You are right. :) I guess it is not after all. It does seem very limiting though, when we are actively trying to push its bounds... It makes me wonder sometimes, that if it weren't so hard to readily conceive of an eternal existence or an infinite time course of creation, then we may have never brought upon ourselves the enormous crisis of global warming you talk about; or at least having allowed ourselves to slip, we might be more urgently engaged in joining hands to end it...perhaps, not being able to grasp infinitude entirely, in some way enables us to constantly strive to reach higher, try harder, give more...perhaps, accepting the 'finitude'(!) of our abilities is necessary for uniting, so we may collectively expand our horizons... i should sleep.
indeed, you are right... if we could conceive more readily, we would be at a better place than we are now. and that - after all - is the challenge. thank goodness that the capacity of our mind is not finite, so that we can even attempt to grasp the infinitude in the first place :).
i think our mind, as an attribute of our soul, has the capacity of infinitude - but in a potential form. As we mature more, develop a keener spiritual insight, and increase the scope of our knowledge, this capacity, along with the capacity to reflect all the qualities of our higher self (such as the virtues, love, detachment etc) unfolds, becoming asymptotically greater. This process is also aided by us getting rid of the veils and barriers we all build up that tend to occlude the truth, and prevent us from getting closer to this infinitude.
hmm...but i feel there are certain things the mind can never comprehend, e.g., why are we here. even if one claims to know (e.g., god put us here) (a) the claim would be suspect (i.e, it couldn't be proved) and (b) there are so many questions that follow (e.g., who put god there).
i think every time a new framework challenges our thinking process, and hits against the limit our mind has reached until that point, it forces it to expand its boundaries and grow even further...so, there are limitations at each stage of growth, but with each new challenge, the very process of overcoming the challenege 'raises the bar' :)...hence, the potential is infinite, and with sincere effort, so is our capacity!
hmm...but the questions i mentioned above, are questions that humans have grappled with for centuries with little/no success.
there are questions that are not even philosophical/spiritual where our brain hits its limits. e.g, what's it like to be a bat and communicate through sonar? what does infrared light look like? what does something in 4 dimensions look like?
hmm...the specific questions you've raised and the broad swathe of such things that we are yet to be understood may be hidden to us yet...but i think it reflects actually a greater state of understanding humanity, as a whole, has reached on such topics, when taken over enormous time periods...in other words, tens of thousands of years ago, we probably understood very little about bats, and much less of sonar...with each level of new understanding, also comes a recognition of what remains to be worked out (much like research :) )...there are two important requirements, to ensure, that we as human beings collectively proceed to greater knowledge, and they are a. each person should at the individual level ask themselves if they are doing the very best they can, and striving to learn constantly. b. if they are making the effort to dissseminate that knowledge to others who are at various points on that curve, so that society as a whole can continue to progress. like new technology that a handful of people develop and very few initially adopt, but which over time and with proved utility is more widely accepted and becomes the norm, so with knowledge of any kind... i am hopeful we will have answers to many riddles of this age sometime in the future :)...with '90% perspiration 10% inspiration...'
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but the capacity of our mind isn't finite, is it? yes, we may think it is... but time and time again, we are proved wrong...
You are right. :) I guess it is not after all. It does seem very limiting though, when we are actively trying to push its bounds... It makes me wonder sometimes, that if it weren't so hard to readily conceive of an eternal existence or an infinite time course of creation, then we may have never brought upon ourselves the enormous crisis of global warming you talk about; or at least having allowed ourselves to slip, we might be more urgently engaged in joining hands to end it...perhaps, not being able to grasp infinitude entirely, in some way enables us to constantly strive to reach higher, try harder, give more...perhaps, accepting the 'finitude'(!) of our abilities is necessary for uniting, so we may collectively expand our horizons...
i should sleep.
indeed, you are right... if we could conceive more readily, we would be at a better place than we are now. and that - after all - is the challenge. thank goodness that the capacity of our mind is not finite, so that we can even attempt to grasp the infinitude in the first place :).
i should sleep too, of course :). enough time spent on the blog!
i think our mind, as an attribute of our soul, has the capacity of infinitude - but in a potential form. As we mature more, develop a keener spiritual insight, and increase the scope of our knowledge, this capacity, along with the capacity to reflect all the qualities of our higher self (such as the virtues, love, detachment etc) unfolds, becoming asymptotically greater. This process is also aided by us getting rid of the veils and barriers we all build up that tend to occlude the truth, and prevent us from getting closer to this infinitude.
well said!
hmm...but i feel there are certain things the mind can never comprehend, e.g., why are we here. even if one claims to know (e.g., god put us here) (a) the claim would be suspect (i.e, it couldn't be proved) and (b) there are so many questions that follow (e.g., who put god there).
but maybe i'm thinking too narrowly, maybe the inability to fully accept something without proof is itself a limitation of my mind.
i think every time a new framework challenges our thinking process, and hits against the limit our mind has reached until that point, it forces it to expand its boundaries and grow even further...so, there are limitations at each stage of growth, but with each new challenge, the very process of overcoming the challenege 'raises the bar' :)...hence, the potential is infinite, and with sincere effort, so is our capacity!
hmm...but the questions i mentioned above, are questions that humans have grappled with for centuries with little/no success.
there are questions that are not even philosophical/spiritual where our brain hits its limits. e.g, what's it like to be a bat and communicate through sonar? what does infrared light look like? what does something in 4 dimensions look like?
hmm...the specific questions you've raised and the broad swathe of such things that we are yet to be understood may be hidden to us yet...but i think it reflects actually a greater state of understanding humanity, as a whole, has reached on such topics, when taken over enormous time periods...in other words, tens of thousands of years ago, we probably understood very little about bats, and much less of sonar...with each level of new understanding, also comes a recognition of what remains to be worked out (much like research :) )...there are two important requirements, to ensure, that we as human beings collectively proceed to greater knowledge, and they are
a. each person should at the individual level ask themselves if they are doing the very best they can, and striving to learn constantly.
b. if they are making the effort to dissseminate that knowledge to others who are at various points on that curve, so that society as a whole can continue to progress.
like new technology that a handful of people develop and very few initially adopt, but which over time and with proved utility is more widely accepted and becomes the norm, so with knowledge of any kind...
i am hopeful we will have answers to many riddles of this age sometime in the future :)...with '90% perspiration 10% inspiration...'
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