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Why does anything exist


Adampadum123

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On 18/10/2017 at 5:35 AM, taniwha said:

Try imagining that you don't exist and see how far you get.

I wasn't trying to be smart here.  This is a mental/physical exercise practiced in meditation or martial arts as quiXsilver has alluded.  

The idea is to free the mind that you effectively are thinking of nothing, to let go of tension so energy might flow more freely.  Emptying the mind is not so easy in practice as it is in itself a thoughtful process which over time can become more natural, maybe as natural as flicking a switch, that would be the goal, but not so empty that you are dead, lol.

Balance is everything.

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8 hours ago, Susanc241 said:

Oh, I think babies are aware, it is just that their memories are not developed enough to retain that awareness.  If not aware I would question how they learn, to recognise parents, to speak, to walk etc.  I don't remember learning to walk (at 10 months apparently) but I do have memories from when I was between 20 months and two years, about the earliest the brain is able to retain memory.  I have always had my doubts about people who claim to remember being born.  I can't disprove what they think they remember but it doesn't sit easy with me.

Well said and thank you for your thoughts! 

Absolutely babies are aware, I could have been less hasty in writing and taken more care in speaking of such complex and subtley tenuous subjects... babies are indeed aware, but they are not yet conscious, not yet self aware, so to say. 

Awareness is foundational to reality, in fact lately, I consider the only 'real' thing to be awareness as all forms come and go like clouds, yet awareness abides, but that's my experience at this point.  Albeit semantics, it's important in this case to perhaps distinguish between consciousness and awareness.  

Consiousness is a layer of Awareness.  The fundamental layers of the recently born and the close to dying are radically shifted compared to the courses of a 'functioning member of the human process' in the midst of personal cognitive inertias.

Memory is a process of consciousness and one of interpretive fantasy.  It is not reality.  It is a fluid process, interpreted and reinterpreted in the moment and memories change as our moods shift.  Tell the same story in a radically different mood and the entire tone of the memory/story will shift, details will alter and reflect the fluid nature of the recall.

Memory is not real, not constant, and not solid or static.  It is not present for some years after we are born (usually 3-5), and it often (as in the case of my Mother), utterly dissolves some years before bodily death.  My Mother retained awareness of her surroundings, her body, hunger, cold, discomfort and good food, yet her memories and her individual identity and sense of self were utterly gone some four years before her shell/body/form ceased maintaining its inertia.  She was aware, but no longer conscious, no longer self aware.

It's tough to convey these things that lie beyond the ken of words to hold... but that's the distinction I'm hinting at... though these topics/waters are turbid, and muddied, hard to clearly put into word forms/symbols. 

To experience them in awareness vs talk about them is always very different.  Just as it is not possible to quench your thirst with the word water written on a menu. 

it is for me always better to sit in silence and allow the waters to settle into beingness/awareness.  This haiku settled on my thought pond one afternoon in response to just such a mulling of a tough topic.

 

muddiest waters

left undisturbed by process...

rest in clarity.

Edited by quiXilver
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9 minutes ago, taniwha said:

I wasn't trying to be smart here.  This is a mental/physical exercise practiced in meditation or martial arts as quiXsilver has alluded.  

The idea is to free the mind that you effectively are thinking of nothing, to let go of tension so energy might flow more freely.  Emptying the mind is not so easy in practice as it is in itself a thoughtful process which over time can become more natural, maybe as natural as flicking a switch, that would be the goal, but not so empty that you are dead, lol.

Balance is everything.

Well said mate.

My process over the last few years mirrors some of what you say here and is one of radical release.  Sitting and simply being what I am... not striving or forcing anything... reacting naturally and very simply abiding as I have manifested.

No longer believing what I think was a big shift.   Simply because I thought something and felt strongly about it doesn't make it real, true, or even important... this was a major shift out of projective consciousness into abiding foundational awareness.

Amazing what physical and mental healing comes from simply 'letting go'.

Alan Watts:  This is It and Become What you Are... speak on this well.

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On ‎10‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 5:50 AM, Adampadum123 said:

Before there was something, there was nothing. And out of nothing, how did we get something? What existed before the big bang, before creation, and before God?

Ok it becomes very confusing when we throw in theories about other dimensions and non-linear time, but all of these theories fail to answer this most fundamental of all questions, Why does anything exist?

