An Idea

[Profpat]

http://petitpub.com/labs/media/flash/3dcube/test04.php

The Venn diagrams didn't post Profpat?

Nuts! I guess I'll have to try something else.

Sorry,

Pat

[Drifter]

Nuts! I guess I'll have to try something else.

Sorry,

Pat

Not that I could make heads-or-tails of it anyway!

Did you try clicking on "the magic cube" and rolling your mouse around Professor?

[Profpat]

[Profpat]

Did it come through this time?

[Drifter]

Did it come through this time?

Just the link that took me here.

Image: http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/mmps/001_02709d59b6d0d2fc_1/2.jpg?partExt=.jpg&&&outquality=90&ext=.jpg&border =2,255,255,255,1,0,0,0,0&limitsize=400,400&squareo utput=255,255,255
***************


Error Error: We're sorry, this page is not available. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please go to pictures.sprintpcs.com in case you are using an old bookmark, which is no longer valid.

[Profpat]

Thanks Drifter;

I'm going to have to get some outside help I guess.

Sorry everybody but I'm computer illiterate

[MJA]

Dear Drifter,

You seem quite knowledgable in the history and philosophies of world religions.
Tell me if you will what religion teaches the unity or oneness, the equality of not only mankind, or mankind and God or Gods, but rather the equality of all things.
Surely Christianity is not a religion of equity, with God and devil, heaven and hell etc.
And an Islamic faith that teaches their religion or God is superior to anothers.
Or Toaism that teaches the humanity of man but not everything.
And Hinduism that has such diversity of duality and non-duality.
Buddhism?
I have been searching for sometime to find the simple truth of equality in human history, in a religion, in science and find it difficult to find anywhere.
Perhaps you know of some of peoples that understand the truth that would help me with my feeling of sometimes being so alone.
I'm not looking for the truth anymore, but rather for the company of truth.

Thanks,

=
MJA

[Drifter]

Look no further than for your own Highest Self, MJA.
When lover an beloved become One, there is no need of company, nor anyones else idea of what truth or reality is or isn't, when you re-cognize That Oneness you will become one with it, when you find it in yourself you will recognize it in all, wheter they recognise it in themselves or not, become your own Highest guru, you are only alone when 'you' turn away from "Him", what more is there to say brother?

Namaste`

Dear Drifter,

You seem quite knowledgable in the history and philosophies of world religions.
Tell me if you will what religion teaches the unity or oneness, the equality of not only mankind, or mankind and God or Gods, but rather the equality of all things.
Surely Christianity is not a religion of equity, with God and devil, heaven and hell etc.
And an Islamic faith that teaches their religion or God is superior to anothers.
Or Toaism that teaches the humanity of man but not everything.
And Hinduism that has such diversity of duality and non-duality.
Buddhism?
I have been searching for sometime to find the simple truth of equality in human history, in a religion, in science and find it difficult to find anywhere.
Perhaps you know of some of peoples that understand the truth that would help me with my feeling of sometimes being so alone.
I'm not looking for the truth anymore, but rather for the company of truth.

Thanks,

=
MJA

[Drifter]

PLOTINUS: HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS

By B.V. Narayana Reddy

[From THE ARYAN PATH, May 1965, pages 204-08.]

Plotinus was a philosopher with many facets. He was a profound
thinker, who systematized the teaching of his great master Plato
and brought out its mystical and religious significance. He was
a man of the world to whom men submitted their differences and
disputes for a just solution. He was father to the orphan and
the widow, whose worldly possessions he safeguarded by his
prudence and care. He was a mystic who sought inspiration by
daily communion with the Eternal. He lived a life of such purity
that men who came in contact with him reverenced him like a god.
It was not without justification that the oracle of Apollo raised
this undying song to his memory:

> I raise an undying song, to the memory of a gentle friend, a hymn
> of praise woven to the honey-sweet tones of my lyre under the
> touch of the golden plectrum. Celestial! Man at first, but now
> nearing the diviner ranks! The bonds of human necessity are
> loosened for you and, strong of heart, you beat your eager way
> from out the roaring tumult of the fleshly life to the shores of
> that wave-washed coast free from the thronging of the guilty,
> thence to take the grateful path of the sinless soul. Oft-times,
> when your mind thrust out awry and was like to be rapt down in
> unsanctioned paths, the Immortals themselves prevented, guiding
> you on the straight going-way to the celestial spheres, pouring
> down before you a dense shaft of light that your eyes might see
> from amid the mournful gloom. Sleep never closed those eyes.
> High above the heavy murk of the mist you held them. Tossed in
> the welter, you still had vision. Still you saw sights many and
> fair not granted to all that labor in wisdom's quest.

