Immortality vs reincarnation

[Daeluin]

What we read in books has been left behind by others, and is frozen, unless we can make it come alive. Often book knowledge will lead us to a dead end, where we know there is more, but the ladder grows no taller.... until we are able to change that through our own experiences.

 

There is much written on reincarnation, transmigration, immortality, and yet, one's ability to understand these things in depth will hinge upon the depth of refinement of one's awareness of balance and change.

 

In the end, some things can only be known by being. For to use knowledge as a tool prohibits us from being complete, yet being complete, there is nothing we prevent ourselves from knowing.

 

In terms of taoist knowledge, the classics reach the root, even as they are difficult to know. Cultivating the dao through qigong, and studying the classics, perhaps one's ladder will grow.

Edited November 17, 2015 by Daeluin

[SonOfTheGods]

*Time* is not real...

 

Therefore, there can be no "Re"_Incarnation

 

It all happens Simultaneously, Not Sequentially

 

So, just "In"_Carnation

 

Nothing "Re" about it

 

All your "Lives" are being "Lived",.. right NOW

Edited November 21, 2015 by SonOfTheGods

[woodcarver]

I've never died before to my knowledge but I imagine it's a lot like sleeping.

[Marblehead]

I've never died before to my knowledge but I imagine it's a lot like sleeping.

Except you never wake up.

[woodcarver]

Except you never wake up.

We all go to bed expecting to wake up the next day but when we're asleep we don't exist and all of that is gone. We don't have any anchor to hold on to. I've slept just about every day and it hasn't been so bad.

 

In ultimate reality we close our eyes and open them again only to find all the clocks showing a different time and some of the things in different places.

[Marblehead]

We all go to bed expecting to wake up the next day but when we're asleep we don't exist and all of that is gone. We don't have any anchor to hold on to. I've slept just about every day and it hasn't been so bad.

 

In ultimate reality we close our eyes and open them again only to find all the clocks showing a different time and some of the things in different places.

Nice post.

 

Sure, the eternal sleep will be very peaceful indeed.  No more pains or worries.  There we will find absolute nothingness.

 

But why go there sooner than we need to?  I mean, the big sleep is forever.  That can wait a little while longer.

 

I really do wish I could say that I believe in reincarnation.  Just think!  The chance to do it all over again!

 

I have never wanted to die.  (But then, there have been a few who have wished I would.)

 

Immortality would be too long for me.

[woodcarver]

Nice post.

 

Sure, the eternal sleep will be very peaceful indeed.  No more pains or worries.  There we will find absolute nothingness.

 

But why go there sooner than we need to?  I mean, the big sleep is forever.  That can wait a little while longer.

 

I really do wish I could say that I believe in reincarnation.  Just think!  The chance to do it all over again!

 

I have never wanted to die.  (But then, there have been a few who have wished I would.)

 

Immortality would be too long for me.

I think the real point is that being in the state of absolute nothing, it doesn't matter if you come back again... and that's better than knowing. Mystery solved

[Wu Ming Jen]

To obtain immortality one is alive, always alive, transformation and losing the body is still being alive.

 

Reincarnation one is dead I have never been dead so it would be hard for me to speculate about it.

 

The Taoist say if you want to know the end go back to the beginning.

 

Immortality is not living in the same body throughout all "time" because that would suck. 

 

There is no coming or going. When we get this body it does not mean we left something. The "it" is always present with or without a body.

 

Everyone knows where they came from because if you ask them they say I do not know. So that means we came from the unknown. There is nothing to know about death and not even important at this particular moment.

[Marblehead]

You sound a little like Chuang Tzu with some of those words.

 

That is why I prefer the term "Transmutation".

 

When I am asked where I am from I sometimes respond:  From my mother.

[allinone]

We live in a age where physical, material appearances is taken as a sigh of maturity. But if you born into different age and world, you may have powers at default but then everyone has them so you will grave a good place to develop your other skills, so human birth is very good for that.

 

When the age is spiritually mature you might have merit only to born as a lizard into Earth with the intelligence,maturity as your current level in this human form or as a master sorcerer in some other world.

Edited November 24, 2015 by allinone

[Marblehead]

Or as a slimy Banana Slug in another.

[Marblehead]

Which mother?

Well, actually two; Mother Tao and Mother Evelyn.

[vonkrankenhaus]

Re:

-----

"To clarify... by immortality i meant the Nei Dan practice of growing a spiritual embryo that matures into a golden energy body...spiritual immortals."

-----

 

"Spiritual embryo" means the embryonic form of a spiritual body or existence.

 

This is what is growing right now in all living beings.

 

All living beings, having a beginning of their existence, also have an end of their existence.

 

Their material existence.

 

We are moving between realms.

 

Just as we did in the process of our physical conception.

 

What realm did we come from to be physically concieved on Earth?

 

What realm did anything come from that we see around us physically?

 

From the realms that are producing physicality on Earth - pre-atomic, energetic, plasma, particles, elements, compounds, microbes, plants, animals, human being.

 

After conception, we find ourselves in the all dark water realm of the womb in 2 parts.

 

One part (placenta) "dies" and the body is born - also having 2 parts.

 

We are then on Earth, the half-light/half-dark air realm, with body and head.

 

Body is sensing, reacting, moving, existing on Earth.

 

Bodily experiences and responses are processed by the head, which is resulting in developing "consciousness".

 

Consciousness is refining, maturing.
During this life it is embryonic.
At end of this life it is ready to be born as an infant in another realm.

Body is getting old and dying.

 

They will separate upon physical death.

 

Body will become like the placenta from our gestation did at our birth.

 

Consciousness will become like our body at our birth.

 

We are then born into the all-light spiritual realms.

 

We can chart further development from there, but this is just about "reincarnation" and "immortality" as seen from this realm on Earth.

 

Modern way of living deforms this process and creates both physical and spiritual prisoners and invalids.

 

Taoist cultivation understands this process.

 

Modern commercial taoist cultivation misunderstands and misrepresents this process in a variety of ways.

 

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[Marblehead]

I consider that the transmutation from Wu to Yu and then back to Wu.  That is, from potential to manifest and then back to potential.  But I can't go further than that.  This is because Wu, potential, is unknown until it manifests.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Marblehead