This is the best explanation I have seen:

http://home.claranet.nl/users/lightnet/creator/beforeaftercreation.htm

Before the beginning there was a Void. And the Void was without form or substance and it was unaware as if It were eternally sleeping. That Void was empty, without dreams, thought, or consciousness. Nothing that is, was. All that was, was the Void, the Static Void. This Universal Consciousness, this Cosmic Awareness, had not come to be.

Without awareness, time and space were not yet.  For time and space to exist require measurement, and there was nothing existing to measure them. There was only possibility. But possibility is a higher dimension that serves as a seed for all that may eventually become reality.

In the beginning reality had not yet come into being, for there was no awareness of it. Even the awareness of the possibility of reality had not begun to manifest. Because the Void was not a thing, was no-thing, It could only wait eternally unaware as no-thing, as a vacuum, a Void. The Void being static began to build something from nothing, from the Static Void, in the same manner as static electricity can be built and will only discharge when the static electricity becomes strong enough to discharge when something approaches.

But nothing existed to approach the static of the Void, so the static just built and built throughout pre-eternity until a sense of anticipation from the buildup of static energy began to develop over the later quarter of pre-eternity. This Awareness uses the term pre-eternity for time did not yet exist since there was nothing yet to measure time, and without time, eternity could not exist even as a concept. In the waiting there was not yet space, for space requires size.

Size requires measurement. Nothing can be measured when no-thing exists, whether the universe was the size of what you would today call trillions of trillions of trillions of light years across, or whether it was the size of a point of a pin or smaller than the smallest imaginable atomic part in your present science, this is irrelevant, for without something with which to compare the size of space, means there is no size to it.

The Void just was what it was, and it waited. And it experienced anticipation from infinite waiting. And the anticipation allowed an awareness of anticipation to expand within the waiting.

Anticipation was the fetal beginning of the consciousness that would eventually become aware of its own self as an anticipation that was being created in the Static Void. That anticipation grew to be a very slight and subtle hunger, yearning or quest, a static unmoving searching and rudimentary desire for something, some thing…anything. That hunger developed an anticipation that required the evolution of an image of something to become the goal or target to satisfy the anticipation and the hunger of the Void. That hunger manifested a rudimentary but very vague image of shadow without substance, a vague image of a solution to the hunger.

Read on at the link:

http://home.claranet.nl/users/lightnet/creator/beforeaftercreation.htm

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13 minutes ago, Truthseeker007 said:

This is the best explanation I have seen:

http://home.claranet.nl/users/lightnet/creator/beforeaftercreation.htm

Before the beginning there was a Void. And the Void was without form or substance and it was unaware as if It were eternally sleeping. That Void was empty, without dreams, thought, or consciousness. Nothing that is, was. All that was, was the Void, the Static Void. This Universal Consciousness, this Cosmic Awareness, had not come to be.

Without awareness, time and space were not yet.  For time and space to exist require measurement, and there was nothing existing to measure them. There was only possibility. But possibility is a higher dimension that serves as a seed for all that may eventually become reality.

In the beginning reality had not yet come into being, for there was no awareness of it. Even the awareness of the possibility of reality had not begun to manifest. Because the Void was not a thing, was no-thing, It could only wait eternally unaware as no-thing, as a vacuum, a Void. The Void being static began to build something from nothing, from the Static Void, in the same manner as static electricity can be built and will only discharge when the static electricity becomes strong enough to discharge when something approaches.

But nothing existed to approach the static of the Void, so the static just built and built throughout pre-eternity until a sense of anticipation from the buildup of static energy began to develop over the later quarter of pre-eternity. This Awareness uses the term pre-eternity for time did not yet exist since there was nothing yet to measure time, and without time, eternity could not exist even as a concept. In the waiting there was not yet space, for space requires size.

Size requires measurement. Nothing can be measured when no-thing exists, whether the universe was the size of what you would today call trillions of trillions of trillions of light years across, or whether it was the size of a point of a pin or smaller than the smallest imaginable atomic part in your present science, this is irrelevant, for without something with which to compare the size of space, means there is no size to it.

The Void just was what it was, and it waited. And it experienced anticipation from infinite waiting. And the anticipation allowed an awareness of anticipation to expand within the waiting.