Plotinus himself tells us nothing about his life in his own
writings. He would never say anything about his parents or
birthplace; and he often said that he was ashamed of being in the
body. He showed, too, an unconquerable reluctance to sit to a
painter or sculptor, and when Amelius persisted in urging him to
allow a portrait to be made, he asked him, "Is it not enough to
carry about this image in which nature has enclosed us? Do you
really think I must also consent to leave, as a desirable
spectacle to posterity, an image of the image?" Porphyry, his
friend and biographer, however, tells us that a good portrait of
his was painted in his lifetime without his knowledge; but there
is no evidence that a copy of it exists.

Nothing definite is known of his place of birth, but it has been
generally assumed that he came from Egypt. According to the best
available evidence, his date of birth seems to have been A.D.
205. He began the study of philosophy rather late in life, and
the teacher who influenced him most was Ammonius Saccas. He
spent over a decade with this teacher and, at the age of
thirty-nine, he developed a desire to study Persian and Indian
philosophy and joined the Emperor Gordian's expedition to the
East in the hope that he might meet competent teachers during the
course of his stay in Persia and India. There is, however, no
evidence that he was able to visit these countries, as the
expedition was a failure, and the Emperor himself was murdered in
Mesopotamia early in A.D. 244.

About the age of forty, Plotinus settled in Rome and began to
teach philosophy. During the next decade or so, his fame as a
great thinker was firmly established, and he was honored by the
friendship of the Emperor Gallienus and his wife and of many
other famous men and scholars from all over the Roman Empire. He
did not, however, take any active part in public life, though men
and women of the highest rank sought his advice in their personal
problems and found in him a sagacious friend and guide.

He was easily accessible to rich and poor alike, and his house
was full of young people of whose education and properties he was
in charge. He was meticulous in his care of their property and
spent long hours in scrutinizing the accounts that were submitted
to him on behalf of his wards. During his long stay of over a
quarter of a century in Rome, he acted as arbitrator in various
disputes between private and official parties, but never once was
his judgment or fairness impugned by anybody.

Plotinus never enjoyed robust health. His eyesight was bad and
his austere habits and long sleepless hours spent in
contemplation were a terrible strain on his physical resources.
In A.D. 269 the illness from which he suffered became so much
worse that he left Rome for the country estate of his friend
Zethus in Campania, and he died there in A.D. 270. The illness
of which he died has been identified as a form of leprosy.

He bore his sufferings with great equanimity, and when death
came, he faced it like the wise, great man he was. Of these last
moments, his friend Eustochius has given a touching account. He
was staying at Puteoli and was late in arriving. When, at last,
he came, Plotinus said, "I have been a long time waiting for you.
I am striving to give back the Divine in me to the Divine in the
All." As he spoke, a snake crept under the bed on which he lay
and slipped away into a hole in the wall. At the same moment,
Plotinus died.

It was the wise Socrates who told his mourning friends that the
true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about
to die, and that the votary of philosophy is always pursuing
death and dying. The truth of this statement is exemplified in
the manner of Plotinus' death. Great men, who have lived nobly,
develop a profound insight into the truth of things as they reach
the end of their earthly pilgrimage, and of the pregnant sayings
attributed to them during their last moments, the words of the
dying Plotinus to his friend are among the most profound -- "I am
striving to give back the Divine in me, to the Divine in the
All." These words epitomize in a small compass the fundamental
teaching of Plotinus.

His basic position is that reality is fundamentally One, not in
the arithmetical sense, which is the opposite of "many," but as
the transcendent and immanent reality from which all things
emanate and into which all things merge. It is the matrix of all
things, spiritual, mental, and material, and all other
conceivable and inconceivable states of being. The One has no
parts and cannot be taken apart or destroyed. It is beyond time
and space. It involves no conflicts because it is beyond all
opposites. It is nameless because to name it implies finitude
and limitation. It cannot be the object of thought, because
thought involves the duality of subject and object. It would be
inaccurate even to say that the One exists, because existence
implies limitation. Nevertheless language has to be used to
express the inexpressible, and when we speak and write of the
One, we must always bear in mind the limitations of language and
its inadequacy to convey ultimate truths.

contd.

[Drifter]

PLOTINUS: HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS contd.

The close resemblance of the thought of Plotinus to the Vedantic
conception of Brahman or the Buddhist idea of Tathata (sometimes
translated "Suchness") should be obvious. The Buddha referred to
this reality in these solemn words:

> There is a not-born, a not-become, a not-created, a not-formed.
> If there is not this not-born, this not-become, this not-created,
> this not-formed, then here an escape from the born, the become,
> the created, the formed could not be known.

The One is the primal reality in which there is no imperfection,
no duality, and no limitation; and yet there is imperfection in
the world in which we live. How is this explained? According to
Plotinus, all things must exist forever in ordered dependence
upon one another. Those other than the One have come into being
because it is a law of necessary production that each principle
must produce the level of being immediately below it as a
necessary consequence of its own existence. Perfection would
cease to have any meaning unless there were imperfect things in
the world. Imperfection is thus created by a process of
emanation and is derived from the One by a process of logical
necessity.

