TomBo
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Re: "The" Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 14:50
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I'm not really looking for the Tao anyway - I'm more interested in sweeping this path, if U-Know what I mean!
Got to dash right now (Fendrith Hill calls) so haven't the time to give all the replies I'd like here - indeed, I'm taking my tent so I might be gone for a day or two (see what the weather does...). Talk properly when I get back (probably rain-drenched and shivering!).
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TomBo
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Re: "The" Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 15:38
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Okay, bags packed ready to go - just a quick one before I leave.
"Mankind's desire to label or symbolise everything is its own worst trait. Why do we do it? Why can we not accept things as just *being so*? Anything else just complicates things unnecessarily."
Its not that people "desire" to label or symbolise everything. Its just that our minds do that whether we want them to or not. Personally I think its a good thing - its our urge to understand the universe. Without symbols and labels there would be no language, for a start. I don't understand why you'd see this as our "worst trait". Would that not be something far more serious and horrible, like selfishness and greed (or intolerance)? I think our drive to make symbols is a wonderful thing, and that the symbols we create are (usually) very beautiful & imaginative. I say celebrate our urge to symbolize and mythologize! Right, I'm out of here...
"There is something inherently reverent within the human race, a sort of mystical pride in life." (AQ)
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FourWinds
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Re: "The" Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 15:44
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"... like selfishness and greed (or intolerance)?"
are caused (or facilitated) by labels.
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TomBo
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Re: "The" Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 15:52
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I take your point FourWinds ("I've labelled it & therefore its mine", if I understand correctly). But the answer isn't to get rid of labels and symbols. I don't believe that that would be possible, even if it were desirable. To get rid of our capacity to produce labels and symbols would be to get rid of our capacity to understand either ourselves, other people or the world in general. Surely the answer is to try and get rid of the selfishness & greed. I have, on many occasions, seen people rise above the drive to be selfish. I have never met anyone who didn't use symbols.
I really gotta go now, speak in a day or two!
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Shestu
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Re: Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 17:05
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Interesting tidbit.... while in labor my family asked a clergyman to give me a blessing. While he was doing his thing, I realized that I was watching the whole process from the upper corner of the room. Eventually I thought... how is it that I can see myself and this man from this perspective. I felt no pain and it was sooo peaceful. As I became fearful of what was happening my consciousness quickly popped into my body and I was looking at it all through my physical eyes again. My sister did the same thing when she had a terrible migraine.... realized she was floating above herself and her husband asleep in bed thought she had died. Then popped back in.
Just a long way of saying that maybe somethings cannot be labeled or symbolized. Sometimes understanding the symbology is just a marker on the road telling me that the thing I am trying to define is far greater than I can comprehend.... it points the direction but the experience is up to me. As I release the need to limit it, I can reach the unknowable/undefineable.... never with my mind but with my heart 8o)
Shestu
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Rhiannon
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Re: Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 17:14
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absolutely, that was what Jung was saying in my book I was reading. A symbol necessarily represents a huge wealth of important information that is beyond our description and complete understanding.
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Shestu
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Re: Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 17:22
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I love Jung! Haven't read his stuff directly for years, but have read the work of the Jungian-Analysts he's produced through his teachings. His work on dreams is totally fascinating to me 8o) I'm so happy that we agree!!
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FourWinds
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Re: Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 17:34
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But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar! We mustn't forget that :-)
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Shestu
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Re: Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 17:58
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Fourwinds, I totally get your meaning. People can get carried away. Balance in all things.
Yet with a cigar if you put it in your mouth light the other end and smoke it, it becomes an experience. Depending on whether you like or dislike cigars the experience will be positive/negative. Are you open to the possibilty that something as simple as a cigar has the ability to transport a person to a feeling of bliss or ecstacy?
I'm just messing around with you 8o) Sometimes nothing is something and something is nothing.
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nigelswift
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Re: Goddess
Jul 09, 2003, 19:00
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"Are you open to the possibilty that something as simple as a cigar has the ability to transport a person to a feeling of bliss or ecstacy?"
An interesting philosophical thought Monica.
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