Explain the 3-Sphere to me.

[Monte.C]

You guys rock. I'm so glad I'm here. Thanks.

 

[Tiki Tom]

We seem to be in general agreement that (probably) consciousness is the most fundamental thing. It is more likely that consciousness generates space/time/matter than that space/time/matter generates consciousness. (Is this really so? I can hear the materialists scoffing!). But If this is the case, it then seems likely that human consciousness is not wholly brain generated and that it is fair to hypothesize that consciousness survives the death of the body in some form. Despite the objection of materialists, there does seem to be some evidence that consciousness survives. We can debate the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence another time.
But this is where I’m currently stuck:
When you die does your personal consciousness Dissolve into a vast sea of impersonal consciousness? What is the point of all these human spikes of personal consciousness that appear and then vanish? Or, instead of a drop of water vanishing in the ocean, does the single defined drop take on the characteristics of the ocean? Do we reincarnate to a (hopefully) higher level of consciousness? Are there creatures with higher levels of consciousness than humans? Is it a continuum? On what do we base this wild speculation? (Well, there are clearly creatures with lower consciousness than us, so…). Is the whole point to want to transcend any sense of self? Have we reached “the wall” on this topic? Is it impossible to ever know more? Yet, there are those who claim that it is possible to attain higher consciousness in this life. What does that even mean?
How does a person who is sincerely seeking begin to move in the right direction? BTW, I’m crappy at meditation (better at prayer, but still not good). It’s not likely that I’ll be flying to Tibet to sit on a mountain top anytime soon. What is a wannabe Jedi Master to do???

 

[Benny Holiday]

Well first off amigo: "Beware . . . anger, fear aggression. The dark side are they." lol

All the major religions, bar Christianity, believe in some other, or higher, form of consciousness, be it reincarnation in Hindusim or enlightenment in Buddhism and so on. They also teach that one can only attain Nirvana, or perfection, by one's own merits, where Christianity hugely differs by saying that as heirs of an original sinner, we can't become holy of our own merit, but need the atoning sacrifice of someone both God and man to redeem us from slavery to our baser natures.

Now, I can imagine your average Joe saying, hang on a second Benny boy, whaddya mean Christianity doesn't teach a higher form of consciousness? What about heaven and hell, etc? Well, in all my reading and exploring, I've discovered that what the Bible says about such things differs greatly than the traditional teachings of the church, derived from the medieval church.

For instance, most Western people have a notion that people have an immortal soul inside them that either goes to heaven or hell when they die. But Genesis 2:7 reads, "Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Some translations say a 'living being.' So a soul is the body plus an animating spark of life given by God. A soul isn't some mystical presence that floats around after someone dies.

The Greek word for breath, pneuma, can be translated as breath, spirit, or wind, depending on the context, and this is where you've got to be careful with foreign languages, interpretations, ancient cultures, and context. This is where confusion and misunderstandings originate. You have to consider who the author was writing to and the culture of the time and place.

What happens at death, then? The opposite of life: Ecclesiastes 12:7 "Then the dust of mortals goes back to the ground as it was before, and the breath of life goes back to God who gave it."

So the Bible, at least, doesn't make reference to a ghost-type spirit. And just to make it plain:

Ecclesiastes 9: 5-6: "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. Their love, their hate
and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part
in anything that happens under the sun."

John 11:11-14: "After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

So Jesus Himself says death is like an unconscious sleep. So where did the idea of an immortal soul come from?

Genesis 3:2-5: "The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

You won't die, the evil one said through the world's first medium. You will become like God. None of the other animals in the garden could talk. Clearly, the serpent had eaten the fruit and it was now elevated to some higher form of existence. The woman chose to believe it over Yahweh.

And of course, there's nothing pure people won't try to corrupt. The medieval church mixed pagan notions of Hades and the afterlife with Christianity to convince people to pay "indulgences" to get their loved ones out of purgatory or hell. But the Bible only says people will go to heaven at the resurrection, the second coming of Christ.

Man, that was a lot to write. That's the Christian perspective. Hinduism and Buddhism etc are entirely different from what I know.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Well first off amigo: "Beware . . . anger, fear aggression. The dark side are they." lol