i am alone, with my thoughts and words.
Sitaram: well, not alone in the sense that there are others who read what I write, and correpsond with me
Fandango: are you buddist lol
Fandango: just a yes or no will do LOL
Sitaram: it is not a yes or no question
Fandango: ok
Sitaram: if you continue to read what I have written, i mean everything, not just the book, you will quickly understand
Sitaram: for many, it is important to be something, but for some, it is important to be nothing
Sitaram: there is a good title, "the importance of being nothing"
Fandango: Say yes if you are a Buddist
Sitaram: when we become something, become defined, have a name, then we are limited...
Sitaram: there are aspects of my thinking which are buddhist, aspects which are hindu, aspects which are christian, aspects which are jewish
Sitaram: so, the answer is "yes and no"
Fandango: thank you lol
Fandango: yes agree
Fandango: in many religions there can be found aspects or reflections of eachother
Sitaram: just look at the hundred pages of this book... i have passages which are hindu, other passages which are buddhist, others which are christian, others which are jewish
Fandango: swhat book
Sitaram: http://toosmallforsupernova.org
Sitaram: that book
Fandango: you mean your book about the sun exploding?
Sitaram: well, it is about many different things... you have to keep reading
Fandango: ok
Fandango: WELL im so happy to find a open minded person
Sitaram: i am glad if i make you happy
Fandango: you dont know how hard it is to find such people
Sitaram: well, now you have literally hundreds of pages to read through, and you may spend hours every day reading, and fail all your courses,... like that other poor fellow
Sitaram: you see, I am a failure in the eyes of the world. But I am a sublime failure.
Sitaram: What I write touches upon the sublime. Only the sublime does not have much market value these days.
Fandango: i see
Fandango: Do you know the Scriptures even atest to this
Sitaram: atest to what, my sublime failure?
Fandango: no
Fandango: to your view
Fandango: that there isnt one faith
Fandango: For i believe that in the begining there was 1 fait
Fandango: faith
Fandango: and after breaking the covenant with GOD aka Adaming sinning we lost that TRUE 1 faith
Fandango: but god has made attempts in bringing back man within his covenant
Fandango: could i quote a scripture to you?
Sitaram: one language, before the tower of babel, one faith, one nation under god, indivisible, one baptism for the forgiveness of sins
Sitaram: certainly
Fandango: ok
Fandango: give me a min
Fandango: 11 Now all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words. 2 And it came about that in their journeying eastward they eventually discovered a valley plain in the land of Shi´nar, and the|
Fandango: there is one language for them all, and this is what they start to do. Why, now there is nothing that they may have in mind to do that will be unattainable for them. 7 Come now! Let us go down and there conŐĘ
Sitaram: here is what I am looking at right now in Revelation 10:6 KJV, "that there should be time no longer"...
Sitaram: in Greek, "Kai xronos ouketi estai"...
Sitaram: other translations, like NIV, are in error, translating "and there shall be no more delay"....
Sitaram: but... in the Greek, it literally says that TIME itself is no more...
Sitaram: the cessation of the temporal
Fandango: let me quote that from the new world translation
Fandango: OK
Fandango: REVELATIONS 10:6
Fandango: 6 and by the One who lives forever and ever, who created the heaven and the things in it and the earth and the things in it and the sea and the things in it, he swore: “There will be no delay any longer;
Sitaram: and in Revelation 6:14, it speaks of the heavens (space) being "rolled up" like a scroll
Fandango: ok
Fandango: ill quote that too
Sitaram: there is only one other place in scripture where this image is mentioned, ... in Isaiah
Sitaram: so... it speaks of the cessation of the time-space continuum
Fandango: 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and [every] island were removed from their places
Sitaram: such things made little sense before the physics of the 20th century, relativity and quantum
Fandango: yes that is true
Sitaram: also, Revelation speaks of "time and time again and half a time".... (vicissitudes in the temporal)
Fandango: thats why i believe though the the Holy books are old
Sitaram: and it speaks of time being shortened for the sake of the faithful
Fandango: the speak of a standard that in our imperfect state are unable to unhald
Sitaram: now we see as through a glass darkly, but then, we shall know, even as we are known
Fandango: Getting back to my point, I believe there was one true in the begining and we have lost that.
Sitaram: The one became many so the many must become one again.
Fandango: and due to what happen at Gen 11
Fandango: There was a confusion.
Sitaram: Big bangs to black holes to big bangs again.
Fandango: And we lost the true way of life. But god made attempts to gain mankind back again when he choose the Jews and then extended his inviation to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.
Sitaram: The parable of the woman who had 10 coins and lost one coin. So she lights a candle whose value is greater than the lost coin.
Sitaram: There are nine orders of angels.... seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, principalities, etc.
Sitaram: the 10th lost coin is mankind
Fandango: i see
Fandango: so i see you like Philosopy
Sitaram: yes
Sitaram: so, one day, i shall come to visit you
Fandango: ok
Sitaram: aha, i found the nine orders... i can never remember them
Sitaram: seraphim cherubim thrones dominions virtues powers principalities archangels angels.
Fandango: im suprised you know that
Sitaram: we know it only from one verse in one of Pauls epistles
Fandango: i mean Seraph
Sitaram: Seraph-IM is the plural in Hebrew
Sitaram: seraph is singular
Fandango: i see
Sitaram: cherub, singular... cherub-IM is plural
Fangango: I believe my purpose is to fulfill prophecy.
Sitaram: So, perhaps that is why we have met
Fangango: Perhaps. But what do you mean by that? How is us meeting fulfilling my purpose?
Sitaram: Well, perhaps I have given you some ideas or perhaps you will give me some ideas. Ideas are powerful things.
Fangango: Yes they are, but so is the action that puts them into motion
Sitaram: Perhaps we play some role in each others destiny. Our words may inspire others to action, or disuade them into inaction.
Fangango: yes
Fangango: its very HARD to do what I just said though.
The world is transformed with words, one person at a time.
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