Dust to dust

Month, Day: Sovereignty, Mercy (Majesty)

We may continue with a few questions and commentary, based upon the Hidden Words, for awhile.

Hidden Word #74 says: " O CHILDREN OF VAINGLORY! For a fleeting sovereignty ye have abandoned My imperishable dominion, and have adorned yourselves with the gay livery of the world and made of it your boast. By My beauty! All will I gather beneath the one-colored covering of the dust and efface all these diverse colors save them that choose My own, and that is purging from every color."

This applies to many things about our choices, including economy, and money, which we know is essential to any advancing civilization. The 20th century saw us remove money from any attachment to things material, supposedly as a step of advancement. One question is whether this may have gone too far and opened up the door to recent, and past, shenanigans.

Taking that further, money would have spirit that is tied to the material; nowadays, we're talking mostly ephemeral bits flowing via electro-magnetic properties through the ether (in the proper sense - to be defined) and through circuity; not far from being rather illusory.

How do we measure ourselves and our assets (including good works, products, etc.), which we are to do daily? Of course, such measures would include those related to economics, especially in terms of taking care of ourselves, family, and community.

Is it that we're not to fear an accumulation of wealth if we have the right perspective? So many questions?

Remarks:

10/04/2010 -- Friction can beget progress. Too, though, as excessive weight is not good for the physical health, too much moolah can be (is) detrimental to a proper spiritual view. Ah, some will argue not; yet, with hugh accumulations, how does one escape the psychetheral aspects? Not!! As well, the concept of 'simple living' (no, not vow of poverty - per se) needs some attention as a means to argue for just economics.

09/13/2009 -- Economics requires additional attention.

Modified: 10/04/2010

Economics

Month, Day: Honour, Sovereignty (Justice)

There are several watchwords, such as moderation. HW #I-82 says it, too: " O MY SERVANT! The best of men are they that earn a livelihood by their calling and spend upon themselves and upon their kindred for the love of God, the Lord of all worlds."

So an economy is essential to human affairs. How that economy needs to look needs some discussion. But, the current gaming attitude of the capitalists' market strategy, especially those related to modern instruments that are valued by myth, are suspect.

As does any matter, money has spirit. Yet, that part of money solely encapsulated in bits that come and go through circuity and the ether is not of the same ilk.

Remarks:

10/04/2010 -- Friction can beget progress.

10/30/2009 -- Much injustice is economic in nature.

09/12/2009 -- Economics requires additional attention.

08/20/2008 -- As mentioned in Names on, modern methods rush things forward, but they can go awry easily to boot. Fortunately, for any mainstream gush, there are those who see better as they're away from the froth which can help, for one thing, to get things back on track when the time comes. That money ought to have some physical foundation, beyond just paper/ink or coin, needs to be shown - one necessity will be the proper mathematical framework (which will include but not be driven by gaming [oops, game theory]).

Modified: 10/04/2010

Some seeds

Month, Day: Honour, Power (Glory) Topics that could be discussed here are many; therefore some attempt at an initial list might be in order. Partial list (will grow):

• The groups: Transcendent, Teleological, Operational, Motivational, Ascendant
• Meaning of life - in total, for the individual and the group
• Reincarnation versus return
• Science, dismal and otherwise - and scientism
• Cognitive science and processes
• Religion - its role, plus
• Cosmology, ontology
• Epistemology
• Writings and Reality
• Poesy and prose

Hidden Words #59P: O HEEDLESS ONES! Think not the secrets of hearts are hidden, nay, know ye of a certainty that in clear characters they are engraved and are openly manifest in the holy Presence.

Remarks: 09/13/2009 -- Economics requires additional attention. 05/29/2009 -- The Transcendent baffles. Modified: 09/13/2009

Mission and method

Month, Day: Honour, Grandeur (Majesty)

This blog will look at the interplay of a religious (Baha'i) viewpoint with modern views, such as those related to the meaning of life, science and religion, technology and art, and similar topics that are always of interest.

The Yahyay19 material has been on the web, in various forms, since early 1996 and will be updated to the modern variants (example). The links to Wikipedia (below referred to as wiki) are meant to show respect for the media of which wiki is a good example and to take out from there some of the discussions so as to have fewer constraints. For instance, the wiki connotation of 'fact' is a great one from several views. Yet, if one has a belief like Baha'i, what the 'Manifestation says' (taken as true, though given to us via written word) is a type of 'fact' (there are cases where a sort of comparability can come into play - this will be discussed further, under the topic of continuing revelation).

So, on wiki, something less than a fact needs qualification (thereby never approaching the fact state). In this blog, it's a basic assumption that the reader knows that the underlying world-view is influenced by Revelation (the Baha'i Teachings [as interpreted by blogger - meaning, of, by, and for the blogger - no claim to personal Revelation] which are considered, like the Bible and the Koran, as the Word of God, for the moment ignoring questions concerning to what extent something can be considered God's Word).

Of course, throughout all this, there will be links provided to the Writings that are apropos to the subject of a particular post; the idea is that we have 'independent investigation of the truth' (from y19) (which is a basic Principle) as a gift of God; so, anyone can form any opinion as they wish; because we know by science and meditation, hopefully, any world-view (with its associated set of actions) would evolve through time.

Other examples would be Angels and more, quasi-necessity, moments and more, ...

So much more to look at. We have briefly touched only a few of a boat-load (and not a small boat by any means) of issues that this blog will comment on and perhaps provide some orderly progression through time (time always tells, for the most part).

Posts will be done in 3 stages: initial draft, then links to on-line supporting material, finally editing to remove any troublesomeness. All edits, after the initial date, will be marked by a datestamp.

Posts are intentionally non-linear (and serendipitous). Later edits will provide bi-directional links that will tie together posts through time to allow expansions on a theme. A list of links will be used to represent successive discussions (linearity) on a subject.

As an extension to the method, remarks will be added to posts when necessary to provide additional information, and these will be collected by index for easy review. As well, the remarks will be marked with a date stamp.

Comments are encouraged and will not be moderated, however they may be cleaned up via summary if necessary. Comments can be signed or not.

Let's take a moment to consider matters of conduct with regard to comments.

Remarks:

01/25/2012 -- Yes, still at it. Ready to be more audacious. What we're looking for has to do with mind; at some point, it will be allowed by science that we can observe effects (actually, predict, to boot - one step forward will be a more insightful mathematics).

03/21/2011 -- One goal: list of topics to be included (a few years ago, there were only three - now there are several more -- to wit: nuclear power, transmutation of elements, Medicine, ...).

01/26/2010 -- Of note: Twin duties, Free will, Return, Operational time.

09/13/2009 -- (...) The ellipsis denotes work in progress.

08/29/2008 -- Names starts analysis, ontological and otherwise.

06/14/2008 -- The split (Angels and more, Quasi-necessity, Moments and more) has started. There will be a little more work here.

05/18/08 -- The split effort is imminent. Markers have been put above to separate out the new post contents.

02/24/08 -- Expect this post to split into multiple. Then, we'll have only the mission and method here.

One thing about death is that the afterlife is as different from here as here is from our time in the womb, for humans. Too, dreams are spiritual (or can be, some are neural firings) and are lessons that are far beyond what current types of analysis go for (Jung was more full-bodied in his view than many others).

Actually, no human viewpoint subsumes truth entirely. That's great. Nor is truth a collection of all. The provisional nature, as we see with science, is not a bad way to go; as long as one does those things necessary (know the laws and follow them is the main command - but not in a rote or a pious way).

Modified: 01/25/2012