Live Now Die Later: A Book for the Sensitive Mind and Rugged IndividualistThe sensitive mind and the rugged individualist are portrayed in the literature of antiquity by two brothers, the first-born and the second-born. The mind is the father of two sons. One side of us is conservative, cautious; the other side is radical and adventurous. A part of us is content with the status quo; another part of us seeks change and improvement. The mind perceives first with the outer five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Those perceptions are recorded and processed for future use, and thus the mind has five inner senses, the second-born son. In the Old and New Testaments this concept is expressed through several pairs of brothers. Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and Benjamin, Aaron and Moses, John and Jesus are all characters created to illustrate the mind's journey. The eastern Mediterranean became a marketplace for the exchange of ideas that had their provenance not just in Athens or Alexandria, but made their way westward from India and China well over 2,000 years ago. The lunar calendar and the appearance of the full moon was not just vital to agriculture in Mesopotamia; it spawned metaphors that illustrated the mind at its brightest. Abraham, for example, Hebrew for "father is high," was a moon god who symbolized the full moon, i. e., the moon straight up or high. "Father" is high because the mind is the father of two sons. Obviously, many concepts evolved independently, but migration and commerce exported and imported more than just figs and wine. Adam and Eve, the male and female of Genesis, are reflected in the yang and the yin of Taoism in ancient China. Elizabeth, Mary and Jesus are a variation of Demeter, Persephone and Dionysus. Thinkers over the ages have struggled to come to terms with the rough and tumble of daily life. Some have even suggested that life begins in some faraway place after death. Others have tried to find the way to live now and die later. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 71
... father of medicine , " was born in 460 B. C. Aristotle , born 384 years before the Christian era , is said to have composed several works on anatomy during the period in which he tutored Alexander the Great . Great . In Alexandria ...
... fathers of Indian astronomy , owed his learning to the serpent - god Sesha - Naga . In Babylonian myth a serpent , apparently in a well or pool , deprived Gilgamesh of the plant which rejuvenated old age . Serpents were tended in ...
... father of two sons , one who stays at home and tills the soil of what is already in its possession , and the other who goes afield and tends the flock of ideas and concepts that lead to new insights and horizons . One is Cain , a tiller ...
... father of Helen , mythical ancestor of the Hellenic race . When Zeus had resolved to destroy all mankind by a flood , Deucalion constructed a boat or ark in which , after drifting nine days and nights , he landed on Mount Parnassus with ...
... father is high , 41 is a starting point for the mind that crosses a vast landscape in order to return to itself and its inherent capacity . Abraham is also a cognate of abhar , meaning to travel.42 Now the Lord had said unto Abram , Get ...
Other editions - View all
Live Now Die Later: A Book for the Sensitive Mind and Rugged Individualist David Alan Kraul No preview available - 2004 |