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Thank you for the warm welcomes. Is there a way to contact members individually (or is that anti forum?)
I’m only concerned with this life as karma is either working here and/or in the postulated next as you put it. Either way what we do here is most important. Looking back at past lives (if you believe our souls are not just created at birth) to see what we might have brought with us for beliefs/patterns and becoming aware of those could certainly help in this life - whether there is a next or not. Whether there is heaven or not. Maybe it’s just this life then nothing. I don’t claim to know. I’m not sure anyone does. Having faith and secure knowing seem to be two different things.Welcome to the forum. Care about this life rather than the postulated next.
I believe soul, just like God, is fiction.(if you believe our souls are not just created at birth)
I honor that belief. So if we are born into consciousness and our consciousness ends when our bodies stop working, why not hedonism? What difference does having care for this life make? Inconsequential life sounds intriguing.I believe soul, just like God, is fiction.
It is an interesting question that I think about often. Here are some facts which may interest you sometime just when you're browsing the internet...I honor that belief. So if we are born into consciousness and our consciousness ends when our bodies stop working, why not hedonism? What difference does having care for this life make? Inconsequential life sounds intriguing.
It is an interesting question that I think about often. Here are some facts which may interest you sometime just when you're browsing the internet...
The Stoics answer that question. The Stoics are an ancient group whose philosophy has influenced all of western civilization. The Toists answer that question, too. So do the Buddhists. I recall that many of the native American tribes answer it, such as the Algonquins, Cherokee etc. So do the Japanese separate and isolated from all of the rest of the world. A lot of different and ancient cultures answer this question, and they believe hedonism is not the way to live regardless of views on an afterlife.
Some people answer it by living hedonistic lives to the extent that they are able. Take for example the famous hedonist physicist and mathematician Richard Feynman. Now there's a playboy if ever there was one.
welcome to RFHey, brand new to this but looking to chat with folks individually/penpal-like about Akashic records and reincarnation etc. I’ll figure this out but welcome any guidance towards what I seek.
Thanks,
Elaina
Welcome!Hey, brand new to this but looking to chat with folks individually/penpal-like about Akashic records and reincarnation etc. I’ll figure this out but welcome any guidance towards what I seek.
Thanks,
Elaina
Not really addressing that, no. I'm just addressing that lots of people develop moral systems despite believing that the afterlife is very different, does not judge our lives or believing that there is no afterlife at all.I did not know that about Feynman. But are you really just saying that he took advantage of his good looks, and the fact that (some) women like smart guys?
That is where you do not get it right. We live in a society and society in various ways helps us. So, we too have a responsibility towards it (we term it 'Dharma', duties). Hedonism will harm the society.I honor that belief. So if we are born into consciousness and our consciousness ends when our bodies stop working, why not hedonism? What difference does having care for this life make? Inconsequential life sounds intriguing.
Not really addressing that, no. I'm just addressing that lots of people develop moral systems despite believing that the afterlife is very different, does not judge our lives or believing that there is no afterlife at all.
Partly, yes; however we can live beyond the limitations of apes. We are therefore not merely socialized apes but potentially more, better, less and worse than apes.We are socialised apes aren’t we?
I have found this true in office working environments, construction work environments, call center environments, restaurant environments, church environments and various other environments. I don't know it could be true generally. I think there are exceptions, but can't give the circumstances under which they occur. There are groups of people who seem more laid back and are able to restrain their concerns about the behaviors of others. It may be that it only happens when people are stuck in childhood or some altered state. I'm not sure about why it happens, but sometimes it seems like it happens.Our behavioural standards are generally those determined by the group, and any aberration is punished by the group, in extreme cases by ostracism.
The morality appears whether or not people believe in an afterlife. People sense that there is a way to do things and that imitating others is probably the thing to do. People also sometimes have communal conscience and only feel guilt according to what society suggests. What we often don't do is try to improve the way that things are done -- mostly for the reasons you have said. Whistleblowers are hunted. Innovators are avoided.Personal morality has always to be considered within this context. Radical departures from the norm, such as the admonition to love one’s neighbours as oneself, and to forgive one’s enemies, are sometimes punishable by death.
Hey, brand new to this but looking to chat with folks individually/penpal-like about Akashic records and reincarnation etc. I’ll figure this out but welcome any guidance towards what I seek.
Thanks,
Elaina
I agree fully. You believe in Dharma but not Karma (?)That is where you do not get it right. We live in a society and society in various ways helps us. So, we too have a responsibility towards it (we term it 'Dharma', duties). Hedonism will harm the society.
Absolutely! If a hundred years from now you are just bones, and your spirit does not go on living in some way, you won't care whether you changed the world with kindness, honesty, integrity, living the golden rule, or if you were a serial killer. If this life is all you have, and we don't have souls, you won't care a hundred years from now one way or the other how you lived.I honor that belief. So if we are born into consciousness and our consciousness ends when our bodies stop working, why not hedonism? What difference does having care for this life make? Inconsequential life sounds intriguing.
It's just new agey stuff.Early Buddhism, then, clearly held to a permanency of records in the Akasa and the potential capacity of man to read the same, when humans are evoluted to the stage of true individual enlightenment.
I do believe in 'karma', but limit that only to one life. Nothing to bring forward, nothing to carry back.I agree fully. You believe in Dharma but not Karma (?)
I was just wondering how hedonism might be an option if life after death was not considered a factor.