Does God really exist in any form?

[Drifter]

Rumi asks God:

"Why won't you answer my longing?"

And God answers:

"I am the longing."

"Longing", takes on a new meaning. =-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJmBgnHsJ-A

The backbone or iow the spina lcord is the first 'thing' to develop out of the embryonic fluid in a chicken/human egg.
Embryology
The spinal cord is made from part of the neural tube during development. As the neural tube begins to develop, the notochord begins to secrete a factor known as Sonic hedgehog or SHH. As a result, the floor plate then also begins to secrete SHH, and this will induce the basal plate to develop motor neurons. Meanwhile, the overlying ectoderm secretes bone morphogenetic protein (BMP). This induces the roof plate to begin to secrete BMP, which will induce the alar plate to develop sensory neurons. The alar plate and the basal plate are separated by the sulcus limitans.
Additionally, the floor plate also secretes netrins. The netrins act as chemoattractants to decussation of pain and temperature sensory neurons in the alar plate across the anterior white commissure, where they then ascend towards the thalamus.
Lastly, it is important to note that the past studies of Viktor Hamburger and Rita Levi-Montalcini in the chick embryo have been further proven by more recent studies which demonstrated that the elimination of neuronal cells by programmed cell death (PCD) is necessary for the correct assembly of the nervous system.
Overall, spontaneous embryonic activity has been shown to play a role in neuron and muscle development but is probably not involved in the initial formation of connections between spinal neurons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_cord

[Drifter]

reset message below.

[Drifter]

For years Philosophers have been arguing whether god exists. If Jesus gave us our free will then God must not exist, If god exists then we have no free will. If God is omnipotent and knows our past present and future then how can we have free will to make our own decisions?

Is it 'fair' to ascribe human-like attributes to God?

Isn't that the fanciful projections (and short commings) of most religions and why they're'/it's so unpopular in certain circles?

[Drifter]

The Body as a Temple of the Divine

The South Indian yogin-saint Tirumular included in his celebrated Tirumandiram, written in melodious Tamil, these two verses (here only paraphrased):

When the body perishes, the life force (prana/chi) departs and the Lght of Truth cannot be attained. I learned the art od preserving my body and thus the life force in it.
Once I dispised the body. But when I saw the Divine within it and realized the body is the Lord's temple. Thus I began to preserve it with great care. (verses 724-725)

The singular Self (atman), when it becomes karmically associated with a limited body and the finite universe, experiences itself as manifold psyches, each thinking it is an island uno itself. This delusion in turn generates the conditions for pleasurable and painful experiences, all of which are binding because they merely reinforce that initial delusion of mistaken identity. Only when all karma and limited experience is transcended does the individual psyche remember its true nature as the singular Self manifesting in all beings and things.

The conscious (Self) abiding in all beings experiences [pleasure and pain] by connecting with the unconscious [matter of the physical body]. Bound by its own karma, that which is known as the psyche (jiva/soul) becomes multiple out of unconsciousness.

Karma is generated again and again in the so-called brahmic egg for experiences, and the psyche is dissolved when experience ends together with ones karma.

[Drifter]

The goal of conventional alchemy is to produce gold out of a base metal. However, the goal of spiritual or esoteric alchemy has always been to generate a new state of being.

The much-sought-after philosopher's stone was never a physical object but an inner realization, the realization of wisdom, gnosis, or vidya. Yoga is such a path of spiritual alchemy, consisting in the personal trasmutation of the yogis practitioner from a base, corrupted personality into the luminous, nonlocal Self beyond space and time.

[Lloyd Gillespie]

No__Absolutely Not...

[Meem]

Is it 'fair' to ascribe human-like attributes to God?

What is love?

Would it be "fair" to ascribe god-like attributes to humans?

[Meem]

No__Absolutely Not...

Interesting development.

[Lloyd Gillespie]

What is love?

Blindness to one's self-logic over one's lower emotions...

[Drifter]

What is love?

Would it be "fair" to ascribe god-like attributes to humans?

"Love" is a concept arising in consciousness.
What is prior to conceptualization?
What is prior to consciousness?

What do these arise from?

Condemnation pror to investagation is the Height of Ignorance!
'Words', in any playful vernacular, can only point to the truth of anything.

See; "The Play of Consciousness". ~Swami Muktananda

Lao Tsu said "The Tao that can be spoken is not the Tao."
Then went on to write a 4000 word discourse on what the Tao is not.
Tao Te Ching. Translitered ~Tao Teaching.
Perhaps you have read it?
The "street sign" is not the street.

"Logic, can't get past its own rules."
The answer isn't in the mind.

What's it called when lover and beloved become one?
Get the idea?