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What is your “Essence”?
We have discussed mind, free will, religion, and oh so many other topics here ... but what is your Essence? What makes you uniquely YOU?
Is it personality, character, intelligence, appearance, education, career, being a parent or child? Each of us have many roles at any time and many distinct traits ... but what makes you you?
Or is it our body and mind; our heart or soul; our mind or consciousness; our words, thoughts and deeds; the innate goodness that’s in each of us; the sum of all our parts …
… what is left when we die and all these dissolve back into the soil? Is it our children; their memories of us; the stories we wrote or told; the house we built; or invention we made ... what is left?
[This is something I have struggled with for ages and it's getting circular ... am looking for your input, any contribution to get me thinking differently would be greatly appreciated?]
Who are You?
Closing Statement from Kate Blake
Thanks everyone for a fascinating conversation. Much thanks to TED for providing the forum.
Well worth reading for the different input ... off to seek my 'essence' see you in a while!
Frans Kellner 100+
László Szantor
Expanding anywhere, without my sensual conceptions would be not knowing, therefor meaningless for me. The Universe would not be looking on itself through my eyes any more. Surviving anything without my knowing about it would be no survival . The Mystery beckons while I speculate endlessly.
László Szantor
Ed Schulte 50+
to add here ..mind you it is not "giberish" and perfectly clear IF one has experienced the truth therein.
Dr D. R. Hawkins
"The Self knows, by virtue of its Essence, all that exists beyond time and therefore beyond memory.
"Ego/mind thinks,field (consciousness) knows,and Self is. "
Gordon Barker 10+
Field (consciousness) knows .... you're losing me here
Self is....Ok - I have no idea what you are trying to say.
If you are saying that you are sure something exists just because you experience it, then I disagree strongly. Our brains are wired to make all types of assumptions. They don't have to be right, they just have to serve use from an evolutionary point of view.
For example, you can look up into the sky and see the sun and the moon move around the earth. But of course it doesn't work that way. To make an extraordinary claim, you need extraordinary evidence and just saying that I feel it is true, really really really really true doesn't add a thing to the likelyhood of it being true.
Gordon Barker 10+
They don't go anywhere anymore than the programs on a hard drive go somewhere when you erase it.
Certainly not silicon heaven. Likewise, I don't "flow back to the universe" or "spacetime" or whatever.
You people are talking gibberish.
Kate Blake 50+
Comment deleted
Gordon Barker 10+
The world is full of ideas that people embrace based solely on wishful thinking.
Most of the major religions come immediately to mind.
Occams razor would suggest that you look for simpler mechanism for two people to communicate based on existing senses, overt of subconcious, before making up a new communications technique to explain "soul mates". Creating something that does not follow natural laws is really bad science.
While I am not comfortable extending consciousness into the quantum dimension and I would not be suprised if the brain does use quantum effects for some of its work (see the quantum mind theories), I am more of a believer in the macro sized entropy to reduce order to chaos rather quickly after death.
Cheers
Gordon Barker 10+
I have no problem in the thought that 80 (or even 100) percent of the world partakes in wishful thinking. I think our brains are wired for it. Certainly we are not wired for critical thought, we must be trained to do so, and we even have a very difficult time in understanding cause and effect.
The energy in our universe must add up to zero. Any positive energy must be offset by an equivalent negative energy. Matter is positive energy, space-time is the battery holding the negative energy that allows matter to exist. If you are going to create a soul and have it exist for ever, then you must have a place to put the negative energy. Without that, you are trying to get something for nothing. (and with the vast expansion of the population of the earth, it must be expanding so we should be able to measure the effect).
Good luck with that freeze your head thing. Just because you are rich or famous doesn;t mean you are smart, it just means you have money and are in the movies.
natasha nikulina 50+
You keep on asking where what one thinks is his essence goes after death?
I guess it doesn't go anywhere, or metaphorically speaking,a drop of water comes back to the pool, where it came from.
Kate Blake 50+
natasha nikulina 50+
" And back through the process again ..."
-I believe so, but it doesn't mean that everything remains the same,
I believe,what we do , think and feel really matters, all that is frozen in the very fabric of spacetime, literrally we create "our shared essence"
What is left after death?- Everything, apart from ego.
" They "perish" not, but are re-absorbed."