Anticipation was the fetal beginning of the consciousness that would eventually become aware of its own self as an anticipation that was being created in the Static Void. That anticipation grew to be a very slight and subtle hunger, yearning or quest, a static unmoving searching and rudimentary desire for something, some thing…anything. That hunger developed an anticipation that required the evolution of an image of something to become the goal or target to satisfy the anticipation and the hunger of the Void. That hunger manifested a rudimentary but very vague image of shadow without substance, a vague image of a solution to the hunger.

Read on at the link:

http://home.claranet.nl/users/lightnet/creator/beforeaftercreation.htm

Hi I love creation stories.  I enjoy their metaphysical creativity, that we might have a vague inkling to understand the nature of them and ultimately ourselves. After all the beginning of the universe is of course the beginning of us.

Just one perplexing question is how did the void come to be?  I mean it is a thing in the sense it is a receptacle continuously nurturing potential is it not?

And the fact that I even ponder this question, being infinitely less intelligent than our humble void of course, does that mean the we are the latest step in the evolution of the void pondering itself?

Will the quest lead to an answer?  It seems to me the void wants to know where it came from.

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1 hour ago, taniwha said:

Hi I love creation stories.  I enjoy their metaphysical creativity, that we might have a vague inkling to understand the nature of them and ultimately ourselves. After all the beginning of the universe is of course the beginning of us.

Just one perplexing question is how did the void come to be?  I mean it is a thing in the sense it is a receptacle continuously nurturing potential is it not?

And the fact that I even ponder this question, being infinitely less intelligent than our humble void of course, does that mean the we are the latest step in the evolution of the void pondering itself?

Will the quest lead to an answer?  It seems to me the void wants to know where it came from.

Me also and thanks for reading what I posted. Yes very perplexing question! Well a void is empty space and nothing at all so I assume it didn't really come to be because it is literally nothing. I don't think the void would even know how it came to be. Such a paradox.lol! Its hard to imagine nothing at all. The only thing I could compare it to is if someone was blind, deaf and had no feelings at all in the body. You would assume the imagination would still be there though. This however did say Static Void so there was always some kind of frequency or energy for it to build off of. So I guess over the eons of no time the static finally came together in such a way to finally create in itself.

I like your sense of humor on how you said our humble void.lol! Yes I do think it is possible that all of creation including us is the humble void pondering itself and trying to find out what it is. So if all this were to be correct we and all creation are all the void discovering ourselves through infinite variations of what has been imagined thus far. Does that make any sense?:unsure2:

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If someone suggests that there is a creator of the universe, and that this is why there is something instead of nothing, the following questions may arise: Where did the creator come from?  Why is there a creator, instead of nothing? These are fair questions. If we merely suppose there is an eternal creator, which has always existed, we've only pushed the problem of the unexplained existence of the universe back a step, onto a creator, the existence of which is unexplained. 

A more satisfying explanation of the state of things might be: The universe we know evolves successively through energy, matter, life, and  mind, and finally to what we might call 'spirit'. In this scenario, spirit transcends the material universe, free of the strictures of time and space. In so doing it becomes, essentially, eternal. It is then free to create whatever reality it desires. This could account for the existence of the universe we know, and its creator. Each gives rise to the other, in a great circle of creation. 

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I enjoy reading about different myths, and this is one I liked.

For some reason, there were three types of nothing from which everything came.

The nothing suddenly became aware and wanted to know what it was, so it reflected itself...and then reflected the reflections over and over again, creating the universe (or the multiverse, if you're so inclined). 

The reflections weren't perfect. They were all flawed in some way...perhaps, because the nothing, itself, was flawed.

Some people might think of this "nothing" as the demiurge.

 

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when there was nothing you were constantly asking why isn't there something, now why not nothing.  man you cant please some people

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On 21/10/2017 at 10:46 AM, Truthseeker007 said:

Me also and thanks for reading what I posted. Yes very perplexing question! Well a void is empty space and nothing at all so I assume it didn't really come to be because it is literally nothing. I don't think the void would even know how it came to be. Such a paradox.lol! Its hard to imagine nothing at all. The only thing I could compare it to is if someone was blind, deaf and had no feelings at all in the body. You would assume the imagination would still be there though. This however did say Static Void so there was always some kind of frequency or energy for it to build off of. So I guess over the eons of no time the static finally came together in such a way to finally create in itself.

