[Chin]

Hi

I am new to this website and to the forums. I am curious if there are persons who know that it is not true that 'I am in the universe' but that 'the universe is in Me'. 'Me' being alive, awake and impersonal awareness, in other words this very consciousness, this consciousness that is now reading these words.
For me there can be no 'TOE' without this recognition as its basis: the universe appears in consciousness as consciousness. There is nothing else and there is nothing more obvious and self-evident. Those who do not see this are caught into the illusion of a tiny self or 'I' within a body looking outward to a universe that seemingly envelops this body and so the 'I'. This is merely a learned position but can be very convincing, because almost everybody thinks this is how things are, including most scientists.
So, a real TOE has this awareness, this openeness, this clarity, this space for the world to be in as its fundament.
I have written a small essay on this subject on http://users.pandora.be/chin-asti/ATL/essay.html

Chin

[Robert]

Just a quick hello. Wanted to welcome you to ToeQuest. Your comments require some pondering, but it is too late for that right now I've bookmarked your essay and will peruse it another time. Perhaps you could kick of a few threads that discuss some of your points. More comments later; need to get to bed now. See ya.

Regards,
--Robert

[Guille]

hi chin,

My opinion is somewhat very similar to yours, even if tlooked from one point of view, the same:

The universe is my universe. My unverse is what I percieve and what I think. What I think and what I percieve lead to each other in a constant way. "ME" is my mind and my body. My body I percieve, feel... My mind I think, know, believe... All of what I am is my perception and my thought, which are, at the time, all of what my universe is.

[Benny Chin]

This is called the boot-strap theory, first proposed by buddhism. I first came across it when I read many years ago (30 plus) about splitting the nucleus. Some scientist suggested that the outcome of the splitting is the affected by everything else (or something similar).
In short "I am" is the rest of everything.

[pbecke]

Benny and Guille, apparently, according to the Jewish Kabbala, "When a man dies, a whole universe dies with him".

I'm inclined to think that there are as many worlds as there are human beings, and that God causes our worlds to interact in a seamless way, so that we are induced to believe it to be just the one. We each live in a little world of our own, as suggested by our singularly lonely entry into this world and our departure from it.

Your points seem to resonate with the Christian doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ and Teilhard de Chardin's Cosmic Christ.

[harmonygirl]

this is also consistent with many eastern religions, buddhism, taoism and hinduism come to mind...

[pbecke]

At the more abstruse level, it's intuitive, isn't it? And our completely isolated birth and death don't exactly give us reason to dismiss the idea.

[G_burnett]

Originally Posted by Chin Beware: Reading and thinking about Truth will not bring you a nanometre closer to it. The mind cannot acquire any real knowledge. It only knows concepts. I know; I have tried hard, it just is not possible... To know the Truth, just be aware of the Space where thinking happens in. All distinction will disappear. There is just This.... http://users.pandora.be/chin-asti/ATL/essay.html[/url] Chin

Hello Chin

I find Truth is found by the question posed, despite what or who it is posed to and not in spite of who or what it is posed to ... in an example if you wish as i have given it here already and i will reiterate for you ... feel free to ask

Peace! Graham

PS nice mushroom pics! lots of LBMs this way ..

[One_source_one_outcome]

For the most part I agree with the general concept you have presented. I have not finished reading your essay but have made the choice to respond anyway. I really like the fact that you are looking into the commonalities in various religions in the world, because from my perception they are all teaching the same general ideas and concepts they just word them differently. To me it seems like there is a source for everything, and that source is also a part of everything. That is to say "god" (or whatever you choose to call it) is the creator of everything and the creator exists in all of us. Through the creator inside of us we are all ultimately linked as one consciousness. If you study many religions of the world at length there are some rather profound similarities among them. Even ancient religions have some of the same teachings. Monotheistic and Polytheistic views are in effect both correct. If the creator is in everything but is also its own being there are in effect many, many "gods" represented by all things as well as the one original "god" who created all things.

[G_burnett]

It has always been very interesting to me that logically the God is either male the father or female the mother ... there are exceptions of course but they seem all to lead one to of either form ... they all have there own way of saying that "this is the way to live" and other then that you so do something less then realy live, such as "exist" it all makes for interesting reading in historical contemplation of the humam condition to the way we are but gives little to the impartial term "free will" or consciousness as an individual having such ... and i think the the idea of a supreme being who created all is an add on to the rote so important to the human condition evoloving?

Peace! Graham.