h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes, you're right Hypatia. It is the edgeless and non rigid that we seek, the ability to incorprate further understanding, appreciation. To never imagine we know it all.

I don't think you do reach someone who is convinced of their own rightness. How can you? Their 'rightness' is a shell wrapped around them to protect them from the outside, and themselves. This may sound a bit preachy, forgive me if it does, but I think perhaps the only way is to live what we are. By being that example we may rarely see what we have achieved, but someone may be hit by it even years down the line. Leaning on others to see they have edges seems almost as bad as having edges oneself, to sit in judgement on them.

Anyway, I still find edges within too, oooops, theres another one!

Momenta, Hypatia, of course "edgeless" is our ideal. But I wonder, isn't it a need to keep a few edges up our sleeves.
As a gardener I am very much involved with edges including hedges! If I attempt, in the name of art to create a flower border there are any number of creatures who know nothing of edges and who will set about "devouring" my creation, indeed Nature's own creations. My beautiful Hosta plants can be decimated overnight by snails, all their edges eaten and torn to shreds. So along I come and put copper strips(edges) around the plants to bar said snails and preserve what I perceive to be beauty. But then I turn to look at the snails and realise they too are a beautiful creation. Obviously, I have no right to destroy them. However, maybe I am okay to steer them other ways with some edges. If not, then I've spent a wasted life. Yes I know I should settle for what fleeting beauty is naturally available but we humans are not like that,or are we? We, certainly need to protect our integrity, too many predators out there. As ever, ed.

Not keen on edges myself, for in a fluid reality they do not exist. I can continue to challenge my own edges ad infinitum, and never find a brick wall. Funny that, I am reminded of my first 'real' question, that I asked since I was 3 or 4:

'How can the universe go on forever? It must have an edge. If it has an edge, what is beyond it?'

Yes, weird kid, I know.

I don't need to protect my integrity Ed, it is mine to keep or to lose, and no one can wrest it from me. Who are these predators I wonder?

momenta, I guess they are those who would use and abuse us. No, I don't mean wrest it from us, rather mar the inner child's innocence. This leaving a "hurt" to carry through life until discovered and dealt with. Thus, I would say anyone who has prevented the manifestation of a soul's God-given right to the power and glory of perfect Love is a predator. I am quite prepared to admit that one could be a vampire to one's self in a lax moment. But without edges, where does blame start? Now I'm back to "does Satan exist?", what is good what is evil? I hope d.B. comes back with some enlightenment for us!! It was his cue last time. It took a while to get a clear take on his view. I don't think you could lose the integrity of which I speak, momenta. Also, once the Love truly manifested nothing could mar it.
In that Love we share, ed.

I see it more as a gift Ed, that opportunity to learn and grow from whatever we have experienced. If there is evil in this context I would say it is the notion of blame. Where did blame ever get any of us? I personally have no desire to have that particular 'edge'.

Blame makes us helpless, keeps us in the past, boxed in, resentful, fearful. I prefer to be responsible for my own feelings and choices.

The inner child can always be uncovered, though often from deep in hiding, unmarred, beautiful and clean, as innocent as the day it arrived on this planet.

I don't remember the exact words, but Gandhi used to say that the blame and violence had to stop with each one of us. As individuals we can only control our own actions and thoughts - not any one else's. So, when we feel we have been wronged we can retailate which causes the other person to do the same which causes us to do the same and so it goes forever. Or we can say, "No, it stops here, with me."

Look at the Middle East where entire populations have hated and killed for hundreds of years. Northern Ireland is another example. People have to get beyond the hatred and say, "No, it stops here, with me."

H

I agree entirely with both of you.
Momenta, by mar I really meant suppress. My later use of "integrity" was for the inner child and I agree this cannot be marred. Even suppress doesn't fit too well as it is only a matter of degree and may vary from moment to moment according to the love on offer. It's fluid!
Love, ed.

