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Descartes' Dualism & the 7 Realities
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"Let reason go before every enterprize, and counsel before every action."--Ecclesiasticus 38:33
Culturally, psychologically, and philosophically in many aspects we are still under René Descartes' (1596-1650) understanding that there are two realities: mental and physical. Or, if you prefer, the mind and body duality. To be fair, Descartes actually had three realities: mental, physical, and God. Still, it is his dualism of mental and physical that most affects our thinking still today. Atheism is Superstitious
We also still have the two main variations on monism with us. Monism being the belief that there is only one reality, typically, either mental of physical. The so-called rationalists, the atheists, and the materialists believe in the absurd notion that there is only matter. And idealism under its present names of postmodernism, new ageism, and constructivism believes in the equally absurd notion that the only reality is mental. Postmodern Foolishness
We would be wiser to look at seven not two different states of being, of existence. There are 7 because each of the 7 can and does exist independently of the other.
1. Physical: inanimate or dead things, for example, rocks and dirt.
2. Mental: sensations, thoughts, images, feelings, for example, imagination and emotion.
3. Consciousness: there are two types or identity for self-awareness and attention for other-awareness. For example, all sentient life has both self-consciousness and other-consciousness.
4. Vessel mental: plants, animals, human body, human soul, angels. Those things that have the capacity to host the mental. Yes, even trees do think. A better question is where is the brain in a tree? The tree coordinates and directs a lot of activities. Were is the coordination occurring?
5. Vessel spiritual: human soul, angel's soul, other beings in Heaven. See the New Testament book Revelation chapter 4 for what the other beings in Heaven are.
6. Life: energy, breath, or spirit. The force that animates. The enlivening principle. The power that sustains all even matter. The difference with matter that is dead and matter that is alive is that matter that is dead does not have energy to direct or use as it wills.
7. Spiritual: knowledge of God from God or the Holy Spirit; the Word of God or Jesus; the Spirit or Father; and the angels of God who can carry all three to us.
Physical is not mental. The physical does not have the properties of the mental. When you say "apple" over the phone you transmit a mental thing but not a physical thing.
Mental is not physical. When you are standing on planet earth and think you are standing on Jupiter, you are still standing on planet earth. Yet, you can still imagine yourself standing on Jupiter.
Consciousness is not mental. Consciousness is awareness and mental things (sensations, thoughts, images, feelings) do not have self-awareness and other-awareness of their own. They must steal that from vessels. Physical things like rocks also are not aware of themselves or you. On the other hand, your body's immune system is aware of both self and other so that it might kill other.
Vessel mental is not physical. The physical is not a vessel for the mental, for example, rocks cannot host thought. The vessel nature is a host nature. The mental cannot host as it is the mental that is hosted. The difference is the same as the difference between a container and the contents of the container. The container is the host and the contents of the container is what is hosted. The vessel is not consciousness as the vessel can and does exist independently of consciousness.
Vessel spiritual is the only vessel capable of entertaining the Spirit with self-awareness and other-awareness. That is, only the spiritual vessel can be aware of itself as the host to the spiritual. It is true that other vessels can host the Spiritual, but not with awareness.
Life is not vessel. You can have dead vessels. The physical is dead, that is, without life. While consciousness requires life, you can be alive and unconscious. Wood was once part of a vessel, a tree. Now that wood is only physical and not a vessel capable of hosting the mental. The mental is itself dead. Human thought is just a dead thing. Hence, when you identify with thought you become one of the living dead. It is your vessel that is alive, that has been granted life not your thoughts.
Spiritual is not mental. The Spiritual comes only from God. The mental comes from Satan or the Covering Cherub.
Duality and Opposites
QUOTATIONS VARIOUS SOURCES
"Can a man cling to the positive without any negative in contrast to which it is seen to be positive? If he claims to do so he is a rouge or a madman."--Chung Tzu
"To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything, or nothing, about it."--Olin Miller
"We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand."--Eric Hoffer
"Nothing is more certain than uncertainties: / Fortune is full of fresh variety; / Constant in nothing but inconstancy."--Richard Barnfield
"There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but there is assurance sufficient for the purpose of human life."--John Stuart Mill
"There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it."--George Bernard Shaw
"To say dualism is bad or wrong is the worst kind of dualism."--Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
"There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking."--Alfred Korzybski
"Let reason go before every enterprize, and counsel before every action."--Ecclesiasticus 38:33
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."-- Confucius
"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."--Anatole France
"I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side--I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts."--Bethania McKenstry
"The worst extreme view is the extreme view that extremes never exist."--Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
"A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things."--Eleanor Roosevelt
"If we could learn how to balance rest against effort, calmness against strain, quiet against turmoil, we would assure ourselves of joy in living and psychological health for life."--Josephine Rathbone
"Any man who is under 30 and is not a liberal has not heart; and any man who is over 30 and is not a conservative has no brains."--Sir Winston Churchill, 1874-1965
"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of."--Blaise Pascal
"Goodness is not born of badness."--J. Krishnamurti, Can Humanity Change, page 22
"All language is dualistic."--J. Krishnamurti, Can Humanity Change, page 22
"All opposites are born of their own opposites."--J. Krishnamurti, Can Humanity Change, page 23
"I am saying anything born out of its opposite contains its opposite."--J. Krishnamurti, Can Humanity Change, page 24
"Duality is necessary for things but deadly for self."--Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
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