Regarding an "absolute point of beginning", in our low-dimensional thinking
this causes always problems. where you define a point of start, you must answer the question: if nothing was before, why did something start then, and where? Where is the ending line? If nothing was before the universe, inside which environment could the universe suddenly take place, then? Why should it even do? An expanding universe, they say- so there is something that is outside the universe? A metaverse? Universes in universes, arranged in metaverses, that form clusters of metaverses organised in even higher hierarchial structures, ad infinitum?
We do not know. and we are trapped inside the patterns and categories of our thinking.Only the language of mathematics allows us to step beyond out limitations - but we cannot be sure that what mathetics show us, can be taken for real, we do not know if what we imagine the abstract statement to be in "reality" really matches "reality" - if we even can imagine a mathematical abstraction at all (and often we cannot).
I myself think that this thinking in terms of beginnings and endings and Big Bangs creates more problems than answers.
Science gives answers including the big bang - that is a variation of the "there was an absolute beginning"-type of thinking. It is a linear thinking, where things move along the arrow of time from the beginning to the end. But as always, science's answer is a theory that tries to arrange thoughts and observations as best as possible in order to make them cooperating and corresponding in the best way we can currently see. It is no final answer. I personally find the idea that there was nothing and then there was all and everything unfolding by just a big BANG!, to be as unsatisfying as the imganination that a god has created it all. It causes more questions than it seems to answer.
There are things, to which the answers we simply do not know. And imagining that our fantasies can serve as an answer, does not change the fact that we still do not
know.
What is so difficult in saying these simple words:
We/I do not know? We are aware of a lack in knowledge, that means. And this already influences us, changes us, gives orientation to our ambitions and motivations. To admit a lacking knowledge is nothing negative at all. and in our little sphere of existence, Newton's physics still remain valid and help us to master the challenges of our veryday lives.
In the end, we do not even know for sure if all those galaxies our telescopes showing us by looking back in time, are real, or not, and the image is that of past times anyway, we do not know what the present looks like. And if all the universe our telescopes show us when looking beyond our galaxy, would already no longer exist in this very moment we are living in - we would not know.
That puts some things into relation, doesn't it.
Seen that way that cup of tea on my table, slowly becoming too cold to be enjoyable anymore, is a million times more imprtant to be adressed than all science in the world. Because it could very well be the last cup of tea i will ever have. If there is one thing I really have learned about life, than this: the next moment is completely uncertain, we do not know what life will bring us in the next year, the next day, even the next minute. the only certainty we have is, that one day it all will end for us, that one day we will die, that our stay in this existence comes to an ultimate, undisputable, non-negotiable end. whether there is something after death, or before birth, is speculation. we do not know. This absolute certainty makes this information the most certain and precious knowledge we have. And the only
real knowledge we have, too.
All we can do is living on and trying to be ready for what we can foresee. And actually such a life - already is very much.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by my interpretation of LaoTse
1
The One Essence that could be known,
Is not the essence of the Unknowable.
The idea that could be imagined,
Is not the image of the Eternal.
Nameless is the all-One, is inner Essence.
Known by names is the all-Many, is outer form.
Resting without desires, means to reach the invisible inside.
Acting with desires, means to stay by the limited outside.
The all-One and the all-Many are of the same origin,
Different only in appearance and in name.
What they have in common is the wonder of being.
The secret of this wonder
Is the gate to true understanding.
2
One who thinks: Beauty, by that causes: Ugliness.
One who thinks: Good, by that causes: Evil.
Being and Non-Being are contingent upon each other.
Difficult and Easy are contingent upon each other.
High and Low are contingent upon each other.
Loud and Quiet are contingent upon each other.
Now and Then are contingent upon each other.
Therefore the wise man:
He let’s himself cause, without wanting to do,
And lives, without wanting to name the many things.
Innumerable forms rise from the Void,
But he lets them, and does not attach himself to them.
Creating, without wanting to possess,
Living, without clinging to life,
Causing, without dwelling on it.
Because he does not attach himself to it,
He suffers no loss. |