From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sat Mar 25 2000 - 10:51:16 MST
<< I sent this to Brent but intended to cc the list >>
On Fri, 24 Mar 2000, Brent Allsop wrote:
>
> Ken Clements <Ken@Innovation-On-Demand.com> replied:
> > ... for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it
> > so: <Hamlet 2:2>
Great quote Ken, I didn't realize Shakespere was so enlightnened!
>
> I think this is blatantly and obviously BS.
I hate to say this Brent, but Ken is correct. There is a saying
in eastern philosophy -- "Do not change your beliefs, transform
the believer". Until you become the system which "has" the perceptions
and beliefs, rathern than the one that "is" the perceptions and beliefs,
you are always ruled by it.
> My Grandmother is dead! I miss her horribly and feel huge amounts of
> pain because of this.
So too are both of mine. One was kept alive for many years, a virtual
shell of herself who should have been allowed to die. The other promised
me (and she was a woman who would keep her promises), that if there were
a way to come back and let me know the "other side" existed, she would
do so. To date, she hasn't. I am glad that both of them lived and
contributed to me what they could. Sometimes I miss them. But
I am rarely sad for them (other than with regard to the pain one
had to experience in dying of cancer). They lived their lives and
played their hands. I would not, and I really doubt they would not, have
had it any other way.
> She deserves this world she gave to me much more than I do.
Why would you say such a thing? I understand that you care, but
given the gradual evolution of society, and the increase of knowledge,
what you can create, etc. I would rank people alive today as being
more valuable than people alive in yester-year.
> The fact that she is now dead is BAD!
There is no inherent BADness to death, you perceive the loss as bad
because you miss her. Unfortunately because this exists in the realm
of your experience, probably nothing I could say will change your mind.
There are exercises that I might be able to do with you to get you
to see this, but it is fundamentally a Zen "aha" experience, that
people must arrive at on their own.
> No thinking any being could possibly do, whether emotional or purely
> abstract rational thinking like a computer could do, make this
> anything other than BAD, and the fact that we are still alive Good.
The fact that we are alive is *not* good. It is just what is so.
We perceive it as good, since we think being dead would feel bad.
In fact, being dead, we cannot feel anything, so feeling good about
being alive would seem to be accepting an illusion. Accepting
illusions as real, leads to the dark side.
I deeply empathise with those list members who have lost or may
lose someone they care very much about. I hope that you remember
and perhaps tell stories about them and honor their memory. We
*will* lose some of the people on this list. The best we can do
is cherish them, honor them and share their wisdom and insights
with others. In that way they are never really gone.
Robert
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