The Meaning Of Immortality
Science of Mind by E.S. Holmes (1926 Text, Gender Neutral Update) To the average person, immortality means that human beings persist after ...
Science of Mind by E.S. Holmes (1926 Text, Gender Neutral Update)
To the average person, immortality means that human beings persist after the experience of physical death, retaining a full recollection of themselves and the ability to recognize others. If their full capacities go with them beyond the grave, they must be able to think consciously; to reason, will, affirm, declare, accept, reject, know and be known, communicate and be communicated with. They must be able to travel about, see and be seen, understand and be understood; they must be able to touch, taste, smell, hear, cognize and realize. In fact, if human beings are to continue as self conscious personalities, they can do so only to the degree that they maintain a continuous stream of consciousness and self knowledge.
Remembrance alone contains the link that binds one event to another, making life a constant stream of self-conscious expression. To suppose that human beings can forget and still remain themselves is to suppose that they could cut off their entire pasts and be the same personalities as a moment ago. Only memory can guarantee personality. Individuality might remain without it, but not personality.
What we are is the result of what we have been, the result of what has gone before. Human beings, then, if they are to have an immortality worthy of the name, must continue -- as they now are -- beyond the grave. Death cannot rob them of anything if they are immortal.
WHERE DID HUMANITY COME FROM AND WHY?
God is Life. And even God could not tell us why God is. To suppose that Life could give a reason for its own being would be to suppose an absurdity. LIFE IS. This is the point where all inquiry into Truth must start.
Instead of asking why humanity exists, we start from the idea that it does. If we were to push humankind's history back to some point we called the beginning, we would still have to say that it just is. Human life comes from a Source which just is. It had no beginning. Any question as to why It began must remain forever unanswered.
We are not so much interested in why we are as in what we are and how we can work with what we are. That we are some part of Life, no one can deny and keep faith with reason. It seems best to ignore the unanswerable "why" questions and give our attention to the "what" and "how" questions that can be answered.
To the average person, immortality means that human beings persist after the experience of physical death, retaining a full recollection of themselves and the ability to recognize others. If their full capacities go with them beyond the grave, they must be able to think consciously; to reason, will, affirm, declare, accept, reject, know and be known, communicate and be communicated with. They must be able to travel about, see and be seen, understand and be understood; they must be able to touch, taste, smell, hear, cognize and realize. In fact, if human beings are to continue as self conscious personalities, they can do so only to the degree that they maintain a continuous stream of consciousness and self knowledge.
Remembrance alone contains the link that binds one event to another, making life a constant stream of self-conscious expression. To suppose that human beings can forget and still remain themselves is to suppose that they could cut off their entire pasts and be the same personalities as a moment ago. Only memory can guarantee personality. Individuality might remain without it, but not personality.
What we are is the result of what we have been, the result of what has gone before. Human beings, then, if they are to have an immortality worthy of the name, must continue -- as they now are -- beyond the grave. Death cannot rob them of anything if they are immortal.
WHERE DID HUMANITY COME FROM AND WHY?
God is Life. And even God could not tell us why God is. To suppose that Life could give a reason for its own being would be to suppose an absurdity. LIFE IS. This is the point where all inquiry into Truth must start.
Instead of asking why humanity exists, we start from the idea that it does. If we were to push humankind's history back to some point we called the beginning, we would still have to say that it just is. Human life comes from a Source which just is. It had no beginning. Any question as to why It began must remain forever unanswered.
We are not so much interested in why we are as in what we are and how we can work with what we are. That we are some part of Life, no one can deny and keep faith with reason. It seems best to ignore the unanswerable "why" questions and give our attention to the "what" and "how" questions that can be answered.
.JPG)
Post a Comment: