LIFE

[Anchorman]

T'was a Marvin moment, Brownie!

[Walter]

Life? Don't talk to me about life...........

Frank Sinatra sings a lovely song about it , have a listen . All your questions answered Sri!

[Anchorman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAA67a2-Klk

[Walter]

Instinct ...'Innate tendency or inclination'... is the dictionary definition. You can't cherry pick your definitions.

DNA has this tendency to replicate, which you label as Emergent Property.   It could be because of some form of Life energy that enters or interacts with the DNA at this stage giving it this property of Life....which automatically means instinct of survival and replication. 

As the organism becomes complex, the instincts are exhibited in more complex ways.

stop guessing and read some science books on the subject , no magic involved, then you can stop with all this ridiculous nonsense, please .
The reality is far more impressive than this woo woo crap !

[Hope]

stop guessing and read some science books on the subject , no magic involved, then you can stop with all this ridiculous nonsense, please .
The reality is far more impressive than this woo woo crap !

I agree that we don't want any magic, Walter, but I suspect that reality is really massively more impressive than anything you can come up with.

[Sriram]

Well the concept of Prana is just surplus to requirements, in a sense.  We already have concepts developed from base energy laws that serve more faithfully to observation.  We don't need a special new form of energy that is applicable to just living systems; as you yourself recognise with a brief mention of viruses, the traditional black and white division of things into living things and non-living things is a simplification, so a conceptual framework of understanding that transcends the artificial distinction between animate and inanimate is superior.

torridon,

Actually, Prana is present in all objects animate and inanimate. It is the movement and manner in which it presents itself that makes the difference  between living and non living beings. Just as electrons are present everywhere but their specific movement produces what we call electricity, which supplies power to our equipmet.

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Ok...I think I will take this to the next level.

Life Energy or Prana is a very fundamental and common concept in India and other countries like China, Japan etc. It is Life energy which is present everywhere and in everything, both living and non living objects.  Its the movement that makes the difference.

As I have said earlier, objectively nothing is known about Prana...but subjectively it has been known and used for thousands of years.  It is mentioned in the Vedas and Upanishads and later in Jain and Buddhist literature. 

Most esoteric practices like Yoga, Pranayama, healing etc. involve the regulation and control of Prana. Practices like Tai chi, Reiki and faith healing and also martial arts... involve the regulation of Prana.   Most chantings, rituals and prayers also involve regulating Prana in some form.

The biofield or aura is nothing but Prana  in various forms moving in and  around the body. Our mind is also composed of prana.

This movement of this Life energy around the body makes it form vortices or wheels in many places around the body. These are called Chakras.  We have major Chakras around the crown, the forehead, throat, heart, solar plexus, sex area and lower spine...besides almost all other areas where minor vortices are found.

The cleaning, energizing and regulation of the prana around the many chakras is what helps in maintaining good health, healthy mind, peace etc. Pranic healing, reiki etc. are useful techniques for maintaining good health and a peaceful mind (especially for sensitive people). Especially in mental problems, depression etc,.... these methods that heal chakras and regulate prana are very useful.

Many people in India and other countries use these techniques as complimentary to normal medicines. For mental problems...these methods are found to be more useful than medicines.

When you feel love for someone the sudden feeling of elation in the heart is the Heart Charkra expanding. When you feel fear, it is the heart and navel chakras getting depleted. When you feel jealousy it is the Solar plexus chakra getting depleted....and so on. Different colours are also associated with different chakras. 

The esoteric Tree of Life in the Kabbala is also similar to the Yogic chakra system.

Cheers.

Sriram
 

[Walter]

prove it or shut up

merry Christmas !

[Walter]

I agree that we don't want any magic, Walter, but I suspect that reality is really massively more impressive than anything you can come up with.

your suspicions are simply that ,Hope.
your understanding of reality is comparable to that of a witch doctor . Remove the woo from your mind and start thinking, you will amaze yourself .

merry Christmas to you and yours 

[Shaker]

prove it or shut up

merry Christmas !

Well that's the end of R & E and every other religion forum then 

[Shaker]

I agree that we don't want any magic, Walter, but I suspect that reality is really massively more impressive than anything you can come up with.

Of course, to find out what reality actually is (if it's impressive or not is purely subjective opinion), we need a consistently reliable methodology to do the job.

I can help you there

[Walter]

Well that's the end of R & E and every other religion forum then 

Too right !

[Brownie]

Don't you at least find it interesting, Walter?
I find all of Sririam's threads absolutely fascinating!
You probably think I'm bonkers - hee hee, I don't care.

[Sriram]

Don't you at least find it interesting, Walter?
I find all of Sririam's threads absolutely fascinating!
You probably think I'm bonkers - hee hee, I don't care.

Brownie,

Thanks for that.... 

The problem is that many people have this black and white view of the world. They have two boxes in their mind. One which they associate with Science and the other that they associate  with Religion. They will dump everything in either one of the two boxes. Accept one blindly and reject the other blindly.

They have to realize that all phenomena don't fit in either of the two boxes. It is a spectrum...and many things fall outside both boxes.

Secondly, many people (especially in the west) don't realize that all things that don't fit into Science need not be associated with religion. Religion is an entirely different institution and the things I write about are not religious concepts (though they may have links with it). The difference between secular spirituality and religion is only just beginning to be understood in the west. It will take some more time.

Thirdly, many people have this fixation with proof and evidence....which of course they demand in sensory terms. Many real phenomena can be experienced and  even used and worked with without any external sensory understanding of them. 

