I’m reading a fucking massive book called “THE WORLD’S GREAT RELIGIONS” and it had some cool philosophical questions I think you guys can eat at, so here some music and let us ponder
“For the Westerner who treasures his individuality, monism is not a very comforting philosophy. But to the Hindu, to merge with Brahman means only the giving up of a finite, limited personality for an infinite one.
To him, it is pure bliss.
Some knotty questions arise. If God is in the world, then is not the world God? The monists reply that God is within the world but is also transcendent or above and infinitely more than the world.
But if part of God is in the world and part out-side, then is not God capable of being divided? How can he be one, the skeptic asks.
Hindu cosmology attempts to answer these last questions thus: Brahman, being the Absolute, is one, indivisible, unchangeable, beyond action and inaction, beyond good and evil. But latent within Brahman, as within a seed, is the power of life. When this power is manifested in the creation of a universe, it takes the form of maya, the material world that we perceive with our senses. Maya, emerging from Brahman, is like heat arising from a fire: the heat is not the fire and yet it comes from the fire and cannot exist without it. Since in this physical world we see Brahman only vaguely, as though through a veil, maya often deceives us, but it is not pure illusion.”
Also in the Hindu philosophy section it has things I agree with like “For the Hindus nothing which really exists is ever destroyed abso-lutely; things merely change form.” And “Westerners make too much fuss about the details of Christ's life. They do not see what difference it makes; Jesus' words are true even if he never lived; Westerners, they feel, are too literal.”
However this is paired with another quote that I completely disagree with “With their concept of reality Hindus look for truth more in myths and symbols than in history or science.”
Here is another thing to munch on
“There is no "social progress" as Westerners like to think, but only endless repetitions. Unlike Westerners, Hindus do not see time as an arrow or a flowing river, but as a pool of water. At intervals there are waves or ripples in the pool; the pool itself, however, remains unchanged.”
And finally as some old fag once said:
“We see little girls with their dolls," said the mystic Ramakrishna.
"But how long do they play with them?
Only so long as they are not married....
Similarly, one needs images and symbols so long as God is not realized in His true form. It is God Himself who has provided these various forms of worship ... to suit ... different stages of spiritual growth and knowledge."
Very interesting book about world religions, like my other books, a great reference for ideas and thoughts about greater things.
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