I like your sense of humor on how you said our humble void.lol! Yes I do think it is possible that all of creation including us is the humble void pondering itself and trying to find out what it is. So if all this were to be correct we and all creation are all the void discovering ourselves through infinite variations of what has been imagined thus far. Does that make any sense?:unsure2:

Before we were born, what do we remember? Does the void of our memory mean we did not exist?  Do we recall our conception?  Our foetal dreams?  Our feelings?  Finally here we are and will we persist once we die?

We are limited to human senses to try explain the mysteries of the greatest creation story conceivable - the universe itself. It is as Adampadum said, very interesting.

Edited by taniwha
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On 22/10/2017 at 9:43 AM, ChaosRose said:

I enjoy reading about different myths, and this is one I liked.

For some reason, there were three types of nothing from which everything came.

The nothing suddenly became aware and wanted to know what it was, so it reflected itself...and then reflected the reflections over and over again, creating the universe (or the multiverse, if you're so inclined). 

The reflections weren't perfect. They were all flawed in some way...perhaps, because the nothing, itself, was flawed.

Some people might think of this "nothing" as the demiurge.

 

Another inspiring story of origin. Is there such a thing as perfection I wonder?

Edited by taniwha
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Not even the God of Spring knows how the flowers bloom.

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5 minutes ago, StarMountainKid said:

Not even the God of Spring knows how the flowers bloom.

Well said!

If there's a god and one could ask it how it makes life, I suspect the answer may be rather upsetting to folks. 

Seeker:  "hey god... how do you make life?

god:  'hmm?  How do I make life?   I'm sure I don't know!   How do you regulate the hormone levels in your endocrine system? How are you beating your heart, or growing your fingernails, or digesting your breakfast?   Knowing is not Being.

I don't have to know that which is intrinsic to 'that which i am', to my Being.  There is knowing and there is being.

We are human beings, not human knowings or doings.

An awesome human was quoted, I think it was Nagarjuna, or perhaps it was echoed by Shunryu Suzuki, doesn't matter but it's always stuck with me, he said "if you understand, things are as they are.  if you don't understand, things are as they are."

 

 

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1 hour ago, taniwha said:

Before we were born, what do we remember? Does the void of our memory mean we did not exist?  Do we recall our conception?  Our foetal dreams?  Our feelings?  Finally here we are and will we persist once we die?

We are limited to human senses to try explain the mysteries of the greatest creation story conceivable - the universe itself. It is as Adampadum said, very interesting.

There is something called Past life regression. I have never tried myself but it seems interesting to try. As far as I know when we are born here most people forget where they were and where they came from because the veil is so strong. There are some instances where a child will remember their past life.

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On ‎10‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 9:35 PM, bison said:

If someone suggests that there is a creator of the universe, and that this is why there is something instead of nothing, the following questions may arise: Where did the creator come from?  Why is there a creator, instead of nothing? These are fair questions. If we merely suppose there is an eternal creator, which has always existed, we've only pushed the problem of the unexplained existence of the universe back a step, onto a creator, the existence of which is unexplained. 

A more satisfying explanation of the state of things might be: The universe we know evolves successively through energy, matter, life, and  mind, and finally to what we might call 'spirit'. In this scenario, spirit transcends the material universe, free of the strictures of time and space. In so doing it becomes, essentially, eternal. It is then free to create whatever reality it desires. This could account for the existence of the universe we know, and its creator. Each gives rise to the other, in a great circle of creation. 

I think you are on to something and that makes good sense.:)

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  • 1 month later...
On 07.10.2017 at 5:50 AM, Adampadum123 said:

Why does anything exist?

God according to Hinduism is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda) and he creates universes in order to share with people the highest Knowledge and Bliss which He has with the highest form of Existence. Just as parents want to pass on all wisdom and knowledge to their child, and God wants to share with people all that he has, but for this one needs to select a lot of creatures from the One and send them to life in the universe for learning by giving them the highest knowledge in the form of religious books and teachers.
In the process of evolution, beings falling into matter forget God and even deny him existence but it does not confuse God. He works for the highest goal - revealing the God-Man because God is a real Man. Since the Void is part of the Absolute God, he manifests all matter and being by the will of God.

And when you are asked why God created all living things, you will respond- to share and transmit what he himself possesses. This is the sacrifice made by God out of joy and overflowing his bliss, he did it so that by multiplying himself all experienced the state of the Divine Absolute Man.

 

Edited by Coil
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