But then, we are fresh from the scientific revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries. Many people are yet to get over it. I am sure it will happen in the coming generations....when science will be seen as just one branch or subset of philosophy and as just one means to knowledge besides others. 

It is only through an integration of all experiences and all inputs that life can be understood...to some extent.

Cheers.

Sriram

[torridon]

Brownie,

Thanks for that.... 

The problem is that many people have this black and white view of the world. They have two boxes in their mind. One which they associate with Science and the other that they associate  with Religion. They will dump everything in either one of the two boxes. Accept one blindly and reject the other blindly.

They have to realize that all phenomena don't fit in either of the two boxes. It is a spectrum...and many things fall outside both boxes.

Secondly, many people (especially in the west) don't realize that all things that don't fit into Science need not be associated with religion. Religion is an entirely different institution and the things I write about are not religious concepts (though they may have links with it). The difference between secular spirituality and religion is only just beginning to be understood in the west. It will take some more time.

Thirdly, many people have this fixation with proof and evidence....which of course they demand in sensory terms. Many real phenomena can be experienced and  even used and worked with without any external sensory understanding of them. 

But then, we are fresh from the scientific revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries. Many people are yet to get over it. I am sure it will happen in the coming generations....when science will be seen as just one branch or subset of philosophy and as just one means to knowledge besides others. 

It is only through an integration of all experiences and all inputs that life can be understood...to some extent.

Cheers.

Sriram

I'd go along with the view of science being a tool, a tool with which to garner understanding about how things work.  If it has become 'fixated' with evidence that is a measure of the discipline that we have had to learn to get truthfully to the bottom of things.  'Does it stand up to testing' has been an invaluable yardstick.  If we give up that level of rigour then science will become less successful, that is all.  This has been a learning curve for humans; we do not naturally think rationally, it is a discipline we are trying to instill against our inherited nature which is chock full of legacy biases accumulated on our journey from dumb ape to sapient self aware beings.  Ritualistic behaviours and superstitious beliefs might be the vestigial legacy of earlier archaic forms of consciousness that we are leaving behind gradually as we rise to the challenge to learn to think more clearly and more truthfully.

[Sriram]

I'd go along with the view of science being a tool, a tool with which to garner understanding about how things work.  If it has become 'fixated' with evidence that is a measure of the discipline that we have had to learn to get truthfully to the bottom of things.  'Does it stand up to testing' has been an invaluable yardstick.  If we give up that level of rigour then science will become less successful, that is all.  This has been a learning curve for humans; we do not naturally think rationally, it is a discipline we are trying to instill against our inherited nature which is chock full of legacy biases accumulated on our journey from dumb ape to sapient self aware beings.  Ritualistic behaviours and superstitious beliefs might be the vestigial legacy of earlier archaic forms of consciousness that we are leaving behind gradually as we rise to the challenge to learn to think more clearly and more truthfully.

You are again doing exactly what I mentioned above. Two boxes.  Many people during that period seem to have been programmed that way and can't seem to help it.

[Walter]

Don't you at least find it interesting, Walter?
I find all of Sririam's threads absolutely fascinating!
You probably think I'm bonkers - hee hee, I don't care.

nope, not I the slightest . I find it extremely irritating that an adult can harbour such childish whimsical beliefs while at the same time there are  people endeavouring to explain the workings of the universe to us all. And others who work in the field of medicine developing techniques and medicines that will improve our life chances , even for people with ridiculous beliefs such as Sriram  should they ever need them.

[Bubbles]

 Life, something precious.

🌹

[Shaker]

I find it extremely irritating that an adult can harbour such childish whimsical beliefs while at the same time there are  people endeavouring to explain the workings of the universe to us all. And others who work in the field of medicine developing techniques and medicines that will improve our life chances , even for people with ridiculous beliefs such as Sriram  should they ever need them.

Hear hear.

[splashscuba]

An instinct is only an innate impulse or inclination or tendency.   Why isn't the DNA tendency to replicate, an 'instinct'?   Do Jellyfish have brains?  Don't they have instincts?

That's just chemistry

[ekim]

And others who work in the field of medicine developing techniques and medicines that will improve our life chances ,

... and not forgetting those who work in the field of armaments developing techniques and weapons that will improve out death chances.

[Walter]

... and not forgetting those who work in the field of armaments developing techniques and weapons that will improve out death chances.

why mention that?

[ekim]

why mention that?

Because part of the philosophy which Sriram tries to introduce to this site is about ways of transcending the human psychological state as well as improving the well being of the human physical body.  Scientific investigation is neutral but human motivation is not so neutral and in the spirit of life enhancement it doesn't do any harm to mention the negative aspect as well as the positive so that scientific progress is not seen through rose tinted glasses.

[SusanDoris]

nope, not I the slightest . I find it extremely irritating that an adult can harbour such childish whimsical beliefs while at the same time there are  people endeavouring to explain the workings of the universe to us all. And others who work in the field of medicine developing techniques and medicines that will improve our life chances , even for people with ridiculous beliefs such as Sriram  should they ever need them.

Well said.

[Shaker]

Because part of the philosophy which Sriram tries to introduce to this site is about ways of transcending the human psychological state [...]

A philosophy (I use the word loosely) clearly underpinned by his patent and almost phobic aversion to the animality or animal-hood or animal-ness of the human species, the desire to get away from our status as one of millions of species of creature on the planet.