Mair 3:6

[Marblehead]

Resins may be consumed when they are used for fuel, but the fire they transmit knows no end.

[oak]

Can he be talking about ru xiang (frankincense) and mo yao (myrrh), channel openers ?

[Marblehead]

Can he be talking about ru xiang (frankincense) and mo yao (myrrh), channel openers ?

 

Could be.  I looked at the process that was taking place rather than what was burning.

[Stosh]

Well, it could be that the idea is just wrong, .. you dont really use incence as a fuel. But if one accepts these ideas as figurative suggestions thats not important.I suppose it could be rephrased, when the fuel burnt is incense, the effect perpetuates beyond the present . And then the meaning could be that when ones actions feed the spirit, the effects change ones life.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Stosh

[Marblehead]

Stosh, you added a little bit to that with your "... the effects change ones life." but I can understand what you were pointing at.

 

I actually see here the modern day theory of "Energy Conservation" in that the "fire" is energy and we never really know most of the transformations of energy and how these transformations effect the future even today.

 

This concept may even have been referring to the human individual when they pass on.  Do we really know what becomes of all the energy that was once a living being?

[Stosh]

Stosh, you added a little bit to that with your "... the effects change ones life." but I can understand what you were pointing at.

 

I actually see here the modern day theory of "Energy Conservation" in that the "fire" is energy and we never really know most of the transformations of energy and how these transformations effect the future even today.

 

This concept may even have been referring to the human individual when they pass on.  Do we really know what becomes of all the energy that was once a living being?

Yeah, I struggled a bit with that, and decided that in the day, if you blew out a flame literally, one couldnt see. Us, understanding light as as a perpetuating wave, is a bit much for that time. I certainly see other options, like yours, and just chose one. The sentiment being expressed, seems to me, to be contrasting a very transient view of light-knowledge-experience ... an event seeming to end instantly, ... to a more lasting situation. Im Choosing but one single thing , just to convey the idea , in this case, one lifetime. There are certainly more graceful extensions of duration too. Im reminded of the saying ,that "if you give a man a fish, it lasts him only for the day, but if you teach him to fish ,it lasts for his lifetime" . Similarly, if you improved his understanding or relationship with God, he may enjoy a grace everlasting. And also similarly we say diamonds are forever, though physics understands them to be evaporating -undergoing sublimation,,at standard room temperature and pressure, just very slowly.

Good morning.

[Stosh]

But certainly one could extend it that the effects of ones transient moment of living , perpetuates.... Or that the idea that stuff is transient , can be demonstrated as bogus,,, generally speaking.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Stosh

[Marblehead]

Yeah, good morning back at cha' Stosh.

 

We have arrived at perspectives and I really can't say anything else because I don't want to sound like I'm preaching my perspective.

 

Change happens.  Where does what was go when it changes?

[Stosh]

Yeah, good morning back at cha' Stosh.

 

We have arrived at perspectives and I really can't say anything else because I don't want to sound like I'm preaching my perspective.

 

Change happens. Where does what was go when it changes?

Im thinking there should be a passage for that. .... Saying Anything affects people,if they hear it. Question is though are they changed? I tend to think it goes in ears and out again,perpetuating through the unbounded manifest, for the most part.

How long does petting my kittycats ears last?

Edited November 16, 2016 by Stosh

[Stosh]

BTW ... never use old soda pop as a sugar replacement in instant coffee.

If you're looking for an answer about where the original configuration of a thing goes when its transformed, its my opinion that it isn't really a thing they would wonder , since they were already conceptualizing that stuff was composed of elementary components, which, though rearranged were in and of themselves preserved. The configuration at any given time is a matter of ones perception , the incense is in their view a composite , not an individual material or truly distinct thing. The same would apply to a person, that essentially we are not distinct from the materials which comprise us, and therefore we ourselves would be an illusion built on a composite of what actually exists more fundamentally. 

Western science gets to that as well, but considers the 'composites' to exist with special natures of their own. But I think the taoist view sees these things as manifestations of a larger whole rather than different.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Stosh

[Marblehead]

I don't drink instant coffee.  Never cared for it.

 

Yes, we are what we are made of.  All the physical plus all the information in our brain that has been established on our own or was put there by someone else.

 

And true, there is no permanency for all that is but it is in fact manifest for a while.  Then change happens.  Eventually the end happens but the end is not much more that a new beginning for other potential manifestations.

[Stosh]

Great, now with life death and the physical manifestations of dao basically resolved, ,, whats wrong with instant? Its low hanging fruit! biggest bang for the buck...

[Marblehead]

... whats wrong with instant? Its low hanging fruit! biggest bang for the buck...

I can't say why, it's just that I have always been a perc or drip coffee person.  I have no idea why my taste buds don't like instant.

[Stosh]

I can't say why, it's just that I have always been a perc or drip coffee person.  I have no idea why my taste buds don't like instant.

Back at perspectives again, you arent leaning forward or back ,and if I dont choose to argue the point either, Im thinking One has to start a new beginning or stare at the dead end.

[Marblehead]

But I like my dead end.

[Stosh]

I recognize that.

[rene]

Maybe ends aren't really dead, maybe they aren't really ends either. Each moment contains change; perhaps that's the fire transmitted: the essence we take with us - from one moment to the next.

[Marblehead]

Out of habit?

Well, kinda', yeah.