Finite existence is therefore a progressive falling away from the
original perfection. The process may be compared to the shining
of a bright light which illumines the darkness without itself
losing any of its brightness or to a cup overflowing because its
contents are infinite and cannot be confined within it. The
brightness of the light decreases in intensity until it loses
itself in the surrounding darkness, and the overflow from the
perennial spring becomes a mere trickle the further it travels
from the central source.

Accordingly the primeval One manifests itself as the Nous in its
first stage of descent from the original state of perfection.
The word "Nous" has been variously translated as the Intellectual
Principle by Stephen MacKenna, as Spirit by Dean Inge, and as the
Rational Mind by others. Perhaps the best equivalent is the word
"Spirit" used by Dean Inge. Nous or the Logos is the first image
of the One, it is His image as the First Thinker. Inseparable
from the Thinker are his first thoughts, which subsist in the
spiritual world. The thoughts of God, which Plato called
"Ideas," are the eternal realities of all that is manifested or
manifestable. For example, the "Idea" of treeness is the
producing cause of an infinite number of trees and thus too with
all other things. "Here" they are in part, particularized, and
separated, but "there" they are perfect, universal, and united.
Nous is, accordingly, the kingdom of all absolute verities,
permanent values, and ultimate attributes. It is the realm of
ideas, ideals, and archetypes. It is both essence and existence.

The next stage in the manifestation of the One is the Soul -- the
Oversoul or World Soul. The Soul is essentially a unity, unlike
Matter, which is essentially a Plurality. The unity of the
Universal Soul does not, however, exclude the plurality of souls.
Individual souls are comprehended in the Universal Soul. The
entire Universe, including the stars and galaxies, is held in
place by the unifying nature of the Universal Soul in the same
manner as the activities of the human body are held in harmony by
the individual soul. In other words, the Soul is a Plural-Unity
which enters into relation with all beings and things. The Soul
pervades the universe as it also pervades the human body, but it
is difficult to explain the precise character of the Soul's
relations with its vehicles. When the soul enters into relations
with the body, it becomes individual though universal. It is as
if someone who was expert in a whole science confined himself to
a single proposition. It is as if the fire which is endowed with
the power of burning everything touched some small object and
burnt it up.

The last and final stage in the descent of the One is the
material world. The world of matter is a relative, conditioned,
and limited reflex of the spiritual world. It is subject to
change, growth, decay, and death. Therefore it is spatial and
temporal. Matter, as such, never is. It is always becoming,
without ever persisting in its condition or being able to come
out of it. But it can never pass into nothingness. It is
indestructible. It either reverts to its primal condition or it
fulfills its true purpose as the recipient of order by being
gradually redeemed in the regenerating process set up by the Soul
when consciously converted into Spirit.

> How does this process of liberation or ascent from matter to
> Soul, from Soul to Nous, and from Nous to the One take place? The
> Plotinian path to liberation is three-fold, viz., through the
> True, the Good, and the Beautiful. In the True, the intelligible
> unity of all things is revealed. In the Good, the harmony and
> order of life is manifested. But in the Beautiful is the final
> perfection and consummation of all. Hence the soul rejoices when
> it beholds the Truth and is happy when it is in harmony with the
> Good, but its highest experiences are those wherein it beholds
> the Supreme Beauty.
>
> How do we come to the vision of the inaccessible Beauty, dwelling
> as if in consecrated precincts and remote from the common ways,
> where all might see, even the profane? He that has strength, let
> him arise and withdraw into himself, foregoing all that is known
> by the eyes, turning away forever from the material beauty that
> once made his joy. When he perceives those shapes of grace that
> show in body, let him not pursue. He must know them for copies,
> vestiges, shadows, and hasten away towards what they tell of . .
> . And this inner vision, what is its operation? Newly awakened,
> it is all too feeble to learn the ultimate splendor. Therefore
> the Soul must be trained to the habit of remarking, first all
> noble pursuits, and then the works of beauty produced not by the
> labor of the arts but by the virtue of men known for their
> goodness, and lastly you must search the souls of those that have
> shaped these beautiful forms.
>
> But how are you to see into the virtuous soul and know its
> loveliness? Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not
> find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue
> that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes
> there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a
> lovely face has grown upon his work. So do you also. Cut away
> all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring
> light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one glow of
> beauty, and never cease chiseling your statue until there shall
> shine out on you from it the God-like splendor of virtue, and you
> shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the
> stainless shrine.

I would recommend; Zen Master Bankei's "The Unborn". There are two translations, so if interested I will give you the ISBN of which, imho, is the better of the two.