Sunday, April 4, 2010

Are there things in the physical world?

A thing is a noun. A noun isn't a part of nature it's a part of speech. There are no nouns in the physical world, but are there things in the physical world?

Let's just say that from the smallest thing like an atom or the biggest thing like a star and everything in between, living or not living, everything is made up of matter. We can see matter that takes forms. Matter can be transformed into energy because E=MC square. Like electricity.

Human beings and animals have three bodies, a gross body made up of matter, a subtle body and a causal body. The gross body by definition is gross. It is made up of the food the being eats and it is subject to aging, disease and death. The subtle and the causal bodies move on to take up new form after death and the soul is reborn. This is Samsara. Ghosts don't have gross bodies and they sometimes possess people to achieve certain good or bad
aims.

A spiritual person knows how to make good use of her gross body and use it as the instrument for spiritual practice and therefore eventually leads to liberation from Samsara. The dogs around you have chosen to stay with you because they have a strong affinity with you. In Buddhist and Hindu beliefs we say that you and they knew one another in former life times and there were unfinished business. Therefore in this life, you and they come together again. And so is your marriage and so are your children and so are your parents whom you chose to take up your form in this life.

Non-living things get trashed when their useful lives expire. The earth on which we live has an expiration date and therefore we need to love it. It doesn't have unlimited regenerative power. And so are our natural resources. And so I call for global reduction in demands starting with me. Do not buy a new X when you can still use your old X. Don't listen to ads of any sorts and be your own Lord when it comes to needs and wants and buying things. And this is how we should relate to things. For development of natural resources is limited whereas development of spiritual and humanity resources is unlimited. Transform all economies based on consumerism and therefore physical resource exploitation into economies based on development of spiritual and humanity resources. No more statistics on GNPs, GDPs, profit margins but instead statistics on how much spiritual progress the human race as a whole has made.

0 comments:

Post a Comment