theos-talk.com

[MASTER INDEX] [DATE INDEX] [THREAD INDEX] [SUBJECT INDEX] [AUTHOR INDEX]

[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

How "facts" can be illusive

Nov 24, 1998 05:35 AM
by Jerry Schueler


>1. How do you define the "you" that you claim exists?
>
>DALLAS:
>I THINK THAT IS EVIDENT.  IT IS A POINT OF SUBJECTIVE
>CONSCIOUSNESS WHICH IS AT THE CORE  OF MY BEING, AND I ASSUME YOU
>ARE SIMILARLY ENDOWED, AS IS EVERY OTHER HUMAN, AND POTENTIALLY
>EVERY SENTIENT BEING IN THE UNIVERSE.
>

No, Dallas, it is not at all "self-evident."  Any sense of self that is
self-evident
is an illusion. A great master at the end of the last century called Ramana
Maharshi used a great exercise. He would ask "who am I?" After discarding
the physical body, the emotions, the mind, and so on, he would arrive at
a point that was similar to the anatma of Buddhism. We are, in our essence,
a consciouness-center, a divine Monad, that has no sense of "self" or
sense of individuality at all.


>2. How do you define "universe" or "world" that you claim exists?
>
>DALLAS:
>THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH I, YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE DWELLS
>AND HAS THEIR "BEING."
>
>

Your description here is what Buddhism calls samsara. It is maya. An
illusion.



>3. How can there be any inter-relationship if only the One
>(Beness) exists?
>
>DALLAS
>CONVERSATION, OBSERVATION, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC...SEEM TO BE
>ADEQUATE EVIDENCE OF INTER-RELATIONSHIP.  THOUGHT AND EMOTION
>TRANSFERENCE  ALSO.
>
>


What you are describing is all maya. Maya is usually defined as illusion (I
believe
that even HPB defined it so). My point is that your "facts" are all
illusions  of our
samsaric sojourn through ignorant self-expression.

I am arguing that your three "facts" have only relative reality, and thus
the idea
that these are indeed "facts" is questionable. Your original point was, I
believe,
that these were three "facts" that everyone can agree on. I for one, can't
agree
that these are facts at all but are rather appearances due to our ignorance
and mis-perception of reality. If you want a fact that I can agree with,
then how
about Beness? I can agree that Beness is the Ground or Source of all
manifestation and that the One (Beness) is Many (infinite numbers of divine
Monads).

Jerry S.





[Back to Top]


Theosophy World: Dedicated to the Theosophical Philosophy and its Practical Application