mike..
no i do not believe in original sin....
i do not understand when you say "end our suffering?."..
let me give you a concrete example..
there have been in australia recently 1 horrendous murder and rape and one
attempted rape and murder been committed on young women and that being because
the accused were released recently on parole...
now i hear folk..saying how evil the 2 men are...
one of them wants the death penalty...which is not available in australia...as
he says if he is released he would kill again...
i actually identify with their suffering..as much as i do with the victims
in fact the suffering of the accused has me bowled over with compassion...
of course folk will say but if it happened in your own backyard how would you
feel and think?...
that i cannot answer..
however either the prisoners are not getting any firm grounding in
rehabilitation or they are beyond help.
saying that is not anything to do with original sin..but the brain chemistry
gone haywire..
then i think... we are all players on a stage as shakespeare once said...the
world is a theatre and we all have our parts to play..
how very sad to get to play a less noble creature
perhaps i think there will be a golden era when we are all enlightened and all
caring and loving.."flower power and peace and love"
as jesus said in the gospel according to thomas.." the kingdom of heaven is
spread upon this earth and men do not see it"...
it's so so sad and makes me weep how lonely must they who have the roles to
play that are not so nice for what ever reason they are doing and being and
causing untold misery
how can we not feel compassion..this is an issue that will not settle with
me..i cannot make my way through this to understand the why......
when you say no other organism has these gifts... how do you really know?
our communication skills with other life forms on this planet are very dim...
we seem to think and we believe we are the lords of the earth...
the only lord of the earth is: mother nature..she runs the good ship
earth...we are at her mercy..and we treat her so poorly...
for this we will pay with our own destruction..
from these ashes there will rise those organisms that you so kindly refer to as
not... can i be so bold as to say... do not have our extraordinary gifts?...
we are one with those organisms..we are those organisms..we were never anything
else
ultimate reality is the understanding that all is one..there is no separate, no
other...
ONE
merle
Merle,
I sometimes wonder if your view of humans is influenced by your personality or
your exposure to Christian-Judaeo thinking. It certainly seems in accord with
ideas like Original Sin! I see things differently. Those of us alive right now
'owe' it to the fact that every single one of our ancestors survived to
reproductive age and procreated. We also can see our place in the universe and
our origins. We have been born in a time where there is a teaching (Dharma)
that shows us how we can experience ultimate reality and end our suffering. No
other organism has these 'gifts'. How extraordinary and lucky we are!
Mike
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________________________________
From: Merle Lester <[email protected]>;
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>;
Subject: [Zen] no sound is heard what so ever
Sent: Thu, Jun 20, 2013 11:09:08 PM
hi joe...
i thought as much when i googled..thank you for this clarification... the night
sky is certainly filled with awe and wonder...
last night on telly a short doc on the voyage 2..i presume you know of
this...it is breaking through the magnetic field...you must bear with me..i am
a science ignoramus... and the voyage 2 going into the beyond the beyond so to
speak....
it is really amazing this earth...
here we all are on this ball and out there is this vast endless universe if not
universes...
seemingly may i suggest we are "orphans"...
where are the other life forms?...
certainly gives us food for thought and makes for realisation that we are but
as individuals smaller than a grain of sand..
in fact as individuals we are invisible...
all the huffing and puffing we carry on as individuals..
puffing out chests out and bursting with the song..."here i am"..is not even a
whisper in the universe...
no sound is heard what so ever...
merle
Merle,
Yes, Parkes is an extremely famous and important RADIO-observatory,
where a lot of radio-astronomy was invented after World War II, using
military-surplus radar instrumentation, and making improvements on
it (especially on the Receivers). Radio-astronomy was my first
specialty in my career, so I look to Parkes as one would look to,
say, White Sands, or Cape Kennedy for the development of rocketry
after the War. It is that important. Many astronomical discoveries
were made there.
But it is not an Optical observatory. Often, the needs (of siting)
of a radio observatory are at cross purposes with those of an
optical observatory. A rad. obs. wants to be LOW, where its
antennas can be shielded from artificial radio signals from radio
and TV, etc., transmitters. An optical observatory wants to be HIGH,
where it can be above air and dust and lights, and air currents that
disrupt the wave-front of the light.
Parkes is no good for my current work as an optical observer, and
was no good for my past work in radio, because it is too LOW. We
chose to site our instrument in Chile because it is high and dry
there, and our radio waves of choice are so short (microwaves) that
water vapor and clouds DO disrupt them. Chile was / is ideal.
There are places in Chile that make the Nullarbor Plain of Australia
look like the Garden of Eden!
I loved getting to know the stars of the South, Merle. It was like
starting over. I've had several lifetimes, already. And they say
there's no such thing as Reincarnation! ;-)
--Joe
> Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
>
> joe... i believe their is an observatory out at parkes..nsw..i'll check
>net..yes i have walked to top of mount k ... it's a very easy "stroll"
> joe i know nothing about stars... sorry... on a clear night yes you can see
> all..it's gorgeous.....no we do not get glow of sydney..yes it is pitch
> black...sydney you see the lights of city in the very very way off
> distance... cheers merle