I do not think that is odd to think about such things as a child.
At least I thought about such things endlessly

What is infinity and how does anybody know it exists if the end cannot be seen? If it could be seen then it does not exist
Round and round we go... still think it is possible but highly improbable.

Some things never change

SO glad someone else thought about such things.

What is possible but hightly improbable Abby?

Infinity

Isn't infinity an is? The very fact that our minds cannot conceive of it all would suggest this, rather than the reverse.

What alternative could there be?

I also thought about some pretty weighty issues as a child. I think we need to recognize that children are brighter than we sometimes give them credit for.

I'm in a rush again. No time to explore infinity - which is a fascinating topic. But I did find another quote in my mailbox this morning that I like, so I'm going to share it.

One moon appears everywhere in all bodies of water; the moons in all bodies of water are contained in one moon. This is a metaphor for one mind producing myriad things and myriad things producing one mind. This refers to dream illusions, flowers in the sky, half-seeming, half empty.

-Hsueh-yen

H

Exactly

Same thoughts as when a child also.
That one topic is so big it does not seem to change.

An alternative?
Hmm well I suppose as an adult there has been one new additional possibility.
It could all implode into itself having the concentrated energy neccesary to spin new life

Or it could be ever expanding, either way the energy could never be destroyed and continues infinitely.

Good to see a ressurection of our beloved thread.
Infinity? for me it is another way of saying that our Creator has no edges.
The child within is a chip of that Old Block, so Infinity is recognisable after all. As you would assert, momenta it is the way our thinking should go. As ever, ed.

I couldn't agree more as regards to children Hyp. Not only brighter but more insightful, tuned in, connected. They, infinitely more than adults, have that fluidity of which we speak. They have as much to teach us as we have to teach them.

No time to explore infinity?

Love your quote as well Hyp, says it all. Mind you, one thing that has struck me about the moon is that it looks different in different parts of the world. Some places a crescent moon is like a smile, you could sit on it. Not here though, but I remember being most surprised at seeing that.

Abby, the thing about infinity from my reflection of it is that whether the universe implodes or not, infinity still is. It is all time, by it's very nature, beyond time. So everything that has been, is and will be, is there. Just like this very moment, where all infinity sits, probably smiling like the moon.

Well, if I could spell resurrection it might help!
Afterwards I thought someone might pick me up on that, saying it had never died, i.e. the thread. If we can believe in resurrection then the concept of "death" changes. It is no longer death, rather we have placed ourself in safe hands. I know that is the case with Fluid Spirituality and, of course I was really referring to all of us being able to be "present" and presenting views.
It would be the ultimate in fluidity, for me if death of the body were not the only option. But this question is so close to the bone that it is almost impossible to argue. As Paul wrote, " If Jesus is not risen, we labour in vain" It seems to me that we can only take the idea of resurrection on board and hope it will transform us in some way. Stay open! Love to all, ed.

Hope I don't offend you, ed, but the word resurrection has always bothered me. I wish they had called it something different. It's another example of words having different nuances to different people.

To me, the word resurrection implies that something goes back to being the way it was before. Something was gone. Now it's back. And of course Jesus was changed after the resurrection. He was no longer mortal.

I think the word resurrection is also tied to the physical more than it should be. The concept of a physical resurrection I think misses the point. It places an enormous importance on the physical body - the physical world.

I don't know what word I would like better. Metamorphosis perhaps. I think it more accurately describes the process. And is more fluid.

H

"infinity - it is that whether the universe implodes or not, infinity still is. It is all time, by it's very nature, beyond time"

Agreed!momenta

Isn't it in Hindu cosmology that the universe begins and ends every 7 billion years or something like that? It expands for a while, then begins to collapse then collapses into nothingness then starts all over again.

Infinity is as infinity does.

H

I am not familiar with that theory but I kind of like it!
Interesting that it is the number 7.
Every seven years the body has replaced all of it's cells.
I sometimes think I go through 7 year emotional cycles too.