Kate Blake 50+
Comment deleted
Kate Blake 50+
László Szantor
sterling brewer
including my feelings, emotions, thoughts... everything.
it's too hard to explain.
Kate Blake 50+
sterling brewer
my soul is a genuine expression, living for real. to me, an essance isn't something based off your career, or where you live, rather... your real feelings from your heart. your presence in the world. if you have strong feelings, and appreciate the many beauties here around you on earth and elsewhere, you've got powerful essence. how you interact with the life, people, animals around you thoughtfully and whole-heartedly. how you treat mother natural around you, with respect... everyone, and everything with respect. who you are, who your soul is... that is the essence, that is beautiful. it's the existance in the universe.
Ed Schulte 50+
It is not fear.
re: what is left after??.... every partial in manifest existence no matter how small has an etheric double. That which makes up the HUman body physical, psychical..etc so too has its etherical double. So then material body disperses/dissolves (as far as the corporeal eye can tell) but the etheric bodies ( which is what makes up the so called “essence”) reduces itself down only its acquired truths ( and those “truths” are the exact meaning of “essence”) You are a very aware person so I don’t hesitate to tag you with this ...it is the old Babylonian description BEFORE it was copied and mutilated by the others
http://www.researchersoftruth.org/Prodigal-Son.htmdao-Christianity please let me know when you link this .have a look at more complete site...and then I will remove it. It could cause all kinds of unnessesary comentary to your very question.
László Szantor
Kate Blake 50+
The link you posted goes nowhere for me ... comes up as a path error ... maybe none of us are meant to read it!
Ed Schulte 50+
it was the most specific discussion anyway ...lets try it again...look down the list to "the 3 bodies" Feb 14th 2011, and take in the material Daniel covers there ( and tolerate Dr Davis )
Kate Blake 50+
Etheric forms are duplicate, thought about that and agree - that accounts for out of body and NDE experiences, fits well so thanks for making me reflect on it!
William Hardaway
Kate Blake 50+
William Hardaway
That taught me not to look at food, things, or people like they could only serve one purpose.
Kate Blake 50+
Dara Singh
Kate Blake 50+
Dara Singh
Silvia Marinova 20+
Kate Blake 50+
Silvia Marinova 20+
Ed Schulte 50+
This is Rumi
No one who dies feels grief
~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The wise Prophet has said that no one who dies
and dismounts from the steed of the body
feels grief on account of departure and death,
but only for missed opportunities and having failed in good works.
Truly everyone who dies wishes
that their arrival at their destination might have come sooner:
the wicked, in order that their wickedness might have been less;
and the devoted,
in order that they might have reached home more quickly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zin be-farmudast ân âgah Rasul
keh har ânke mord o kard az tan nozul
Na-bovad u-râ hasrat-e naqlân o mawt
lik bâshad hasrat-e taqsir o fawt
Har keh mirad khvod tamanni bâshadesh
keh bodi zin pish naql-e maqsadesh
Gar bovad bad tâ badi kamtar bodi
var taqi tâ khâneh zutar âmadi
-- Mathnawi, V:604-607
László Szantor
This is the great mystery, enigma, the as yet veiled secret from our inquisitive strivings.
Who or what initiated the existence of anything? And why? What is the purpose of it all? Why are we all so different? As you can see, I can only add more questions to extend your query. We are at this certain place of our evolution and we know only what we know. I do believe that sometime , at a future date , mankind will know all the answers. Otherwise, this whole business of being wouldn't be fair. We have to know. And we will.
Just keep asking all those questions.
Kate Blake 50+
Don't you love a 'curly' one?
László Szantor
Kate Blake 50+
László Szantor
natasha nikulina 50+
Enigma inside of a Mystery, Who am I ?
Maybe it's impossible to know ?
Generally, we are who we believe we are, but how it is relevant ?
Debra Smith 200+
I am one who believes these things and who looks at the world with a deep desire to understand and the curiosity to seek out the answers. I am the seeker.
Salim Solaiman 50+
Kate Blake 50+
Salim Solaiman 50+
Debra Smith 200+
Salim Solaiman 50+
lynn eschbach 30+
natasha nikulina 50+
if I am not mistaken, it is Hinduism which captures the essence of this total sense of unity
when it says, simply, " Thou art that "