Imagination and Greed. (God, testament)

ChrisP · #1 01-22-2006, 04:06 PM

I'm curious. The tao speaks to me like no other learning has before, but there is one point I cannot resolve. No answer seems to be forthcoming in meditation, and no attempt to answer this has been written down, by anyone whose teaching I have noted.

Of all the creatures we can observe around us secure and ignorant in the Way of Things, why do humans have the freedom of will to create/destroy/imagine??? Why have we been set so far apart in this manner?

I realise there are other creatures with abilities of this manner, but why is it that they do not possess the same desire to make monuments to our greatness? Create art of beauty, make war?

I suppose we cannot be sure if there are any others the same as us outside this planet. but why of all the creatures on this planet are we the only ones possessed of imagination and greed?

fromthe heart · #2 01-22-2006, 04:35 PM

Beats me..God has a purpose in it all...perhaps so we can ???? You tell me it's your question.

I'm brain dead today so although I would like to have a frubal worthy answer I just DON'T..sorry.

ChrisP · #3 01-22-2006, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fromthe heart

Beats me..God has a purpose in it all...perhaps so we can ???? You tell me it's your question.

I'm brain dead today so although I would like to have a frubal worthy answer I just DON'T..sorry.

Hi FTH

thanks for your response, unfortunately this is the Taoist forum and we have no God

. I am however extremely sorry to hear that you are brain dead today, perhaps my good friend Dr. Frankenstein can assist. You may call me Igor

mr.guy · #4 01-22-2006, 05:24 PM

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...but why is it that they do not possess the same desire to make monuments to our greatness?

Are you asking why other species don't make monuments and testaments to human greatness?

Jaymes · #5 01-22-2006, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisP

Of all the creatures we can observe around us secure and ignorant in the Way of Things, why do humans have the freedom of will to create/destroy/imagine??? Why have we been set so far apart in this manner?

I believe it is purely a matter of intelligence... or lack thereof.

It's our mind that lets us sit down and think "I can help others/kill someone/make a beautiful work of art." We haven't been so much set apart as a 'victim' of intelligence. Get smart enough and you start to question things that you can feel to be right and natural and start to lean towards doing things how you want instead of how they should be. [The previous being general yous, of course, not you in particular.]

In some ways I feel animals can be closer to the Tao than many people ever will be. They don't sit and think "well, if I kill this antelope then there will only be 60 left in the herd, and accounting for the new cubs and the oncoming of the dry season and the number of lions too young to hunt that we have to feed..." They just do what they do naturally, which goes back to intelligence.

mr.guy · #6 01-22-2006, 05:34 PM

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They just do what they do naturally, which goes back to intelligence.

Doesn't this make intelligence isolated from nature?

Jaymes · #7 01-22-2006, 06:04 PM

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Originally Posted by mr.guy

Doesn't this make intelligence isolated from nature?

Not at all. Many animals have intelligence, just not on the level of humans.

mr.guy · #8 01-22-2006, 06:27 PM

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Originally Posted by Jensa

Not at all. Many animals have intelligence, just not on the level of humans.

At what level intellect do you feel is the beginning of a "distancing" from Tao?

Jaymes · #9 01-22-2006, 06:31 PM

I'd say the level when we start to second-guess everything we want to do. Thinking things through is fine and a good thing to do, but running in circles over ifs and mights (which a lot of humans seem to do... I know I do at times!) goes against the natural flow of things.