Man stands as in the centre of Nature; his fraction of Time encircled by Eternity, his handbreadth of Space encircled by Infinitude: how shall he forbear asking himself, What am I; and Whence; and Whither? How too, except in slight partial hints, in kind asseverations and assurances, such as a mother quiets her fretfully inquisitive child with, shall he get answer to such inquiries?
........
Nevertheless, doubt as we will, man is actually Here; not to ask
questions, but to do work: in this time, as in all times, it must be the
heaviest evil for him, if his faculty of Action lie dormant, and only that of sceptical Inquiry exert itself. Accordingly whoever looks abroad upon the world, comparing the Past with the Present, may find that the practical condition of man in these days is one of the saddest; burdened with miseries which are in a considerable degree peculiar. In no time was man's life what he calls a happy one; in no time can it be so. A perpetual dream there has been of Paradises, and some luxurious Lubberland, where the brooks should run wine, and the trees bend with ready-baked viands; but it was a dream merely; an impossible dream.
........
Now this is specially the misery which has fallen on man in our Era.
Belief, Faith has well-nigh vanished from the world. The youth on awakening in this wondrous Universe no longer finds a competent theory of its wonders. Time was, when if he asked himself, What is man, What are the duties of man? the answer stood ready written for him. But now the ancient 'ground-plan of the All' belies itself when brought into contact with reality; .....the Thinker must, in all senses, wander homeless, too often aimless, looking up to a Heaven which is dead for him, round to an Earth which is deaf.
........
Truly may it be said, the Divinity has withdrawn from the Earth; or veils himself in that wide-wasting Whirlwind of a departing Era, wherein the fewest can discern his goings. Not Godhead, but an iron, ignoble circle of Necessity embraces all things; binds the youth of these times into a sluggish thrall, or else exasperates him into a rebel.
Heroic Action is paralysed; for what worth now remains unquestionable with him? Aye the fervid period when his whole nature cries aloud for Action, there is nothing sacred under whose banner he can act; the course and kind and conditions of free Action are all but undiscoverable. Doubt storms-in on him through every avenue; inquiries of the deepest, painfulest sort must be engaged with; and the invincible energy of young years waste itself in sceptical, suicidal cavillings; in passionate 'questionings of Destiny,' whereto no answer will be returned.
Characteristics - (excerpts)
by Thomas Carlyle
1831
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 1839
Compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith
(c) 1976 Deseret Book Company
Salt Lake City, Utah
......The Answer to the Great Question...Of Life, the Universe and Everything...Is...Is...Forty-two.
........
For thousands more years, the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came across - which happened to be the Earth - where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog.
Those who study the complex interplay of cause and effect in the history of the Universe say this sort of thing is going on all the time, but that we are powerless to prevent it.
"It's just life," they say.
........
"The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases.
"For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch.'"
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
Pocket Books, 1979
"Cobra"
Dove BBS systems operator
Utah
Kerry Hales
Nova BBS
Utah
"Ironwolf Odinnson"
The Guild BBS
New Orleans, Louisiana
To Heaven's Gate [Vincent O'Neil]: I don't think "Heaven" - if there is one - will be anything like what anyone expects.
I'm not even sure that there is a Heaven. Maybe death will be all and enough.
If there is a Heaven, and if I'm entitled to it, I would like it to be in one of two different forms:
1) A boundless source of energy into which I dissolve, loosing ego, personality, and all sense of "self," and remaining in that energy as a part of (it) forever.
2) Lying on my back in a green field with birds singing overhead from a tree, doing nothing but listening.
Those people who need a heaven, or who want a heaven, will recieve one that fits their desires. Whether or not they will become tired of it after a few million years is another thing entirely.
I am about as Buddhist as I can get right now. The pure Buddhist teaching on all afterlife philosophies is "I don't know." Many Buddhists believe there is nothing after death. Many also believe they dissolve, after death, into the "body of the Buddah" - that is to say, the original energy source that creates, maintains, and takes back to itself all life.
I don't think that any speculation on heaven is as important as what one does with THIS life in the HERE and NOW. When I was hanging out in the Christian church I heard a minister say of one overly-devout person, "He's so heavenly-minded that he's no earthly good." Many people who live their religious lives in hope of heaven are often like this; they are completely impratical and plan for nothing except their eternal reward, forgetting that life on earth is as important.
I dislike any philosophy that uses heaven as a "carrot on a stick" idea. That is, any religion that says, "Do thus and so, and you'll get to heaven," is simply using the idea as bait to make followers do what the church leaders say they should do. The qualifications for getting into heaven vary from faction to faction within each religion. This becomes a way to manipulate people, and I don't buy that at all. That is part of the reason why I find it hard to believe sometimes in heaven or in an afterlife.
It is perfectly possible for the brain to provide some [paranormal and psychic] experiences for us. Experiences that could be put down to a burst of endorphin, or a synapse here or there shorting out (as it were). However, there are odd experiences that do not fit into the overall scheme of things. Sometimes these things happen to more than one person. Skeptics enjoy calling these things "mass hallucinations," and on occassion they are. But some unexplained phenomena remain completely unexplained, no matter how you approach them.
For example, if you read Raymond Moody's "Life After Life," a number of near-death or after-death experiences are related by people who have died or came near to dying. The things they experience are remarkably similar, and yet no known combination of chemicals in the brain can set off exactly that same experience. Yet, all these people, who came from completely different backgrounds, had the same experience. Strangely enough, if one reads the Tibetan Book of the Dead, these same experiences that 20th century Americans had are related in detail - by Tibetans who wrote over 1,000 years ago.
If the hereafter [is] "wish fullfillment," then heaven ends when the brain dies. As humans, we would never know, and so overall it would hardly make any difference. However, it seems odd that all humans in all cultures would have this same "wish," just expressed in different ways, doesn't it? It entirely depends upon one's religious views as to whether one believes that heaven is "real" or not.
Some religions like Christianity, of course, say that the individual retains his/her individuality after death. I am not so sure about that. My personal desire is to disolve into the Godhead, also known as the Ground of Being, Nirvana, etc.; to return to the Source from which I came.
Happy Dog Potatohead
The Guild BBS
New Orleans, Louisiana
Steven A. Cantrell
as told to Andrew T. Wilson
Elizabeth Cashwell School
Pot of Gold BBS
Fayetteville, North Carolina
John Bennett
Lufkin, Texas
Planet X BBS
.......
They will be guided wonderfully
By the spirit of Christ to inner ground,
With power and virtue decorated,
That therefrom overflowed one's mouth;
The spirit nectar - is so tasty
That all external things dissolve,
When the spirit leads within.
There they will hear the gentle whisper.
Where God Himself speaks in their souls,
Here all storms must be quieted,
Otherwise they cannot hear the voices
Of the gentle air - which so lovingly beckons
The souls to holiness,
To the unfolding glory of the Lord.
........
Then the soul descends in humility,
Its face covered and disguised;
But the love of Jesus gives it strength again,
Now it can view life's light
Raises up - in beauty,
And sings songs of praise to the Creator
With extraordinary melodies.
Soon again it descends into tranquility,
And lays down in God's lap,
There enjoys the fulness
Of God, oh! secret great,
When God so plays - with His own image,
To the souls so presents Himself,
While he loves them all in Christ.
........
Be ready, and make yourself glorious,
The King himself will bejewel you;
He wants to make you thus devout,
If only you won't look back,
And arm yourself - in all your splendid armour
With faith, courage and bravery,
In love and justice.
........
See, beloved, so you must enjoin yourselves,
And daily walk in radiance,
And none except for Jesus love,
So you can before him stand,
And enter with one - full holy pure
His great banquet
With the holy brides elect.
Michael Wohlfahrt
community of Ephrata, Pennsylvania
1732-1812